The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is warning the public about rogue websites advertising fake premium rate numbers for their cruelty line. The premium rate 0844 numbers advertised are designed to rack up a heavy bill for the caller and are give a false impression that they’re affiliated with the […]
September inflation was just low enough to spare Mark Carney writing to the Chancellor. And helped spur the first interest rate rise in a decade. Each year the Chancellor of the day gives the Bank of England an inflation target to meet. Ever since Gordon Brown changed the inflation index used to the Consumer Prices […]
State pensions will rise by 3% next April, but it’s not all strictly good news. On the day that a CPI inflation rate of 3% was announced, the BBC website covering the rise had a picture of pensioners “dancing for joy”. The supposed reason for their jollity was that the 3% September inflation figure was […]
New figures from HMRC show a large jump in VCT investments in 2016/17. In September HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) issued updated statistics on the funds raised by venture capital trusts (VCTs). These showed that investment during last tax year reached £570m, an increase of over 28% on 2015/16. This was the highest […]
Statistics show that dividends from UK shares are still rising rapidly. The latest quarterly ‘UK Dividend Monitor’ from Capita Asset Services paints a rosy picture for income-seeking investors in UK shares. As Capita noted, “Companies are very cash-generative, which is strongly supporting dividend payments… The easy gains from the pound’s devaluation, where dividends declared in […]
Not all snap elections turn out the same way… A right of centre Prime Minister calls an election before the end of the government’s term to take advantage of rising poll numbers and seeming disarray amongst the opposition parties. What could possibly go wrong? In the UK, the answer was close to everything. Japan, as […]
