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11/09/2024
Economic growth came to a halt in July, according to the latest data from The Office for National Statistics (ONS). The month-on-month stagnation in GDP, which fell well short of the 0.2% growth expected by economists, mean there has not been any growth in the UK economy now for two months. Only the services sector expanded in July, and that by only 0.1%. Production, meanwhile, contracted 0.8%, and the construction sector fell 0.4%. “July’s monthly services growth was led by computer programmers and health, which recovered from strike action in June. These gains were partially offset by falls for advertising companies, architects and engineers,” Liz Mckeown, ONS Director of Economic Statistics, said. “Manufacturing fell, overall, with a particularly poor month for car and machinery firms, while construction also declined,” she added. Today’s figures have brought to a swift end a strong start to the year when the UK was the fastest-growing economy in the G7, growth that led Grant Fitzner, chief economist at the ONS, to say in May that the economy was “going gangbusters”. Now, the economy looks set for a weaker second half. However, the quarterly picture still shows growth of 0.5% over the three months to July, and puts growth for the whole of the year on track for 1%.
The Winter Fuel Allowance will be removed from pensioners, parliament decided yesterday, as MPs voted 348 to 228 to strip all but the poorest older people of the benefit. Only one Labour MP – Jon Trickett – voted for a Conservative motion condemning the government’s winter fuel allowance cuts. 53 Labour MPs abstained. MPs from all the other parties (including those previously Labour and now Independent MPs who have been stripped of the Labour whip) voted with the Conservatives. Trickett said in a statement posted on X: “I fear that removing the payment from pensioners will mean that many more will fall into poverty this winter. We know the consequences of pensioner poverty are devastating. It can even be a matter of life and death.” He added he had “worked behind the scenes to try and change the government’s position, but to no avail”, concluding: “I will sleep well tonight knowing that I voted to defend my constituents.”
Small businesses are meeting with Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner today to discuss the Government’s plans to change workers' rights. Sky News has learnt from insiders that executives from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), and the Caravan restaurant chain, are among those meeting at 10 Downing Street. Last week, Reynolds and Rayner met with larger employers including BT Group, the John Lewis Partnership and J Sainsbury.
Plans to transform the disused Trelavour Cornish clay pit into a lithium mine have been upgraded to a “project of national significance” by Angela Rayner, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. The upgrade means Ministers have the power to fast track and approve planning permission for the mine, rather than the local authority, which could transform Cornwall into the capital of a UK lithium mining industry. The pit could supply 25,000 tonnes of lithium per year for the UK battery industry by 2030 and help cut Britain’s reliance on imports, according to Cornish Lithium, the company behind the scheme.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has brought its first prosecution in relation to illegal cryptocurrency ATMs, via which customers bought or converted funds into cryptoassets. Olumide Osunkoya will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 30th September, charged with unlawfully running multiple crypto ATMs alleged to have processed millions of pounds worth of transactions. The City watchdog has warned such ATMs can facilitate money laundering. There are currently no crypto ATM operators registered with the FCA, making all those in service in the UK illegal. Therese Chambers, the FCA’s joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, commented: “Our message today is clear. If you’re illegally operating a crypto ATM, we will stop you”. If you’re using a crypto ATM, you are handing your money directly to criminals. Criminals can exploit crypto ATMs to launder money globally,” she added.
The television industry lost a combined £400m last year as a deep advertising downturn hit, industry body Pact says. Overall, revenue generated by UK TV production companies fell by £392m – or 8.4% – to £3.6bn in 2023. Total commissioning turnover was down more than 10% overall, with domestic TV revenues dropping by £183m on 2022 to just over £2bn. However, total revenues for 2023 were above pre-covid lockdown levels.
The Spectator magazine has been sold for £100m to hedge fund entrepreneur Sir Paul Marshall’s Old Queen Street (OQS) Media. OQS also owns and operates the online magazine UnHerd, the Old Queen Street Café, the UnHerd Club and CoEditor Limited, a publishing technology startup. The Spectator is part of the Telegraph Media Group which was put up for sale last year after Lloyds Banking Group seized it from the Barclay family, who had put it up for collateral for a £1bn-plus loan on which it defaulted. Originally bought by the Abu Dhabi-backed Redbird IMI, the group found itself back on the market when the Government passed legislation banning foreign ownership of British newspapers, not least as a consequence of a Spectator campaign. Marshall, the chairman of OQS, said: “As a long-term Spectator reader, I am delighted it is joining the OQS stable. The plan is for OQS to make good previous underinvestment in one of the world’s great titles”. Meanwhile, on social media platform X yesterday, the Spectator’s long-time Chairman Andrew Neil announced he was resigning “with immediate effect” from the world’s oldest magazine title. “In recent years The Spectator has never been more profitable, its reach never wider, at home and abroad (helped by our splendid Australian and American editions), and its journalism (under the peerless [editor] Fraser Nelson) never better nor more influential than it has been in its almost 200-year history,” he said, adding that his “proudest recollection” was that he “did not preside over a single compulsory redundancy in 20 years,” and that the past 16 months during the two-sale process had been “purgatory”.
Rightmove’s board has unanimously rejected what it has called a “wholly opportunistic” £5.6bn takeover attempt by Rupert Murdoch’s Australian estate agency REA Group, claiming it “fundamentally undervalued Rightmove and its future prospects”.
Dunelm has reported a 6.6% rise in full-year profit to £205.4m on sales of £1.7bn in the year to 29th June, a 6.2% rise on the year prior. The homeware retailer also said digital online sales now comprise 37% of total sales, up from 36% a year earlier. However, it also said it continues to see "a challenging consumer environment" and is yet to see a "meaningful change" in consumer spending habits in its markets. The chain aims to take 10% of the UK market share in the sector in the medium term; it currently has a 7.7% share of the market, which includes homeware and furniture.
The Nusr-Et Steakhouse in London, owned by chef Salt Bae, famous for bouncing salt off his elbows, has seen profits almost halve on last year. The latest filing at Companies House shows a decline from £3.3m in profit in 2022, to £1.7m in 2023. Sales at the restaurant, famous for its £630 steaks and a £50 gold plated baklava, fell 31% over the year to £9.3m. Salt Bae’s real name is Nusret Gökçe.
BDO has been accused of actively participating in the suppression of free press in Hong Kong. Pro-democracy campaigners claim the London accounting giant is “complicit” in human rights abuses relating to the closure of one of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy newspapers, Apple Daily, which was published by Next Digital, a media group owned by Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai. Next went into liquidation in 2021 after the Hong Kong government forced Apple to shut down using national security laws and froze its bank accounts. Lai, a vocal critic of the Chinese Communist Party, was arrested along with several other senior executives and remains in solitary confinement in prison. Now, Mark Clifford and Gordon Crovitz, two former directors of Next Digital, have filed a complaint with the Department of Business and Trade, alleging that BDO “acted as a quasi-governmental agency at the behest of the (Hong Kong government)”, in violation of international guidelines set out by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development which state that multinationals must “prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to their business operations”. Clifford and Crovitz claim Clement Chan, managing director of BDO’s assurance department in Hong Kong, was appointed personally as a “financial inspector” to investigate the affairs of Next Digital, and that his findings influenced the government’s decision to wind up Next Media. The two are demanding BDO apologise for its role “censoring the free flow of information that had made Hong Kong among the most successful and admired economies in the world,” and sever the BDO Hong Kong office from its global network.
AstraZeneca saw £11bn wiped off its value yesterday after the results of a lung cancer drug trial showed it did not significantly improve patients’ overall survival results, sending shares in the FTSE 100 pharma plummeting as much as 5.6%. Dato-DXd helped some people in the trial live longer, but the results across all patients were not statistically significant.
Apple has been ordered to pay €13bn (£11bn) to Ireland by The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) which has ruled the tech giant benefited from years of illegal state aid when it received “sweetheart” tax deals from the Irish government, which meant it paid taxes of less than 1%. This ruling by the EU’s highest court overturns a previous decision by a lower court in favour of Apple, and ends a decade-long row. The funds, which since 2018 have been frozen in an escrow account, will now be released to the Irish government. “Ireland granted Apple unlawful aid, which Ireland is required to recover,” EU Competition Chief Margrethe Vestager said. Apple CEO Tim Cook previously called Vestager’s position “total political crap”. Yesterday, Apple released a statement saying: “This case has never been about how much tax we pay, but which government we are required to pay it to. We always pay all the taxes we owe wherever we operate and there has never been a special deal”. It argued that the EU “is trying to retroactively change the rules and ignore that, as required by international tax law, our income was already subject to taxes in the US”. It added it was disappointed with the decision.
Why Media Press Department
Website: whymedia.com / marketingnewscast.com
Email: press@whymedia.com
Telephone: 020 3007 6002
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