Landlords hiking rents at fastest pace since 2008 as demand for housing in London shoots up November 16, 2021 Private sector rents in September were 4.6 per cent higher than a year earlier at £968 per month on average, marking the strongest growth in 13 years. The fastest rice since 2008 comes as strong demand outstrips supply, according to an index. Excluding London, rents across the UK were up by 6 per cent annually, [...]
Redress on the horizon? NAO begins probing FCA’s handling of British Steel transfer debacle October 20, 2021 The National Audit Office (NAO) has begun its probe into the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) handling of the British Steel transfer debacle. The investigation is still in its early stages, but the audit watchdog said that it aims to publish its findings in Spring next year. The 2017 scandal involved 7,700 British Steel Pension Scheme [...]
Salary slaves: 2021’s best and worst paid industries and the UK’s fastest-growing sectors October 14, 2021 Earlier this week, Morning Wire revealed private equity firms are prepared to pay junior staff with less than two years experience an average salary of more than £152,000, a jump of 52 per cent compared to two years ago. For those with two to four years of experience, an salary of around £181,000 has become [...]
Pension savers fear higher fees as Sunak eyes extra infrastructure cash October 14, 2021 Ministers are reportedly mulling a decision to dilute the 0.75 per cent cap on annual management fees, which would leave UK retirement savers vulnerable to high charges. The cap, put in place in 2016, protects employees who are auto-enrolled into their pensions from having their retirement pot eaten into by higher charges. It comes as [...]
HSBC’s £36bn pension scheme pledges to be net zero by 2050 at the latest October 8, 2021 HSBC’s pension scheme, one of the largest corporate pension schemes in the UK, has pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 or sooner. In the run up to COP26, an increasing number of activists have zeroed in on fossil-fuel investing pension funds and wider financial institutions like HSBC and Lloyds for carbon-heavy investments. [...]
Half of all Brits would struggle to afford food if they lost £1,000 October 7, 2021 Around half of all Brits would struggle to pay for food if they lost less about £1,000, with one in three ending up in financial difficulty if this figure was £500, according to a new survey, shared with Morning Wire this morning. Moreover, just over a quarter of people said their mental health would be [...]
COP26: Standardising climate reporting could slash pension scheme cash burden September 30, 2021 Standardising climate-related reporting could “considerably” slash the cash burden for pension schemes, the Work and Pensions Committee has said. Calling on the UK to up its leadership on fossil fuel-investing pension funds ahead of COP26, the Committee has urged the Government to encourage other countries to make their local pension schemes disclose their climate-related financial [...]
Let’s talk Aviva: Smaller but richer insurance firm is looking to grow again September 29, 2021 It has been an interesting couple of months for insurance firm Aviva. The City giant sacked its fund manager and was dragged into a leasehold agreement affair it had hoped to avoid. Nevertheless, following a year of cutting costs and selling foreign assets, Aviva feels confident about the future. The company is firmly on investors’ [...]
State pension scandal: Human errors led to £1bn in underpayments for 134,000 Brits September 22, 2021 Repeated human errors led to more than £1bn-worth of state pensions being underpaid, the UK spending watchdog said this morning. Around 134,000 pensioners were underpaid, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said, adding it plans to pay an average of £8,900 to people affected, the National Audit Office (NAO) said. Most of those affected [...]
Here’s how much you must put into your child’s JISA to get them on the housing ladder September 6, 2021 Parents and grandparents face putting away more than £3,000 per year typically to help children on to the property ladder in adulthood, and in London it’s more than double that. A child born in 2021 would need average annual deposits of £3,129 into their Junior Isa (Jisa) to afford the average UK first-time buyer deposit [...]