Unemployment in the UK edged higher to 5.1% in December as the government’s furlough scheme continued to prevent a steep rise in job losses in the run-up to Christmas, The Guardian reported. With much of the economy still in enforced hibernation, the unemployment rate in the three months to December increased from 5% in November and was up by 1.5 percentage points from a year earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics.
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Airlines say they've already seen a surge in bookings, following the Prime Minister's announcement of the road map out of lockdown, BBC.com reported. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that a global travel taskforce would put forward a report on how to return to international travel on 12 April. The government would then make a decision on removing restrictions on international travel. However, this would not happen until 17 May at the earliest. Tui reported that they had had their best day of bookings in over a month, with strong interest in Greece, Spain and Turkey for the summer.
A British judge on Friday blocked the release of internal HSBC documents relating to U.S. fraud allegations against Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, Reuters reported. Meng is facing charges of bank fraud in the United States for allegedly misleading HSBC about Huawei’s business dealings in Iran, causing the bank to violate U.S. sanctions. She has been under house arrest in Canada since being detained at Vancouver airport in 2018 and has become one of the most high-profile figures in a trade war between China and the United States.
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The British government announced it intends to extend the power (granted through the Corporate Governance and Insolvency Act) to make temporary amendments or modify the effects of corporate insolvency and governance legislation for an additional year until April 2022, Accountancy Daily reported. The government laid the regulations on 11 February 2021 in Parliament ahead of the power expiring on 30 April 2021. The government last updated the rules in December 2020, announcing a number of covid-19 related measures to support businesses.
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British consumer spending fell over the past week and the proportion of people on furlough and who are working exclusively from home increased, as the country remained in a coronavirus lockdown, official figures showed on Thursday, Reuters reported. Debit and credit card spending - as measured by Bank of England CHAPS payment data - was 28% below its level in February 2020 during the week to Feb. 11, representing a greater shortfall than the 24% shortfall reported the week before. Businesses said 20% of their staff were on furlough between Jan. 25 and Feb.
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British inflation edged up in January as locked-down consumers paid more for food and sellers of furniture and other household goods offered smaller-than-usual New Year discounts to people seeking to spruce up their homes, the Irish Times reported. The annual 0.7 per cent increase in consumer prices is expected to gather speed in the coming months – pushed up by the end of an emergency tax break and possibly the impact of Brexit – and might go above the Bank of England’s 2.0 per cent target this year.
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New post-Brexit trade restrictions have pushed up the cost of parts and raw materials for two thirds of small British manufacturers surveyed last month, and a majority reported some level of disruption, Reuters reported. The survey of nearly 300 firms, by consultants South West Manufacturing Advisory Service (SWMAS) and the Manufacturing Growth Programme, a government and European Union-funded initiative providing support to small firms, adds to the picture of disruption from new customs checks that came into force on Jan. 1 for goods trade with the EU.
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An insolvency procedure widely used on the high street has spread to the high seas as Harding Retail, which operates boutiques on cruise ships, has resorted to a company voluntary arrangement to cut its debt, the Financial Times reported. Harding, which was founded in 1930, has had no revenue for 10 months after the US government effectively shut down the $150bn cruise industry by issuing a no-sail order in March last year. It operates 250 boutiques on more than 80 vessels.
The new owners of Paperchase chose not to refer their acquisition to a scheme that reviews the sale of failed companies’ assets to connected parties, the London Times reported. Permira Debt Managers, the credit arm of the eponymous private equity firm and a secured creditor to Paperchase, the stationer that collapsed last month, acquired the key assets of the business via a pre-pack administration.
Nearly 40,000 UK construction firms face insolvency by the end of April, according to Red Flag Alert data, Construction Global reported. It warns their collapse would mean £2.2bn in unpaid invoices are at risk of disappearing from construction supply chains. The latest ONS data focusing on the business impacts of COVID-19 shows 13.6% of construction companies have low or no confidence that their businesses will survive the next three months - a predicament affecting 39,491 firms.