1 A “lucky” generation of pensioners will enjoy an 8.5 per cent rise in their pensions today. Under the triple lock, they rise by whatever is highest of earnings growth, inflation or 2.5 per cent. Pensions will rise in line with earnings growth.
2 The UK looks to have emerged from recession and the economy is generating momentum, with two closely watched surveys revealing that growth has reached a “turning point”. Research by BDO, the consultancy, found that output reached its highest level since May 2022 last month.
3 The Competition and Markets Authority’s hardline approach to greenwashing risks businesses reining in their sustainability efforts, the British Retail Consortium lobby group has warned.
4 Swathes of the UK are being left behind by the electric car revolution, analysis of vehicle registration data suggests. The number of electric vehicles being registered as a proportion of all cars fell to 15.2 per cent in the first quarter of the year, compared with an average of 16.6 per cent for the previous two years.
5 One of Britain’s Big Four professional services firms has secured a key role in the City regulator’s investigation of the motor finance market. EY is conducting the so-called skilled persons review into historical commission arrangements on car loans that the Financial Conduct Authority announced in January.
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6 The Bank of England will have to cut interest rates soon to “loosen its grip on growth”, experts said after data showed the jobs market continued to worsen over the past month. Wages for new permanent recruits rose at the slowest rate in three years with the index overseen by KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation on starting salaries falling to 53.3 from 55.2.
7 Millions of renters are being squeezed as landlords increase rents to match record wage growth, the Resolution Foundation think tank has said.
8 Several big developments in the City of London are mired in uncertainty, The Times has learnt, amid the fallout from the Evergrande real estate crisis in China and a slump in property company share prices in Hong Kong.
9 A single pinch point on the network that carries green energy generated in Scotland south of the border could increase the sum consumers pay to fire up gas-powered plants and switch off wind farms more than threefold to £2.2 billion by the end of the decade, analysis suggests.
10 People in their late teens and early twenties are increasingly starting their own businesses. The number of Gen Z company directors — those born from 1997 onwards — rose by 42 per cent to nearly 250,000 last year, official figures show.
