6:55 am, March 16, 2023
Hunt spends Budget windfall on childcare and tax breaks for wealthy pensioners
Jeremy Hunt has used a £25bn-a-year improvement in the public finances to dramatically expand access to childcare and offer tax breaks to businesses and wealthy pensioners.
In a Budget aimed at increasing the numbers of people in work and the productivity of British firms, the Chancellor said the economy would avoid a recession and was ‘proving the doubters wrong’.
But the size of the economy is still forecast to shrink this year, living standards are the worst on record and the tax burden remains on course to be the highest since the Second World War.
Credit Suisse to borrow £45bn from Swiss central bank after share price plummets
Credit Suisse is planning to borrow up to 50 billion Swiss francs (£45 billion) from Switzerland’s central bank in a bid to boost its liquidity and calm investors a day after the bank’s share price plummeted.
Credit Suisse plunged and dragged down other major European lenders in the wake of bank failures in the United States.
At one point, Credit Suisse shares lost more than a quarter of their value, hitting a record low after the bank’s biggest shareholder — the Saudi National Bank — told news outlets that it would not put more money into the Swiss lender, which was beset by problems long before the US banks collapsed.
Biggest day of strikes for years amid continuing disputes over pay
Unions claimed that support for strikes is growing as up to half a million workers walked out on Wednesday in bitter disputes over pay, jobs and conditions.
Hundreds of picket lines were mounted outside government offices, schools, hospitals, universities and tube stations in the biggest walkout for years.
Junior doctors, teachers, civil servants, lecturers, London Underground drivers, BBC journalists and Amazon workers took industrial action, saying they wanted to send a strong message to the Government on the day of the Budget.
Freezing fuel duty is a ‘political choice’ by Hunt, says IFS
Jeremy Hunt’s decision to freeze fuel duty rather than funding a cost-of-living pay rise for nurses and other public sector workers is a ‘political choice’, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said.
In his initial Budget analysis, IFS director Paul Johnson said the £6bn the Chancellor committed to holding fuel duty for a 12th successive year could have paid for an inflation-matching offer for hundreds of thousands of striking workers.
‘That’s a political choice. Money for motorists, but not for nurses, doctors and teachers,’ he said.
London’s stocks have worst day since start of Covid as banking crisis fears grow
Fears that the economy might be on the edge of another ‘2008-style crisis’ caused shares in top European banks to plunge and dragged London’s FTSE 100 down to its lowest level this year.
London’s FTSE 100 dropped by 3.8 per cent to 7,344 points on Wednesday as nervous investors sold their shares. The 293-point drop was the worst single day for the FTSE since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, the French Cac dropped 3.58 per cent and the German Dax saw a 3.27 per cent slump.
Wednesday’s Car Dealer headlines you might have missed
- Budget 2023: What has Jeremy Hunt announced for car dealers and motorists in the spring budget?
- Used car dealers being put off buying EVs due to crashing prices
- Tesla showroom proposal for near Cambridge wins backing from residents
- BMW Group reaffirms commitment to UK automotive industry as it outlines future plans
- Cox Automotive research investigates car dealers’ omnichannel sales future
- Pendragon named as BYD’s leading launch partner as two all-electric dealerships open
- Dealer Auction is helping more used car dealers experience the benefits of digital remarketing
Kia EV9 revealed as firm’s most upmarket car yet
Kia is strengthening its electric car line-up with the reveal of the bold EV9 SUV, which will be the firm’s most premium and expensive model yet.
Following on from the EV6, the eagerly-awaited EV9 was first shown in concept form in November 2021, and arrives in production form with striking similarities. It is one of 14 new EVs that Kia is set to launch in the next five years.
The bold-looking model gets a boxy design with large LED wraparound lighting at the front, which Kia calls a ‘Digital Tiger Face’. Said to be inspired by polygons, the EV9 gets chunky wheelarches to give it a more rugged look.
Businesses will struggle after energy support plea ignored, trade groups warn
Business groups have said their members will struggle to keep their doors open from next month as the Government ignored calls for extra support to help companies pay their energy bills.
Despite extending current support levels for households, the Chancellor did not promise anything new for businesses.
Companies are set to see their energy bills soar from the start of April as the current more generous support package is slashed.
Clarkson’s farm is ‘crown jewel’ of sustainable farming, villagers say
Villagers defending Jeremy Clarkson’s farm shop have described it as the ‘crown jewel’ of sustainable living as they pleaded with their local council to allow his expansion plans.
A two-day Planning Inspectorate meeting continued on Wednesday to consider proposals by the 62-year-old former Top Gear presenter to extend the car park on his Oxfordshire farm plot to accommodate 70 vehicles.
Charlie Ireland, the land agent who features on the Amazon Prime series Clarkson’s Farm, also spoke at the hearing to defend the farm.
OpenAI releases latest version of artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT
The US tech firm OpenAI has released its latest version of the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT.
The new model, GPT-4, is able to handle “much more nuanced instructions” than its predecessor, the GPT-3.5, its creators said.
Its improved capabilities will include the ability to respond to images and process up to 25,000 words – about eight times as much as ChatGPT.
Weather outlook..
Today, the north and the west will be cloudy with outbreaks of rain, but Northern Ireland will see rain clearing to spells and showers. Elsewhere, it will be drier with extensive cloud cover, the BBC reports.
Tonight, clear spells will develop for many, mainly in the east and the south, but the far south-east will be cloudy with patchy rain. A few scattered showers will form in the north and the west.
Tomorrow, the far south-east will see rain in the morning but it will turn drier and brighter later. Scattered showers expected elsewhere, with variable cloud, but cloudy in the north and north-west.
