Published: 28 November 2022
By Suzanne Evans, Director, Political Insight
Transport Secretary Mark Harper told the BBC yesterday that striking rail workers need to accept reforms to the system if they want higher wages. RMT and Aslef union members are currently holding a series of strikes in pursuit of an inflation-matching pay rise. "It is the reforms that free up the savings that then unlock the ability for the companies to make an offer to the trade unions on pay. Both of those things have to happen in parallel,” Harper said, adding: "I do not have a bottomless pit of taxpayers' money to throw at this problem". He also said any money saved through reforms would have to be split "fairly between the taxpayer and the people who work in the industry", as the government used £16bn of taxpayers' money to keep services running as passenger numbers plummeted during the Covid-19 lockdowns, at one point reaching a 150-year low.
Speaking later to Sky News yesterday, Mark Harper also said public-sector pay will not be able to keep up with soaring inflation, which hit a 41-year high of 11.1% in October. "I think inflation-matching and inflation-busting pay rises are unaffordable," he said. "We want to try and give all the workers in the public sector who work very hard decent pay rises. But they can't be inflation-busting pay rises. There isn't the money to pay for those. We haven't seen those in the private sector either". The latest official wage data for July-September showed public sector pay rose by an annual 2.4%, while average private sector wages increased by 6.8%.
Meanwhile, Health Secretary Steve Barclay said on Friday he was open to talks with nurses’ union the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) but emphasised that a previously announced pay rise of at least £1,400 pounds, taking the pay of a newly qualified nurse to over £31,000 a year, will stand. Last week, a majority of RCN nurses announced their biggest ever strike action. “The NHS has tried and tested plans in place to minimise disruption and ensure emergency services continue to operate but inevitably strike action will have an impact on services," he said on Twitter.
The government has again warned energy firms not to hike direct debit payments for customers who are making “huge efforts” to cut back on energy use. Business Secretary Grant Shapps has written to suppliers asking them to ensure bills reflect what homes are actually using, and do not over-estimate charges. His intervention comes in the wake of a report in The Times last week that some customers, including those on a fixed-rate tariff, had seen their direct debit payments soar even though they had reduced the amount of energy they use.
Meanwhile, energy regulator Ofgem was reported on Friday to have dropped plans to force gas and electricity suppliers to ring fence customer credit balances in an attempt to protect customers and make firms more resilient in the wake of the bankruptcy of dozens of suppliers, which cost taxpayers billions. They will now continue to be allowed to invest the capital. However, the watchdog is proposing a requirement for suppliers to hold capital reserves and will seek feedback on the plans it hopes to publish in spring 2023, it said.
Digital Secretary Michelle Donelan has confirmed that the government intends to make it illegal to encourage others to harm themselves online. "Social media firms can no longer remain silent bystanders ... and they'll face fines for allowing this abusive and destructive behaviour to continue on their platforms under our laws," she said.
Cleaners working on the transport network are the latest group of workers to announce they will strike over pay. The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union said these members had voted to hold their first national strike action and that 1,000 contracted out cleaners working for the likes of Churchill, Atalian Servest and Mitie were eligible to strike. The RMT wants cleaners to be paid £15 an hour, with sick pay, holiday entitlement and better pensions. Strike days will be announced next week.
The latest data from online estate agent Zoopla suggests a quarter of homes for sale have seen their asking prices reduced, and that the number of transactions is set to fall from 1.3 million to 1 million in 2023. Also, the average price achieved in recent weeks was 3% below the asking price compared to 0% for much of 2021 and the first half of 2022. UK house price inflation has slowed to 7.8%, the lowest growth rate recorded since November 2021, and Zoopla expects price growth to dip into negative territory in the first half of next year as the market adjusts to weaker buying power and concerns over the economic outlook.
Black Friday sales bounced back unexpectedly this year as shoppers looked out for good deals, despite the higher cost of living which analysts had suggested would dampen the event. Barclaycard Payments, which processes £1 in every £3 spent on UK cards, said transactions rose 3.2% on last year. An all-time Black Friday record was made for the number of transactions per second between midday and 1pm. Footfall in shops was also said to be up on 2021 - with no Covid rules - but was down compared to before the pandemic. Electrical retailer Currys said it had seen sales soar for energy-efficient cooking appliances: it sold more than 18,000 air fryers in the past week. In the US, shoppers spent a record $9.1bn (£7.52bn) online on Black Friday.
Primark is planning to open four more stores in the next two years, in Bury St Edmunds, Craigavon, Salisbury and Teesside Park. The move is part of a £140m investment plan from the fashion retailer, and will create at least 850 new jobs nationally and increase the brand’s UK store selling space by 160,000ft.
Tesco and Aldi say they will provide additional support to the country's egg farming industry, after facing egg shortages which they said were due to Avian flu outbreaks, which have led to culls and panic buying. Farmers, however, hit back saying the main reason for shortages is that they are not being paid enough for eggs when soaring feed and energy costs are considered. Tesco said it will now provide a further £13.9m in support until March 2023, taking its total support to £27.5m since March this year, while Aldi is pledging another £12.5 million pounds by March, taking its total support to £38m for the year.
France's Schneider Electric took control of Aveva on Friday after minority shareholders approved a £32.25 per share offer valuing the FTSE 100 industrial software firm at £9.9bn. Schneider had already owned 60% of the company.
British fashion group Superdry says it is in negotiations to refinance borrowings of up to £70m with Bantry Bay Capital ahead of its current facility expiring at the end of January 2023, Reuters reports. Bantry Bay Capital is a joint venture partnership with funds advised by Elliot Advisors, an activist investor. Superdry said it was also holding talks with other lenders and would make a further statement when appropriate.
British drug company C4X Discovery says pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has signed a licence worth up £332.4m to develop an oral therapy for the treatment of inflammatory and respiratory diseases using its NRF2 Activator programme, Reuters reports. C4XD said on Monday it would receive pre-clinical milestone payments worth up to £13.32m ahead of the first clinical trial, including £1.65m upfront. In addition, C4XD said it would receive a further potential £319m in clinical development.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has received an approach from a private equity firm, Sky News has learnt. Bridgepoint Group, the FTSE 100-listed buyout firm, wants to buy a 75% controlling stake in the newest format of the game, The Hundred, which is a professional franchise 100-ball cricket tournament involving eight men's and eight women's teams located in major cities across England and Wales, which took place for the first time in 2021. A source close to the ECB said this weekend that Bridgepoint’s offer would potentially inject £300m of new money into English cricket, however a bid was unlikely to succeed at the current time, they added.
Plans to build the largest lithium hydroxide refinery in Europe on Teesside have been given the go-ahead, paving the way for the creation of more than 1,000 jobs and a local supply of a key battery material. The company behind the project, Alkemy, says the new £248 million refinery will be able to supply four gigafactories, and will receive material already quite high in lithium content, after an initial refining process is carried out near to Australian mines which will supply it. Currently, some 90% of rare earth minerals are processed in China.
Aerospace research Gravitilab has applied to the UK Space Agency for funding for a feasibility study to create an offshore spaceport featuring a vertical launchpad on a floating barge 6.2 miles off the Norfolk coast. It is also in the process of gaining licensing for airspace from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The company is supporting and working with Spaceport Cornwall, which was granted an operating licence to launch satellites earlier this month.
FTSE 100 listed global miner Rio Tinto Ltd has reached a restitution agreement with an Aboriginal group whose rock shelters in Western Australia it destroyed two years ago for an iron ore mine. The destruction of the Juukan Gorge sites showed evidence of human habitation stretching back into the last Ice Age 46,000 years ago, caused deep distress to the traditional owners, the Puutu Kunti, Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) peoples. Yahoo Finance says the mine also fuelled a global uproar, cost three senior leaders and two board members their jobs, led to a parliamentary enquiry, and an overhaul of the mining industry's agreements with Indigenous Australians. Financial terms were not disclosed by either party at the request of the PKKP, the parties said.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) obtained a civil recovery order on Friday relating to nearly £54m of suspected “proceeds of unlawful conduct” held in accounts with Barclays bank. Barclays first approached the NCA about the money, which will now be “credited to the public purse and a portion used to fund a range of work including programmes designed to prevent fraud and protect potential victims," the NCA said in a statement.
The US has banned the sale and import of new communications equipment from five Chinese companies amid concerns over national security. Huawei, ZTE, Hikvision, Dahua and Hytera all make video surveillance equipment and two-way radio systems. It is the first time US regulators have taken such a move on security grounds.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk says new user signups to the social media platform are at an "all-time high," averaging over two million per day in the last week, up 66% compared to the same week in 2021. Musk posted the information in a tweet late on Saturday. He is still, however, struggling with a mass exodus of advertisers and users because of concerns about verification and hate speech.
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