Drinkers pay net tax of £7bn: It’s time to stop pretending they’re a burden on taxpayers September 2, 2015 Teetotallers should raise a glass of sparkling water to Britain’s drinkers, who are subsidising the Treasury to the tune of £6.5bn a year according to a think tank. Revenues from alcohol taxes amount to over £10bn, according to official figures crunched by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). The contribution of drinkers to [...]
Falling crude oil prices drop Canada into its first recession since 2009 September 2, 2015 Canada has officially entered a recession, after their economy shrank again in the second quarter of this year, by 0.5 per cent. Plunging oil prices were blamed for putting the country back into recession for the first time since the financial crisis, though the 0.5 per cent GDP contraction beat forecasts. Lower oil [...]
China markets make swift recovery from low open, indicating possibility of state-backed buying September 2, 2015 After a steep fall at the start of trading, Chinese markets made a rapid recovery, with the Shanghai Composite finishing just 0.2 per cent down, while the Shenzhen Composite ended just under two per cent lower. Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 opened slightly higher, rising 0.7 per cent to 6,100 points in early trading. [...]
Plastic fantastic: The next £20 note will be printed on polymer September 2, 2015 The UK's most common bank note will be printed on polymer, the Bank of England has announced. In a statement today, the Bank said the next £20 note will be printed on a “more secure, durable and cleaner material”. That decision followed “extensive research into developments in security features for notes printed on cotton-based paper [...]
WH Smith IT glitch shares users’ private data in mass emails September 2, 2015 WH Smith has sent users' private data out in mass emails to other customers following an IT glitch. The source of the breach seems to be a poorly constructed contact form on the retailer’s website. When a customer fills out the form, instead of sending the message to the company itself, the information was sent [...]
Windows 10 is already outselling Mac OS X and Windows Vista, as Microsoft says its new operating system is growing at “unprecedented” rate September 2, 2015 Microsoft can breathe a sigh of relief: after the unpopularity of Windows 8, the newly-released operating system Windows 10 is growing at an unprecedented rate. After one month on the market, figures released today show the system already has over five per cent of the PC market, making it the fourth biggest operating system in [...]
The number of workers on zero-hours contracts increases 20 per cent in a year September 2, 2015 The number of people on zero-hours contracts as their main job has increased by almost 20 per cent in the past year, from 624,000 to 744,000, official figures published this morning suggested. The figure equates to about 2.4 per cent of all people in employment, up from two per cent this time last year. Women [...]
Exclusive video: Canary Wharf Group unveils prices for homes at former Shell Centre Southbank Place September 2, 2015 Prices for homes in Canary Wharf Group and Qatari Diar’s controversial Shell Centre scheme on London’s South Bank were unveiled today, with a two-bedroom flat setting buyers back as much as £1m. Read more: Almacantar buys Shell Centre offices on South Bank for £550m Around 863 homes are due to be built on the the 5.25-acre riverside site, [...]
PMI: UK construction growth accelerates again in August thanks to cheaper energy September 2, 2015 The UK’s construction sector expanded at a faster pace in August, according to survey data released today. Markit’s construction purchasing managers’ index ticked up to a score of 57.3 from July’s 57.1, moving further above 50 “no change” mark. Higher levels of business activity have now been recorded in every month since May 2013 – although [...]
Amazon to open tenth UK fulfilment centre in Doncaster September 2, 2015 Amazon is creating over 300 new jobs as the internet retailer plans to open its tenth fulfilment centre in the UK this autumn. The company has chosen Doncaster as the location for its new 250,000 sq ft warehouse, which will be the second fulfilment centre in the city, as a first one opened in 2010. [...]
