Thames Water announces hosepipe ban as dry weather depletes reservoirs

Thames Water has announced a hosepipe ban as a record dry spring and summer has severely reduced water supplies.Households in Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Wiltshire will be banned from using hosepipes to wash cars or water gardens from Tuesday 22 July.The ban will affect all OX, GL and SN postcodes, as well as RG4, RG8 and RG9.The recent hot weather has caused a large surge in demand as people water their gardens and keep cool in the heatwave.Nevil Muncaster, strategic water resources director at Thames Water, said he did not “anticipate the situation will improve any time soon”, adding: “We have to take action now

Tax pubs on profit not turnover, urges Greene King boss

The boss of the pub chain Greene King has called for changes to business rates to remedy “unfairness” that he said added to financial pressures on the struggling pubs industry.Nick Mackenzie, Greene King’s chief executive, said the business rates system of property taxes should be changed to a tax on profits.The British pub industry has complained that it is under pressure from a series of increasing costs. The trade body the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) said last week it expected pub closures at a rate of more than one a day during 2025, adding to the 350 net closures during 2024. It said business rates were a factor in those closures

Number of UK job hunters rises at fastest rate since Covid pandemic

The number of people hunting for jobs in Britain surged in June at the fastest rate since the height of the Covid pandemic, industry figures show, amid growing business fears over tax rises and the economic outlook.The snapshot from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and the accountancy firm KPMG showed the number of new candidates looking for work rose at the sharpest rate since November 2020, when the UK entered the second nationwide lockdown.The trade body representing Britain’s recruitment industry blamed the “scar tissue” left by tax rises introduced in April by the government, including a £25bn increase in employer national insurance contributions (NICs).In a survey of 400 UK recruitment and employment consultancies, the REC found that permanent placements had dropped at the fastest pace in 22 months, alongside weaker levels of pay growth and reports of redundancies and reduced appetite for staff.The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is under pressure to reboot Britain’s economy after output unexpectedly shrank for a second consecutive month in May, fuelled by a downturn in construction and manufacturing

Sales of UK country houses rise as buyers tempted out by lower prices

Sales of expensive UK country houses rose in June, signalling a possible recovery in demand as buyers are tempted out by lower prices after an extended slump.The estate agency Knight Frank said the number of exchanges of contract for sales of country houses – defined as a rural home worth more than £750,000 – was up 7% in June compared with last year as the number of properties for sale rose while prices fell.Second-home owners are driving the increase in properties coming to market, the agency said, after recent council tax changes designed to level the playing field for local people living in popular holiday spots. Councils in Wales have the power to quadruple taxes on second homes, while English councils can double taxes.The number of country houses coming on to the market was 9% higher in the second quarter of the year compared with last year

Turn empty London office blocks into ‘late-night party zones’, report suggests

Could the future of Canary Wharf lie in thumping beats and dancefloor raves? Could the City of London become a global hub of nocturnal revelry?With financial districts struggling to bounce back to full capacity post-Covid, and the nightlife industry facing an existential crisis, there are suggestions clubs could move into deserted office blocks at evenings and weekends.In its annual eccentric report on the future of leisure, the creative studio Bompas and Parr says it envisions “a future where financial districts in London and the world over are transformed into world-class late-night party zones”.“By day, the city bustles with suits and stocks. By night, it’s reborn as a pulsating rave arena,” the report says. “With few residents to file noise complaints, organisers capitalise on the empty, echoing canyons of glass and steel

‘Short hair is dying out’: 30% rise in cost of UK haircuts, not fashion, is driving the change

Skin fades and sculpted bobs are out. Messy tops and longer locks are in. For fashion hawks, the move towards lengthier hair is hardly news, but it may not be fashion alone that is driving the shift. Rising costs and tightened belts are among the reasons some believe are behind the trend for longer hair.The average cost of a haircut for men and women in the UK has soared by more than 30% since 2020, according to government data