Author: LoveWorld UK

Royal Mail has reported a £1bn loss, with bosses blaming strike action by workers and a failure to increase productivity for its poor performance during a year in which it cut 10,000 jobs. The poor performance led International Distributions Services (IDS), which owns Royal Mail, to report an overall loss of £748m for the year to 26 March. That compares with a profit of £577m a year earlier. IDS said Royal Mail swung to a loss “due to industrial action” by unionised staff over pay and working conditions that eventually led to the resignation of its chief executive, Simon Thompson, last…

Three energy suppliers have been made to pay compensation totalling £8m for failing to supply a final bill on time to more than 100,000 households that had switched provider. The energy regulator for Great Britain, Ofgem, said E.ON Next was ordered to pay £5.5m to almost 95,000 customers because it did not provide them with a final bill within six weeks of moving to another supplier, nor did it pay compensation for the delay within 10 days of the missed deadline. Octopus Energy was made to pay approximately £750,000 to 19,000 customers, while almost 350 Good Energy customers received a combined total…

Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani has made a dramatic fourth bid for Manchester United, with an improved offer of no more than £5.5bn which includes the clearance of the £1bn debt and a fund solely for the club and surrounding community. More than two weeks have passed since Sheikh Jassim and Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the Ineos owner, each submitted what were supposedly final bids for United. The Qatari banker’s offer then was close to £5bn for 100%, while Ratcliffe’s was thought to be for a stake of a little over 50%, leaving Avram and Joel Glazer, two of the siblings who…

Hundreds of thousands of small businesses that claimed on their insurance during the Covid pandemic but had their payouts delayed could be owed thousands of pounds after a ruling by the UK’s financial ombudsman. In what campaigners say is a key test case, the complaints body has ruled that a dental practice whose claim had been initially declined but later approved should be paid interest by QBE, one of the largest insurers in the world. The ombudsman has ruled that an 8% annual rate of interest should be paid on the sum pro rata over the period between the claim…

Tenants and campaigners have warned Michael Gove not to create a “back door” for unfair evictions as private rented sector reforms are unveiled on Wednesday. The legal overhaul will ban no-fault evictions but strengthen landlords’ rights to throw tenants out for antisocial behaviour. The secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities will announce the renters’ reform bill affecting 11 million private renters in England. “Too many renters are living in damp, unsafe, cold homes, powerless to put things right and with the threat of sudden eviction hanging over them,” he will say. But after lobbying from landlords, he…

Britons have packed away enough possessions to fill Buckingham Palace more than 60 times over as the housing crisis, enduring consumerism and a sentimental reluctance to let go of inanimate objects means self-storage is now on the brink of becoming a £1bn-a-year business. Self-storage units are proving cheaper than renting or buying a bigger home and are springing up alongside new housing developments across the UK, with at least 280 more stores planned between now and 2026 – a more than 10% increase. In 2022, UK households and businesses piled enough additional items into storage units to occupy more than…

The FBI didn’t interview the people connected to the information that the agency used to open a full investigation of the Trump campaign during the heat of the 2016 presidential election, according to the report by special counsel John Durham. The bureau rushed to open the initial investigation based on unvetted intelligence from Australia, according to Durham, who has spent nearly three years investigating the origins of the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign. The FBI’s rush to open the investigation and the shoddy evidence used as the premise for the probe were a departure from how the department treated other…

The Paris Prosecutor’s Office on Monday announced an investigation into Apple over allegations the company deliberately renders its devices obsolete in order to coerce users into purchasing newer models. The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that an investigation was launched in December 2022 in response to a complaint filed by the advocacy group known as Halte a L’Obsolescence Programme (HOP), citing concerns over deceptive marketing practices and programmed obsolescence. At the core of HOP’s complaint lies the practice of “serialization,” which involves linking spare parts such as microchips or speakers to specific generations of iPhones through serial numbers. This…

The troubled mobile operator giant Vodafone is to cut 11,000 jobs from its global workforce over the next three years. The company, whose share price has slumped to a two-decade low, said it needed to cut costs and restructure its business to compete against rivals and improve the experience for its tens of millions of customers. The job cuts, which amount to about 12% of its global workforce of 90,000, mark the first big move by the new group chief executive, Margherita Della Valle. “Today I am announcing my plans for Vodafone,” said the former finance chief Della Valle, who was appointed chief…

Jürgen Klopp admitted to feeling relieved after Liverpool guaranteed a Europa League place next season courtesy of a 3-0 victory at Leicester but challenged his players to keep their rivals for a top-four spot “on their toes” as they continued their late push to qualify for the Champions League. Curtis Jones scored twice before Trent Alexander-Arnold capped a seventh straight victory with an excellent free-kick in front of the England manager, Gareth Southgate, to move within a point of both fourth-placed Manchester United and third-placed Newcastle, both of whom have a game in hand on Liverpool. A sixth-placed finish this season now is…