Scottish Power has announced that it will raise prices for gas by 19 percent and for electricity by 10 percent from August 1, raising concerns that other utilities in the UK will follow suit and raise their prices as well. Iberdrola (BMAD: IBE), the Spanish utility company that owns Scottish Power, has blamed the increase [...]
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UK economy shows improvement, but growth still slow
The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has published its Economic Survey for the first quarter of 2012, and the results have been labelled as encouraging. However, while the BCC was positive about the results of the survey – which took in some 8,000 businesses across the UK – the organisation also warned that growth is [...]
House prices rise by 0.2%, says Hometrack
The latest set of house price data from Hometrack indicates that the market witnessed a slight rise last month. The figure for the UK in March 2012 was an increase of 0.2%, which apparently means that the housing market will hold firm in the coming months, even if it isn’t “firing on all cylinders”. So [...]
OECD predicts UK back in recession
At the end of last year, when the fourth quarter of 2011 saw a contraction in GDP, many felt the UK was certainly heading for a double-dip into a second bout of recession. That would happen if Q1 of 2012 also produced a negative figure for the change in the UK’s GDP. However, since the [...]
Britons prefer pubs and takeaways to pensions
Pensions aren’t high on the list of the average UK citizen’s priority, what with the fragility of the country’s economy, and belts being tightened all round. That’s the finding of a study carried out by Skipton Financial Services, entitled the “Priority Report”, which questioned adults about their current attitudes towards both spending and saving. Obviously, [...]
UK economy shrunk more than anticipated in Q4 2011
The latest data from the bean counters at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has rolled in, and it’s not good news concerning the final quarter of last year. The quarterly national accounts for Q4 2011 showed that the UK’s gross domestic product (GDP) decreased by 0.3 per cent in volume terms, revised from the [...]
Tesco market share slips, but grocery sales up
Tesco has lost a little bit more of its dominant market share as the cut-throat supermarket sector intensifies in terms of competition. The Financial Times notes that Tesco has come under pressure since it was forced to issue a profit warning at the start of the year, and the UK CEO parted ways with the [...]
CBI says retail sales “steady” in March
The CBI has issued its latest monthly Distributive Trades Survey which indicates that retail sales in March were stable. However, all was not exactly well in the latest monitoring of the UK’s high street health, as shops reported that sales were “disappointing for the time of year”. The CBI’s figures covered the first two weeks [...]
Loan repayments outpace fresh borrowing
It seems that the UK is, collectively speaking, knuckling down to pay off the average household debt. At least for the moment. Which is definitely a good thing, considering the amount of debt that average household happens to be in. At the close of last year, that figure stood at £8,000 of unsecured debt, a [...]
Debt management firms warned by OFT
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has issued a warning to debt management/consolidation firms. These are the companies who (theoretically) provide advice and help punters to re-organise and pay off loans which are weighing them down – all for a small fee, of course. However, the problem is a lot of those outfits would seem [...]
George Osborne’s Budget 2012 Revealed
Today was the day when the Chancellor stood around for the cameras, smiling (or attempting to produce one) while holding that famous small red box. But, rather awkward scenes for the press aside, what exactly did today’s budget bring to the table of the UK economy? One of the main thrusts was tax cuts, for [...]
