UK consumers cut back on credit card borrowing in May amid fears over rising interest rates and a slowing economy driven by a cost of living crisis. Monthly figures from the Bank of England showed that consumer borrowing fell to a four-month low of £800 million in May, from £1.4 billion in April. Half of all borrowing, £400 million, was ...
London City airport is seeking to overturn its Saturday flight ban and raise by 40% the limit on its passenger numbers. A local residents’ group has denounced the proposals to cut into the nearly 24-hour respite from aircraft noise from 1pm on Saturdays to 12.30pm on Sundays, granted when the airport was licensed. London City also wants to be allowed ...
The bank said that it was introducing a £1,200-a-year pay increase from August 1, which would start to show in next month’s pay packets. The rises of £100 a month before tax were an early instalment on the usual annual inflation review that would normally come in from March 2023. Unite, the trade union, which claimed credit yesterday for pushing ...
Postmasters caught up in the Horizon IT scandal say that they are still being “left in the dark” about a compensation package after the government announced that they will receive interim payments. Paul Scully, the postal affairs minister, said payments totalling £19.5 million will be paid to eligible members of the 555-strong group within weeks while a deal for “full ...
Expenditures for environmental protection declined by 4.6% year on year in 2021, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.The statistics agency’s Compendium of Philippine Environment Statistics (CPES) Component 6 showed annual government environmental protection expenditures went down to P25.4 billion last year from P26.6 billion in 2020.The CPES, an adoption of the United Nations-developed Framework for the Development of ...
BT staff have voted for their first national strike in 35 years, which is expected to affect customers across the country having broadband services installed or getting faults fixed. The strike by BT engineers and call centre staff represents the vast majority of its 58,000-strong frontline workforce, and the trade union organising the ballot has said that BT customers can ...
More than two million people have become higher-rate taxpayers under Boris Johnson’s government, fuelling a backlash from Tory MPs. Figures released by HM Revenue & Customs yesterday showed that 6.1 million people — equivalent to one in six adults — now pay at the 40 per cent rate, up from 4.2 million in 2019. They include 629,000 who pay the ...
A cut in VAT has been proposed by No 10 to curb inflation and help households with the cost of living crisis. Steve Barclay, the prime minister’s chief of staff, suggested reducing the 20 per cent headline rate of the tax, proposing that a temporary cut would reduce the tax bill for millions and ease inflation, which is at 9.1 per ...
LOK YIU CHEUNG-UNSPLASHHONG KONG — There is no reason to change Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” formula of governance, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on a rare visit to the global financial hub after swearing in the city’s new leader, John Lee, on Friday. Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule on July 1, 1997, with Beijing promising wide-ranging autonomy, ...
REUTERSIndonesia’s president ended a trip to Ukraine and Russia saying he hoped for progress reintegrating global food and fertilizer supply lines disrupted by the conflict, and offered to be a diplomatic bridge between the two nations.President Joko Widodo, who is the Group of 20 (G20) president this year, was speaking at a news conference alongside his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin ...