Post-Brexit visa pilot scheme announced for non-EU migrants
This morning the Home Office and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced a joint pilot scheme for seasonal migrant worker visas post-Brexit.
The scheme will, if successful, allow up to 2500 non-EU migrants to take up seasonal employment in the UK’s agricultural sector, on a six-monthly basis. The scheme will undergo a trial run from the Spring of 2019, with Ministers saying the scheme could be terminated, should the workers fail to return to their country of origin upon completion of their employment.
Following a dip in the frequency of EU labourers coming to the UK, farmers have become increasingly concerned by the impending reality of a labour shortage post-Brexit, with Environment secretary Michael Gove saying that close attention will be paid to the pilot scheme to see how best to support the long-term needs of the agricultural sector.
“We have listened to the powerful arguments from farmers about the need for seasonal labour to keep the horticulture industry productive and profitable,” he said.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid said: “This pilot will ensure farmers have access to the seasonal labour they need to remain productive and profitable during busy times of the year.”
The news is, “a great victory”, according to Minette Batters, president of the National Farmers Union.
“Farmers and growers have seen worker availability tighten significantly in recent years, with the shortfall so far this year reaching 10%.
“Growers will take great confidence in knowing that they will have access to workers for the 2019 harvest, during what have been extremely testing and uncertain times for the sector.”
The government said that the UK will see an increase in automated harvesting solutions in coming years, though they appreciate there is a need to bring in seasonal workers in order to stay competitive. The post-Brexit scheme will be the only one of its kind since the seasonal employment scheme for Romanian and Bulgarian workers ended five years ago.
Steak restaurant Gaucho saved from collapse
Business lenders have saved the steak restaurant Gaucho from collapse. Banking groups Investec and SC Lowy, or Lomo Bidoc, won an auction saving the dining chain.
Gaucho is an Argentinian steak-restaurant serving premium quality beef and wine with restaurants located across the country.
The deal successfully saved 750 jobs across all 16 outlets.
Earlier this year, Gaucho and its sister chain CAU filed for administration. However, Gaucho was spared whilst CAU collapsed along with 540 jobs.
Sky reports that a spokesman for Investec said: “We have supported Gaucho since 2016 and continued to provide support to the business through the difficult conditions experienced in 2018.
“We know the Gaucho team well and have significant confidence they can reinvigorate and grow the Gaucho brand.
“In light of this we have acted in conjunction with SC Lowy to ensure the survival of Gaucho.
“We believe the creditor group will support the necessary CVA allowing Gaucho shortly to exit administration so we can take the business forward.”
Correspondingly, Gaucho’s current CEO, Oliver Meakin, will be stepping down from his position. The former managing director, Martin Williams, will be returning to Gaucho. That said, Williams’ specific role has not been specified.
RBS set to close additional 54 branches
RBS (LON:RBS) are set to continue the trend of highstreet withdrawal, and close 54 more branches in addition to the 162 closures previously announced for this year, with the loss of 792 jobs.
The next round of closures will be of 53 branches in November. The 54 closures announced today will be brought into force in January and cost 258 jobs, with the highest concentration of these being in the region surrounding Manchester and Liverpool.
The closures have been attributed to failed plans to float off a new challenger bank called William and Glyn.
An RBS spokesperson said, “As we are no longer launching Williams & Glyn as a challenger bank we now have two branch networks operating in close proximity to each other in England and Wales – NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland.
“As a result we have reviewed our overall branch footprint in England and Wales and have made the difficult decision to close 54 Royal Bank of Scotland branches.”
RBS then said they would “ensure compulsory redundancies are kept to an absolute minimum”, and that there would be no more closures “until at least 2020”.
In response to the news and RBS’s comments, Unite’s National Officer Rob MacGregor has said, “It is utterly disgusting that Royal Bank of Scotland has the audacity to announce that yet more important local bank branches will permanently close their doors.”
He said that this is compounded misery for communities across England and Wales, “that have already seen the demise of local banking services”.
Additionally, “The disabled, elderly and many local businesses will today be deeply disappointed that their bank has chosen to withdraw from their community and no longer provide them with the access to banking services which we all deserve.”
In light of the news RBS have done well in trading today, with their share price currently at 251.4p, up 4.9p or 1.99% since trading began.
Taxes and minimum wage should rise, says Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury has urged for a major rethink of the British economy.
Archbishop Justin Welby told the BBC that changes including higher taxes on technology giants, wealthy individuals and an increase on public spending.
“What is clear is that tax should be a fundamental part of being a citizen, and that those who have the most should pay the most and that no company, through being multinational, being global, can evade the responsibilities of paying its proper amount of tax based on the revenues it earns in this country,” he said in the interview.
The Archbishop said a new watchdog should be given the role to ensure firms including Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) should pay the correct amount of tax as well as use consumers data responsibly.
“They have enormous power and the use and handling of data has huge implications for people’s security,” he said.
“But it also has huge implications for the flourishing of individuals and the prosperity and fairness of our society. If you corner the market in data, you have probably more wealth advantages than if you corner the market in gold or oil.”
“Data is the real place where the money is, and we’ve always said that people with huge power should be regulated,” he added.
Archbishop Justin Welby also called for a higher minimum wage that would reflect the cost of living.
“People suffer from injustice in the economy,” he told the BBC.
“People suffer from the need to go to a food bank, even when you’ve got two adults both working. People suffer from being caught in a debt trap, because they can’t replace a basic bit of equipment they need like a new stove, a washing machine – let alone have luxuries.”
“I think one of the regrettable things in the last few years has been to call what we used to call the minimum wage a ‘living wage’. We need a living wage because that enables people to live with dignity, and the dignity of the human being is fundamental to our understanding of what a just economy is about,” he added.
Research released this week by the Smith Institute found that a rise in the minimum wage would help boost local economies by more than £1 billion.
Avocet Mining and Managem complete Guinea mine deal
Avocet Mining PLC (LON:AVM) has transferred 30% of its Tri-K gold project to the Moroccan mining group Managem SA.
Avocet is a West-African focussed gold mining and exploration company with its primary projects in Burkina Faso and Guinea. Moreover, Managem is a Moroccan company active in the mining industry.
Initially announced in October 2016, the agreement will see Managem hold a 70% interest in the Guinea-based project. This is based on various conditions. Firstly, Managem must pay $4 million for 40% of the project and related share holder loans. Next, Managem must complete a $10 million work programme. Finally, Managem must produce a bankable feasibility study for an operation with a reserve of at least 1 million ounces.
In May 2017, Managem received the 40% after paying $4 million. In August 2018 Managem sent Avocet an overview of the work programme and the feasibility study, meeting the final two conditions.
Today, Avocet has transferred the remaining 30% of the Tri-K project and the related shareholder loans. Despite this, an ongoing discussion remains between the two companies concerning the significant overspend of the costs incurred by the work programme.
Lloyds apologises for Cardnet glitch
Thousands of customers have been charged twice for transactions on Cardnet card terminals on Wednesday the 29th of August, despite appearing to have only been charged once on receipts.
Around 5% of all card payments made on that day were affected by the glitch, but Lloyds have said that all parties concerned have since been refunded. The Cardnet payment system is run by Lloyds and First Data and carries out 1.1 billion transactions a year, mostly via Visa Debit Card.
“Cardnet sincerely apologises for the issue and the inconvenience caused, we continue to work closely with all parties to resolve this issue swiftly,” said a company spokesperson.
In light of the small blip and quick resolution, Lloyds stock has not been negatively impacted. With a small dip, their share price currently stands at 60.62p, up 0.27p or 0.45% since trading began today.
FTSE 100 sinks and sterling jumps on Brexit deal reports
The FTSE 100 shed over 50 points in a 30 minute period and GBP/USD jumped over 100 points in less than 5 minutes on Wednesday afternoon following a report from Bloomberg that Germany and the UK were prepared to pull back from key demands.
The comments could not be immediately corroborated as Bloomberg reported the source spoke on a condition of anonymity as they were close to the matter.
If the report holds any weight it would mean the much feared ‘no deal’ scenario could be averted and the UK could have more significant Brexit.
The Bloomberg report said both sides would be happy to explore a less detailed agreement in order to get a deal done.
This is likely to raise questions from both supporters and opposers of Brexit as it could leave many elements to be agreed in the years after the official leave date. The EU is renowned for kicking the can down the road and leaving deals to absolute deadlines as was the case with the Greece bailout.
Nonetheless, the currency market showed signs of relief with a sharp rally in sterling. GBP/USD has been the market of choice for investors wanting to air their view on Brexit as equity markets have remained relatively stable over the past few months.
FTSE 100
In a possible sign of things to come, the FTSE 100 dropped beneath 7400 for the first time since late April as sterling rallied. Sterling and the FTSE 100 have had a strong inverse relationship since Brexit which may lead to further declines in London’s leading index if sterling was to rally further.
Help to Buy boosts new housing completion
Earlier today, Barratt Developments (LON:BDEV) released their final results for the year ended in June 2018. Sky reported that Barratt consider market conditions favourable and that the Help to Buy scheme continues to assist the vigorous consumer demand.
Listed on the FTSE 100, Barratt Developments made £835.5 million in profit (before tax). This is a 9.2% increase from 2017. Additionally, Barratt sold 17,579 homes in the year with an average selling price of £289,000. The report disregards fears of a slowdown in the property market.
Today, there are various schemes to assist property buyers in purchasing their first home. One of the most well known to first time buyers is the Help to Buy scheme.
In a video interview with Sky, the Chief Executive of housebuilder Redrow, John Tutte, said: “First time buyers have always wanted some assistance to get on the housing ladder. If you look at help to buy, 82% of Help to Buy users are first time buyers.
“When you look at its use it’s generally for people who have got incomes of around £50,000.”
A report by the HPF shows that 170,000 new homes have been purchased through the scheme between April 2013 and March 2018.
Interestingly, 2013-2017 saw the fastest increase in housing supply on record. The Help to Buy scheme is exclusive to new build homes. With this in mind, the demand for new properties has increased since 2013. Fundamentally, the scheme provides equity loans to buyers so they can purchase newly built homes with only a 5% deposit. However, the Evening Standard’s Home and Property has reported that the scheme has been criticised for artificially inflating house prices. It is said that the scheme is being used by wealthy buyers as it is not capped at an income level. As a result, Homelessness charity Shelter believes that the scheme has increased average home prices by £8,250. Help to Buy has certainly been beneficial for housebuilders such as Barratt Developments, who have seen an increase in their profits. But, just how sustainable is the scheme? With wealthier households using the scheme to upgrade their property, Help to Buy is artificially inflating house prices. The future of the Help to Buy scheme remains uncertain as it parallels the looming uncertainty over Brexit. Whilst housebuilder Redrow has been calling for the clarity over the scheme’s future, the government has not committed to the scheme later than March 2021.21st Century Fox to invest $100m in Caffeine startup
Twenty First Century Fox announced plans on Wednesday to lead a $100 million round of funding for startup Caffeine.
Fox alone is investing $100 million into the newly formed venture, which hopes to produce exclusive esports, video game, sports, and live entertainment.
“The combination of the Caffeine platform with a content studio that benefits from Fox Sports’ expertise in live events and programming will help position Caffeine to deliver compelling experiences in esports, video gaming and entertainment,” said Lachlan Murdoch, 21st Century Fox chairman, in a statement.
“We are excited to partner with Caffeine and build something special for fans in the growing live social streaming esports and gaming space,” he added.
Fox’s stakes in Caffeine will be part of the “new Fox,” the company following the completion of the $71.3 billion sales of Fox to Disney (NYSE: DIS).
Ben Keighran, the CEO of the streaming startup said: “We want to bring the world together around friends and live broadcasts.”
“It’s an ambitious goal, but one we believe is attainable with the support of our amazing new partners, our awesome and ever-growing community, and the content that together, we can bring onto the platform.”
The social live streaming startup was founded in 2016 by Ben Keighran and Sam Roberts.
Caffeine already raised $46 million of funding over two different rounds that were led by Andreessen Horowitz and Greylock Partners.
The startup has also revealed a content agreement with Live Nation in order to bring live music concerts to the streaming platform in the fourth quarter.
Shares in 21st Century Fox (NASDAQ: FOXA) are trading at 45,33 (1442GMT).
William Hill PLC announces exclusive partnership with Eldorado Resorts
William Hill PLC (LON:WMH) has announced a partnership between William Hill US and Eldorado Resorts, Inc.
William Hill is already a leading sports betting company in the US. However, the partnership with Eldorado will provide an extensive access to the market. Eldorado is currently a major casino group with 21 properties across 11 states. Moreover, its customer base reaches 23 million people.
The agreement details several key features. Firstly, William Hill will become Eldorado’s exclusive partner for digital and retail sports betting. Next, William Hill US will retain 80% of the enhanced business. Additionally, Eldorado will receive $50 million of stock in William Hill PLC and a 20% stake in William Hill US. The initial term of the agreement is 25 years.
Within weeks, William Hill sportsbooks will be opened in five properties across three states. Subject to the legalisation in each state, additional sportbooks and digital betting and gaming services will launch in the months ahead.