Mark Kleinman: Flybe might struggle for take-off without investors on board January 25, 2019 Talk about a crash landing. The outrage of Flybe’s largest shareholder about the terms of its £2.2m takeover, articulated in a legal letter to the airline’s board last week, is at face value perfectly understandable. On the full pre-flight checklist-worth of complaints from Hosking Partners, the most incendiary may be Flybe’s decision last year to [...]
‘No deal’ would be a betrayal of Leave voters’ hopes, warns Philip Hammond January 24, 2019 Leaving the EU without a deal would be a betrayal of the people who voted Leave in the hope of a better future, Chancellor Philip Hammond has warned as pressure grew on Theresa May to rule out exiting the bloc without an agreement. Just days before parliament resumes voting on Brexit, ministers, business leaders and trade [...]
From truffle trees to sunken treasure, beware of unregulated investments in your pension January 23, 2019 Self-invested personal pensions, or Sipps, give us the freedom to invest in what we want. But while this DIY approach to pensions appeals to many investors, there are mounting concerns that some Sipp providers are doing customers a disservice by allowing inexperienced investors to allocate their savings to unsuitable schemes. Liberty Sipp is the latest [...]
Scammers cost savers £202m in blow to pension pots January 21, 2019 More than 3,000 savers have lost a combined £202m to pension scammers in recent years, whose companies were later shut down by the government. The Insolvency Service warned investors today to guard their pension savings from investment scammers and negligent trustees, after it applied to the courts to wind up 24 companies that have carried out a [...]
Parent trap: the child benefits system has ended up punishing the very people it was designed to protect January 16, 2019 For high-flying parents who earn more than £50,000 a year, the child benefit system will seem ridiculous. You go through the effort of applying for the benefits (over the course of a year, this amounts to £1,000 for the first child, and £700 for each additional child), only for the money to be clawed back [...]
A year on from Carillion: 12 months that brought outsourcing to its knees January 15, 2019 On the anniversary of Carillion’s dramatic collapse, two more public sector outsourcing giants, Interserve and Kier Group, are up against the ropes. In the intervening 12 months, outsourcers have lurched from one crisis to another, with profit warnings, massive project failures and revelations of systemic late payment of suppliers. Morning Wire charts a year which [...]
Virgin Money and Aberdeen Standard Investments sign agreement for investment and pensions joint venture January 9, 2019 Virgin Money and Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) have signed an agreement for a new investment and pensions joint venture. ASI will acquire 50 per cent of Virgin Money Unit Trust Managers Limited for at least £40m, the companies announced today, and take over the management of its £3.7bn retail assets. The deal, which is designed [...]
Government commits to maintaining ‘triple lock’ state pension uprating for UK expats in Europe in the event of no-deal Brexit January 8, 2019 The government has allayed concerns it may stop increasing the state pension in line with inflation for hundreds of thousands of expats retiring to countries in the EU. Currently, UK expats who have retired to the bloc receive the so called triple lock uprating, meaning their state pension rises in line with the highest of [...]
National Grid ends lengthy dispute with US unions January 8, 2019 National Grid has struck a deal with unions to end a longrunning dispute at its US business. Shares in the FTSE 100 energy giant rose one per cent this morning after the company announced its agreement with Massachusetts Gas unions over employment terms and conditions. It said the agreement is for a five-and-a-half-year contract covering [...]
Beefeaters suspend strike action at Tower of London and Hampton Court Palace January 7, 2019 A planned strike by staff at the Tower of London and Hampton Court Palace has been suspended following an offer of further talks from Historic Royal Palaces. The planned walkout by members of the Public and Commercial Services and GMB unions was set to take place tomorrow as part of an ongoing dispute over pensions. [...]