Regular pay fell at the sharpest rate on record between April and June

By Suzanne Evans, Director, Political Insight

Regular pay fell at the sharpest rate on record between April and June when considering rising prices, dropping by 3% on the year, the Office for National Statistics said this morning.
 
The government has launched its post-Brexit Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS). The scheme (which goes further than the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences which Britain previously signed up to) is intended to support trade with 65 developing countries in Asia, Oceania, the Americas, and Africa, and means goods on hundreds more products such as clothes, shoes and foods not widely produced in the UK, will benefit from lower or zero tariffs. It has been estimated the scheme will also allow British firms to benefit from more than £750m a year of reduced import costs. The Department for International Trade said the work was part of a wider push to use trade to "drive prosperity and help eradicate poverty", as well as reduce dependency on aid. The scheme also includes powers to suspend a country on the grounds of human rights or labour violations, as well as for not meeting climate change obligations. International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said: "As an independent trading nation, we are taking back control of our trade policy and making decisions that back UK businesses, help with the cost of living, and support the economies of developing countries around the world. UK businesses can look forward to less red-tape and lower costs, incentivising firms to import goods from developing countries."
 
The government is launching a new system to simplify access to cheaper broadband, the BBC reports. From 22 August, people receiving certain benefits can ask broadband firms to check their eligibility for social tariffs, meaning customers themselves will not have to take full responsibility for proving they qualify for low-cost options. Campaign group Digital Poverty Alliance described it as a positive first step but warned it did not go far enough. CEO Elizabeth Anderson argues that as more sectors move essential resources and services online,"it's not right that a growing number of people face being cut off from the online world". Which? analysis of recent Ofcomdata revealed nearly six million households are struggling to pay for essential telecoms services.
 
The UK yesterday became the first country to approve a dual vaccine which tackles both the original Covid virus and the newer Omicron variant. Moderna says it will make 13 million doses of its new vaccine available this year, now it has been given the green light by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and government ministers say it will now form part of the autumn booster campaign. However, they also say people should take whichever booster they are offered as “all jabs provide protection”.
 
Asking prices for homes have dropped for the first time this year, down by 1.3% or £4,795, but only because of a summer lull in activity, according to home sales portal Rightmove. The typical asking price fell between July and August to £365,173. Tim Bannister, Rightmove's director of property science, said: "We are still expecting price changes for the rest of the year to continue to follow the usual seasonal pattern, which means we'll end year at around 7% annual growth, even with the wider economic uncertainty".
 
Heathrow Airport is extending a cap on passenger numbers until the end of October,  meaning the limit will now be in place until after the UK school half-term holidays. A daily limit of 100,000 departing passengers using the airport, introduced in July because of staff shortages, was expected to run only until 11^th September, but will now apply until 29 October, the airport said. Heathrow chief commercial officer Ross Baker said: "Our primary concern is ensuring we give our passengers a reliable service when they travel. We want to remove the cap as soon as possible, but we can only do so when we are confident that everyone operating at the airport has the resources to deliver the service our passengers deserve". The Daily Mail says the extended cap means up to one million will be removed from schedules, and that the restriction is likely to prevent flight prices falling.
 
Malaysia Aviation Group, the parent company of Malaysian Airlines, has ordered twenty new Airbus A330neo aircraft, powered exclusively by Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines. The wings for the former will be built at Airbus' wing assembly plant in Broughton, Cheshire, and the engines at Rolls-Royce’s Derby plant.
 
Sky News has learnt that the board of Ted Baker is preparing to recommend a £200m 110p-a-share offer from US consumer firm Authentic Brands Group(ABG), which is run by the prominent businessman Jamie Salter and owns Reebok and an interest in David Beckham's branded products portfolio. If confirmed, the proposal from ABG would be almost a third lower than the roughly 160p-a-share price that it was preparing to offer as recently as May, but would represent a roughly-20% premium to Ted Baker's closing share price on Monday of 93.1p. “The reduced price reflects the darkening sentiment towards high street brands in a UK economy being hammered by inflation amid fears of an impending recession,” Sky News city editor Mark Kleinman says.
 
Shares in RS Group closed 5.06% up yesterday after The Times reported over the weekend that it could be the subject of a takeover bid, saying there had been ‘chat’ that there may be a £15-a-share bid imminently. This would be a premium to the present £11.44 price and above the £12.35 high the company, formerly known as Electrocomponents, hit last November before worries about recession surfaced. The report did not name any potential suitor.
 
FTSE 250 cybersecurity firm Darktrace said yesterday it is in the early stages of discussions with private equity firm Thoma Bravo about a possible takeover offer. Responding to media speculation, the company said: "Discussions are at a preliminary stage and there can be no certainty that any offer will be made, nor as to the terms of any such offer." Under UK takeover rules, Thoma Bravo has until 12 September to either announce a firm intention to make an offer or walk away.
 
Nationwide Building Society says it will pay more than 11,000 of its staff who earn under £35,000 £1,200 in two instalments to help them cope with the cost of living crisis. Companies including Barratt, Taylor Wimpey, Lloyds, Rolls-Royce, and HSBC have made similar payments.
 
Accountancy firm PwC, one of the UK's largest graduate employers, has said it will no longer just look for new recruits with a first or 2:1 degree, but will accept applicants with lower second class degrees to help increase the socio-economic diversity of its workforce. "Talent and potential is determined by more than academic grades," PwC said. Around 14% of graduates received a lower second class degree, or 2:2, last year, the BBC says.
 
Liquid Leisure Windsor, the water park where an 11-year-old girl died last week has been stopped from reopening by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead council. The council issued a notice to the park prohibiting activities until it could show risk assessments that prevent or reduce drowning. The business, near Datchet, had closed temporarily "out of respect" after the death of the girl 6 August. The local authority opened a health and safety investigation three days later.
 
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has been accused of failing to act on warnings about a doomed property investment scheme that saw people lose their life savings. Around 2,000 people lost £46m when Blackmore Bondcollapsed, after a marketing company was said to have used suspect tactics to sell the mini-bond scheme to ordinary people, when by law it should only have been sold to experienced investors. The BBC Panorama team claims direct warnings about company marketing the Blackmore Bond were made to the FCA in 2017 and 2018, meaning the FCA could have acted earlier. The programme also claims it may have tried to cover up the fact it did not. Cross-party MPs, including members of the Treasury Select Committee, have called for an inquiry into the mater. The FCA's then chief Andrew Bailey - now head of the Bank of England - declined to comment.
 
The last homeowner on an abandoned street earmarked for redevelopment since 2007 has finally agreed to sell after living on the empty estate for three years. The BBC reports that Carl Harris has accepted an offer of £275,000 from Birmingham City Council for his semi-detached home on Gildas Avenue in Kings Norton, which he must leave by Christmas. The original offer for his four-bedroom house was for £95,000 which Harris said would leaving him struggling to find a house of a similar size. Even the increased offer, it will still be difficult, he said.
 
A TV advert for Crown Paints has led to dozens of complaints. The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) said it was considering investigating the "Hannah & Dave" advert, part of a series called Life Stories, which includes a song about the four-year relationship between the characters Hannah and Dave. The lyrics state that "now a baby's coming and they don't know what it is", before continuing: "Hannah's hoping for a girl, Dave's just hoping that it's his."  Comedian Jenny Éclair called it "massively offensive" and said it must be taken off air over its implication that a woman "conned a man into fatherhood". Crown Paints said it appreciated "people have differing views on humour and we apologise if any of the lyrics have caused offence".
 
It has been revealed that Chinese health officials attempted to quarantine shoppers in an Ikea store in Shanghai on Saturday, because a customer had been in close contact with a six-year-old boy who tested positive after returning to Shanghai from Lhasa in Tibet. Chaotic scenes ensued as shoppers fought back against the authorities’ lockdown attempt; at one point videos show the guards closing the doors before a crowd forced them open and made their escape. By Sunday nearly 400 close contacts of the child - who has no covid symptoms - had been traced and 80,000 people had been ordered to undergo PCR testing, according to Shanghai Daily. The scenes of panic at Ikea follow videos last week showing people in another part of Shanghai running out of a building over rumours of an abnormal Covid test result, the BBC says.

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