3/5 of households now worry about their finances...but the Nationwide says they're spending what they…

Three in five households are now worried about their finances but, despite this, spending on non-essentials was up 6% in July compared to a year ago – with the top category for growth being airline travel, according to a new study from the Nationwide Building Society. Spending on flights was up 33% compared to July 2022. Meanwhile, spend on digital goods, including console games and app purchases was up 26%, while leisure and recreation, such as sporting events and gym use, was up 11%.

However, more than one in five Britons have cut their pension contributions or stopped paying in altogether as the cost of living crisis forces households to make difficult decisions, according to a study by investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown. 22% of people have either stopped (14%) or cut back (8%) on pension contributions during the cost of living crisis, the firm said, adding that men and younger people were more likely to have done this than women and older people. Almost a third of the 18-34 age group had done this, compared with one in five 35- to 54-year-olds. Meanwhile, the head of one of Britain’s biggest fund managers, Abrdn, is calling for a doubling of minimum pension contributions for millions of workers in order to avert a “very real” retirement incomes crisis.

The Bank of England’s former chief economist has said Threadneedle Street persisted “a little longer than we needed to” with quantitative easing, which contributed to higher inflation, City AM reports. The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee expanded its quantitative easing programme – effectively, printing money to buy government debt – by £450bn in 2020 and 2021 as the country battled with Covid-19. But in an interview aired last night, Andy Haldane, who stepped down in April 2021, admits that the Bank “went on printing money for a bit longer than it needed to.  “With the benefit of hindsight… we probably did a little bit too much for a little too long,” he told Sophy Ridge in an interview for her Politics Hub show on Sky News. The Bank stopped buying bonds in late 2021 and is now actively selling them.

The first round of potentially thousands of layoffs at failed retailer Wilko began yesterday, with staff at offices and warehouses told they will lose their jobs. Administrators PwC confirmed last week that 269 people in the company's Worksop support centre would be having their last day with the business. PwC did not confirm how many warehouse staff would lose their jobs in total. Around 1,296 people are thought to work there.

Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin is again urging Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to create “tax equality” between pubs and supermarkets. “Supermarkets pay zero VAT in respect of food sales, whereas pubs and restaurants pay 20%,” he said, warning that this “vast disparity” is the biggest threat to the hospitality industry. To highlight the issue, Wetherspoon’s will slash the prices of food and drinks by 7.5 % across its 800 pubs on Thursday 14^th September, a day Martin is dubbing “Tax Equality Day.” The cut means a customer spending £10 on food and drinks will pay just £9.25 that day.  

HSBC and NatWest have announced a fresh round of mortgage rate cuts, to take effect today. NatWest announced reductions of up to 0.35% on selected fixed deals; a five-year fixed rate deal aimed at homebuyers with a 5% deposit that is currently priced at 6.39% will result in its rate being cut to 6.04% at the bank. HSBC's cheapest five-year fix, for home buyers with at least a 40% deposit, will fall from 5.25% to 5.16%, with a £999 fee.

Staff at US bank Citi who do not come into the office at least three days a week could have their bonuses docked amid a crackdown on working from home culture, the Daily Mail reports. The newspaper says bosses are now monitoring use of access passes to establish how often its 12,500 UK employees are at their desks across its offices in London, Edinburgh and Belfast.

Barclays is looking for buyers to invest in its UK merchant payment-processing division, according to a Reuters report. The news agency, citing anonymous sources close to the matter, reported that the unit could be valued in the region of £2bn.

FTSE 250 facilities management group Mitie is spending £31.5m to buy Stevenage-based JC Engineering, a specialist in cooling systems for data centres.

Wood Group has won a five-year £262m contract with Harbour Energy, Britain's largest North Sea oil and gas producer, which it says will provide hundreds of jobs in the Aberdeen area. In a statement, the FTSE 250 firm said it will “provide engineering, procurement and construction and operations and maintenance services, including digital and decarbonisation solutions, for a number of Harbour's offshore assets critical to UK energy security.”

Primary Health Properties (PHP) said on Monday that it has appointed Mark Davies as CEO after its AGM on 24 April. He will succeed Harry Hyman, the founder of PHP, whose departure was announced in December last year. The FTSE 200 company invests in modern primary healthcare facilities. Davies is currently the senior independent director at Palace Capital, a London-listed Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT).

Oliver Zipse, the CEO of BMW has warned that European Union (EU) plans to ban combustion engine vehicles are forcing the European manufacturers of cheaper cars into a price war with Chinese competitors. “The base car market segment will either vanish or will not be done by European manufacturers,” Zipse said, in reference to the fact China has emerged as the dominant force in the global transition to electric vehicles.  A slew of Chinese brands, primarily made up of electric carmakers including BYD, Tang, SAIC and Aiways, have been looking to muscle into the European market and challenge traditional automakers. At Munich’s annual IAA Mobility conference Zipse said: “I want to send a message: I see that as an imminent risk”. His comments were first reported by the Financial Times.