Marketing Newscast

(Edited 05 March 2025)

Nearly one in five Brits are in “high financial stress” according to the latest City AM Freshwater Strategy poll. 18% would not be able to pay an unexpected £500 bill, researchers found, while 35% said their finances were “troubled or impacted,” compared to 30% who said they were comfortable or confident. 33% agreed they were only “just about managing” regarding budgeting and spending each month. More than half of respondents expect the economic conditions in the UK to worsen in the next year, and 44% expect their household finances to worsen over the next 12 months, compared to roughly one in four who expect them to improve. Nearly half of voters also believe living standards in the UK will worsen over the next 12 months.

Shop prices rose at their fastest pace in a year last month, rising by 0.4%, while food prices jumped 2.1% year-on-year. Helen Dickinson, CEO of the British Retail Consortium said: “Inflation will likely rise across the board as the year progresses with geopolitical tensions running high and the imminent £7bn increase in costs from the Autumn Budget and the new poorly designed packaging levy arriving on the doorsteps of retailers.”

UK manufacturing activity dropped to its lowest level in 14 months in February, according to the latest S&P manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI). The index stood at 46.9, down from 47.0 in January, reflecting “weak demand, cost control initiatives and restructuring in response to changes in both the minimum wage and employer national insurance contributions,” S&P said. Any reading below 50 denotes contraction in the sector. The figures also showed staffing levels falling in five out of the past six months, with Rob Dobson of S&P Global Market Intelligence saying: “The pace of manufacturing job losses is currently running at a rate not seen since the pandemic months of mid-2020”. Only Germany – which is suffering a manufacturing recession - and France are performing worse than the UK among the nations tracked by the index. Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith blamed The Chancellor’s £40bn tax-raising Budget, saying: “Businesses know that everything is getting worse because of Labour’s economically illiterate decisions. Labour have no experience in business and it shows. They don’t understand that businesses create growth in our economy, not the Government – and saddling firms with increased regulation, punitive taxes and higher costs will make everyone worse off.”

Stock markets have fallen in response to US President Donald Trump’s imposition of trade tariffs on Canada and Mexico. There is “no room left” for negotiations on the 25% levies on goods from the two countries, Trump said, and so they come into force today. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the levies “unjustified” and said it would impose retaliatory tariffs on the US. “Today, after a 30-day pause, the United States administration has decided to proceed with imposing 25% tariffs on Canadian exports and 10% tariffs on Canadian energy. Let me be unequivocally clear – there is no justification for these actions,” Trudeau said, adding: “Canada will not let this unjustified action go unanswered. Should American tariffs come into effect tonight, Canada will, effective 12:01am EST tomorrow (Tuesday), respond with 25% tariffs.” China, which faces 20% US tariffs, on top of previous levies on some sectors, also announced hikes of 10% or 15% on import levies on a range of US goods. "If the United States... persists in waging a tariff war, a trade war, or any other kind of war, the Chinese side will fight them to the bitter end," China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular press conference earlier, while urging Washington to return to dialogue with Beijing as soon as possible. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 dropped as much as 2.6% and the Hong Kong Hang Seng plunged by as much as 2%. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones on Wall Street closed 1.48% down; the S&P 500 sank 1.75% and the Nasdaq fell 2.6%. The FTSE 100 is 0.54% down at the time of writing.

Agency workers will be included in a ban on "exploitative" zero hour contracts as part of amendments to the Employment Reform Bill, the BBC reports. Agencies will have to guarantee a minimum number of hours each week, and workers on zero hour contracts will be eligible for compensation if their shifts are changed at ‘short notice’, it is understood. The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), which represents the sector, said the change should not "undermine" the "flexibility" that zero hour contracts offer some workers. There are around one million agency staff in the UK, working across areas such as warehouses, in hospitality and within the NHS, the BBC says. More details on the Bill are due to be outlined later today.

Mortgage lending rose by £4.2bn in January compared with December, according to the Bank of England, fuelled by lower interest rates and buyers racing to complete their transactions before the threshold at which they must pay stamp duty falls back from £250,000 to £125,000 on 1^st April. A total of 66,189 mortgages were approved for home purchases in January, an 18% increase on January 2024, but slightly lower than the 66,505 approvals recorded in December. Credit card debt also rose to £72.7bn in January, the central bank said, rising to pre-Covid levels for the first time since the lockdowns. Meanwhile, separate research from property website Zoopla found that tenants are now paying an average £1,284 per month on rent – an annual cost £3,000 higher than three years’ ago - and that 12 renters are chasing every available rental home.

The Government has published a white paper outlining a commitment to ban leasehold flats in England and Wales, swopping the current system for one of commonhold, or share of freehold, where homeowners own a share of and have control over buildings they live in. Ministers have yet to set out specific plans for the conversion of current leasehold properties to commonhold, but says it is "determined" to make this easier and will publish a draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill with detail of how the new system would work later this year. There are an estimated five million leasehold properties in England, 70% of which are flats.

Low-paid workers are to get 80% of their weekly salary as sick pay from the first day of illness, under Government plans. At the moment, you can only get statutory sick pay if you have been ill for more than three days in a row and earn an average of at least £123 a week. Announcing the change, which is one of several made to the Employment Rights Bill, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said: "No one should ever have to choose between their health and earning a living, which is why we are making this landmark change". She estimated the change will benefit around 1.3m low-paid employees. The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) called the 80% rate a "fair compromise", but warned that allowing sick pay from day one could lead to higher staff absenteeism that smaller firms could struggle to cope with. “Employers often struggle to find shift cover at short notice, leading to disruption for customers," said Jane Gratton, deputy director of public policy at the BCC.

The EU has watered down its electric vehicle (EV) sales targets, a move that follows numerous complaints from carmakers that they are unrealistic because of a slump in customer demand that leaves them being either unproductive or facing heavy fines. The European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, said carmakers would now be given a three-year window to hit their CO2 emissions targets, rather than having to achieve them within the next 12 months, meaning that if a company misses targets in one year, it will avoid a fine if it can make up the difference over the following two years. The news boosted carmakers’ share prices: Renault’s shares climbed by as much as 5.4% while Volkswagen jumped by as much as 5.3% and Mercedes-Benz rose 4.7%. The EU is maintaining its goal of zero emissions in 2035, and its edict that at least a fifth of all sales by most car companies must be of EVs to avoid heavy fines. The UK Government is currently holding a consultation on its zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate, which requires manufacturers to ensure at least 22% of all sales are of EVs, with a fine of up to £15,000 for every petrol or diesel car sold over quota, rising to 285 later this year. In the past few days, BMW has announced a delay to its production of an electric mini at its Oxford plant because of slow demand for EVs and the ZEV, and in January, Britain’s car industry suffered its worst January for two years, with the number of cars sold dropping by over 20,000 to 78,012.

Inflation in the Eurozone dropped in February for the first time in four months, by 0.1 percentage point, coming in at 2.4% against January’s 2.5%, a six month high. However, the dip was not as steep as analysts had expected, having predicted inflation for February of 2.3%.

Sainsbury's has sold its Argos Financial Services card portfolio to NewDay Group. Sainsbury's expects the disposal to return excess capital of at least £250m to its banking arm and intends to return this capital to shareholders.

Shell is reported to be considering a sale of its chemicals assets in Europe and the US, hiring Morgan Stanley to conduct a strategic review of its chemicals operations, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

High street bakery Greggs has reported a double-digit increase in sales for 2024, taking it past the £2bn sales milestone for the first time.

Britain’s most senior surveyor has been suspended as president of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) after referring himself to the industry’s standards and regulation board, amid an investigation into his role in a legal battle over a £32m moth-ridden mansion, The Telegraph reports. Justin Sullivan, who was only appointed two months ago, was an expert witness for the seller of a luxury home in Notting Hill, west London, which was bought in 2019 by Iya Patarkatsishvili – the daughter of a Georgian billionaire – and her dentist husband, Yevhen Hunyak. The High Court was told that the couple found a serious infestation of moths that the seller, property developer William Woodward-Fisher, had failed to disclose. The Court ruled in their favour, saying they were entitled to a refund. Woodward-Fisher has since been handed a £36.5m final court bill. Mr Justice Fancourt also criticised Sullivan for his conduct on the witness stand, saying he used “flawed” judgment; “was unwilling to make sensible concessions;” and appeared to have only limited grasp of the details of the case. A representative for Mr Sullivan told the newspaper: “There is a misunderstanding and an over-reaction. Mr Sullivan is a chartered quantity surveyor and is instructed in litigation as an expert witness. There is no finding of professional misconduct against Mr Sullivan. He has referred himself to RICS as a matter of routine. That process is confidential. Mr Sullivan has nothing further to say at present.”

A reminder there will be no Daily Business News on Thursday this week.