New figures show two in three small business owners have implemented cost-saving methods in a bid to reduce energy-usage.
The study by Smart Energy GB found that 500 respondents had made an average of six changes at work.
A third of bosses said they had encouraged staff to adopt more energy-friendly behaviours, 20 per cent had gone paperless, while 29 per cent had turned their boiler temperature down.
A quarter (26 per cent) have turned off radiators in some rooms, while 24 per cent have lowered their thermostat.
More popular ways of reducing energy costs among those surveyed included not printing, only running the dishwasher when full and working from home where possible.
Furthermore, 19 per cent are reducing their opening hours and 33 per cent are ‘very likely’ to consider actively moving premises.
Smart Energy GB director Victoria Bacon said: “As business owners continue to reduce their energy usage wherever possible, actions such as changing to LED lightbulbs and turning off the lights when rooms are not being used are now increasingly commonplace.”
Considering a budget
The research went on to reveal that investment in new technology, such as accounting software, had helped almost nine in ten businesses.
Nearly a third say they would think about energy efficiency credentials more than ever when upgrading equipment, with 51 per cent also buying more ‘smart’ appliances.
Almost three in ten (29 per cent) check their energy usage at least once a day, with just under a third (32 per cent) checking several times each week.
Of those surveyed, 58 per cent admit they’re still not sure of the most efficient ways to cut costs in their business, with 35 per cent saying there isn’t enough information available.
Nearly four in 10 (39 per cent) use so much equipment that it’s hard to keep track of energy use, while 34 per cent can’t afford to upgrade their gear.
But 72 per cent said if they cut back on their costs any further, their businesses wouldn’t function well.
Smart meters
Victoria Bacon from Smart Energy GB added: “A smart meter measures energy usage in near-real time, providing accurate bills.
“This means businesses only pay for the energy they actually use, which can help business owners to manage their cashflow and budgets.”
Two thirds of small business owners have adopted more cost saving working practices over the last 12 months to reduce their energy usage.”
Limassol, Cyprus – Your Bourse has added two new features to its premier execution engine and risk management platform, named floating leverage and floating commissions.
These new features will increase the flexibility brokers have in their trading conditions and decrease the market risk they face.
Floating leverage allows brokers to change the leverage offered to their clients dynamically. The feature allows for greater flexibility in terms of the trade conditions provided as it can also be to change the leverage before market close/open, as well as during the news events; this means that brokers can respond quickly to market changes and adjust their leverage automatically based on the predefined rules.
Floating commissions, on the other hand, give brokers the ability to adjust their commission rates on a trade-by-trade or client-by-client basis in real-time. Depending on their business model, retail and institutional brokers can use this feature. This feature is accessible on the MT4 bridge.
These features are easy to use and are available to all clients already using Your Bourse, as well as in the form of standalone plug-ins. They can be accessed and configured via the cloud portal.
In a statement by Andrey Vedikhin, CEO of Your Bourse, “We are always looking for ways to improve our platform and offer our clients the tools to grow their business and improve the trading experience for their clients. The introduction of floating leverage and floating commissions provides both.”
About the company:
Your Bourse offers software solutions for retail and institutional MT4/MT5 brokers. Including MT5 gateway & MT4 bridge, multi-asset liquidity aggregation, risk management, client profiling, real-time and historical reporting, MT4/MT5 hosting in all Equinix data centers with 99.999% SLA, plugins for MT4 & MT5 and FIX API connections for the B2B clients. Visit https://www.yourbourse.com for more information.
Contact: George Jubran, Your Bourse [email protected] +35799629961 Cyprus Office: 2nd Floor, Thalia 3, Office Number 212, Limassol 3011, Cyprus
Shoppers are urged to change their trolley habits as food bills rocket by almost £800 a year.
Families are already feeling the pinch with the cost of living crisis and surging energy payments, and now face the biggest shopping bills since 2008 when records began – having to find on average, an extra £788 for food each year.
Data group Kantar shows grocery inflation is running at 16.7 per cent – that’s a monthly jump of 2.3 percentage points and a figure in excess of the official CPI rate of inflation of 10.5 per cent.
Recession likely
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently warned that Britain would be likely to fall into recession this year as it battles higher taxes, interest rates and energy bills.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: “Late last year we saw the rate of grocery price inflation dip slightly but that small sign of relief for consumers has been short-lived. Households will now face an extra £788 on their annual shopping bills if they don’t change their behaviour to cut costs.
“Across the market the move is towards everyday low pricing, with many supermarkets offering price matching and using their loyalty schemes to help shoppers save.”
The IMF said Britain’s economy would contract by 0.6 per cent this year — a near full percentage point downgrade on its last forecast in October — and a stark contrast with other G7 economies such as the United States, Japan and France which are all set to grow.
Even Russia, which has been hit by Western sanctions following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, is set to increase GDP by 0.3 per cent after a contraction of 2.2 per cent last year.
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Amid the latest gloomy forecasts, government minister Richard Holden, insisted that the IMF had been “wrong” before. He told Times Radio: “They’ve been wrong in the last two years, the OECD were also wrong over the last two years. I think Britain can beat those predictions.” He added on GB News: “I’m not saying there aren’t headwinds, internationally, there certainly are, but I think Britain can outperform just like we have done and beat these forecasts just like we have done over the last couple of years.”
But shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves tweeted: “This points to difficult times for our economy. Britain has so much potential. But we’re being held back and lagging behind.”
Although the IMF said the UK is likely to bounce back with growth of 0.9 per cent in 2024, it painted a dark picture for the rest of this year contrasting it with the better than expected performance of other advanced economies.
The IMF said: “Growth in the United Kingdom is projected to be –0.6 per cent in 2023, a 0.9 percentage point downward revision from October, reflecting tighter fiscal and monetary policies and financial conditions and still-high energy retail prices weighing on household budgets.”
Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, director of research at the IMF, said the global outlook was “less gloomy” than its October forecasts, adding it “could represent a turning point, with growth bottoming out and inflation declining”. But, he warned that Britain was set to face a “sharp correction”this year.
Three years on from the UK’s departure from the European Union, Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said the country was being held back by the “continuing challenges from Brexit”. He told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There are a few things which are affecting us more than other countries. One in particular, actually is the loss of people from our labour force… we’ve lost half a million plus people from work — people retiring early, immigrants not coming in from the European Union and so on.
“That’s not affecting any other country in Europe. So that’s a particular challenge for us. Higher interest rates are feeding very quickly through to mortgages in the UK and we’ve got, of course, the continuing challenges from Brexit.”
Meanwhile, Tesco on Tuesday announced a wide-ranging overhaul of its stores which will impact around 2,100 jobs. The supermarket chain said it will extend changes to store management roles, shut remaining counters and hot delis and shut a number of in-store pharmacies as part of the shake-up.
The Kantar research found shoppers have been switching away from branded products and opting for supermarkets’ own-brand equivalents to save money. Sales of own-label products have risen 47 per cent over the last year, according to the figures. However, consumer spending on promotions, such as two-for-ones, is at a record low, accounting for just 23 per cent of spending in the four week period studied by the market research firm.
While the grocery sector is “incredibly competitive”, Kantar’s Mr McKevitt told the BBC that food “is not something we can choose whether we buy or not”. He added that people have been cutting back on streaming services — “that’s something people can choose to cut back on, but if you need to feed yourself, feed your family, you’re going to have to go to the shops”,
The research found that Aldi was the fastest-growing grocer for the fourth month in a row, with sales up 26.9 per cent year-on-year and now holding 9.2 per cent of the market. Lidl’s sales jumped by 24.1 per cent to give it a 7.1 per cent market share. Tesco remains the largest retailer with a 27.5 per cent share while Asda holds 14.2 per cent.MORE ABOUTKANTARIMFECONOMY
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Ambulance staff from five services will strike on February 10, in new strike action by Unison.
Ongoing disputes over pay and staff are yet to go resolved, resulting in walkouts for workers in London, the South West, Yorkshire, the North East and the North West.
There will be NHS strikes every day next week except Wednesday.
Unison urged the government to stop “pretending the strikes will simply go away” and act now to end the dispute by boosting pay packets.
Calls for “actual talks”
The union also said that unless the government agrees to “actual talks”, it could announce more walkouts in March.
The latest strike announcement comes as ministers are braced for the biggest day of industrial action in over a decade on Wednesday, February 1 when teachers, university lecturers, train drivers, civil servants, bus drivers and security guards all stop work.
Staffing emergency
Unison’s head of health Sara Gorton said: “Ministers must stop fobbing the public off with promises of a better NHS, while not lifting a finger to solve the staffing emergency staring them in the face.
“The government must stop playing games. Rishi Sunak wants the public to believe ministers are doing all they can to resolve the dispute.
“There are no pay talks, and the Prime Minister must stop trying to hoodwink the public. It’s time for some honesty. Ministers are doing precisely nothing to end the dispute.”
Deeply concerning
Downing Street said the latest strike announcement by ambulance workers is “deeply concerning”.
“We are putting in place significant mitigations that have previously helped reduce some of the impact from these strikes,” the PM’s official spokesperson said.
“But first and foremost we would ask the unions to reconsider that approach and continue discussions.”
Bestway Group has announced its investment in 80,792,512 shares in Sainbury’s – that’s 3.45% of the issued share capital, worth £193 million.
But the group, which has headquarters in London’s Park Royal, said it will not consider an offer for Sainsbury’s but would think about further market purchases of the chain’s shares from time to time.
Sainsbury’s shares jumped 6.6% when it was revealed that Bestway had taken a stake but the FTSE 100 company said it would engage with Bestway “in line with normal interactions with shareholders”.
Bestway Group has a customer base of over 12 million customers and employs over 28,000 individuals, has operations across the UK, Pakistan and the Middle East and is one of the largest family-owned businesses in the UK with a £4.5 billion turnover.
Founded by Sir Anwar Pervez OBE and led by Group Chief Executive The Lord Choudrey CBE, the group has seen a growth in revenues to year end June 2022, which reached £4.51 billion with operating pre-tax profit of £398.8 million.
The growth reflects an increase in revenues across all businesses within the group, which owns retailer Costcutter, as well as Well Pharmacy and Bestway Wholesale.
A strong performance has been attributed to the group’s agility in responding to fast-changing market conditions and taking necessary measures to reduce the impact of key risks in the business with appropriate policies where possible.
Starting off as a chain of convenience stores in 1963, Bestway is now a diversified multinational business with interests across the wholesale, pharmacy, real estate, cement and banking sectors.
Sainsbury’s has also had a good year with retail sales up more than five per cent at Christmas.
Lidl GB has further boosted its existing £15 billion investment in the British food industry.
The popular retailer had committed to funding between 2020 and 2025 but has now increased that pledge to £17 billion.
Lidl GB works with more than 650 suppliers across the country and sources two thirds of its core produce from the UK.
Paramount to success
The supermarket has been forthcoming in saying that the farmers and producers that supply its goods have been paramount to the success of the business.
Lidl enjoyed some noticeable sales increases, with a rise of almost 25% over December, compared to the same period in 2021.
The discounter has long championed British food and farming and over-trades in British meat, poultry and eggs – currently holding the largest market share in volume of fresh British pork.
Overseas cheese
Cheese is another great export for Lidl shoppers overseas, with Lidl GB sending more than £50 million of British cheese to Europe.
Westcountry cheddar cheese supplier Wyke Farms has worked with Lidl since 1994 and currently has a long-term contact with Lidl GB until 2028, a deal worth £35m a year. As a result of its longstanding relationship with Lidl GB, Wyke is now exporting to 16 other Lidl markets, with Poland being the biggest fans of Somerset Vintage Cheddar outside of Great Britain.
Ryan McDonnell, CEO at Lidl GB, said: “We see them as partners in our mission to provide households with high quality affordable produce, and for many, working with Lidl GB and being part of our growth has opened opportunities for their own expansion, both here in the UK and across the globe.”
Martin Kottbauer, chief trading Officer at Lidl GB, added: “Providing our suppliers with the security and certainty needed for them to invest and grow has been a big focus for us over the years. It’s why we’ve led the industry on the introduction of longer-term contracts, and it’s why our continued investment in the British food and farming industry remains an absolute priority for our business.”
Lidl has over 70 supermarkets across London, and a total of 950 UK stores.
London’s RNLI rescue station has been moved for the last time, after 16 years in operation.
While the station has become unfit for purpose, it’s not the end for the crew at Tower Bridge.
They’ll be continuing their great work from HMS President, before a new station launches in April.
The team has launched the lifeboat from Tower Bridge more than 9,545 times – and saved 355 lives along the Thames since 2002. Last year alone the station had 750 call outs.
While it will no longer be operational, the station will be used by the Thames Marine Services as one of its six electrical charging facilities.
The lifeboat crew moved to reassure people that they can still call 999 and ask for the Coastguard if anyone gets into trouble along the Thames.
The station was created in wake of the 1989 tragedy on the pleasure boat Marchioness in 1989 in which 51 people died.
Following an enquiry, the rescue service was created, and maintained with donations, including £3.5m from the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Officer’s Association.
The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 142,700 lives.
Startling stats reveal that the gap between Britain’s richest and poorest has widened due to the freeze in income tax thresholds and the current cost of living crisis.
The wealthiest fifth of the country have boosted their household disposable income by more than £1000, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). They’ve also managed a 1.6 increase in pay, bringing the average salary in this bracket to £66,000 per annum.
The data shows how the cost of living crisis has disproportionately impacted the least well off in Britain, with the richest now more than £51,000 wealthier than the poorest.
A reduction in benefits in 2021 also hit poorer families hard.
“Wages and salaries increased by 3.2 per cent across all households, however, the poorest fifth of people saw a 7.5 per cent decrease, while the richest fifth saw a 7.8 per cent increase,” the ONS said.
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During the pandemic, then chancellor Rishi Sunak added £20 to weekly benefit payments but by 2021 this was stopped.
A staggering rise in food and energy bills have also pushed the poorest to the brink.
“Richer households have far more ability to cut back on their spending as more of it goes on non-essentials, such as holidays and luxury items,” ONS added.
Global logistics provider DP World is spending £12 million on two new Rail Mounted Gantry cranes at London Gateway.
The cranes – used for the quick, safe, automated handling of containers – will help increase rail capacity there by 50 per cent and are needed to meet growing demand from customers.
DP World runs the UK’s most advanced logistics hubs at London Gateway and Southampton: two deep water ports with access to freight rail terminals.
It also operates ports, terminals and logistics businesses on six continents.
Andrew Bowen, port operations director at London Gateway, said: “After the disruption of recent years, shipping lines and cargo owners are looking for capacity, reliability and growth opportunities and DP World will deliver on all three fronts.
“This is the latest step forward in our journey to becoming an end-to-end logistics provider.”
The firm had already launched a new train service to connect the container terminals at London Gateway and Southampton, enabling customers to switch volumes easily.
The DP World-operated round service carries cargo including fresh fruit, beverages and consumer goods in less than five hours, taking up to 120 lorries a week off the roads.
It is thought that the project will support 1,000 jobs.
DP World has also earmarked a further £1 billion of investment in the UK over the next decade.
The highly regarded JMW Employment team has been elected to the British Medical Association’s (BMA) legal panel, with the role of providing support to its members.
The BMA is currently made up of more than 170,000 members, making up the professional body and trade union for doctors. The organisation offers representation and specialist advice to its members and is an integral addition to the JMW Employment team’s portfolio of clients.
The JMW Employment team, ranked in the legal directories Chambers and Partners and The Legal 500, is led by Paul Chamberlain, a UK-leading employment law specialist who is described in Chambers as being “very professional and extremely knowledgeable”.
He said: “The BMA has tasked us with providing its members with legal support well including representing them in the Employment Tribunal and County Court where necessary.
“We won our appointment based on a number of key factors, including our reputation as a national firm with excellent employment law and employment litigation experience, our ability to conduct Tribunal cases in all four nations and our being able to offer the BMA a team of accomplished employment law partners and solicitors operating at a senior level.
“Being appointed to the BMA panel after an extremely competitive tender process is testament to the talent, expertise and hard work of our team.”
