UK weather: Warnings upgraded as heavy snow forecast

Staff reporter(wp/reuters):::

Heavy snow is expected to fall across Wales and southern England later, bringing travel disruption for the evening rush hour.

The Met Office has upgraded weather warnings from yellow to amber for heavy snow between 14:00 to 21:00 GMT.

Meanwhile, temperatures have fallen to the lowest level this winter, with Braemar, Aberdeenshire, dropping to -14.4 °C (6F) this morning.

It is the lowest in the UK since -15.6 °C in Holbeach, Lincolnshire, in 2012.

The Met Office warns the heavy snow could cause:

• Travel delays on roads which could strand some vehicles and passengers
• Some delays and cancellations to rail travel
• Rural communities could be cut off
• Power cuts are likely and other services, such as mobile phone coverage, could be affected

Further snow is forecast overnight into Friday, with up to 15cm (6in) possible in some parts of Wales.

In southern England, there could be 3-7cm (1-3in) of snow.

Southeastern Trains said 21 trains were cancelled or altered on Thursday morning to minimise the impact of ice forming on the rails.

It will run its "winter weather timetable" on Friday - with passengers warned of peak services being busier than normal because of changes to some train times.

England, Wales and Northern Ireland also recorded their lowest temperatures of the winter so far, with:

• Redesdale, Northumberland, falling to -10.4C (13.3F)
• Sennybridge, Powys, dropping to -9.3C (15.3F)
• Magilligan, County Londonderry, falling to -8.5C (16.7F).

UK consumer morale stuck at lowest since 2013 as Brexit nears

Business reporter(wp/reuters):::
British consumers remained their gloomiest in five-and-a-half years this month as a small improvement in their personal finances offset growing concern about the outlook for the next 12 months, when Britain is due to leave the European Union.

The GfK consumer confidence index held at -14 in January, its lowest since July 2013. Economists taking part in a Reuters poll had expected a slight fall to -15.

Businesses also gave a sobering outlook in surveys published on Thursday by the Confederation of British Industry and Lloyds Bank.

The GfK survey showed households’ assessment of their personal finances improved due to falling inflation and higher wages and employment. But their outlook on the economy over the next 12 months was the weakest since December 2011.

“Consumers, companies and corporations thrive on certainty, which is in short supply just two months before the planned date for the UK’s EU exit,” GfK executive Joe Staton said.

Faced with deep opposition to her Brexit plan within her own Conservative Party, Prime Minister Theresa May wants to renegotiate part of withdrawal agreement she struck with the EU, less than two months before Britain is due to leave the bloc.

Without a deal that is acceptable to both sides, Britain risks a disorderly exit from the EU on March 29 which businesses have warned could lead to widespread economic disruption and potential shortages of imported food and medicines.

The Confederation of British Industry said small businesses reported the sharpest decline in sentiment about exports since the financial crisis, despite above-average output growth in recent months.

“Uncertainty in the domestic and global trading environment is clearly hitting manufacturing SMEs hard, with sentiment falling, concerns over political and economic conditions abroad spiking and investment plans still well down on the past year,” CBI economist Alpesh Paleja said.

Political or economic conditions abroad were named as the biggest challenge to exports over the next three months since the survey began in 1988.

The survey by Lloyds Bank showed a small rise in business sentiment this month, after it hit its lowest since June 2016’s Brexit referendum in December.

The GfK survey, carried out on behalf of the European Commission, was conducted between Jan. 1 and 15, while the CBI survey was based on responses from Dec. 17 to Jan. 11 and the Lloyds data came between Jan. 2 and 16.

UK set to cancel parliament's planned February break as Brexit looms

Political reporter(wp/reuters):::

Britain’s parliament is likely to abandon plans for a 10-day break in February, House of Commons leader Andrea Leadsom warned MPs on Thursday, as the country’s March 29 exit from the European Union draws nearer.

“It is only right that I give the House notice that there are currently no plans to bring forward a motion to agree dates for the February recess, and that the House may therefore need to continue to sit to make progress on the key business before the House,” Leadsom said.

Parliament had been due to break up on Feb. 14 and return on Feb. 25, according to a provisional schedule.

May to meet MPs behind Brexit compromise plan - spokesman

Political reporter(wp/reuters):::

British Prime Minister Theresa May will meet the group of MPs behind an alternative Brexit proposal later on Thursday, her spokesman said.

In addition to May’s meeting with those behind the so-called ‘Malthouse Compromise’ plan, officials will meet trade union representatives, the spokesman said, adding the government wanted to secure changes to the Brexit deal with the European Union as soon as possible.

The government remained determined to have everything in place to leave the EU on March 29, he said.

UK car output falls at fastest rate since recession

Business reporter(wp/reuters):::

The once runaway autos sector, which employs some 850,000 people in Britain and has been lauded by politicians as a rare manufacturing success story, has seen sales, company spending and output slump since 2016, the year of the Brexit referendum.

Volumes have also been hit by a crackdown on diesel, stricter emissions rules disrupting supply and a slowdown in China, the world’s no. 1 autos market, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said.

Britain, the world’s fifth-largest economy, is due to leave the EU, the globe’s biggest trading bloc, without an agreement on March 29 after lawmakers rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal, prompting fears of major disruption.

Last year saw the biggest drop in production since a slump of nearly a third in 2009 following the financial crisis and the fall in investment to 589 million pounds leaves it at the lowest level since the SMMT started compiling figures in 2012.

“Brexit uncertainty has already done enormous damage to output, investment and jobs,” said SMMT Chief Executive Mike Hawes, calling on the government to avoid a no-deal exit.

“Yet this is nothing compared with the permanent devastation caused by severing our frictionless trade links overnight, not just with the EU but with the many other global markets with which we currently trade freely.”

Output is expected to fall another 3 percent this year based on Britain leaving the EU with a deal followed by a transitional period.

Britain’s biggest carmaker Jaguar Land Rover, which has been hit by a slump in demand from China and for diesel models, recorded a 15.6 percent drop in domestic output, while Nissan, which runs Britain’s largest car factory, fell by 10.7 percent.

A series of investment decisions are coming up, including whether Peugeot’s parent company PSA will keep its Ellesmere Port plant open, where staffing will fall to just 850 people by the end of 2019 after a series of job cuts.

Output there fell by 15.9 percent last year, the biggest decline of any of Britain’s six big carmakers.

PSA will also decide later this year on whether to build electric vans at its southern English Luton facility and petrochemicals firm Ineos is choosing the location for its off-roader.

The Chinese Geely-owned London Electric Vehicle Company, which builds the famous London black taxi, is cutting 70 agency staff at its central English plant, around 20 percent of its line-side workforce.

“Given the global headwinds, the challenges to the sector are immense,” said Hawes.

EU could offer more backstop assurances if UK moves on customs union - EU lawmaker

Political reporter(wp/reuters):::
The European Union can offer Britain more assurances over the Irish border ‘backstop’ in a political declaration on post-Brexit ties if London moves towards accepting a permanent customs union, a leading EU lawmaker dealing with Brexit said.
Danuta Hubner spoke to Reuters as British Prime Minister Theresa May headed back to Brussels to demand the renegotiation of the legal withdrawal treaty she agreed with the EU but cannot get ratified at home.

May wants to replace the emergency Irish border fix with unspecified “alternative arrangements” to ensure no return of extensive border checks on the island of Ireland, something the EU says is vague and not enough of a guarantee.

“‘Alternative arrangements’...relates to the future. What can be added or changed in the political declaration is to ensure some new arrangements that would solve the issue of a hard border,” Hubner said on Wednesday evening.

“Key to this is the conversation with Corbyn. Cross-party dialogue must yield some new elements for the future...The only thing we have not yet tried is a shift of the UK’s red lines,” she said of May’s talks with opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Corbyn wants Britain to be in a permanent customs union with the EU after Brexit, something May has opposed so far as it would hinder Britain’s ability to pursue independent trade deals around the world.

“If there is no openness on the UK side to include those assurances in the political declaration on the future EU-UK ties, the process could mechanically take us to no-deal.”

The political declaration is a non-legally binding document that accompanies the legally binding withdrawal deal negotiated by the EU and May’s government. The British parliament resoundingly rejected that deal two weeks ago and has told May to reopen negotiations with the EU on it.

Hubner said the EU would not blink on refusing to renegotiate the withdrawal agreement or replacing the backstop.

“A step further would risk undermining the single market. If the single market loses its integrity, it would be the end of the EU,” she said. “It’s not just about Ireland.”

“The risk of no-deal Brexit has grown.”