Britons, eschewing banks, stash £1.3bn at home in jars and piggy banks
More than 7 million Britons are stashing sizable amounts of cash away in their homes, according to a
Daily Mail report.
A new study by Virgin Money suggests that about £1.3 billion is currently stashed away in British piggy banks and teapots, rather than gaining interest at a bank. According to the study, around 16% of UK adults said they keep money “on the side” on tables around the home, while 14% admit to still using a piggy bank.
One reason that Britons are keeping sizeable chunks of cash at home is dissatisfaction with interest rates available at banks. Just 27% of those surveyed said they were happy with the interest accruing on their savings – with some adults even saying their children now save more in bank accounts than they do, the
Mail reported.
UK consumer confidence at 15-month low
Consumer confidence in the UK is at its lowest level in more than a year, driven down by worries about the EU referendum and a resurgence of the Eurozone crisis, the
Guardian reports.
Market research firm GfK’s consumer sentiment indicator for April was at its weakest in 15 months, dropping to -3 from March’s reading of 0. Confidence dropped in all areas measured: respondents’ personal financial situation, their view of the economy as a whole and whether they thought now was a good time to make large purchases, the
Guardian reported.
Former BBC head faces multimillion-dollar discrimination lawsuit
The former director-general of the BBC is facing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit over allegations of age, race and gender discrimination at the
New York Times, where he now serves as chief executive.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of two black female employees, claims that Mark Thompson created a culture of “deplorable discrimination” at the
Times, according to a
Guardian report. While the
Times is known as a liberal and progressive newspaper, the suit claims that under Thompson, the paper favours an “ideal staffer” who is “young, white, unencumbered with a family” over older, black or female employees.
According to the
Guardian, the suit also claims that once Thompson took the helm at the
Times in 2012 after eight years as director-general of the BBC, the newspaper’s advertising staff has been “systematically becoming increasingly younger and whiter.”
Buy-to-let landlords killing DIY among young – report
Fewer and fewer young adults are buying their own homes and fixing them up, according to a
Guardian report.
Credit card provider MBNA said that spending on DIY among people under 30 has fallen by a third since the mid-90s. The company blamed the increase in buy-to-let landlords.
The fact is, many members of the so-called “generation rent” simply can’t afford to buy and improve their own homes. A report from lender Halifax found that the average age at which people buy their first home is on the rise, and borrowers are taking on longer mortgages. So younger people often end up renting – which generally means they can’t make their own improvements on their living space, according to the
Guardian.
“Generation rent is usually barred from making home improvements by clauses in their tenancy agreements,” Mark Elliot of MBNA said. “Although [overall] DIY spending has grown by 42% in real terms since 1996, an increase in the proportion of people renting in the UK could impact the sector’s growth in the future.”
Should Green lose knighthood over BHS debacle?
The former owner of BHS should be stripped of his knighthood if his handling of the embattled store lacked integrity, says the person who put him forward for the honour.
Sir Philip Green sold BHS last year to Retail Acquisitions last year. The chain was left with a pensions deficit of £571 million after the Green family withdrew hundreds of millions of pounds worth of dividends, the
Guardian reported. BHS went into administration earlier this week, putting 11,000 jobs on the line.
Now Sir John Collins, who headed up the Whitehall honours committee which proposed Green for knighthood, is having second thoughts.
“The judgment that has to be made is whether in the sale of BHS, has the man acted with the integrity that would underpin being awarded a knighthood?” Collins asked, “If you decide he hasn’t then he should lose it.”
Paul Flynn MP, who sits on the public administration and constitutional affairs committee, has said he would refer the case to Whitehall’s honours forfeiture committee, the
Guardian reported.
Have scientists found genetic ‘fountain of youth’?
Helen Mirren may not have made a deal with the devil to look good in her 70s after all. Scientists may have found the reason why some people look better with age than others.
Researchers in Rotterdam say they’ve found a gene that specifically affects how old people look, according to a
Guardian report. The gene’s effect was discovered when scientists found that people who carried a mutation in the gene looked an average of two years older than they actually were.
If verified, the research could provide a path to discovering how to slow the visible signs of ageing, the
Guardian reported.
“This is the first gene we have found for perceived age, and this single gene has an effect of two years,” said Manfred Kayser, a professor of forensic molecular biology at Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam. “We know there are others out there. We are just at the beginning.”
Purple shame, purple shame
He never meant to cause you any sorrow.
He never meant to cause you any pain.
But now this butcher’s taking a bashing.
Perhaps instead he should have tried
To sell you purple grain.
A Devon butcher has taken a beating for a well-meaning but perhaps misguided tribute: selling sausages in memory of the late pop superstar Prince – a vegan.
Paul Kenyon, a fan of the late singer, wanted to show his affection, so he used food coloring to whip up a batch of purple sausages and displayed them in his window, according to a report in the
Mirror. He was taken by surprise when the gesture earned an angry backlash from animal rights activists, who said the vegan Prince would have been mortified by the tribute.
Kenyon has apologised, and the shop where he works, Palace Premier Meats, posted an apology on its Facebook page. “In regards to our purple sausages in tribute of Prince we were unaware he was vegan at the time,” it read. “Apologies to anyone who took offence.”
