ENGLISH retailers call for business rates freeze

Business reporter(wp+reuters):::
More than 50 British retailers, including Sainsbury’s (SBRY.L), Marks & Spencer (MKS.L), Asda (WMT.N) and Morrisons (MRW.L) have urged the government to freeze business rates to help out the struggling sector.In a letter to the new finance minister Sajid Javid, published on Tuesday, the retailers called on the government to take action to “fix the broken business rates system”.

Business rates are taxes to help pay for local services, charged on most commercial properties, including shops, warehouses, pubs, cafes and restaurants. They are currently calculated according to the rental value of properties and have an annual inflationary uplift or multiplier.

The letter asks for a freeze in the business rates multiplier to stop another tax rise.

The retailers’ letter was coordinated by lobby group, the British Retail Consortium (BRC), which has for years complained the current system is unfair.It points out that the industry is the largest private sector employer in Britain, employing about three million people. While it accounts for 5% of the UK economy, it is burdened with 10% of all business taxes, and 25% of business rates.

“This disparity is damaging our high streets and harming the communities they support,” said BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson.

The letter comes a day after BRC-Springboard data showed 10.3% of shops in Britain were vacant, the highest rate in four years, adding to the growing gloom in the sector.Another survey from the BRC published earlier this month showed British retailers reported the weakest July sales growth since records began.

Last month new prime minister Boris Johnson announced a 3.6 billion pound fund to support town centres.

Javid is due to set out his spending for the 2020-21 financial year next month.

EDITORIAL:::ENGLAND BUSINESS REFORM ACT 2019

ENGLAND ALL TYPES OF EXPORT&IMPORT SHOULD STOP UNTIL NEXT ORDER FOR FOOD&HEALTH &DRESS SAFETY FROM POISONED FOODS(BLACK MAGIC!!!) FROM EXTERNAL IMPORTED COUNTRIES..AS WELL ALL PROUDCT SHOULD PRODUCE THEMSELVES IN WITH HIGHEST PRIORITY BESIS FOR INTERNAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT FOR THEIR VERY BEST CITIZENS ...

ALL FACILITIES SHOULD GIVEN VERY BEST TRACK ORIENTED PEOPLE FROM ORIGINAL ENGLISH PEOPLE THOUSE ARE PROVED VERY BEST FOR THEIR COUNTRY FOR ANY TYPES OF BUSINESS,FOODS PRODUCTION,DRESSES AND ANY IMPORTANT RELATED PRODUCTS REQUIRE HIGHLY FOR FELLOW CITIZENS(VERY SCREENED ORIGINAL CHAKED FOR LAST 2000 YRS HISTORY)

EDITORIAL:::HOIUSE OF LOARDS REFORM ACT VERY STRICT &SCREENED WAY

ENGLAND Highest authourity(Very much Independent Authourity) should restrictedly maintain its member only from original ENGLAND Genius Fellow&Honarable citizens who contribute with highest secrifice for country and its honarable people whome track record very well from born to running for better and very best ENGLAND FUTURE CITIZENS and safer ENGLAND

Engineer,Scientist,Professor,Journalist,Creative people may select for new loards member and its adminstrative people with highest concern from original very screened English fellow citizens(must not fake people).....

EDITORIAL:::ENGLAND All Kind of Politics Ban and Lower parliament House of commons also ban should effect december 2019

for better ENGLAND best future all types of political activity ban within december 2019 as well house of commons ban in same day should permited by House of Loards Lower parliament&Odd unnessecery politics must ban immedietly...as well ENGLAND oversease territorries should effect the Law

ENGLAND Law Enforcment Authority freeze more than 100 million pounds in accounts on bribery fears

Banking crime reporter(wp+reuters):::British police have frozen eight bank accounts containing a total of more than 100 million pounds, which is suspected to have derived from bribery and corruption overseas.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said on Wednesday a London court had approved the Account Freezing Orders (AFOs), the largest granted to date, and that police would recover the funds if investigators proved it had been intended for unlawful use.

The NCA said it could not provide any details that could identify individuals related to the accounts.

AFOs and Unexplained Wealth Orders, that allow police to freeze assets until property owners account for their wealth, are part of a toolbox introduced last year to help stem a tide of suspected corrupt cash washing through the country.

London has long attracted corrupt foreign money, especially from Russia, Nigeria, Pakistan, former Soviet states and Asia, and the NCA estimates that around 100 billion pounds of dirty money is moved through or into Britain each year.

“The NCA is ... seeking to ... convince the NCA’s foreign counterparts that even if they cannot prosecute untouchable oligarchs at home, if they have assets here, these can be attacked,” said David Corker, a partner at law firm Corker Binning.

ENGLAND offers £25 million contract to maintain drug supply after Brexit

Health reporter(reuters+wp):::

Britain is asking logistics providers to bid for a 25 million pound express freight contract to deliver medicines into the country on a daily basis after it has left the European Union on Oct. 31.

The Department for Health and Social Care said the contract would form part of its contingency plans to deal with any complications that stem from Britain’s departure from the world’s biggest trading bloc.

The service is intended to deliver small parcels of medicines or medical products on a 24-hour basis, with an additional provision to move larger pallets carrying goods on a two-to-four day basis.

“I want to ensure that when we leave the EU at the end of October, all appropriate steps have been taken to ensure frontline services are fully prepared,” health minister Chris Skidmore said in a statement.

The contract will run for 12 months, with a possible further 12-month extension. The department has already sought to help companies build up buffer stocks of medicines and procured additional warehouse space.

The British government was embarrassed earlier this year after it signed a 14 million pound contract with a company to provide extra ferries in the event of a no-deal Brexit, even though the company did not have any ships. It later scrapped that contract.

Barclays, JP Morgan among banks facing UK class action over forex-rigging

Banking reporter(wp/reuters:::

 Barclays (BARC.L), JP Morgan (JPM.N), RBS (RBS.L), UBS and Citigroup (C.N) are being sued by investors over allegations they rigged the global foreign exchange market, in a test of U.S.-style class actions in Britain.The claim, estimated to be worth more than 1 billion pounds, was filed at the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) on Monday, U.S. law firm Scott + Scott said.JP Morgan, RBS, UBS, Barclays and Citi declined to comment.Some of the world’s biggest investment banks have already paid more than a combined $11 billion in fines to settle U.S., British and European regulatory allegations that traders rigged the currency markets.Litigators have long hoped to replicate in Britain the success of U.S. class action claims against banks, including Goldman Sachs (GS.N), HSBC (HSBA.L) and Barclays, that have resulted $2.3 billion in settlements for big investors.In May the European Union fined five banks a combined 1.07 billion euros for forex rigging through cartels of traders known as “Essex Express” and “Three Way Banana Split”.The lawsuit is being led by Michael O’Higgins, the former chairman of British watchdog the Pensions Regulator, and is being funded by litigation finance group Therium.O’Higgins told Reuters the total value of the claim would depend on the number of forex trades executed in London for UK-domiciled units - which will be automatically included in the action - and the proportional impact of rate rigging on these.Given the size of London’s forex market, O’Higgins said the total value would likely exceed a billion pounds.

“Even on a relatively conservative assumption it’s certainly a billion pounds and possibly several,” O’Higgins said.“Markets should be fair as well as free and in this case the markets weren’t fair.”