6:51 am, August 13, 2022
Companies could get more energy bill help from ministers
The Government is considering whether to give further help to businesses struggling under the weight of their energy bills even as it refuses to commit to helping households more.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said that it is ‘essential’ to help heavy industry to cut production costs.
He is proposing that the Government increases the exemption from some environmental and policy costs that certain companies were given in March.
Petrol prices ‘on course to dip below 160p a litre’
Prices at the petrol pump are on course to dip below 160p a litre thanks to plummeting wholesale rates, just weeks after hitting a record high, according to the AA.
One forecourt in Belfast has already reached the benchmark, the AA said, with the rest of the UK set to follow suit in the coming weeks.
Wholesale costs have fallen 30p from their June peak, which the motor group said should be passed on to consumers as quickly as possible to save families hundreds of pounds.
England could see drought last into next year, Environment Agency warns
England could see a drought last into next year following the driest summer for 50 years, a senior Environment Agency (EA) figure has warned.
John Curtin, executive director for local operations at the EA, said it would take weeks’ worth of rain to replenish water sources.
Some areas have been almost completely deprived of rainfall all summer, prompting the National Drought Group (NDG) – made up of representatives from the Government, water companies, the EA and others – to move parts of the South West, parts of southern and central England, and the East of England into official drought status following a meeting on Friday.
GDP falls 0.1 per cent as Covid-19 vaccination programmes wind up
The UK’s economy shrank over the last three months as spending on test and trace and the Covid-19 vaccine programme subsided, figures show.
Gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.1 per cent between April and June, the Office for National Statistics said.
It is a big step down from the first quarter of the year, when GDP rose 0.8 per cent.
FTSE 100 ends week on a high despite dire energy bill predictions
The FTSE 100 has closed on a high despite a series of doomsday energy price cap predictions casting a shadow over the week.
The London index closed 34.98 points higher, or 0.47 per cent, at 7,500.89.
Elsewhere in Europe, the German Dax index rose 0.79 per cent and the French Cac was up 0.25 per cent when markets closed.
Friday’s Car Dealer headlines you might have missed
- Leading dealer says Cazoo has failed to capture hearts and minds outside of major cities, as firm reports record losses
- Used car dealership’s Financial Conduct Authority warning is removed
- UK’s most expensive EV rapid charger provider revealed
- Surrey Volvo dealership gets green light to modernise site despite local anger
- Kia’s XCeed is given mid-life refresh with new top-spec trim level
- Police appeal for witnesses to Lowdham Cars blaze
Train drivers to strike today in deadlocked dispute
Rail passengers will suffer fresh misery today because of strikes by train drivers, with more industrial action planned in the coming weeks amid the worsening disputes over jobs, pay and conditions.
Members of Aslef at nine train companies will walk out for 24 hours, crippling large parts of the network, with some parts of the country having no services.
Football fans, tourists and holidaymakers will be among tens of thousands of passengers affected by the strikes.
FBI seized ‘top secret’ documents from Trump’s home
The FBI recovered documents that were labelled ‘top secret’ from former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, according to court papers released on Friday after a federal judge unsealed the warrant that authorised the unprecedented search this week.
A property receipt unsealed by the court shows FBI agents took 11 sets of classified records from the estate during a search on Monday.
The seized records include some marked not only top secret but also ‘sensitive compartmented information’, a special category meant to protect the nation’s most important secrets that if revealed publicly could cause ‘exceptionally grave’ damage to US interests.
Public can expect more help on cost of living from next PM, says Johnson
Boris Johnson insisted on Friday that hard-hit households can expect extra help to tackle the spiralling cost of living and energy bills, regardless of who succeeds him as Prime Minister.
He also signalled that he believes the current package of measures are not enough to support British households amid a worsening economic outlook.
Inflation has dominated the race to replace Mr Johnson as frontrunner Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak offer competing visions of the best way to ease the pressure on struggling households.
One-off Ferrari F40 heads to auction
A Ferrari F40 with upgraded power and a striking grey colour scheme is heading to auction later this month.
Upgraded to full competition specification by specialists in Holland, the Ferrari F40 ‘Competizione’ was then upgraded again as a UK-based company took these performance revisions further a few years later. The end result is a car that is capable of producing between up to 1,000bhp, making it one of the most powerful F40 models around.
The announcement that this particular F40 would be going to auction generated huge interest on the internet, with over 600,000 impressions on social media recorded by the vendor, RM Sotheby’s.
Weather outlook
Today, any mist and fog in the north and east will soon clear, leaving a dry and sunny day across the UK with just some patchy light cloud in places. The BBC reports it will be another hot day, and very hot in the south.
Tonight will be dry and clear for many tonight, but low cloud with mist and fog patches spreading into some northern and eastern areas overnight. A few showers will be arriving in the north during the early hours.
Tomorrow will another hot day for much of the UK, with plenty of sunny spells. Cloudier in northern areas with a few outbreaks of showery rain, which may be heavy and thundery in places.
