Author: WTX Business Team

UK economy narrowly avoided recession last year Newly released figures show the UK narrowly avoided falling into recession in 2022 after the economy saw zero growth between October and December. The economy shrank between July and September 2022. A recession is when the economy contracts for two consecutive three-month periods. In December the economy fell by 0.5% partly due to the mass striking across the country. The Bank of England expects the UK to still…

Disney to cut 7,000 jobs as streaming site records $.1.5bn loss Disney will be cutting 7,000 jobs in a massive shake-up to the company, the chief executive Bob Iger has said. The company’s mass job cuts come as subscriber numbers for its streaming service fall. The job cuts are part of a plan to save $5.5bn and make its Disney+ streaming service profitable. The changes have been announced alongside the latest quarterly figures. Commenting on…

Trial of scrapping train return tickets extended A trial that has seen the scrapping of return tickets will be extended it has been confirmed. The trial was implemented to help make fares simpler. Transport Secretary Mark Harper will confirm on Tuesday that publicly-owned LNER will extend its trial of selling single tickets only on its routes. Under the trial, a single ticket is always half the cost of a return. Currently, many singles are £1…

City Am – Big four want more City AM says The Big Four accounting firms – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – are seeking to hire laid-off bankers to bolster the ranks of their M&A advisory arms in the City. Top execs told City A.M. the world’s biggest professional services firms are seeking to capitalise on the downturn in big M&A deals by poaching talent from investment banks. Global banks including Goldman Sachs and Credit…

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Shell profits soar 53% to new record high amid growing calls for windfall tax The Independent says Shell recorded the highest profit in its 115-year history as it benefited from soaring oil prices driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Profits increased by 53 per cent to £68.1bn in 2022, while earnings adjusted for taxes doubled to £32.2bn – sparking calls for Rishi Sunak’s government to expand the windfall tax on profits. Labour, the Liberal Democrats…

Anger as Shell makes ‘obscene’ $40bn in profits The Guardian says Shell has prompted anger after annual profits more than doubled to a record of nearly $40bn, boosted by a surge in wholesale gas prices linked to the war in Ukraine and as households struggle to pay huge energy bills. The oil and gas company posted profits of $9.81bn in the final quarter of last year, compared with $6.4bn a year earlier. That took annual…

‘Shell is richer because we’re poorer.’

Shell reports highest profits in 115 years Shell has reported record annual profits after energy prices rocketed last year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Profits hit £32.2bn in 2022, double last year’s total and the highest in its 115-year history. Energy firms have seen record earnings since oil and gas prices jumped following the war. There has been a pile-on of pressure for firms to pay more tax as households struggle with rising bills.  The…

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FT – UK alone in heading for recession as other big economies grown, IMF says The IMF report is the leading story for the Financial Times, whose front page features a graphic showing the UK’s projected growth in 2023 compared to other G7 countries. It reports the IMF’s warning that Britain “is the only leading economy likely to slide into recession this year” and that household spending will “falter”.

Tesco scrapping hot deli counters as thousands of jobs put at risk The Independent says Tesco has announced a wide-ranging overhaul of its stores which will impact around 2,100 jobs. The UK’s largest supermarket chain said it will extend changes to store management roles, shut remaining counters and hot delis and shut a number of in-store pharmacies as part of the shake-up. Tesco said it is reducing the number of lead and team managers in…

Tesco to make big changes to stores, affecting 2,100 jobs The Guardian says Tesco has announced a shake-up of its shop management in large UK stores along with the closure of its remaining meat, fish and hot deli counters, affecting 2,100 jobs. The UK’s biggest grocer said it had started rolling out a new management structure in 350 of its smaller superstores over the past two years and was extending this structure across its larger…

City AM – Tax trouble sees Sunak sack Zahawi London business paper City AM leads – like most of Monday’s newspapers – with the sacking of Nadhim Zahawi as the Tory party chairman. CityAM says Nadhim Zahawi has today been sacked by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as Conservative party chair after weeks of speculation about his tax affairs. Sunak told Zahawi, 55, that, after an independent investigation, “it is clear that there has been a…

Financial Times – Sunak sacks Tory party chair Zahawi over ‘serious breach’ of ministers’ code All of todays newspapers are dominated by the sacking of Nadhim Zahawi as Tory party chairman over a penalty he was forced to pay to HMRC. The Financial Times notes that an inquiry found Zahawi had committed “serious breaches” of the ministerial code and says the move represents a “significant U-turn” for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who only weeks ago…

UK homes cancelled 2m streaming services last year as cost of living crisis soared  More than 2 million subscriptions to services such as Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ were cut by cash-strapped Britons as the cost of living crisis fuelled the first annual decline since the UK streaming revolution began a decade ago. Despite a royal boost – via The Crown and Harry & Meghan, almost 900,000 UK households gave up on the streaming services…

UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt prioritises stability over tax cuts FT says Jeremy Hunt, Britain’s chancellor, has issued a message to small-state Tory MPs that they will have to wait for tax cuts, telling a business audience that “the best tax cut right now is a cut in inflation”. Hunt, who was appointed after the debacle of the autumn Budget — which caused turmoil in financial markets — has been under pressure from backbenchers to cut…

Royal Mail says strikes have cost them £200m The recent wave of postal strikes that have swept the UK have cost the Royal Mail £200m so far, according to the firm’s owner. The row with the CWU union over pay and conditions has led to 18 days of strike action since August. Royal Mail also said the number of voluntary redundancies it needed to hit job cut targets would be much lower than it first…

UK car production falls to lowest for 66 years  UK car production – the number of cars made in the UK – fell sharply again last year, sinking to its lowest level since 1956. The drop marks a 10% fall from 2021, which itself was a historic low. There is a continuing global shortage of semiconductor chips, which has hit production lines.  But car makers are concerned the UK has not yet got a plan…

Striking Amazon workers have ‘nothing to lose’ in first UK walkout, says union The Independent says Amazon workers staging their first ever strike in the UK in a dispute over pay have “nothing to lose”, a union has said. Members of the GMB at the company’s fulfilment centre in Coventry voted to walk out on Wednesday in protest at a pay rise the union said is worth 50p an hour. GMB senior organiser Stuart Richards…

Eurostar carrying 1/3 fewer passengers between UK and Paris  The Eurostar boss Gwendoline Cazenave has said its trains between the UK and Paris are carrying 30% fewer passengers. Ms Cazenave said there were “bottlenecks” in stations due to post-Brexit border checks and current levels of border staff. Eurostar is currently running 14 services per day between London and Paris, compared with 18 in 2019. She said the company might not restore some of the suspended…