Co-operative Bank's future ethical focus leads customers to look around

Co-operative Group says it is committed to preserving bank's policy, while former leader says ethical label no longer applies

Fears that the Co-operative Bank, now controlled by hedge funds, may drop its much-trumpeted ethical policy has prompted some of its 4.7m customers to consider seeking out alternative green and socially responsible financial institutions.

The wider Co-operative Group has said it remains committed to preserving the bank's ethical focus, but the former boss of the wider Co-op Group, Peter Marks, this week told MPs that in his opinion, the ethical label could not apply to the bank any more.

A glance at Twitter and the letters pages of newspapers indicates many customers feel the same way. Last night, an online campaign was launched to "save our bank" and make sure it "sticks to its principles". Using the website saveourbank.coop, the campaign is backed by Ethical Consumer magazine and is appealing to customers to hold fire on switching away. "Sign up to our campaign instead. Then, once we are in our thousands, let's see if they are prepared to listen. We have two big aims: to protect the values and ethics of the bank, and – in time – to help it return to mutual ownership," it states.

Those determined to leave the Co-op Bank, but who do not want to give their money to one of the big four banks, may be pleased to discover there are other ethical options available. However, ethical finance experts pointed out that a lot depends on an individual's personal priorities and areas of concern. One person's absolute no-no issue is another's shrug of the shoulders, which is one of the reasons why it is impossible to provide one-size-fits-all recommendations.

The website of banking campaign group Move Your Money UK gives all the main banks and building societies a "switch score" out of 100 based on assessments of their honesty, customer service, culture, impact on the economy and ethics.

These five categories take in everything from customer satisfaction levels and the number of PPI mis-selling cases to the proportion of women on the board and the use of tax havens. The information used to determine the scores was compiled three months ago by Ethical Consumer.

For current accounts, the top-scoring institution is Carlisle-based Cumberland building society. However, its current accounts are only available to those living within its branch operating area, which rules most people out.

In joint second place is a bank that most people have probably never heard of: Reliance Bank, originally known as the Salvation Army Bank. Reliance offers a range of products including a fee-free current account that comes with a Visa debit card, cheque book and paying-in book, and offers all the usual facilities – online and phone banking, the ability to set up direct debits and standing orders, monthly statements and so on. But the "Sally Army" connection will not be to everyone's taste. The bank says: "Our investments are made within strict ethical boundaries, and our profits are used to further the Salvation Army's evangelical and charitable work."

Building societies such as Nationwide and the Coventry feature heavily in the Move Your Money list, as does Metro Bank – a relatively new arrival with branches in the London and M25 area; Handelsbanken, the UK arm of the Swedish bank of the same name, and the Islamic Bank of Britain, which calls itself the UK's only wholly sharia compliant retail bank but is keen to strees it is "an inclusive, ethical organisation, and welcomes customers of all faiths".

For those looking for a new home for their savings, the choice is wider, as there are several ethical institutions that don't offer current accounts but do have a choice of savings accounts. In the savings category, Ecology building society took Move Your Money's top spot with a score of 100 out of 100. Based in Keighley, West Yorkshire, the society uses the money put into its savings accounts to offer sustainable mortgages for properties and projects that respect the environment – but because the society has in recent months been inundated with people looking to move their money to a more ethical institution, there is now only one account open to non-member individual savers: Foundations Share, paying 1%.

Meanwhile, Charity Bank lends only to charities, social enterprises and community organisations. It closed its ethical cash Isa to new customers in April 2013 "due to unprecedented levels of new savings," but has other accounts, including one aimed at under-16s which pays 2%.

As things currently stand, the Co-op Bank is still the only high street bank with a clearly articulated ethical policy covering a range of issues, from human rights and the arms trade to genetic modification and animal welfare. Euan Sutherland, the boss of the Co-operative Group, which spans supermarkets, grocers and funeral homes, insisted that the ethical stance will be more ingrained in the bank than in the past.

"This bank will remain the Co-operative Bank. We are embedding the Co-operative principals in the constitution of the bank to guarantee this," he said.

The formal ethical policy was first launched in 1992 and it is signed by the bank's values and principles committee, chaired by a Co-operative Group board member, Herbert Daybell, a retired publisher.

As a result of the policy, the bank turns away £100m of business a year – a test of its ethical stance in the future perhaps.

Article Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk

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Grangemouth plant shutdown leaves government fighting to save 800 jobs

Petrochemicals workers will lose their jobs after abrupt closure, with 2,600 refinery employees and contract staff at risk

The government is scrambling to save 800 jobs at the Grangemouth petrochemicals site in Scotland after its owner, Ineos, abruptly closed the plant in a rancorous industrial dispute.

As the energy and climate change secretary, Ed Davey, said that "all efforts" would be made to rescue the plant, Ineos also refused to rule out closing the oil refinery on the same site.

Workers were given the grim news at a meeting with Ineos's chairman, Calum MacLean. Ineos had given the workforce until Monday evening to accept its demands for radical changes to terms and conditions but the company concluded there was not enough support.

Its decision means that up to 800 petrochemicals workers will lose their jobs, and it threatens the positions of some 600 or more employees at the refinery plus 2,000 contract staff.

Staff reacted with shock to the news, as Ineos followed through on its warning that the threat of closure was not a bluff.

The fate of the giant plant on the Firth of Forth has far-reaching implications for Scotland and the UK. Grangemouth is Scotland's biggest manufacturing business, its refinery supplies most of its fuel and the petrochemicals plant produces plastics used in industries ranging from cars to packaging.

In an urgent question on Grangemouth in parliament, Davey told MPs repeatedly that the government wanted the plant to stay open if at all possible. It would still consider a business case to provide investment to help keep the plant running.

"We will be using all our efforts through the [Business] department and UKTI [UK Trade and Industry body] to assist should we need to have a buyer for the petrochemical plant," he said.

However, Ineos has already warned that the refinery – currently shut down because of the dispute – could be closed permanently if the Unite trade union did not agree to a no-strike deal.

Davey also confirmed that detailed contingency plans had been drawn up to protect firms and customers from running out of fuel and chemical supplies. He met MPs later to discuss the issue in more detail.

Downing Street has insisted the closure of the Grangemouth refinery would not pose a threat to fuel supplies, after the AA warned it could hit petrol prices. The prime minister said in an answer to a parliamentary question from the Labour MP Tom Watson that ministers had discussed the closure during Cobra meetings.

Downing Street dismissed speculation that the plant could be nationalised, saying it was a matter for unions and owner to resolve. The prime minister's spokesman said it was disappointing that the petrochemicals side of the plant had closed and called on "both parties" to "continue their dialogue" over the future of the refinery.

The closure of the petrochemicals plant follows a standoff between Ineos and Unite, which represents about 1,100 of Grangemouth's permanent employees as well as many contract workers. Many businesses – from the Rumbling Tum burger van near the site to cab firms, pubs and hotels – rely on trade from Grangemouth.

Gordon Alexander, who owns Grange Radio Cabs, said closure would devastate local businesses. "Local shops and local snack bars would definitely go out of business. We do a lot of executive work for them and if they were to close I would probably lose about half of my 50 cabs."

Edmund King, the president of the AA, warned that petrol prices could rise if Grangemouth and other European refineries closed down.

"The AA is concerned with the impact of this refinery closure," he said. The European commodity trading houses have been predicting the loss of five to six refinery plants over the next two years.

"In March to April of last year, with the closure of refineries and the impending start of the US motoring season, wholesale prices went up by 20%, adding 8p to 10p to a litre of petrol. The spike was short-lived because US drivers cut back and some of the refineries were bought. However, the damage was done and a new UK petrol record [142.48p a litre] was set."

Bitter dispute

The announcement follows the passing of a deadline on a survival plan put to employees, which asked them to accept changes to pensions and other terms and conditions.

The Unite union said about 680 of the site's 1,370-strong workforce had rejected the company's proposals, which include a pay freeze for 2014-16, removal of a bonus up to 2016, a reduced shift allowance and ending of the final-salary pension scheme.

Ineos said its owner, Jim Ratcliffe, and other shareholders met on Tuesday to study the response from the workforce to their survival plan, and wanted the employees to be the first to know of any decision the company made.

A dispute over pay and conditions at the oil refinery remains unresolved.

Unite has accused the company of "playing Russian roulette" with the future of Grangemouth, the biggest industrial site in Scotland, and is backing any efforts by the Scottish government to find a new buyer for the oil refinery and petrochemical complex.

Ineos sent a letter to workers last Thursday asking them to indicate their rejection or acceptance of the plan.

It said those who supported the survival plan would receive a transitional payment of up to £15,000.

The two sides have been embroiled in a bitter dispute for weeks, initially over the treatment of the Unite convener, Stephen Deans, who was involved in the row over the selection of a Labour candidate in Falkirk, where he is chairman of the constituency party.

He was suspended, then reinstated, then was subject to an internal investigation, which is due to report on Friday.

The dispute has since widened to the future of the entire site, with Ineos warning that it would close without investment and changes to pensions and other terms and conditions.

The company said the plant, which has been shut down since last week because of the dispute, was losing £10m a month.

Ineos had said it was ready to invest £300m in Grangemouth, but only if workers agreed to the new terms.

Article Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk

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Take supermarket price match schemes with 'pinch of salt', says Which?

Investigation into Asda, Sainsbury's and Tesco finds differences in schemes means claims to be the cheapest are worth little to customers

Popularvoucher-style price match schemes run by the majorsupermarkets vary enormously, making it hard for shoppers to tell which supermarket is the cheapest, according to new research.

The consumer group Which? analysed shopping trips to Asda, Sainsbury's and Tesco – which all operate rival price match schemes – but warned that their claims about likely savings "should be taken with a pinch of salt".

The warning came as the advertising watchdog banned what it said was a misleading advert for the Sainsbury's campaign – known as Brand Match – for suggesting that consumers do not need to shop around to benefit fully from deals at rivals Tesco and Asda.

Price comparison tools have become a key battleground in the fiercely competitive UK grocery retail sector. But the supermarkets have been waging further war against each other by challenging their rivals' claims and even referring them to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

The investigation by Which? found that the schemes run by Asda, Sainsbury's and Tesco differ greatly, making them of little real worth to shoppers. Secret shoppers visited the supermarkets to find that, in the majority of cases, each claimed to be cheaper than its rivals.

Which? analysed the till receipts from 59 shopping trips – 19 at Asda, 20 at Tesco and 20 at Sainsbury's – each time checking the price of the basket with the supermarket's own online price match. Asda was the cheapest, according to its own "Price Guarantee" on the most occasions (17 out of the 19), Sainsbury's judged itself cheaper than Asda and Tesco for 10 of the visits and joint cheapest for another two, according to its "Brand Match", and Tesco was cheaper than Asda and Sainsbury's for 10 of the 20 visits – according to its "Price Promise".

But supermarkets set their own rules for what is and isn't compared under price-matching schemes, and sometimes stock products in different sizes, so it can be hard to tell which is the cheapest.

Overall, the 59 shopping trips analysed by Which? resulted in an average discount voucher for shoppers of just £1.45.

Richard Lloyd, Which? executive director, said: "Supermarket price-matching schemes can save you money but we believe they should be taken with a pinch of salt because they are difficult to compare. At a time when consumers are facing a squeeze on their household incomes, we want all the supermarkets to do whatever they can to help consumers find the best deal."

The Sainsbury's television advert showed various people shopping, with the screen split three ways to indicate the supermarkets Sainsbury's, Tesco and Asda, before a voiceover said: "Deals. Everywhere aren't they? But wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to go everywhere to get them?" The advert said Sainsbury's would compare baskets of £20 or more with prices at Asda and Tesco and offer a coupon for the difference, taking deals into account. But two viewers pointed out that Brand Match compared the total cost of the branded shop, and any savings on cheaper Sainsbury's products were offset against any items that were cheaper at Tesco or Asda. The deal meant the value of the coupon was reduced, and customers could have saved more by buying the items at their cheapest price from across the three supermarkets.

Sainsbury's said it believed the advert made it clear that the comparison was of the total price of the branded shop, and believed it contained all the necessary information "for viewers to understand the offer and assess it objectively".

But the ASA said: "We understood that the amount of any voucher for the price difference would be reduced if any of the purchased branded items on offer at Sainsbury's were more expensive at Tesco or Asda, and that in order to achieve the cheapest overall price in these circumstances it would be necessary to shop in different supermarkets. We considered that the ad … misleadingly implied consumers did not need to shop around to obtain the full savings from deals, when in fact that was not the case. We therefore concluded the ad was misleading."

Article Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk

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London's economic boom leaves rest of Britain behind

Exclusive: Guardian analysis highlighting regional imbalance raises troubling questions about who is enjoying UK's recovery

London's economy is doing even better after the banking crash than during the bubble – while nearly every other part of the UK has seen its economy shrink by comparison. Exclusive findings published by the Guardian show that London and the south-east are racing away from the rest of the UK at a pace that would have seemed almost incredible at the height of the financial panic.

During the boom from 1997 to 2006, London and the south-east was responsible for 37% of the UK's growth in output. Since the crash of 2007, however, their share has rocketed to 48%. Every other nation and region – with the exception of Scotland – has suffered relative decline over the same period. The upshot is about a quarter of the population is responsible for half of the UK's growth, leaving the remaining three-quarters of Britons to share the rest.

The research also shows that the UK's highest-earners have become relatively more prosperous after the crash, while many on middle incomes are being squeezed hard. In austerity Britain, the top 20% of earning households are enjoying 37.5% of all Britain's income growth, even after accounting for taxes and benefits.

These findings will embarrass the government, especially as they come shortly before the release of the latest GDP figures on Friday. Ministers are poised to celebrate news that the economy is at last enjoying strong growth, and may even have racked up its best quarter in 13 years. But the Guardian's analysis raises questions about who is enjoying Britain's growth and how sustainable it is, and will fuel the debate over who should bear the burden for an economic crisis that began in the Square Mile.

The Guardian's analysis is based on official measures of gross value added, often used to assess regional and industrial performance, and was conducted by the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change at Manchester University.

The findings suggests that David Cameron has failed to meet some of his most important promises: on making Britain's economy less lopsided; on ensuring that the pain from its cuts would be fairly shared out; and that banks would lend more to small businesses.

In his first major speech as prime minister, Cameron described Britain as "more and more unbalanced, with our fortunes hitched to a few industries in one corner of the country". Analysis of the statistics shows that regional imbalance has grown sharply since the crash.

The chancellor, George Osborne, has repeatedly claimed that "we're all in this together". But while the highest-earning 20% of households have done well, and the fortunes of the bottom 20% have been boosted by the minimum wage, most of the rest – the so-called squeezed middle – have seen their incomes stretched.

Article Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk

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Royal Mail shares: hedge fund takes biggest private stake

TCI's 5.8% slice of Royal Mail shares fuels criticism of Vince Cable over 'fire sale' as Labour says small investors let down

A hedge fund known for its aggressive investment strategy has become the largest private shareholder in Royal Mail, re-igniting anger overVince Cable's controversial privatisation of the postal service.

The Children's Investment Fund owns a 5.8% stake in the 500-year-old postal service, making it the largest shareholder behind the government, which has a 38% stake. TCI is controlled by publicity-shy Chris Hohn, who pressed for the sale of ABN Amro, which ended in the Dutch bank's disastrous takeover by the Royal Bank of Scotland, and has been dubbed a "locust" in Germany for its investment style.

TCI's stake in Royal Mail came to light under stock market rules obliging investors to report holdings greater than 5%, and was seized on by government critics who argue that the business secretary failed small investors by selling the shares off to "big money" in the City and failing to live up to his promise to sell them to long-term investors.

TCI revealed that it owns 58.1m shares, on a day when the shares rose to 499p, slightly down on last week but still 50% higher than the 330p the shares were sold at.

Hohn, the Surrey-born chief executive of TCI, is also among the UK's most generous philanthropists and first came to prominence in 2005 after he ousted the chief executive of Deutsche Börse, Werner Seifert, ending his bid to take over the London Stock Exchange. Seifert retaliated by branding TCI partners and its US equivalents "locusts".

The bulk of the controversial hedge fund's stake in Royal Mail is likely to have been bought on the stock market rather than directly from the government, but it may still raise hackles among trade unionists who recently voted for a nationwide 24-hour strike next month. It has also reignited criticism from Labour that Royal Mail was sold on the cheap.

Ian Murray, the shadow minister for trade and investment, argued that small investors had been failed by the government's "fire sale".

"We have seen small investors losing out while the vast majority of shares sold have gone to big-money investors in the City," he said. "Vince Cable claimed that the sale would prioritise long-term investors but serious questions will be asked on whether this is the case, not least given the huge volume of trades in Royal Mail shares which we have seen in the first days of trading, running into hundreds of millions."

He added: "This is on top of real concerns that taxpayers have been left short-changed to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds at a time when families across Britain are facing a cost of living crisis."

Cable told a committee of MPs earlier this month the government was in "a position to ensure that we do get the right kind of investor community". He said: "We are talking about pension funds and insurance companies that hold the savings of millions of people, and we have been very clear that that is the kind of relationship we want to have, that is long-termism."

A spokesman at the business department referred to these comments and said the government was not disappointed with a hedge fund owner, adding: "It is not a matter for us, it is a matter for the company."

TCI and Royal Mail declined to comment.

Hedge funds have been among the city institutions and retail investors scrambling for a slice of Royal Mail, in part because they believe modernisation of the postal service could happen faster than planned.

David Buik, a market commentator at Panmure Gordon, described Hohn as an extremely shrewd businessman. "My guess is that he thinks it is a probably a very good company. I suspect he thinks it is undervalued – I suspect he has bought his stake in it for that reason." Neither will it have escaped his attention that Royal Mail is a plum takeover target, Buik added.

"If things don't work out on an independent basis, it would look very cosy in the portfolio of UPS or Deutsche Post."

TCI has grown into one of the world's largest hedge funds since its creation in 2003, and currently has $11bn in assets under management.

In recent months it has been buying into companies with corporate governance concerns, such as Japan Tobacco and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp in the wake of the phone hacking scandal. Since News Corp was split, TCI now owns a stake in Twentieth Century Fox.

Article Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk

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US unemployment little changed at 7.2% as recovery remains sluggish

Report delayed by shutdown shows American economy fell short of forecasts in September, adding just 148,000 jobs

The US added just 148,000 new jobs in September as employers appear to have cut back on hiring ahead of Washington's budget battle.

The report, delayed by the government shutdown, fell short of forecasts but the unemployment rate dipped to 7.2%. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected a payroll gain of 180,000 jobs for the month – up from 169,000 jobs added in August – and for the unemployment rate to stay at 7.3%.

In previous months drops in the unemployment rate have been driven by people leaving the workforce. September's fall appears to be driven by employment growth, one bright spark in an otherwise lacklustre report. The largest job gains were in construction, wholesale trade, and transportation and warehousing.

Employers have now added an average of 185,000 positions each month over the last year as of September, but gains have slowed in recent months. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) has remained high and was little changed in September at 4.1 million. These individuals accounted for 36.9% of the unemployed. The unemployment rates for teenagers (21.4%), black people (12.9%) and Hispanics (9%) also remained high and unchanged.

The 16-day government shutdown began just days before the job report's originally scheduled 4 October release date. The Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, which produces the monthly snapshot, had collected the data but was unable to finish its analysis after the shutdown.

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for July was cut from 104,000 to 89,000, and the change for August was revised up from 169,000 to 193,000.

Earlier this month ADP, a payroll company, said US businesses had added 166,000 new jobs in September and warned that the job recovery appeared to be "softening". August's ADP jobs growth number was revised down to 159,000 from 176,000.

According to ADP's closely watched survey, the service industry once again led the jobs growth number, contributing 149,000 new jobs over the month.

Trade and transportation added 54,000 posts, professional and business services added 27,000 jobs and construction added 16,000 posts. Some 4,000 jobs were lost in financial activities.

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, ADP's partner on the report, said: "The job market appears to have softened in recent months. Fiscal austerity has begun to take a toll on job creation."

The long-term impact, if any, of the government shutdown is unlikely to be fully reflected in September's figures although a recent report from Macroeconomic Advisers calculated that fiscal uncertainty since 2009 had slowed economic growth by a third of a percentage point per year, equivalent to a loss of 900,000 jobs.

Article Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk

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We must invest in high-speed rail or new motorways, warns HS2 chairman

Outgoing HS2 chair Douglas Oakervee says poor capacity and infrastructure calls for investment over entire transport system

Britain will have to choose between building a high-speed rail line or a new motorway network, the outgoing chairman of HS2 has warned, as the government struggles to hold together a political consensus over the £42.6bn project.

Douglas Oakervee said that the problem of scant capacity and creaking infrastructure was not just one affecting railways but the entire national transport system.

In the annual George Bradshaw address, Oakervee told an audience at the Institution of Civil Engineers on Tuesday that their predecessors "would be turning in their graves if they knew how much we had allowed their infrastructure to decay".

Oakervee, one of the transport industry's most respected and long-serving figures, compared the current capacity crunch with the choices that faced governments in the 1950s when the go-ahead was given to build motorways across Britain.

"We have once again reached a similar point in the cycle of transport planning with a choice to be made. Either we build another similar-sized network of roads or we invest in HS2."

He added: "The stark truth is that our railway network has been allowed to decay for more than 60 years, I would argue that we are already late in acting. In 2010 we published demand forecasts for HS2. Since then the actual growth we have experienced is already outstripping the predicted demand for HS2."

Oakervee warned: "It is clear that all the main transport arteries both road and rail are rapidly becoming congested and are already constraining our ability to grow the economy to allow us to maintain our position in world trade and commerce.

"If we do not wish our standards of living to deteriorate and our world status eroded it is absolutely essential that we develop all our transport arteries and links as quickly as possible."

Oakervee said that without HS2 the key rail routes connecting London, the Midlands and the north would be overwhelmed. He said that on morning peak trains on the West Coast main line, there were already 115 passengers for every 100 seats on arrival in London and Birmingham, and that forecasts pointed to 200 passengers for every 100 seats by 2030 without additional capacity.

He added: "We must stop prevaricating over the rights and wrongs of each individual project and develop an integrated transport and infrastructure plan."

Oakervee, whose previous roles have included overseeing the passage of parliamentary legislation for the Crossrail line currently under construction in London, is stepping down as chairman of HS2 at the end of the year to be replaced by Network Rail chief executive David Higgins.

The first line linking London and Birmingham is due to open in 2026. The full £42.6bn network linking those cities with Manchester and Leeds is scheduled for completion by 2033.

Opposition to the scheme has intensified in recent months with a succession of studies and reports questioning the cost and value for money, especially after the government announced in June that the overall budget, including contingencies, had risen by almost £10bn. The economic case published by the Department for Transport has been revised downwards on several occasions.

Oakervee suggested that trying to calculate exact figures for its eventual value was futile. "Rooms full of economists are vying with each other to gain kudos for their competing models and analysis while we are battling with public opinion to nail a number to the basic fact that investing in HS2 will deliver good, or even very good economic benefits and the jobs the Midlands and north desperately need."

One supportive review of HS2 came on Monday from the Independent Transport Commission, which said that it would provide a catalyst for better connectivity and growth in the UK's regions if it was planned correctly. The study said that a new high-speed rail line would cost not much more than 10% more than a conventional rail line.

Article Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk

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