Cost of living

If you're a gamer who favours PlayStation, there's a big price increase coming your way. Sony has announced all three tiers of its annual online membership are going up from next month, with the top one heading north of £100.

Thursday 31 August 2023 16:05, UK

More news now reflecting difficulties in the housing market, with HMRC saying the number of house sales in July was 16% lower than the same month in 2022.

Across the UK, 86,510 residential property sales were recorded - up slightly by 1% compared with June.

The report from HMRC said that July was the second month in a row where there had been a small increase in transactions, despite sales numbers being down compared with a year ago.

It said the figures did not necessarily reflect the current strength of the housing market because they represented sales completions - which were on average two to four months after an initial offer was made on a property.

Meanwhile, figures released by the Bank of England on Wednesday showed that the number of mortgage approvals made to home buyers fell by nearly 10% between June and July.

Nationwide Building Society is set to reduce rates on some fixed and tracker mortgages by up to 0.15%.

The new rates will come into effect tomorrow.

First-time buyers, new customers moving home and those remortgaging will all see reductions of up to 0.15% across certain two, three and five-year fixed mortgages, as well as two-year tracker mortgages up to 90% LTV.

Existing customers moving home on some two, three and five-year fixed and two-year tracker rates will also receive a reduction of up to 0.15%.

Switcher and additional borrowing rates will reduce by up to 0.10%.

Henry Jordan, director of home at Nationwide Building Society, said: "The current swap rate environment is enabling us to make further rate cuts across our mortgage rates and this is now the fourth time we've been able to reduce our rates over the last month as we look to support all types of borrowers as much as we can."

Swap rates reflect market expectations of the future direction of Bank of England, or central bank, interest rates.

Current average rates

Sadly, small cuts by Nationwide and other lenders over recent weeks haven't pushed down average rates - they current stand at 6.72% for a two-year fixed, and 6.2% for a five-year fixed (Moneyfacts data).

Marks & Spencer (M&S) has secured a return to the FTSE 100 share index, four years after the bellwether retailer was relegated amid a battle for its future.

M&S had traded as a FTSE 100 company since the index was founded in 1984 but was expelled in September 2019 as it battled challenges on many fronts.

Its market value climbed from £3.7bn to £4.4bn since that point, with shares up 70% this year thanks to "strong trading", having increased market share in both its clothing, home and food, businesses.

Read more below...

The owner of HMV is finalising a deal to rescue the majority of Wilko's operations, saving more than 8,000 jobs at the homeware retailer, Sky News's City editor Mark Kleinman reports.

Wilko's administrators, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), began consulting the chain's major creditors on Thursday on the terms of an agreement with Doug Putman.

It is understood he intends to acquire more than 300 of its 400 stores, meaning that between 8,000 and 9,000 jobs of a total workforce of 12,500 could be saved.

It comes as the only bid to buy the entirety of the collapsed retailer fell through earlier today.

PwC said Wilko will make 269 support centre staff redundant while another 14 jobs have been lost at Wilko subsidiary Kin Limited.

Further redundancies at two distribution centres are expected to be announced next week, PwC added.

Read more below...

The high street retailer John Lewis has opened its online Christmas shop after a huge increase in searches for festive products.

Retail Gazette reports that online interest in Christmas products more than doubled in recent months compared with summer last year.

Searches for Christmas offers increased 25-fold, while interest in artificial trees doubled.

There was also a 250% surge in enquiries for stockings and a 133% increase in interest for festive jumpers.

Around 30% of John Lewis customers finish their Christmas shopping by October, the retailer said.

Last year, John Lewis opened its online Christmas shop 10 days earlier than planned because of a similar surge of interest, which had quadrupled compared to the year before.

At least 283 staff will be made redundant at discount homeware retailer Wilko, it has now been confirmed.

Administrator PwC said on Thursday the company will make 269 support centrestaff redundant while another 14 jobs have been lost at Wilko subsidiary Kin Limited.

Further redundancies at two distribution centres areexpected to be announced next week, PwC added.

The GMB union previously confirmed that the only bid to buy the entirety of collapsed retailer Wilko had fallen through.

In a letter to members, the union said: "As a result of this unwelcome development, the redundancy processes which were paused two days ago are set to restart almost instantly."

The letter said that for the majority of staff working in the commercial trading team and IT/Finance/Legal and HR, "you will be invited to a meeting tomorrow and a further one on 4 September which will be your last day with the company".

"For staff in stores and on-line, [administrators] PwC are continuing to assess bids and we remain hopeful that there is one from a viable buyer on the table.

"However, at this stage we cannot in any way guarantee this and must therefore continue to prepare for the worst."

Holidaymakers driving to Heathrow airport may incur multiple ULEZ charges when using "drop-off pick-up" parking services.

The UK's largest airport issued a warning on their website to travellers who use its "meet and greet" parking - where drivers can drop off their cars at short-stay car parks close to terminals - or valet parking.

Motorists driving in a non-compliant vehicle will now be forced to pay the £12.50 charge to enter the airport after Tuesday's ULEZ expansion.

But travellers who return home via a different terminal to the one they left through may have to pay three separate ULEZ charges - as their car is driven on public roads for collection on their arrival home.

Holidaymakers using these services would be charged £37.50 in ULEZ penalties for a single holiday on top of parking fees. Heathrow’s Meet & Greet and valet parking fees start from £127.50 for a day.

There is also a £5 charge for vehicles to enter the drop-off areas in the airport.

Heathrow said in a statement on its website: "London's Ultra Low Emission Zone, or ULEZ, is expanding to encompass all of Greater London, including Heathrow Airport, from the 29 August.

"The initiative, implemented by Transport for London (TfL), is aimed at reducing air pollution in London, therefore all vehicles entering the airport must meet certain emissions standards in order to avoid paying a daily charge.

"The daily charge for non-compliant vehicles is £12.50 for most vehicles, including cars, vans, and motorcycles.

"The charge will be in addition to any other fees or charges associated with entering the airport. The charge only applies when a vehicle is driven within the ULEZ zone, and does not apply to stationary vehicles including when cars are parked at Heathrow."

Households will receive extra protection from "excessive" electricity bills in new Ofgem rules set to take effect this winter.

The rules - named the Inflexible Offers Licence Condition (IOLC) - bans a practice used by electricity generators in previous winters when they scheduled a halt to generating early in an afternoon which, due to plant shutdown times, would mean they were switched off for the crucial evening peak in demand.

The firms then offered to resume generating later that day, at a greatly increased price.

Ofgem launched an investigation last year amid concerns that some generators were taking advantage of existing rules after their balancing costs - which are ultimately paid by consumers - tripled to more than £1.5bn between November 2021 and February 2022, compared with a winter average of just under £500m between 2017 and 2020.

Any generators found to be breaking the new rules from 26 October could face fines of up to 10% of turnover.

Pret A Manger has been fined £800,000 after one of its workers got stuck a freezer.

The employee became trapped in the walk-in commercial freezer, which typically has its temperature set at -18C, for two and a half hours.

What the employee tried to do to save herself

The employee, at the Victoria Coach Station branch in London, was left fearing for her life in July 2021.

She was wearing just jeans and a T-shirt, and had to be treated for suspected hypothermia after she was found "in a state of distress" by a colleague.

The employee tried to tear up a cardboard box full of chocolate croissants as cover from the ventilator blowing out cold air but found that her hands were too cold to break it apart.

After she was rescued, an investigation found there was no suitable risk assessment for employees working in temperature-controlled environments.

There had been several call-outs relating to defective or frozen push buttons in the previous 19 months.

The sandwich chain pleaded guilty to an offence contrary to the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 at Westminster Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

What has Pret said?

A Pret A Manger spokesperson said: "We are incredibly sorry for our colleague's experience and understand how distressing this must have been.

"We have carried out a full review and have worked with the manufacturer to develop a solution to stop this from happening again.

"Following the incident, we have revisited all our existing systems and where appropriate, enhanced these processes, and have co-operated fully with Westminster City Council's investigation."

By Tom Acres, technology reporter

If you're a gamer who favours PlayStation, there's a big price increase coming your way.

Sony has announced all three tiers of its annual online membership are going up from next month, with the top one heading north of £100.

PlayStation Plus Premium, which currently costs £99.99 for a year, will increase to £119.99 on 6 September.

It gives players access to a catalogue of classic PlayStation games from years gone by, as well as a selection of more modern hits and other perks like being able to play online multiplayer.

The second tier, PlayStation Plus Extra, which grants all the above apart from the classics library, is going up from £83.99 to £99.99.

And PlayStation Plus Essential, which offers just a handful of free games each month and the ability to play online, is going from £49.99 to £59.99.

There are no changes to the pricing of the month or three-month membership plans for any of the tiers, and Sony says buying an annual subscription is still the best value for money.

The premium tier costs £13.49 for a month and £39.99 for three, extra is £10.99 and £31.99, and essential is £6.99 and £19.99.

But if you're coming up for an annual renewal in the next few weeks, it may be a good idea - if you can spare the cash - to add to your subscription now before the price increase kicks in.