Thames Water defers controversial £2.5m in bonuses to bosses

Thames Water has deferred awarding bosses retention payments totalling £2.5m, avoiding a potentially damaging pre-Christmas row as the heavily indebted utility scrambles to agree a multibillion-pound rescue deal.Sources at the UK’s biggest water company confirmed the controversial retention payment package for 21 senior executives, which had been due to go out this month, would remain on hold until the new year.The bonuses were put on pause earlier this year after the Guardian revealed the chair of the company wrongly told parliament that creditors had “insisted” on the payments.Sir Adrian Montague admitted he “may have misspoken” after he incorrectly told the environment, food and rural affairs (Efra) select committee that the lenders had insisted that “very substantial” bonuses of up to 50% of salary should be paid to executives to help retain important staff

Jim Chalmers won’t have good news in Myefo. Instead, he’ll be trying to sell Labor’s good intentions

A penny-pinching Jim Chalmers will reveal a multibillion-dollar improvement in the federal budget that will still see the deficit nearly quadruple to $36.8bn in this financial year.The treasurer is the master of expectations management, and this week’s midyear economic and fiscal outlook (Myefo) will be an exercise in selling the Albanese government’s fiscal rectitude: Chalmers and Katy Gallagher gamely battling the rising tide of spending pressures.“Despite all the pressures we’ve had to accommodate in the budget, the bottom line is better in every year over the forwards thanks to our efforts,” the treasurer said in a statement as he revealed the latest budget figures.The newly estimated deficit is $5

Roasted! Morrisons loses £17m VAT battle over rotisserie chickens

The UK supermarket chain Morrisons faces a £17m tax bill after losing a lengthy court battle against HMRC over the charging of value added tax (VAT) on rotisserie chicken.The high court has ruled that whole cooked cool-down chickens should be subject to the standard 20% VAT rate for hot food.The dispute relates to changes introduced by the then chancellor George Osborne’s controversial “pasty tax” of 2012, when the Treasury imposed VAT on all hot takeaway food sold by bakeries and supermarkets, such as Cornish pasties, pies and sausage rolls. This prompted a public outcry, forcing the Treasury to partially row back.The Treasury initially said that food sold above “ambient temperature” should be subject to VAT

UK unemployment rose to four-year high of 5.1% before budget

The rate of UK unemployment rose to a four-year high of 5.1% in the three months to October, as the labour market showed signs of further weakening before last month’s budget.The Office for National Statistics said the jobless rate was the highest since January 2021 – but with the pandemic era stripped out, it was the highest since early 2016.Analysts said the rise in the jobless rate made it almost certain that the Bank of England would cut interest rates when policymakers meet on Thursday.The central bank has said it wanted wages growth to fall further before reducing the cost of borrowing again this year

Young people hit hard as UK unemployment marches upwards

When Labour came to power, it set a “long-term ambition” of increasing the employment rate – the share of the working age population with a job – to 80%. The latest data suggest things are moving in the wrong direction.The employment rate in the three months to October was 74.9%, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), down 0.3 percentage points on the quarter

‘Squeezed from every direction’: pubs voice fury at Reeves’s business rates changes

Emma Harrison has begun to wonder how her business will survive in recent weeks. The managing director of the Three Hills pub in Bartlow, Cambridgeshire, is struggling to see how she will make a profit after examining the impact of her rising tax bill.“I’m really terrified about this coming year,” Harrison says. “We’re a well-run pub, we’ve won lots of awards, but this is going to be really hard.”Harrison is not alone