British betting and gaming firm Evoke on Wednesday said its revenue growth rate would be slower in the first quarter than it had forecast for the full year, sending its shares tumbling even as it beat profit expectations for last year. Evoke forecast low single-digit percentage growth in first-quarter revenue, while reiterating expectations for annual revenue to grow 5%-9%, as it grapples with short-term hurdles related to regulatory curbs on problem gambling and some anticipated revenues not coming in. The company’s shares had fallen as much as 18.8% by 0852 GMT and were the top loser on Britain’s small-cap index.…
Author: Fatimah Idera
Britain gave the green light on Tuesday to a new 10-billion-pound ($13 billion) road tunnel for the River Thames in southeast England, in its latest backing for an infrastructure project to help revive a sluggish economy. The Labour government has put speeding up the planning process to deliver new energy and transport projects at the heart of its growth agenda since it was elected last year, backing expansion at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports. When I said I would back the builders, not the blockers, I meant it,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on X. “Giving the Lower Thames Crossing…
UK retail sales had slumped in March amid weak consumer confidence, according to the confederation of British industry latest distributive trades’ survey. This marked the sixth consecutive month of decline, with retailers expecting sales to fall again in April, but at a slower rate. The CBI’s retail sales balance fell to -41 in March from -23 in February. A balance is the weighted difference between the percentage of firms reporting an increase and those reporting a decrease. Sales for the time of year were deemed to be below seasonal norms in March, to a similar extent to February, with a…
Britain’s government on Tuesday pledged 2 billion pounds ($2.58 billion) to build up to 18,000 social and affordable homes in England as part of its efforts to deliver 1.5 million properties by the end of parliament and boost economic growth and social and affordable house building. Construction is set to start in March 2027, with an aim to finish building by 2029, by fixing house crises, the government said. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has made housebuilding the centrepiece of its growth strategy and announced planning reform to speed up construction and fix Britain’s chronic housing shortage that has…
Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority is weighing changes to disclosure rules on mortgages, lending and savings products to give clearer information to consumers, as it prepares to unveil a new five-year plan to deepen trust and promote growth in UK financial services. The watchdog said on Tuesday it wanted to retire hundreds of pages of outdated guidance and supervisory publications as part of a broader plan to streamline demands on financial firms, which it said would give product providers more flexibility to tailor communications to customers’ needs and preferences.French woman takes pet pigs to work to challenge meat-eater mindset It also…
Britain had announced plans to invest 600 million pounds ($775 million) to train more construction workers and help tackle severe skills shortages that could undermine its plan to build 1.5 million homes by 2029 and boost economic growth. House Building and improving British infrastructure are key parts of the Labour government’s growth strategy. Construction represents around 6% of gross domestic product,but underpins growth in other sectors. “We are determined to get Britain building again, that’s why we are taking on the blockers to build 1.5 million new homes and rebuild our roads, rail and energy infrastructure,” finance minister Rachel Reeves…
Martin Sorrell’s advertising group, S4 Capital (SFOR.L) declared its first-ever dividend on Monday, sending its shares up more than 10%, even as it warned that clients would remain cautious in the near term amid increasing macroeconomic uncertainty. Shares in the company, which have lost nearly 18% over the past year, rose as much as 13% to 37.28 pence as S4 proposed a final dividend of 1 pence per share for 2024 – a first since its inception in 2018 – which Jefferies analysts said was a sign of confidence in its prospects. The company also reiterated its 2025 outlook, targeting…
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that starting Monday, local authorities in England will be required to publish annual reports laying out the state of their roads and how many potholes they’ve managed to fill, as failure will risk crucial funding. Starmer said the move would force councils to ‘prove they’re delivering for their communities’ as If they don’t, they face missing out on a share of £1.6 billion in highway maintenance funding from the government, which includes half a billion pounds specifically for tackling potholes. But the Local Government Association (LGA) has said many English councils are already struggling…
British finance minister Rachel Reeves is eyeing spending cuts for government officials who work in departments to the value of over 2 billion pounds ($2.58 billion) a year by 2029-30. Reeves will likely announce belt-tightening measures to get back on track to meet her fiscal rules next Wednesday when she delivers a half-yearly budget update speech alongside fresh economic and public finance forecasts from Britain’s fiscal watchdog. She is expected to reduce the administration budgets for the civil service by 10% by 2028-29, with a target to reduce them by 15% by 2029-30, saving over 2 billion pounds a year.…
Britain’s green energy tycoons are at war, Greg Jackson, the chief executive of Octopus Energy, is taking on Dale Vince, Ecotricity founder, in a fight over the best way to achieve net zero. At the heart of the battle is a radical new scheme being considered by Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, called zonal pricing, under which Britain would be divided into zones with different power prices. In a round of briefings last week, Jackson set out why Octopus, the UK’s biggest energy supplier, is backing the idea – prompting a swift backlash from Vince, who ridiculed the scheme as…
