Displaying items by tag: Business

Mohamed Amersi, who partially funded Boris Johnson’s campaign to become prime minister, also advised the telecoms firm Telia, which in 2010 made a controversial $220m payment to a secretive offshore company. Oil executive Victor Fedotov, who gave £900,000 to 34 Tory MPs, made $4bn from allegedly corrupt Russian pipeline deals, and is currently seeking government approval for a controversial energy link between the UK and France. Lubov Chernukhin has given over £1.8m to the Conservatives since 2012. The secret offshore wealth she shares with her husband, a former Russian minister, includes a London house worth £38m and a £10m Oxfordshire mansion. Mrs Chernukhin's lawyers say she is a British citizen and is entitled to do as she wishes with her money. High-profile foreign politicians and UK political donors have over 1,500 UK properties, bought secretly using offshore firms worth £4bn. See also

The Universal Credit extra payments helping people through Covid have ended, amid fears that many lives will get worse not better this winter. 29-year-old Lynton Lockett is embarrassed to show people his kitchen. A leaking kitchen tap caused mould on the floor and walls. The dampness has brought an infestation of fruit flies. Lynton showed the kitchen to plumber James Anderson who runs a community initiative called DEPHER CIC that provides free heating and plumbing services to people who can't pay for them. James anticipates a 50% increase in calls for help this winter. He has started giving food parcels to struggling families. He said that the end of payments, the higher cost of living, a rise in gas prices and the end of furlough puts too much financial pressure on families. He added, ‘You can't hide the truth. If this continues, people are going to die.’ See also

Britain faces a greater risk of blackouts this winter after a fire on 15 September knocked out a cable importing electricity from France. National Grid’s electricity system operator (ESO) believes supply will meet demand, but has cut its forecast of buffer supply. Its officials are also warning of high costs for getting power generators to fire up at short notice to help balance the grid. Those costs are ultimately passed onto household bills - a further pressure when bills are climbing due to soaring wholesale costs of natural gas and electricity. The ESO warned in July that Britain should prepare for constrained power supplies over winter, with nuclear power plants shutting down and demand bouncing back from the pandemic. Its director said, ‘Our analysis shows that we expect sufficient margins over the winter and the system is within the reliability standard. Throughout the coming months the situation may change, as it does every winter.’

Retailers and hauliers say the government's plan to offer temporary visas to foreign lorry drivers will not solve supply chain issues. The transport secretary said there is ‘plenty of fuel’ in the refineries and 47 storage centres, but ‘the Royal Haulage Association triggered panic buying by reporting a shortage of heavy goods vehicle drivers. To limit disruption before Christmas the Government will give temporary visas to 5,000 lorry drivers, encourage HGV licence holders back into the industry, and use MOD examiners to increase testing for new drivers. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58698998 These measures will not fix the short-term problems caused by panic buying, so the business secretary said 150 soldiers will be delivering fuel. The managing director of fuel supplier Portland Fuel said the UK was over the worst of the situation and that sending in the army would ‘generate more panic’.

The UK's economy grew 5.5% between April and June as spending surged after lockdowns. However an investment and markets analyst said, ‘Any hope that the end of the furlough scheme would solve the supply chain crisis is likely to be wishful thinking. There will be a big mismatch of skills and experience between those leaving furlough and the jobs on offer.’ Jess Pitman was furloughed from her job organising trips abroad to raise money for charities, but travellers cancelled when Covid hit. The company's payroll has reduced from 27 to 5. Furloughing has finished, and Jess will return to work part-time, topping up her income with freelance work. To counteract furlough finishing, a £500m Household Support Fund will provide a lifeline for those who might struggle to keep up with their winter bills for food and utility. Local councils will give the grants to cover essential costs.

Rising gas prices caused fertiliser factories to close on 20 September, cutting 60% of the supply of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the food and drinks industry. There were warnings of supermarket shortages, because CO2 extends the shelf life of packaged fresh foods and keeps transported food fresh as dry ice. There were also concerns that the UK may have to close its six advanced gas-cooled nuclear reactors which use CO2 . Big meat suppliers were prioritising how they use CO2 as they had just three days' supply, while supermarkets had ‘limited stock’ of frozen items. On 22 September the Government promised to give tens of millions of pounds to restart production of CO2 at a fertiliser factory for three weeks ‘whilst the market adapts to global prices’. There will be a cap to the overall cost. The Food and Drink Federation said shortages may be felt through to the end of the year.

Avro Energy and Green Supplier collapsed on 22 September, and the sector's regulator warned ‘well above’ hundreds of thousands of customers will have to be moved to new suppliers whose tariff may be more expensive. Avro Energy has 580,000 customers, Green Supplier 250,000. Customers will still receive energy while a new supplier is appointed. They are the latest providers to go bust following a sharp rise in wholesale gas prices. Ofgem warned the price rise was ‘something not seen before’ and more firms would fold. A six-fold rise in wholesale gas prices since last year meant several domestic energy suppliers had hit financial trouble. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation charity warned that millions of low-income households will face a squeeze on their finances from October, when energy companies will be allowed to lift the maximum amount they charge for gas and electricity by as much as 12%. Also from next month, Universal Credit claimants will lose £20 a week.

In April the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) warned the department of health that consumers could be ripped off by the fast-growing Covid PCR testing industry and that the competitions watchdog had not done enough. The Government said it was provided with general market analysis from the CMA on potential implications for the PCR testing market, and that advice informed government approaches on private provider lists. There has been a summer of complaints from travellers who mention tests listed on the government's list of providers that don't exist at the price advertised, and poor service. At the start of August, the health secretary asked the competitions watchdog to investigate ‘excessive’ pricing and ‘exploitative practices’ among Covid test firms. In a letter to the CMA, Sajid Javid said it was time for a ‘rapid high-level’ review to protect consumers. The travel industry also demands action to remove the barriers to passenger recovery.

The pandemic, and lockdown, made Adam Ellison want to help other people. Before coronavirus, he was content with his job in marketing and his own social bubble. But that changed when millions faced hardship due to disruption caused by the pandemic. ‘I've become more conscious of everybody else,’ he says. In October, he became a volunteer on Olio, an app that allows people to share edible food waste with others. Every Saturday he goes to Tesco at 7 am to collect unsold produce. He adds the items to the app and people living nearby request them for pickup. The food goes within a day. Olio will soon branch out with ‘Borrow’ - lending items that are only used occasionally. The big question now is whether the broader surge of app-mediated compassion will continue. Mr Ellison said, ‘If everybody did something small but meaningful, we'd live in a much better society. I think Covid's been a catalyst for that.’

In response to protests which began on 9 July, Boyko Borisov proposed reforms to the constitution which have been decried by protesters as a means of keeping his government in power until the next elections. Rallies have been mostly peaceful, but there have been occasional clashes with police and some arrests. Transparency International ranks Bulgaria as the most corrupt of the 27 nations in the EU. The economy is said to be one of the poorest in Europe, mainly due to corruption. A 2019 report on corruption in Bulgaria said that at least 35% of public procurement contracts involve corrupt practices. Currently the European Parliament is discussing the ongoing anti-corruption protests, after some of the movement's leaders sent letters to Brussels requesting support, but the Bulgarian government isn't backing down. See