Money blog: 'Set-jetting' is the latest travel trend - have you joined in? (2024)

A union has won a Supreme Court battle against Tesco over so-called proposals to "fire and rehire" workers on less favourable terms.

The Union of Shop Distributive and Allied Workers took legal action over the 2021 proposals.

Five Supreme Court justices ruled unanimously that Tesco should be blocked from dismissing the staff, after the supermarket chain appealed a previous High Court decision also in the union's favour.

The ruling was called an "important victory for workers across the country" by TUC general secretary Paul Nowak who said practices like fire and rehire have no place in a modern economy.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has cut interest rates for the second time this year as eurozone inflationslows, and the economy falters.

The ECB, which is the central bank for 20 countries, lowered its deposit rate by 25 basis points to 3.50% in a move that was widely expected.

It's not thought to impact rates here in the UK - with the Bank of England widely expected to hold its own rates when it makes a decision next week.

Online fashion retailer Boohoo will stop using its US warehouse only a year after it opened in Pennsylvania.

Instead, all orders from the US will be fulfilled at the company's distribution centre in Sheffield in the UK, which the company said would expand the range of products on offer to American customers.

The decision is expected to take a £34m hit on the capital that had been pumped into the US warehouse, according to Shore Capital.

Boohoo said it "remains excited about the opportunity in the US" but Katie Cousins, an analyst at Shore Capital, said the retailer had been forced to back-pedal because it had "failed to gain traction in the US despite investing to grow market share and improve delivery times for consumers".

The boss of Ryanair has stepped up his efforts to curb drinking at airports - saying he is prepared to introduce a two-drink limit on his planes if bars in the terminal do the same.

Michael O'Leary first called for a limit on airport drinking last month after a rise in disorder on flights - but some critics pointed out that there is also no limit on how much passengers can drink on Ryanair journeys.

Now, when asked by Sky News if he would restrict passengers to two alcoholic drinks, Mr O'Leary said he would be "happy to do it tomorrow".

His call for restrictions comes after a "spike" in violent disorder among passengers over the summer.

On Sunday, a Ryanair flight from Manchester to Ibiza was diverted to Toulouse in France after a group of passengers became disruptive.

Mr O'Leary added: "If the price of putting a drink limit on the airport, where the problem is being created, is putting a drink limit on board the aircraft, we've no problem with that.

"The real issue is how do we stop these people getting drunk at airports particularly as, like this summer, we've had a huge spike in air traffic control delays."

Read the full story below:

Almost 40 shops have shut each day in the first six months of this year, according to new data.

From January to June, a total of 6,945 shops (38 a day) closed on high streets, shopping centres and retail parks - an increase from 36 a day in 2023.

Chemists, estate agents, chain pubs and banks made up half of all this year's closures.

Shop openings also grew slightly compared to last year, up from 24 to 25 a day.

The data from advisory firm PwC found that fashion retailers had a significant improvement in closure rates compared to the same time last year.

The net closure rate has slowed by nearly two-thirds, despite a number of high-profile fashion retail businesses falling into administration and announcing closures.

Online retail has also increased further in the first half of the year, which PwC put partly down to unseasonably wet weather.

"How consumers choose to prioritise their pounds and take up their time has changed. There's been a continued shift, with consumers seeking new experiences and spending more time with friends and family," Rick Jones, its leader of hospitality, said.

"Our data shows continued net closures in the first half [of 2024], particularly for those businesses hardest hit by energy and labour cost inflation. Put simply, adapting to these changes has become an existential matter."

Game of Thrones, Emily in Paris and Outlander are some of the most influential TV shows on European tourism, a new study has found.

In the UK, London isestimated to have acquired more than £12.3m in revenuethrough various TV tours, including the Poirot Tour of London by Black Cab, the Killing Eve self-guided audio tour, and the Ted Lasso Tour of Richmond.

Set-jetting is one of the biggest travel trends influencing consumers today, seeing locations like Saltburn's Drayton House, Northamptonshire, soaring in search demand (+600%) since its release in December 2023, according to Tour Operator Software Provider Bokun.

Visit Britain also revealed that 70% of UK tourists who have taken a leisure trip in the past decade have visited a film or TV location, highlighting the significant influence of media on tourism.

Edinburgh had a significant tourism boost from the hit show Outlander, with 21 of the city's 23 TV tours dedicated to the show, possibly bringing in £6.4m.

Game of Thrones has been the most influential show on European tourism and is responsible for more than 107 themed tours across the continent.

These alone are estimated to have generated more than £44m for the European economy -translating to approximately £605,000 in tourism revenue per episode aired.

Tours based on the show in Dubrovnik, Croatia, actually contributed 98.8% of the country's total income from TV tourism.

Despite being fairly new shows, Emily in Paris and Bridgerton highlighted Netflix's international influence.

In France, 18 themed Emily in Paris tours generated around £1,391,000, while in the UK Bridgerton's nine raked in an estimated £1,325,000.

As another year starts at universities around the country, students are being warned about scams targeting their maintenance loans.

The Student Loans Company (SLC), which dishes out £2bn to students over the autumn term, said in the past that students have fallen victim tosmishing and phishing scams after acting on false communications.

Scams often involve students being contacted via text message (smishing) and being asked to click a link to complete a task - for example, verifying bank details or confirming their personal information, providing an opportunity for a payment to be diverted to a scammer's bank account.

SLC warned that it will never ask students to provide or verify their personal or financial information via email or text message.

Alan Balanowski, risk director at the company, said: "Our message to students is quite simply, think before you click."

Tips to avoid scams

The Student Loan Company has the following advice for students:

• Neither SLC nor Student Finance England provide any services through WhatsApp and will never initiate contact with a student through social media channels, including Facebook, X, Instagram and Tik Tok, to discuss their application or student finance entitlement;
• Check the quality of the communication - misspelling, poor punctuation and bad grammar are often signs of phishing. Scam emails and text messages are often sent in bulk at the same time and are unlikely to contain both a first and last name. These commonly start - Dear Student;
• Messages that convey a sense of urgency are also unlikely to be genuine – for example "failure to respond in 24 hours will result in the account being closed";
• Be mindful of the information you share about yourself on social media, and elsewhere online, to help guard against identity theft;
• SLC or Student Finance England send a text message to students in England if a change has been made to their bank details. If you haven't changed your bank details and receive a message, contact us immediately.

Hundreds of thousands of teenagers are heading to university for the first time this month, with many facing financial independence for the first time.

In our first ever Money blog spin-off, we put together some essential reads that will hopefully help stand them in good stead - check that out here:

By Sarah Taaffe-Maguire, business reporter

The UK's benchmark stock index is benefiting in a global stock market rally following the US after inflation data cemented expectations of a smaller interest rate cut.

The FTSE 100 index of the most valuable companies on the London Stock rose as much as 1% on Thursday morning before slowing to 0.76%.

The larger and more UK-based FTSE 250 also rose 0.94%.

Online train ticket seller Trainline was up a shock 10.59%, leading the FTSE 250, as more than 50% of tickets were bought online for the first time.

Fever Tree drinks had sales dampened by "subdued consumer backdrop and poor weather" in the UK and Europe but it didn't stop profits rising 79% in the second three months of its financial year.

Oil prices remained at the comparatively low $70 for a barrel of Brent crude oil. The benchmark price is now $71.29.

The summer-time value of the pound against the dollar at $1.31 has long gone with £1=$1.305.

Against the euro, sterling buys €1.1844.

Aldi has announced where in the UK it is looking to open new stores.

The retailer, which has more than 1,000 shops and is consistently named the country's cheapest supermarket, announced in its annual trading update that it wants to open 23 new locations before the end of the year.

This will be accelerated by a bumper £800m annual investment package - the biggest ever for the store.

The priority locations where Aldi is searching for sites include:

• Woodford, London
• Surbiton, London
• Bromley, London
• Barnet, London
• Redhill, Surrey
• Aldershot, Hampshire
• Haywards Heath, West Sussex
• Chatham, Kent
• Chorlton, Manchester
• Formby, Liverpool
• Newark, Nottinghamshire
• Chesterfield, Derbyshire
• Wellingborough, Northamptonshire
• Brentwood, Essex
• Dorchester, Dorset
• Clarkston, Scotland
• Cathcart, Scotland
• Penzance, Cornwall
• Warwick, Warwickshire
• Bath, Somerset

The supermarket chain said the ideal location for a brand-new Aldi would be freehold town-centres, edge-of-centre and retail park sites suitable for property development.

It should be able to accommodate a 20,000sq ft store with around 100 parking spaces and ideally, the location would also be near a main road with good visibility and access.

Aldi is the cheapest supermarket in the UK at the moment, according to monthly analysis by the consumer group Which?, with an average household basket full of groceries and other essentials coming in at £110.58 in August.

Lidl, Aldi's main rival, was just behind at £111.88 on average with Lidl Plus, and £112.17 without.

Police officers, social workers and community nurses have some of the most stressful jobs in the UK, research has suggested.

Police officers take the top spot, with a rate of 6,500 per 100,000 current or former officers reporting that their job had negatively affected their mental health.

This rate is almost two and a half times (242%) higher than the national average.Approximately 11,000 out of an estimated total of 169,231 police officers reported that their jobs had caused mental health issues or made them even worse - working out to an estimated 6.5% of the total employees in this role.

Social workers rank second, with a rate of 6,100 per 100,000 current or former social workers reporting mental health issues caused by their jobs.

Third place went to welfare and housing professionals.Throughout the UK, almost two in fifty people (1.9%) reported that their jobs had either caused or made mental health issues worse - working out to a rate of 1,900 per 100,000 residents, or an estimated 636,000 people nationwide.

The study, by personal injury experts Claims.co.uk, analysed health and safety executive data from the government, looking at prevalence and rates of self-reported stress, depression or anxiety that were either caused or made worse by their current or most recent job.

A spokesperson for Claims.co.uk said: "Factors such as long hours, high responsibilities, and public-facing roles appear to contribute significantly to an employee's mental health being negatively impacted."

According to the data, bookkeepers, payroll managers and wage clerks have the least stressful jobs in the country.

For this week's Savings Guide, Savings Championco-founder Anna Bowes has dug into how ISAs have been affected by the Bank of England's rate cut last month.

The Bank of England base rate was finally reduced on 1 August this year, after months of speculation.

Unfortunately, as you would expect, that has had a negative effect on savings rates and best buy rates across the board have fallen since.

That said, with inflation at 2.2%, there are still plenty of savings accounts available that are providing interest that beats the rising cost of living.

The market hasn't behaved completely as expected in the aftermath of the rate cut.

Although you'd expect to see variable rates tumble, fixed term bond rates should be less affected as they are normally priced based on what the market is expecting from interest rates going forward.

This is why the longer-term bond rates continue to be lower than the short term, as the market is expecting the base rate to be cut again in the next few months.

However, there was an initial flurry of fixed bonds being replaced with lower rates - perhaps providers were not expecting the base rate to be cut in August!

And for those looking to utilise their ISA allowance - or to transfer from poor paying ISAs, there is another anomaly that we're not used to seeing.

Currently the top easy access ISA rates are higher than the top standard easy access accounts.

So, you can not only access the very best rates on the market via these cash ISAs, but enjoy tax free interest to boot!

First-time buyers have just two months left to save up to £15,000 in stamp duty, Zoopla has warned.

With the average property taking around 25 weeks to complete, and rates due to return to previous levels on 1 April 2025, first-time buyers should be looking to begin the process as soon as possible to benefit from the tax relief.

Stamp duty remains essentially a tax on moving home in southern England, with 81% of total receipts coming from southern England. The threshold will reduce from nothing paid on homes up to £425,000 down to £300,000. A first-time buyer purchasing a £425,000 property in April will have to pay £6,205, compared to nothing today.

The impact of this change will be the greatest in southern England, the property website has said, with first-time buyers inLondon, the South East and the East of England most affected.

In the London boroughs of Camden, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Islington will see stamp duty increase by an average of £15,000.

Data from Zoopla indicates that many first-time buyers have been capitalising on the reduced stamp duty rates and improvements in mortgage rates, with a 20% increase in first-time buyer demand in July, compared to the same month last year.

Just 5% of first-time buyers in northern England and the Midlands affected due to lower property prices, which will remain below the threshold.

Izabella Lubowiecka, senior property researcher at Zoopla said: "With just two months to go, those looking to purchase their first home should act this Autumn if they are to avoid paying more in stamp duty, particularly if they are looking to purchase a home in Southern England."

She added: “Those not looking to purchase until after 1 April, should make sure they build the additional stamp duty fees into their plans and account for it in their overall budgets.”