Heathrow, Britain’s biggest airport, said a first quarter loss of 329 million pounds ($459 million) took total losses since the start of the pandemic to nearly 2.4 billion pounds as travel continues to be hammered, Reuters reported. It said only 1.7 million passengers traveled through the London airport in the three months to March 31, down 91% compared to the first quarter of 2019.
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The European Parliament has voted by a large margin to give the European Union’s final approval to a Brexit deal already beset by difficulties, complaints and a court challenge, The New York Times reported. The tally was 660 in favor, with five against and 32 abstentions. While the outcome was never really in doubt, the Parliament expressed considerable concerns about the trustworthiness of the current British government to carry out its side of the Brexit bargain, including the trade deal that was just approved.
Liverpool reported a pre-tax loss of 46 million pounds ($64 million) for the last financial year, mainly because of the impact the coronavirus outbreak had on the English champion’s media revenue and matchday income, the Associated Press reported. The losses for the financial year ending May 2020, a period covering the first three months of the pandemic when the Premier League was suspended, equated to a negative swing of 88 million pounds ($122 million) from Liverpool’s position a year ago.
The U.K. has imposed sanctions on 22 people accused of serious corruption in Russia, South Africa and four other nations in the first use of a new tool to fight corrupt activities globally, Sky News reported.
British retail sales jumped last month before a partial lifting of coronavirus restrictions, suggesting an economic rebound is underway, but official data also showed record peacetime government borrowing, Reuters reported.
The U.K. scaled back its bond sale plans by more than expected after the budget deficit undershot official forecasts during a pandemic-blighted year that ravaged the public finances, Bloomberg News reported.
The number of U.K. businesses in significant financial distress jumped the most in at least seven years last quarter, with firms across all sectors seeing their situation deteriorate, Bloomberg News reported. There are 723,000 companies facing serious problems, according to research by intelligence provider Begbies Traynor published Thursday. That’s a 15% increase from the end of last year, and the biggest quarterly increase since it began publishing the data in 2014. From a year ago, the number has climbed 42%.
Households in Britain, especially poorer ones, are far more likely to have suffered a severe income shock during the coronavirus pandemic over the past year than their counterparts in France and Germany, a well-respected British-based think tank said Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. The Resolution Foundation also said that households in the U.K. are also more likely to have run up more debt in response to the financial shockwaves emanating from the pandemic. In a report, which was entitled “After Shocks” and was supported by U.S.
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New rules coming into force at the end of the month will have a major impact on company directors seeking to restructure their business through pre-pack administrations, the Insider reported. The warning comes from Derek Forsyth, head of restructuring in Scotland with accountancy firm Azets, on new legislation coming into force on 30 April. Pre-pack administrations have been used increasingly during the pandemic to save businesses that would otherwise go under.
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Britain on Tuesday eased controls designed to prevent a backlog of trucks in southern England caused by new post-Brexit paperwork, saying vehicles taking goods to the European Union would no longer need a special permit to enter the port region, Reuters reported. The government said the relaxation showed goods transport companies had adapted to the new requirements, and were arriving at the border fully prepared.
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