Do you have a book of stamps in your wallet, purse or drawer at home? Maybe you have stockpiled them to avoid future price rises. If so, you need to be aware that the official deadline for using up stamps without barcodes – notably the regular first and second-class “everyday” stamps featuring the profile of […]
Avanti West Coast has issued a ban on e-scooters across all its trains and stations over safety fears. The train operator said that from Tuesday 27 December the devices will be prohibited because of the risk posed by the lithium-ion batteries that are normally in e-scooters. It said these batteries can produce “a vapour of […]
Rail strikes could cost the hospitality sector more than £1.5 billion in lost sales amid an epidemic of cancelled bookings and customer no-shows. Some regions have reported shortfalls in takings of at least 40 per cent last week, normally the busiest week of the year for office parties as well as a peak period for […]
Regulated rail fares in England will increase by up to 5.9% from 5 March next year, the Department for Transport has announced. The increase is being imposed to support “crucial investment and the financial stability” of the railway, the department said. Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: “This is the biggest-ever government intervention in rail fares. […]
Sharing passwords for online streaming services with friends and family is against the law, a government agency has warned. Watching shows on Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ without paying the relevant subscription breaks copyright law, the Intellectual Property Office said. But it said it is down to the companies themselves to take action through the […]
An insolvent solar farms empire which received hundreds of millions of pounds in funding from a debt-laden English local authority is being put up for sale. It is understood that Interpath Advisory, which was appointed administrator to Toucan Energy last month, will confirm on Friday that KPMG, the accountancy firm, has been hired to oversee […]
The cost of government borrowing set new records in November as rising inflation and cost of living payments pushed up government costs while tax revenues dropped. The rise in inflation, coupled with higher borrowing costs and a bigger stock of debt after the pandemic, drove up the cost of servicing debt on the government’s index-linked […]
Britain’s Brexit trade deal is failing to help more than three quarters of companies increase sales or grow their business, according to a new survey from a leading business group. The Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA) was settled on Christmas Eve 2020 to facilitate tariff-free trade with the EU. But a high proportion of firms […]
The UK government has committed to provide up to £4.5bn to fund the takeover of the collapsed energy company Bulb by its rival Octopus. Bulb spent more than a year in a state-handled administration and its 1.5 million customers transferred to Octopus on Tuesday night. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said the […]
Lidl is being sued for £2.6m by a fruit and vegetable supplier that claims it was wrongly cut out of deals by the discount chain in a series of moves it alleges “destroyed our business”. Proctor & Associates, which once supplied Lidl with up to 57 different kinds of fruit and vegetable, has filed a […]