Regular pay is falling at the fastest rate in more than a decade

By Suzanne Evans, Director, Political Insight

Regular pay is falling at the fastest rate in more than a decade when taking into account rising prices, according to the Office for National Statistics(ONS). Between February and April, pay excluding bonuses was down 2.2% from a year earlier when adjusted for inflation, although pay including bonuses is outpacing price rises, rising by 0.4% when taking inflation into account. Sam Beckett, head of economic statistics at the ONS, said a "high level of bonuses" was continuing to "cushion the effects of rising prices on total earnings for some workers…but if you exclude bonuses, pay in real terms is falling at its fastest rate in over a decade".
 
The Department for Transport has announced that the grants worth £1,500 towards buying electric cars – the plug-in subsidy scheme – is being closed with immediate effect and funding "refocussed" towards the main barriers to the electric vehicle transition, such as public charging, and supporting the purchase of electric vans, taxis and motorcycles. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said the move "sends the wrong message" and the RAC motoring group also warned the decision could "stifle" the ambition to shift most people into electric cars.
 
UK petrol and diesel prices have surged to new record highs yet again this week. On Monday, average pump prices for petrol rose to 185.44p a litre, while diesel hit 191.21p, according to RAC figures.
 
The Department for Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority have written a joint letter to UK airlines telling them to cancel flights they can't deliver this summer to stop a rerun of May's travel chaos. The BBC says the governmentand the aviation regulator’s letter asked airlines to ensure their summer timetables were "deliverable," saying that earlier cancellations were “better for consumers than late notice on-the-day cancellations." “Your schedules must be based on the resources you and your contractors expect to have available, and should be resilient for the unplanned and inevitable operational challenges that you will face,” the letter said.
 
Travellers are being forced to wait months and even years to get a refund for cancelled or delayed flights, Sue Davies, head of consumer protection at Which?, told the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committeeyesterday. “It can be a very lengthy and complicated process for people that can take months or even years. I think the worst example we have is the Ryanair one, which it will take about five years for people to get the compensation they’re entitled to,” she told MPs.
 
Banks and building societies have been told by The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to do more to assess the impact of branch closures, reductions to their services and removal of ATMs under new City regulations. The FCA criticised lenders for not examining thoroughly enough how branch closures affect customers and said they should consult more widely with "other groups such as local charities and councils to understand the wider impact from changes to services" before taking action.
 
New mortgage commitments in the UK rose 6.7% to £82.5bn in the first quarter of this year, compared to the previous quarter, despite the cost of living squeeze gripping households, Yahoo Finance UK says. According to the Bank of England’s (BoE) mortgage lenders and administrator return (MLAR), this was 6.6% greater than a year earlier. The data also revealed that the outstanding value of all UK residential mortgage loans stood at £1.63bn at the end of the period — 4.4% higher than a year before. The quarterly report is aggregated from data on mortgage lending activities provided by around 340 lenders.
 
ITV has agreed to acquire a majority interest of 79.5% in Plimsoll Productions, the largest independent producer of natural history programmes in the world, for approximately £103.5m cash, giving the Bristol-based business an enterprise value of £131.0m.
 
British manufacturer Forterra is building a new £95 million factory at its Desford plant to transform it into the largest and most efficient brick production facility in Europe, the firm says.
 
JPMorgan Chase has won a London High Court battle against Nigeria, which was seeking $1.7 billion in damages over the U.S. bank's role in a disputed 2011 oilfield deal. Reuters reports that the civil case, heard earlier this year, relates to the purchase by Shell and Eni of Nigeria's OPL 245 offshore oilfield. Nigeria had alleged that JPMorgan was "grossly negligent" in its transfer of funds paid by the energy majors to a company linked to the country's disgraced former oil minister Dan Etete, as per instructions received from Nigerian government officials, whom Nigeria said were party to a fraudulent scheme. JPMorgan said the judgment reflected its commitment to acting with high professional standards everywhere it operates, while Nigeria said it was disappointed and would review the judgment carefully before considering its next steps.
 
French tech giant Atos has announced surprise plans to break itself up, in a move which led Rodolphe Belmer, who took over as chief executive in January, to say he had no choice but to resign. Atos intends to split into two listed companies by spinning out its digital, big data and cybersecurity units into one business provisionally called Evidian. The remaining businesses would retain the Atos name and be focused around its Tech Foundations unit, a specialist in managed infrastructure services, digital workplace and professional services, Sharecast News says. The surprise series of announcements, made ahead of the firm's capital markets day, caught investors off guard and by 11:30am yesterday the Paris-listed stock had lost 21%.
 
Netflix is recruiting participants for a reality TV show inspired by its most popular series of all time, Squid Game, the BBC reports. No one will die, however. Instead, 456 recruits from around the world will play games where "the worst fate is going home empty-handed" - missing out on a $4.56m (£3.8m) prize. Netflix also confirmed that the popular series will be renewed for a second season earlier this week.

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