Economy

Jul- 2020 -

8 July

Government to crack down on violence against shopworkers

The government has vowed to crack down on violence and abuse against shopworkers. In a statement, yesterday the Home Office said it will work with National Retail Crime Steering Group (NRCSG) on a best practice guide to support staff in reporting these crimes, strengthening and making full use of existing…

7 July

Usdaw urges chancellor to announce retail recovery plan

Retail trade union Usdaw is calling on the chancellor to announce in Wednesday’s (8 June) economic statement an “urgent recovery plan” for the “struggling retail industry”, which is developed with trade unions and retail employers. Some of the factors, Usdaw is urging the government to cover fundamental business rates, an…

3 July

Consumer confidence increases in June

GfK’s fourth Covid-19 flash report has revealed Consumer Confidence Index increased by three points to -27 over the past two weeks. Joe Staton, GfK‘s client strategy director, said after the recent “near-historic low” of -36 for the Consumer Confidence Barometer last month, there are some early signs of improvement across most measures…

Jun- 2020 -

30 June

Government confirms changes to ‘flexible’ furlough scheme

The UK government has confirmed the latest set of changes to its “flexible” furlough scheme – dubbed CJRS V2 – ahead of its launch of the 1 July. HM Revenue and Customs has set out the new guidance as the current version of the Coronavirus Job retention Scheme (CJRS) ends…

30 June

Revised ONS data reveals greater GDP drop in Q1 2020

The UK’s gross domestic product (GDP) in volume terms fell by 2.2% in Q1 2020, which has been revised downwards by 0.2 percentage points from the Office for National Statisitic’s (ONS) first quarterly estimate. The ONS said it is the largest fall in UK GDP since Q3 1979, when it…

17 June

Supreme Court rules against Mastercard and Visa in interchange fees battle

Visa and Mastercard could be set to pay billions in compensation to some of the UK’s top retailers following a court ruling which found that the two payment companies had breached competition laws. The Supreme Court today (17 June) unanimously upheld the conclusion of the Court of Appeal that the…

12 June

UK GDP slumps over 20% in April as full impact of Covid-19 is felt

GDP slumped by 20.4% in April 2020, following a fall of 5.8% in March, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It is the biggest monthly fall since the ONS’ series began in 1997, with the measure also falling by 10.4% in the three months to April…

Apr- 2020 -

16 April

Government extends lockdown for ‘at least’ three more weeks

The government has announced an extension to the coronavirus lockdown for “at least” a further three weeks. The decision was announced at today’s (16 April) press briefing which was led by foreign secretary Dominic Raab. It also comes after Raab led an emergency Cobra committee and cabinet meetings about the…

16 April

Chancellor extends furlough scheme deadline

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has extended the deadline for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme after it was found that many people who had recently changed jobs were set to miss out. Under the scheme announced last month, employers can claim a grant covering 80% of the wages for a furloughed employee, subject to a cap…

15 April

Banks still failing small retail businesses, says Bira

High street lenders are failing to ‘rise to the challenge’ of supporting small retail businesses during the Covid-19 crisis, according to Bira. Andrew Goodacre, Bira’s CEO, said new government figures revealing that only 1.4% of applications for a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme had been successful were “no surprise”. The…