The Budget 2017

The Budget is the government's yearly announcement about how it's going to spend the nation's money. The Budget is worked out by the person in charge of the country's money, called the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with help from their office, which is known as the Treasury.The chancellor will try to explain why they may be raising or lowering taxes, and speak about the country's economy. The budget impacts every individual & business in the UK in a variety of ways. Watch the following clip to see this years winners & loosers from the announcements made last week. Would you have done anything different?

The Budget 2017

Unpaid Workers Secret Message

Unpaid factory workers allegedly left notes for customers to find when they were shopping at a Zara chain. Shoppers in Istanbul said they had found pleas for help from unpaid workers on tags inside Zara clothes. Messages were said to have read: “I made this item you are going to buy but I didn’t get paid for it.” According to the Associated Press, workers from an outsourced manufacturer for Zara and other retailers have been going into the stores and leaving the secret messages inside the clothes.The notes are a bid to raise awareness of workers who were left underpaid after a Bravo Tekstil factory that made clothes for Inditex, Zara’s parent company shut down overnight.Workers were left owed three months’ worth of wages and a severance allowance when the factory closed. A petition online created to raise awareness of their plight already has over 19,000 signatures.

Unpaid Workers

Takdir Expansion

Popular Indian restaurant Takdir has relocated to new larger seafront premises on East Parade, Whitley Bay, thanks to the help of Barclays. The restaurant, one of the longest serving in Whitley Bay after being established in 1979, is now run by second generation brothers Mamun and Suffian Rahman. Previously located 11 East Parade, the restaurant has moved to 7-8 East Parade, creating a contemporary seafront eatery and cocktail bar. Paul Smith, Barclays business banking manager, put together the funding package for the deal. He said: “It’s been fantastic to work with Mamun and Suffian and see their business grow and flourish.” “The new premises will provide them with more flexibility to expand for the future and they provide a first class offering in Indian cuisine to the local North East community.

Takdir Expansion

Black Friday Bonaza

Wallets will be feeling a bit lighter this weekend as shoppers turn out in search of a bargain ahead of Christmas. It's estimated that £10bn could be spent in the UK over the Black Friday period, £2.5bn in a single day. Retailers like Dixons Carphone say it's a critical chance to boost their market share and provide customers with "real deals," But the chief executive of the fashion chain Fat Face has suggested it is "bonkers" to cut prices now. Anthony Thompson said his stores won't be taking part. "It's bad for customers, it's bad for business, it's bad for UK retail," said Mr Thompson."What customers are looking for at Christmas is great value for money, not make-believe promotions and fake prices, and that's often what they get on Black Friday. ome shoppers say they are weary of the custom, imported a few years ago from the United States.There's the scrum to get to the best deals, the sales gimmicks, and guilt that you've spent more than you planned. On top of that consumer group Which? has highlighted that many supposed deals may not be money-savers at all.

Black Friday Bonkers

Take-away-over

Just Eat's takeover of rival Hungryhouse has been officially given the green light by the competition watchdog. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ruled in its final decision that the deal - worth up to £240m - does not raise competition concerns, given the rise of new entrants such as Deliveroo, UberEATS and Amazon. Just Eat welcomed the announcement and said it now expects to complete the takeover on 31 January. Also last week Tesco's £3.7bn takeover of food wholesaler Booker has been provisionally cleared by the UK's competition regulator. Booker is the UK's largest food wholesaler, and also owns the Premier, Budgens and Londis store brands. More than 30% of its sales are to the catering sector, which Tesco does not supply, although the supermarket is keen to get a foothold in the market. The CMA concluded that the wholesale market would "remain competitive in the longer term", because Booker's share of the UK grocery wholesaling market, at less than 20%, "was not sufficient to justify the longer-term concerns".

Takeover

Zoella £50 Advent Calendar

YouTube sensation Zoella has been fiercely criticised for an advent calendar which costs a whopping £50 and only has 12 doors. Boots were forced to cut the price of the “Zoella 12 Days of Christmas Advent Calendar" after substantial numbers of customers vented their frustrations it was extortionate. The retailer will now be selling the Christmas calendar at the reduced price of £25 from 16 November. But others argued the 27-year-old vlogger, who has over 11 million subscribers to her YouTube channel, had no influence on the price tag of the advent calendar and sought to defend her. Zoella has been criticised in the past for consumer products which are emblazoned with her name and branding, with people arguing they are not good value for money.

Zoella Advent 

Merry Greggsmas

Greggs has apologised after publicity shots for its new ad campaign included a nativity scene in which baby Jesus is replaced by a sausage roll. Photos promoting the baker’s new Advent calendar showed three wise men gathered round a manger in the traditional fashion but, rather than gazing in wonder at the son of God, their eyes fall upon a Greggs pastry. The stunt was apparently meant to be taken in a light-hearted way but numerous people pointed out that the fresh take on the 2,000-year old scene could cause offence because Jesus was Jewish and eating pork is forbidden in the Jewish faith. Greggs said in a statement: “We’re really sorry to have caused any offence, this was never our intention.” The advent calendar goes on sale in selected Greggs outlets on Monday costing £24 and includes a £5 Greggs gift card on Christmas Eve.

Merry Greggsmas

Singles Day

Now in its ninth year, the day is officially called the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival. 11.11 stands for the 11 November, when it is held. The two numbers were chosen to symbolise the wishes of single people to be in a relationship, as two elevens next to one another appear like two couples. It was originally a non-commercial festival started by male college students who didn't have a girlfriend. They created a day to get together to celebrate bachelorhood. But the Chinese retailer Alibaba caught on to it and has turned it into the largest online shopping day in the world. Alibaba says more than one million retailers worldwide took part this year, including US department store Macy's. Alibaba says this year's sales amounted to $25.3bn (£19bn), $7.5bn more than in 2016. Only half way into this year's Singles Day, sales had already surpassed last year's total.

Singles Day

Christmas Adverts

The Christmas advert season is upon us and John Lewis’ high profile campaign again attracted vast attention on social media and pitting it against fellow retailers for creativity, emotional appeal and charm. The group reportedly spends around £7m on the whole campaign, though a spokesperson for the company declined to confirm that figure. According to the Advertising Association, seasonal advertising spend is expected to reach a record high of £6bn during the final quarter of this year, marking a 37 per cent increase on the 2010 level and a fresh all-time high. Recent research by the association also showed that nearly half of Brits admit to having been moved to tears by Christmas adverts that they’ve either seen or heard. “Christmas is a key time for advertisers large and small,” said Karen Fraser, director at advertising think tank Credos.

Christmas Adverts

Sea2See

Off the coast of Catalonia, an intriguing experiment in the circular economy is taking place. Dozens of fishing vessels are heading out to sea and bringing back tonnes of plastic waste alongside their usual haul. About 10kg of waste is collected for each pair of glasses it sells. Sea2see separates what it can use for the glasses and the rest is sold off to other companies for use in different processes such as manufacturing nylon thread. The plastic is then used as the raw material to make recycled designer sunglasses for Barcelona-based company, Sea2see. Thanks to agreements with 22 Catalonian port authorities, the company helps fishermen across the region bring in around a tonne of plastic waste every three days.

Sea2See

Interest Rates Rise

For the first time in more than 10 years, the Bank of England has raised interest rates. The official bank rate has been lifted from 0.25% to 0.5%, the first increase since July 2007. It is likely to rise twice more over the next three years, according to Bank of England governor Mark Carney. Almost four million households face higher mortgage interest payments after the rise, but it should give savers a modest lift in their returns. Mr Carney expects banks to pass on the rate rise to savers, but said many mortgages, loans and credit cards would not see an immediate impact. He said that British households have been "savvy" with their finances and have mostly taken out fixed-rate mortgages, which means it will take some time before the rise has an impact on them. The Bank estimates that almost two million mortgage holders have not experienced an interest rate rise since taking out a mortgage. Watch to see how this tricky concept is explained by some 10 year olds.

Interest Rates

iPhone X Launches

The new £999 iPhone X has hit shelves in more than 50 countries - but what drove fans to line up in the middle of the night for it? The queue was already 100-strong when Nick Davies arrived at Apple's flagship UK store at 02:30. If it is a big hit, the US tech firm could even become a trillion dollar company, according to some analysts. The phones were available to order in the UK from 27 October - but plenty missed out, and so queued up on Friday to be among the first to get their hands on one. Apple chief executive Tim Cook is predicting the iPhone X will help the company record its "biggest quarter ever" in the three months to the end of the year. It sold more than 46.6 million phones in the July to September period, up 3% year-on-year. That produced $28.8bn, or more than half of its revenue. Other products, including the Mac, iPad and Apple Watch, also did well, growing in the double digits.

Apple iPhone X

Cheese Advent Calendar

Asda is to stock "the world's first" cheese Advent calendar this Christmas following a social media frenzy about the product. The So Wrong It's Nom calendar was the brainchild of food blogger Annem Hobson - will go on sale in stores across the UK from 9th November, priced at £8. It features 24 individually wrapped 20g pieces of cheese with a "cheesy" joke or serving suggestion behind each door. The idea gained traction last year when she shared images of her prototype online. The idea was so popular that 11,000 people registered an intention to buy within four days. The price was estimated to be between £20 and £25 when in development but through working with Norseland they got the price down to £8 to make it more affordable. The packaging allows one half to be torn off after the first 12 days of Christmas to maximise fridge space.

Cheese Advent