Author: LoveWorld UK

Britons around the country were set to take to their balconies and front gardens on Thursday evening to applaud healthcare workers who are battling the spread of coronavirus. The “Clap for our Carers” initiative, which has been widely spread on social media, encourages people to deliver a round of applause at 2000 GMT to show their appreciation to doctors, nurses, and all those tackling the COVID-19 outbreak. “During these unprecedented times they need to know that we are grateful,” the message said. “Please join us on 26th March at 8pm for a big applause (from front doors, garden, balcony, windows,…

British financial regulators announced a welter of measures on Thursday to give companies more time to publish results and banks more leeway for handling troubled loans. Britain’s economy has gone into lockdown during the coronavirus crisis and a recession is predicted, making it difficult for companies assess earnings and whether they can stay in business. The Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), the Financial Conduct Authority and auditing regulator the Financial Reporting Council said the reduction in activity could be “sharp and large”. But activity was likely to rebound sharply once social distancing measures are lifted, they forecast. In…

The Bank of England kept its key interest rate at a record-low level of 0.1% on Thursday and said it was ready to expand its asset purchases further if needed to support the economy or guard against an unwarranted tightening of financial conditions. The BoE said it was maintaining the total size of its bond-buying programme – comprising mostly British government debt and some corporate bonds – at 645 billion pounds. The central bank made two emergency cuts to its key interest rate earlier this month and boosted its bond-buying programme in a bid to offset some of the hit…

Britain made an emergency order of 10,000 ventilators designed at breakneck speed by bagless vacuum cleaner company Dyson, the first fruits of an industry-wide call to arms to prepare for the looming peak of the coronavirus outbreak. Ahead of an expected surge of cases that could overwhelm Britain’s publicly funded health service, Prime Minister Boris Johnson made an urgent appeal to manufacturers 10 days ago to build ventilators to help keep patients alive. Billionaire founder James Dyson said he had drawn on the company’s expertise in air movement, motors, power systems, manufacturing and supply chain to design and build an…

European shares surged on Wednesday following a strong rally in the previous session, as investors bet on unprecedented stimulus measures to ease the economic pain on businesses and households from the coronavirus pandemic. The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 4.2%, with energy .SXEP, autos .SXAP, insurers .SXIP and financials .SXFP jumping between 5.4% and 6.7%. With an 8% surge on Tuesday, swings last seen at the height of the 2008 financial crisis, the benchmark index has recovered its losses from mid March, but remains more than 25% below its record high last month. On Wednesday, U.S. officials reached a…

British banks must keep lending to businesses through the coronavirus crisis to ensure that previously viable companies do not fail, the government and Bank of England said on Wednesday. In a joint letter to the chief executives of major banks, finance minister Rishi Sunak, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and the interim chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, Chris Woolard, urged lenders to support the economy. “This will require a willingness to maintain and extend lending despite the uncertain economic conditions. We must ensure that firms whose business models were viable before this crisis remain viable once it…

London shares gained on Wednesday as an enormous U.S. stimulus package and evidence of moves by companies to deal with the financial effects of the coronavirus crisis offset the impact on markets of a surge in cases domestically. The blue-chip FTSE 100 .FTSE, down 30% in the past month, on Tuesday saw its best day since the swings of the financial crisis of 2008. It had recovered another 1.4% by 0811 GMT, as oil & gas companies, drugmakers and insurers rose. U.S. senators and the Trump administration reached an agreement on a $2-trillion (1.70 trillion pounds) package on Wednesday, expected to…

Britain should widen a government wage guarantee to cover self-employed and sacked workers, rather than just those whose employers agree to temporarily put them on leave, a think tank said on Wednesday. Last week Britain’s government promised to pay 80% of companies’ wage bills for staff who they put on leave due to the coronavirus shutdown, rather than sacking them, similar to an earlier proposal from the Resolution Foundation think tank. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak told parliament on Tuesday that he was looking into how best to support the self-employed, but there were “very significant challenges” in identifying…

Britain should widen a government wage guarantee to cover self-employed and sacked workers, rather than just those whose employers agree to temporarily put them on leave, a think tank said on Wednesday. Last week Britain’s government promised to pay 80% of companies’ wage bills for staff who they put on leave due to the coronavirus shutdown, rather than sacking them, similar to an earlier proposal from the Resolution Foundation think tank. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak told parliament on Tuesday that he was looking into how best to support the self-employed, but there were “very significant challenges” in identifying…

Britain could introduce stronger measures than 30 pound fixed penalty fines for people who flout new restrictions announced on Monday to slow the spread of coronavirus, Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said. “The police have a range of enforcement tools, and of course fixed-penalty notices and fines are just one of them. If people do persist in behaving in an anti-social way, there are stronger measures that we have,” he told ITV on Tuesday. “The legislation will be in place in order to ensure that we have appropriate penalties and appropriate punishment for those people who do not adhere to…