Brothers Sri and Gopi Hinduja were named as Britain’s richest business people

By Suzanne Evans, Director, Political Insight

The 2022 Sunday Times Rich List of Britain’s 250 wealthiest people was published yesterday. Brothers Sri and Gopi Hinduja were named as Britain’s richest, having seen their wealth jump by more than £11bn this year to £28.47bn. The pair run the Mumbai-based conglomerate Hinduja Group. In second place on the list was entrepreneur James Dyson, after a £6.7bn increase in his fortune to £23bn. Property investors David and Simon Reuben came in in third place, with £22.26 billion, while Ukrainian-born Sir Leonard Blavatnik dropped from the top spot last year to fourth with £20bn. Notable changes to the list include Roman Abramovich slipping out of the top 20 after the value of his assets was knocked by financial sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; and the appearance of ex-chancellor and Conservative Party leadership candidate Rishi Sunak, together with his wife Akshata Murty, on the list for the first time at number 22. Their joint £730m fortune is driven primarily by Murty’s £690m stake in Infosys, an Indian IT company founded by her father. The Sunday Times says there are now a record 177 billionaires in Britain, and that the overall wealth of the richest 250 this year totals £710.72bn, 8% higher than last year’s £658.09bn.
 
Around 1,900 members of the Unite union working at the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company are to strike for eight days from 21^st August in a dispute over pay. They have rejected a 7% pay offer, saying it is “significantly below" the rate of inflation. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "Both Felixstowe docks and its parent company CK Hutchison Holding Ltdare both massively profitable and incredibly wealthy. They are fully able to pay the workforce a fair day's pay. The company has prioritised delivering multi-million pound dividends rather than paying its workers a decent wage," she added. Unite said the action would hit supply chains, the logistics and haulage sectors, as well as international maritime trade, as around half of all containers arriving in the UK are transported via the port. Talks to avert strike action are continuing today.
 
Businesses in the UK are still hiring new staff despite soaring inflation and fears of a looming recession, according to accountancy and business advisory company BDO's latest business trends report. However, BDO also said confidence fell for the fourth consecutive month, reflecting the downward pressure on economic activity. BDO’s inflation index also reached another record high due to a weakening currency, supply side shortages and significant supply chain disruption, potentially signifying weakening hiring intentions in the future. “This tough inflationary environment and the threat of a recession look to diminish employers’ hiring intentions towards the end of this year, mirroring the trend of decline that was seen by the employment index during the 2008 financial crisis,” the BDO said.
 
The latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Opinions and Lifestyle Survey shows around 9 in 10 (89%) people – some 46 million of us - continued to see an increase in their cost of living in the week from 20 to 31 July.  The ONS says that the most common actions taken to mitigate rising costs were reducing non-essential shopping, (57%) and gas and electricity use at home (52%), and making fewer journeys by car (42%). 1 in 10 people (13%) in England who said their cost of living had increased reported using credit cards, loans or bank overdrafts more than usual, however, this increased to almost 1 in 5 in the most deprived areas (18%).
 
The Post Office claims people are moving back to using cash so they can keep tighter control on their spending as living costs soar. The 11,500 branches nationwide handled £801m in personal cash withdrawals in July, the most since records began five years ago, up 8% month-on-month, and up more than 20% from a year earlier. In total, £3.32bn in cash was deposited and withdrawn at Post Office counters in July, £100m higher than in June. Martin Kearsley, banking director at the Post Office, said: "We're seeing more and more people increasingly reliant on cash as the tried and tested way to manage a budget,” adding that the figures showed Britain is "anything but a cashless society". Natalie Ceeney, chair of the Cash Action Group, who oversaw the government's independent Access to Cash review, told the BBC it showed people are "literally counting the pennies" as they grapple with rising prices. "It's absolutely because of the cost of living crisis," she added. "People will be taking out cash and physically putting it into pots, saying 'this is what I have for bills, this is what I have for food, and this is what's left'."
 
Some goods at Poundland now cost as little as 1p, the discount retailer says, provided they are bought online at Poundshop.com, on a Wednesday. "We know it’s getting more and more expensive to live right now, and here at Poundshop.com we want to help," Poundland said in a statement.  
 
Habito, one of the UK's most prominent mortgage start-ups, is in advanced talks to secure rescue funding at a sharply reduced valuation, Sky News has learnt. Habito, which launched in 2016, is close to gaining approval for a capital injection said to be worth more than £5m from existing investors. Its shareholders include Atomico, the listed investment firm Augmentum Fintech, Mosaic Ventures and Ribbit Capital. The company has previously drawn at least £60m in investment since its launch, Sky says. Last week, FT Adviser said the firm was cutting dozens of mortgage broker roles to slash costs.
 
The London Stock Exchange Group has announced a £750m share buyback following a 73% surge in first-half profits to £803m.
 
US employers added more than 500,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate dropped, defying fears that the labour market is heading for a slowdown, the BBC said on Friday. The jobless rate fell to 3.5% from 3.6% in June, a stronger fall than expected by the Labor Department after recent data showed the US economy continuing to shrink.
 
Robin Hayes, CEO of US low-fare carrier JetBlue has said the airline is over-hiring staff because of the rate at which people are still leaving the industry. "I now need to over-hire just to keep the number I need," he told the BBC. "With Covid, we lost a lot of experienced people," Hayes added.
 
Australian airline Qantas has asked senior executives to work as baggage handlers for three months to tackle an acute labour shortage. Qantas' chief operating officer Colin Hughes is looking for at least 100 volunteers to work at Sydney and Melbourne airports. "There is no expectation that you will opt into this role on top of your full-time position," Hughes said in an email that has been shared with the BBC.
 
The first three ships of grain since the Russian invasion left Ukrainian ports on Friday, following a deal brokered between Moscow and Kyiv on 22^nd July by the United Nations and Turkey. The deal guaranteed safe passage through the Black Sea for the ships, which carried some 58,000 tonnes of corn. The UN had warned of possible outbreaks of famine due to a halt in grain shipments from Ukraine, as Russia and Ukraine traditionally produce about one third of global wheat. The war led to Ukraine's grain exports falling 48.6% year on year so far this season, its agriculture ministry said. Kyiv is now calling for the safe passage deal to be extended to other cargoes such as metals.
 
Amazon said on Friday that it has agreed to buy Roomba robot vacuum maker iRobot in a $1.7bn cash deal, representing $61 per share. Colin Angle will stay on as CEO of iRobot when the deal completes.
 
Indian automaker Tata Motors, the parent company of Britain’s Jaguar Land Rover, has agreed to buy a Ford manufacturing plant in the western state of Gujarat for 7.26bn rupees ($91.5m). Annual production at the Sanand plant will initially give it new capacity of 300,000 vehicles a year, which could be increased to 420,000, the BBC reports. Ford stopped production in India last year after struggling for more than two decades to generate profits in the country.

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