Published: 09 May 2023
By Suzanne Evans, Director, Political Insight
First-time home buyers are paying nearly £200 more per month on their mortgages according to research by Rightmove. The property website said first-time buyers with a 15% deposit are currently paying £1,056 per month, compared to £865 a year earlier, although that is lower than the average £1,218 per month paid in October. The average rate for a five-year fixed, 15% deposit mortgage is now 4.44%, down from 5.98% in October but well above the 2.76% average in May 2022. The average asking price for a first-time buyer type property, meanwhile, is a record £224,963. Rightmove also said demand for a first home was up 11% on pre-pandemic levels.
The Church of England (CofE) says it will vote to oust Shell CEO Wael Sawan and chairman Sir Andrew Macenzie at the upcoming shareholder meeting of the energy giant later this month, following a row over green investments. Shell has been accused of backtracking on net zero commitments and promises to switch to clean power since the Ukraine war sent oil and gas prices soaring. Adam Matthews, chief responsible investment officer for the Church of England Pension Board, which manages the CofE’s £3bn retirement pot, told The Telegraph it was “with genuine regret” that he was preparing to vote against Sawan and Sir Andrew, but claimed closed door talks on climate issues had ground to a halt. “We have lost confidence in the direction of the company,” he said, adding that Shell should have used cash windfalls to ramp up investment in renewables, rather than handing £9.5bn to shareholders. This approach “may provide short-term dividends” but risked making the global switch to green energy “less likely and more unstable”, he warned. The current Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, worked in the oil industry for over a decade.
John Lewis staff will vote at a council meeting on Chairman Sharon White's leadership this week, according to reports in The Sunday Times yesterday. White recently said she could consider selling a stake in the high street business, undermining its 70-year-old partnership model, in which 74,000 employees are part-owners. The plan provoked a backlash, with ex-boss Andy Street saying the end of the partnership would be a 'tragedy'. Although White cannot be ousted through this ballot, the council is able to dismiss her at any time if she fails to meet responsibilities.
Virgin Galactic, the space-tourism company backed by British entrepreneur Richard Branson said yesterday that a final four-member test flight will take place in May and that it aims to launch its first commercial flight in late June. In February, Virgin Galactic re-opened ticket sales for spacecraft flights, setting the price at $450,000 (£356,260) per person with an initial deposit of $150,000.
HSBC shareholders have rejected proposals by the bank's largest shareholder, the Chinese insurer Ping An Asset Management, to split the business, spin off the Asian arm, and fix dividend payments. The proposal voted down at Friday’s AGM in Birmingham. Ping An owns an 8% stake in HSBC.
Shares in online estate agent Purplebricks are plummeting almost 60% this morning, after it the firm warned investors it is unlikely to return to profitability next year. Instruction levels remain below last years levels, and are now forecasted at 5,672 in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to 10,964 in the same period of last year. Purplebricks also said a small number of parties “remain in discussions with the group in relation to the sale of the company or some or all of the group’s business and assets”. Purplebricks added: “Negotiations are ongoing, however, at the current time, the transactions being contemplated, if concluded, would be expected to deliver returns to shareholders materially below the Company’s current share price”.
GSK CEO Emma Walmsley has confirmed the group is looking to take over more pharmaceutical firms in a call discussing the FTSE 100 firm’s first quarter results, the Daily`Mail reports. Glaxo bought Bellus Health earlier this month, in a deal valuding the Canadian drugmaker at £1.6bn; as well as cancer drug maker Sierra Oncology and vaccine maker Affinivax for £1.5bn and £2.7bn respectively. ‘We are absolutely delighted with the deals we have announced in the last couple of months, we do intend to do more,’ Walmsley said. ‘There is more in the hopper, but obviously we cannot share details on that.’ The Bellus takeover was the largest since GSK spun out its consumer health arm Haleon last summer as part of a strategy by Walmsley to focus on new and profitable medicines to treat cancer and other illnesses, after years of criticism about the company’s performance, the newspaper says.
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has opened an investigation into Deloitte’s audit of retailer Joules for the year up to the end of March 2021. Deloitte signed off the accounts before the firm filed for bankruptcy last year. Joules was rescued from bankruptcy by Next in a £41m move which saved some 1450 jobs. As part of that deal, founder Tom Joule, who set up the firm in 1989, took a 26% stake in the company, City A.M. reports.
Junior partners at City law firm Withers will have to contribute up to £42,000 each in a newly announced cash call, City A.M. reports. The London-headquartered firm, which specialises in services for high-net worth individuals, said the decision was taken to allow junior partners to be “more fully involved” with the business. “We have asked junior equity partners to provide a capital contribution for the first time of between $25,000-$52,500 (£19,780-£41,538), depending on seniority, so they are more fully involved in the ownership of the business,” Withers said in a statement. The decision marks the first cash call from a major London law firm amid the current economic slump, with speculation other firms could follow, the newspaper says.
Royal Mail CEO Simon Thompson is reported by Sky News to be set to announce his departure from the firm imminently, perhaps as soon as this week, after finally resolving a long industrial dispute at the company over pay, conditions, and a transformation plan. Sky News’ Mark Kleinman claims Thompson is in advanced talks to leave the company, saying that Royal Mail’s parent group, International Distribution Services, were minded to find fresh leadership for the firm. Thompson was accused of misleading MPs during a parliamentary inquiry into the strike action, and forced to return to Parliament for a second time.
AIM 100 data firm WANdisco is to appoint the businessman Stephen Kelly as interim CEO. Kelly served previously as CEO of software companies, Chordiant, MicroFocus and most recently the FTSE 100’s SAGE, until 2018. The tech firm announced sweeping job cuts last week, which it said were necessary in the wake of the resignation of the previous CEO and CFO, after an internal probe finding the group had falsified almost $15million in revenues last year.
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is seeking a new CEO with “credibility, integrity and capability” to enact “organisation change”, according to the job advert, which also says it expects the candidate to be leader of the “highest calibre” as it transforms into ARGA, the government appointed replacement to succeed the audit watchdog. Pay of £330k plus benefits is on offer for the right candidate, who will be based in Birmingham.
LinkedIn has become the latest tech firm to axe jobs, closing 716 roles out of a 20,000 workforce. The social media network which focuses on business professionals will also phase out its local jobs app in China.
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