Published: 31 May 2023
By Suzanne Evans, Director, Political Insight
There are strikes on the railways today, as members of the train drivers union Aslef have walked out. They strike again on Saturday. The impact on the service on both days will be severe with only 40% of trains running.
The Government says it is to crackdown on vape marketing to prevent the “unacceptable” targeting of children and young people. Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain yesterday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was “deeply concerned” about an increase in children vaping and was “shocked by reports of illicit vapes containing lead getting into the hands of schoolchildren”. He said he will close a loophole allowing retailers to give free samples of vapes to children in England, and potentially ban retailers selling “nicotine-free” vapes to under-18s. Ministers later cited NHS figures from 2021 showing 9% of 11-15 year olds used e-cigarettes, up from 6% in 2018.
Veteran retail boss Stuart Rose has joined the chorus of voices opposing Government proposals to price caps on food staples to cut the cost of living. Lord Rose, the Chair of Asda who has previously also run Marks and Spencer and chaired Ocado, said “you can’t interfere in the markets” and warned of the “unintended consequences” of “relatively clumsy things”. On a call to reporters, Rose said: “My view on this is quite simple. I’ve been involved in retail for 50 years, and there’s been all sorts of schemes being followed by all sorts of governments over time about what they think we should be doing to control the market,” but he added: “You can’t interfere in the markets, the markets will control themselves”. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has also said the measures would not make a “jot of difference” to pricing and warned they could thwart efforts to cut inflation.
High inflation has not boosted most company profits, the Office for National Statistics said yesterday, however the exception has been oil and gas extractors who have benefited. Otherwise, the average net rate of return on capital of British companies not involved in oil and gas extraction was 9.5% in 2022, its lowest since 2011 and down from 10.0% in 2021, the official data collection body said.
A report by City A.M. cites energy sector academics who say halting future investment in North Sea oil and gas projects will jeopardise the UK’s supply security and undermine its ambitions to transition to net zero, by making Britain reliant on overseas vendors to meet its needs. This will be more expensive, more environmentally damaging, and less reliable than a domestic industry, they said. Professor Paul de Leeuw, director of the RGU Energy Transition Institute at Robert Gordon University, argued that shutting down British oil and gas development could “make the situation worse,” while Professor Alexander Kemp, professor of petroleum economics and director of Aberdeen Centre for Research in Energy Economics and Finance at Aberdeen University, argued there were sound economic reasons to back the domestic fossil fuel sector. He noted that the Climate Change Committee, Westminster’s advisory group, predicts half of the UK’s energy requirements between now and 2050 will still be met by oil and gas, and as much as 64% of UK energy needs between 2022 and 2037. 75% of our overall energy needs are currently met by oil and gas. “To have a blanket rejection of new field developments doesn’t look to me to be economically very sensible,” he said. Their comments follow the Labour party announcement last week that they would halt new oil and gas projects if the party wins the next election. Their outlook is supported by both the International Energy Agency and International Panel on Climate Change, which say new projects will prevent the UK reaching net zero emissions.
The scandal-hit Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has taken legal advice on insolvency options, should members not back the organisation in a crunch vote at an extraordinary general meeting on 6th June, Sky News reports. The CBI is expected to lay out a series of measures today which it hopes will allow it to put the sexual harassment scandal behind it, publishing a prospectus ahead of the EGM setting out the governance changes and the vision for its future. One City source told the newscaster that a number of corporates are now viewing the vote next week as ‘D-Day’ and will make decisions about restarting – or ending – their membership after the CBI’s presentation.
The British Standards Institute (BSI) has published a new workplace standard to help businesses support employees experiencing menopause or menstruation. The BSI recommends workplaces consider whether there is a general awareness of menstruation and menopause in their culture, alongside training for line managers and HR workers so women have opportunities for open conversations or to request support. Research from the Fawcett Society suggests some 10% of women going through menopause have left the workplace due to symptoms such as hot flushes, dizziness, insomnia, and muscle and joint stiffness, and that up to 25% for those with more severe symptoms quit work.
Publishing group Bloomsbury raked in record sales last year as Brits buried their heads in books and “cut back on more expensive forms of diversion” through the cost of living squeeze, City A.M. reports. In full year results published this morning, the London-listed Harry Potter publisher said sales were up 15% to £264.1m for the year to the end of February, and profit was up 16% to £31.1m. Over the past two years the firm has bumped up sales by 43% and profits by 62%.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said yesterday it had cleared Asda's £611m acquisition of the Co-operative Group's Arthur Foodstores, Britain’s seventh largest supermarket chain, which has 132 petrol stations and attached stores. The deal completed in October, and the CMA had feared it could lead to higher prices or less choice in some parts of the country.
KPMG has slashed the bonus pool of its UK workforce and reined in commission for salespeople as its profits falter amid a slowdown in the dealmaking environment this year, City A.M. has learned. The big four firm told staff in its mid-year update last week that some bonuses would be slashed by as much as half while sales staff were told their commission could be held back until the end of the year. Bosses told workers that while the company had seen “double-digit growth in many areas of the firm” it had “not been as high as we’d planned”.
India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a criminal complaint against British FTSE 100 companies Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems over previous fighter jet supply deals, Reuters said yesterday. The CBI, which is conducting an ongoing investigation into historic bribery and corruption allegations, alleges the companies engaged in a "criminal conspiracy" to "cheat" the Indian government over deals to make BAE Hawk 115 aircraft, which used Rolls-Royce engines, between 2003 and 2012. The allegation is that they paid commission to middlemen who helped them get the contracts by exerting "undue influence" on Indian government officials, in violation of Indian defence contract rules. Rolls-Royce said the allegations being investigated were disclosed back in 2017, when it paid a £497m fine to the UK's Serious Fraud Office to settle a case involving transactions with countries including China, India and Thailand, adding that it was continuing to assist Indian authorities in their investigation.
Ignacio Bustamante is stepping down as CEO of London-listed Hochschild Mining on 26th August to relocate to London and assume a new role at another company. The board has appointed Eduardo Landin, who has served as COO for 10 years, as Bustamente's successor.
Nvidia, a company that makes microchips for artificial intelligence (AI) has become the first chipmaker to be worth $1trn, joining the ranks of tech giants worth the eye-watering sum, including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Google parent company Alphabet, Sky News reports. Investors are expecting the company to benefit from the AI revolution: on Monday Nvidia launched a new range of AI products, including a supercomputer platform, whereupon one Nvidia share grew to be worth $408.13 (£328.85), hence the $1trn valuation. The company had been beset by supply chain problems but has overcome them and the share price has risen 180% throughout 2023.
Air New Zealand says it will weigh passengers departing from Auckland International Airport in June, arguing the information will be used to calculate average passenger weights which will help the airline to fly safely. The voluntary survey scheme will run until 2nd July, news.com.au reported. Alastair James, Air New Zealand's load control improvement specialist, assured passengers their weight would not be displayed for others to see. “We want to reassure our customers there is no visible display anywhere. No one can see your weight - not even us. It's completely anonymous,” he said.
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