Supermarkets 'Over-Promote' Unhealthy Food

Supermarkets are over-promoting fatty and sugary products using special offers and price reductions, according to a study.

Professor Paul Dobson, from the University of East Anglia (UEA), led a three-year study of consumer behaviour towards food and the impact on overeating and food waste.

He concluded that unhealthy foods receive too much promotion from supermarkets, and said the food industry must do more to promote healthy living.

"It is simply irresponsible for supermarkets to overly promote foods with high sugar and fat content," he said.

"The food industry must play a much greater role in promoting healthy diets.

"Food producers can do more by reducing the fat, sugar and salt content of processed foods, while food retailers can ensure that healthy and nutritious choices are available and affordable to all consumers and that they practice responsible marketing."

Prof Dobson said that if retailers and producers did not take responsibility, regulation might be needed.

Supermarket giants including Tesco and Asda were the focus of the study

Special offers are worth more than £50bn in sales to supermarkets and account for over a third of all consumer spending.

The research team analysed weekly price and nutrition data of a full range of food and drinks products sold over a year by four UK supermarkets - Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Ocado.

They found a bias towards sugary products for price promotions, while straight price discounts were on average more skewed towards unhealthy products.

Special offers also tended to be slanted towards more unhealthy products, especially those with high sugar content.

However, multi-buys were on average more biased towards healthier items.

"While price promotions can offer savings for consumers they may not be so good for our waistlines and health," he added.

"With almost a quarter of the population classed as obese, overeating and food waste are serious concerns for modern society."

Prof Dobson is outlining his findings at a lecture in London.

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Greece Made To Sweat On Bailout Funds

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has rounded on the country's lenders over the latest failure to deliver bailout funds to Athens.

Twelve hours of emergency talks in Brussels among eurozone finance ministers and representatives of the troika of lenders ended without agreement.

But they pledged to meet again next Monday "for further technical work on some elements of the package".

Greece is sweating on 31.2 billion euros (£25bn) in aid - suspended in the summer over concerns it was not meeting the conditions of its bailout programme.

In reaction, Mr Samaras said on Wednesday: "Greece did what it had committed it would do . Our partners, together with the IMF, also have to do what they have taken on to do."

The statement continued: "Any technical difficulties in finding a technical solution do not justify any negligence or delays."

While the strict spending plans imposed on Athens are now seen as back on track, one of its lenders - the International Monetary Fund - has demanded no let up in the commitments agreed by the Greeks in return for aid.

A major bone of contention is whether to give Greece, which faces a sixth year in recession, an extra two years, until 2022, to arrive at a point where it can raise its own funds.

The Eurogroup statement released after the Brussels meeting said it had "made progress in identifying a consistent package of credible initiatives aimed at making a further substantial contribution to the sustainability of Greek government debt".

Head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde added: "It was progress but we have to do a little bit more."

The IMF, which along with the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Commission (EC) form the troika overseeing the Greek bailout, has argued that if Greek debt is to be sustainable in the long run, it must be reduced to 120% of GDP by 2020.

Greece's debt burden is currently nearly 180% of GDP.

Options being considered to help Athens include recycling ECB profits on Greek bonds and lowering the interest rate Greece has to pay.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said a buyback programme of Greek debt on the market "will be carried out."

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Arcadia's Philip Green Says Time To 'Up Game'

Arcadia Group has reported 25% rise in pre-tax profit as its owner said businesses need to stop moaning about the tough economic conditions.

Sir Philip Green - whose family is ranked 17th on the Sunday Times UK rich list - said retailers had to adjust their business models to survive.

"We've got to trade. I can't keep listening to all these people making it up as they go along," Sir Philip told Reuters.

"We're here in the streets, we've got 45,000 staff, we've got a £500m payroll - we've got to make it work."

His company owns some of the high street's most recognisable chains, including Topman, Burton, Miss Selfridge, Evans and Wallis.

The 60-year-old, who has an estimated fortune of £3.3bn, said it was time for retailers to "up their game".

Earlier this month, Sir Philip joined US-based reality television stars the Kardashian sisters at the launch of their clothing collection for Arcadia brand Dorothy Perkins.

He added: "If we sit there and cry and put on my front window the Bank of England said X, it isn't going to help me take any money."

The comments come after the Bank warned of years of poor economic growth and rising prices in the UK, as consumers struggle with little wage growth and Government austerity.

Arcadia reported a pre-tax profit before one-off items of £166.9m for the year to August 25, up from £133.1m last year.

But total sales across its 2,500 UK stores and 615 outlets globally were flat at £2.68bn, while like-for-like sales fell 3.2% in the UK and 0.7% internationally.

Sir Philip said he was focused on expanding in the US and growing Arcadia's global websites.

"We have focused our efforts on being efficient in both stock management and delivering newness as regularly as possible, resulting in improved markdown and margin," he said.

The entrepreneur, who bought BHS in 2000 and Arcadia in 2002, said he had not ruled out another big acquisition if the right deal came along.

"There's sort of two or three things in my head. If they ever turned up, we'd have to look at them," he said, but would not give more details.

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Halfords Profit Down Despite Sporting Success

Halfords has reported a fall in both profit and retail sales over the last six months, as a stronger summer failed to compensate for a poor start to the year.

The cycle and car repair chain said it made a pre-tax profit before one-off items of £41.9m in the six months to September 28, compared with £54.7m over the same period last year.

Retail sales across its 460 stores and 260 repair centres slipped by 1.6% on a like-for-like basis, as stronger sales in the second quarter failed to offset the first three months' 7.5% slump.

The group said the summer's bad weather hit demand for outdoor products especially, with a 6.6% fall in sales of camping, outdoor and travel equipment.

But Halfords added that Britain's success in the Tour de France and the Olympics and Paralympics this summer also helped drive demand for cycles in particular.

Cycling like-for-like sales were up 14.7% in the second quarter, resulting in a 1.9% rise in first-half sales.

Chairman Dennis Millard said the group had made the most of 2012's sporting events.

"Our retail performance improved markedly in the second quarter after a difficult first quarter and, with a proactive trading stance, we took full advantage of the opportunities provided by the 'summer of sport'," he said in a statement.

"Our second-half retail planning assumptions remain unchanged and cautious given the prevailing pressures on the consumer as we approach the important winter and Christmas trading periods."

He added that the group maintained its full-year profit guidance of between £66m and £70m.

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Taxpayer 'Bad Bank' Eyes £800m Loans Sale

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The "bad bank" created from the remnants of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley (B&B) is preparing to sell a chunk of consumer loans worth hundreds of millions of pounds as it tries to accelerate returns to the British taxpayer.

I have learned that UK Asset Resolution (UKAR) is drawing up plans to offload around £800m of distressed loans through a sale process that could be launched in the new year.

UKAR's £2.5bn unsecured loan portfolio is largely managed by an entity called Ventura, an outsourcing supplier owned by Capita, the support services group.

The proposal for the loans sale is at an early stage, and advisers have yet to be appointed to work on it, people close to UKAR say.

Assuming a sale does proceed, it would be the second such disposal made by UKAR, following the purchase by Virgin Money of a £465m mortgage book from the taxpayer-owned vehicle in July this year.

Any proceeds would be used to pay off part of the Government's outstanding loan to UKAR, which currently stands at around £44bn.

The portfolio being earmarked for sale consists primarily of consumer loans and other impaired credit assets.

The vast majority of UKAR's balance sheet is accounted for by mortgage assets of varying quality, and running off the outstanding book is likely to take many years.

UKAR was established two years ago to combine the businesses of B&B and Northern Rock Asset Management, and has its own board of directors, led by Richard Pym, the former boss of Alliance & Leicester. UKAR has repaid about £6bn of its original loan since it was set up.

They in turn report to the management of UKFI, which was set up to oversee the taxpayer's stakes in bailed-out banks including Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland.

UKFI is understood to believe that there is value contained in the debt management expertise accumulated within UKAR, meaning that the vehicle could potentially be used to work more broadly with other companies in the private sector. That would produce an unexpected benefit from the creation of an agency that was only necessary because of the desperate state of Britain's banking system in 2008.

A UKAR spokesman declined to comment.

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Savers 'Damaged' By Government Lending Scheme

The extent to which savings rates and products are "collapsing" has been laid bare by a consumer help website.

Moneyfacts.co.uk highlights the impact of the £80bn Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) - designed to encourage banks to lend more to households and firms to help inject more life into the UK's economic recovery.

Experts suggest that while the project has done that, it has also made lenders less reliant on the need to attract savers' deposits.

The research by Moneyfacts shows how the number of savings accounts on the market and the best rates have nosedived since the scheme was launched at the start of August.

It found that the average rate being offered to savers had gone down, from 2.82% then to 2.42%.

The number of easy access accounts had also tumbled, the website suggested, from 470 when the scheme started to 441, while the best rate had dropped from 3.2% to 2.5% over the same period.

Sylvia Waycot, financial expert at Moneyfacts, said: "The immediate knock-on effect has been the collapse of savings rates across easy access, notice accounts and fixed bonds. And the devastation hasn't been limited to just the providers who have joined the FLS."

She said savings account providers that have previously developed a strategy to offer accounts that are consistently good but are not the best rates have suddenly found themselves topping "best buy" tables as others have lowered their savings rates.

She believed this had caused those providers to also slash their rates to regain middle table rankings.

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Economy: Weak Tax Receipts Stoke Borrowing

The Government borrowed more than forecast in October as a 10% fall in Corporation Tax receipts hurt Treasury coffers.

Public Sector Net Borrowing, excluding financial interventions such as bank bailouts, came in at £8.6bn.

It means that for the tax year-to-date, the total stands at £73.3bn - £5bn higher than the year before.

The Chancellor wants borrowing for the full year 2012/2013 of £120bn and the latest figures leave George Osborne facing tough choices ahead of his Autumn Statement to the Commons on December 5.

As he remains under pressure to loosen the austerity drive that his critics argue is damaging economic growth, Mr Osborne is equally squeezed on the option of imposing more spending cuts to cover weaker than expected income.

Economists suggest one of his golden rules - ensuring that the UK's debt-to-GDP ratio starts falling toward 2015 - may be abandoned.

The chances of such a move were heightened after Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King effectively endorsed it last week, on condition that the global economy was growing slowly.

The Office for National Statistics said total tax receipts were 1.8% higher at £47.5bn in October, but total expenditure rose 7.4% to £52.8bn.

Tax revenues were dragged down by corporation tax raising only £8.1bn, while spending on social benefits, such as state pensions, jumped 7.7% to £16bn.

In response a Treasury spokesman said: "The economy is healing but it still faces many challenges. These numbers illustrate that, but also show the Government's plans to bring spending under control are on track for the year."

Labour dismissed that argument, with sh adow chief secretary to the Treasury Rachel Reeves saying: "George Osborne is borrowing billions more simply to pay for the cost of his economic failure. Having failed on jobs and growth, the Government is now failing on the deficit too.

"With long-term unemployment rising and our economy flatlining, the welfare bill is now soaring while business tax receipts are down.

"By squeezing families and businesses too hard, choking off the recovery and so pushing borrowing up not down, the Government's economic plan has completely backfired.

"The Chancellor cannot rely on a short-term bailout from the Bank of England's quantitative easing scheme to get him out of his hole.

"Smoke and mirrors will fool nobody. People will want to see borrowing and debt figures without the impact of a £35bn transfer of money from the Bank of England so they can make proper comparisons and judgements."

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Cameron Vows To Protect Britain's EU Rebate

PM In Difficult EU Budget Talks

Updated: 4:14pm UK, Tuesday 20 November 2012

By Glen Oglaza, Political Correspondent

David Cameron faces an almost impossible task in Brussels this week - how to persuade 27 nations to agree a budget for the next seven years.

Especially when 17 of them are net recipients of EU funding and the European Commission is demanding a 5% budget increase.

Mr Cameron will tell the Commission that's impossible in this time of austerity, but he has few allies.

The Prime Minister will argue for a budget cut, and failing that a real-terms freeze, and believes he has the backing of the "people of Europe" who, he told the CBI, are having their "pockets picked".

But the likelihood is that the 27 will fail to agree at a summit that could go into the small hours of Saturday morning and possibly beyond.

If Mr Cameron uses the British veto, they can set annual budgets with a majority of countries agreeing, a process known as a Qualified Majority Voting.

Having lost a Commons vote and with a mandate from MPs demanding a budget cut, Mr Cameron may have no choice - he certainly has very little room for manoeuvre.

Ed Miliband, having been unable to resist the temptation to inflict a defeat on the Government, is now saying he won't let Britain "sleepwalk towards an exit from the EU".

But there is a growing feeling in Brussels, and perhaps in Paris and Berlin as well, that the UK is becoming increasingly semi-detached and may indeed be on its way out of the door.

Mr Cameron will be at pains to convince the other leaders that this is not the case and frequently makes the argument, deployed by the CBI at their conference this week, that more than half of the UK's trade is with European Union partners.

Eurosceptics like to remind us that the UK pays £10bn to the EU, while ignoring the far larger figure achieved in profits from trade or the increased international influence Britain enjoys by being part of the EU.

But Mr Cameron has to keep his own MPs happy (Ukip is waiting in the wings and mopping up disaffected Tory votes), but he is also under pressure from his Liberal Democrat coalition partners who, of course, take a very different position on Europe.

It doesn't help that senior members of his own party are wading in with helpful suggestions.

David Davies, once his rival for the leadership, is demanding not one but two referenda, the second a straight IN-OUT of the EU.

Boris Johnson, with a typically flamboyant flourish, suggested he behave more like Margaret Thatcher: "It is time for David Cameron to put on that pineapple-coloured wig and powder-blue suit, whirl his handbag round his head and bring it crashing to the table with the words, 'No, non, nein.'"

As Ken Clarke has pointed out, we seem to have a regular collective nervous breakdown when it comes to the subject of Europe but, with the expansion in the size of the Union to 27 and an unelected Commission that must be completely out-of-touch to ask for a budget increase when the citizens of Europe are suffering the effects of a global financial crisis, the real question is this: Has the EU become so large that it is now too unwieldy and setting a budget for 27 countries is simply not possible?

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UK Miner Gemfields Shells Out For Faberge

British miner Gemfields has bought the jeweller Faberge in a deal worth £89m.

One of Gemfields' own shareholders sold the Russian firm, best known for producing 50 jewelled eggs for Russian Tsars between 1885 and 1916.

The 170-year-old jeweller was relaunched in 2009 by Pallinghurst, the investment company owned by the former boss of BHP Billiton, Brian Gilbertson.

If approved, the all-share deal will allow Gemfields to break into the luxury goods market and better compete with rival De Beers, famous for its diamonds.

The new company will be able to use the gemstones it mines in its jewellery, which can then be sold under the Faberge brand name.

Gemfields' chief executive Ian Harebottle said the deal would "provide exposure to the two most profitable segments in the gemstones value chain, namely mining and consumer sales".

"Faberge is a globally recognised brand with a unique heritage, a history of excellence and a commitment to coloured gemstone products, sales and marketing," he added.

"We look forward to moving into what is a considerably larger and grander market space than that which was previously available to the Gemfields brand."

The British firm, which mainly mines emeralds through its Kagem mine in Zambia, will issue up to 214 million shares in the deal, to be paid to Faberge shareholders.

Pallinghurst - which controls Gemfields alongside partners in another investor group as well as Faberge - will own 49.3% of the combined group.

Independent shareholders will vote on the deal next month.

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Tax Avoidance: UK Missing Out On Billions

Tax Avoidance Report Is Damning

Updated: 2:47pm UK, Wednesday 21 November 2012

By Ursula Errington, Business Reporter

The National Audit Office's report on tackling marketed tax avoidance schemes is absolutely damning in its assessment of HM Revenue and Custom's effectiveness.

It is estimated that in 2010/11 the difference between the amount of tax that was collected and the amount of tax that should have been collected amounted to £32bn - £5bn of that attributable to tax avoidance.

The report makes it clear that HMRC is not doing enough to claw back that money and is not really tackling the 41,000 businesses and individuals using marketed tax avoidance schemes.

Much of the criticism is not even around the actual implementation of powers or investigative ability, it is about basic departmental management.

Apparently, HMRC does not collect information on the resources it commits to specifically tackling avoidance, it does not monitor costs of its anti-avoidance work and has not identified how to evaluate its overall anti-avoidance strategy.

When it comes to actually doing the job of identifying tax avoiders and making them pay up, the report does not get any better.

Perhaps the most brutal accusation that the National Audit Office (NAO) levels is that "HMRC has not sought to build a detailed picture of the way the market operates".

The implication being that HMRC has not done its homework and that it cannot effectively police a system it does not fully understand.

In HMRC's defence, tax avoidance - by the very nature of the fact that it is not illegal -  is devilishly difficult to combat. Schemes are sophisticated and highly contrived.

Picking through them and pursuing loopholes takes years and is extremely expensive.

The key tool HMRC has to take on marketed tax avoidance programmes is "Disclosure Of Tax Avoidance Schemes" (DOTAS), a regime requiring those that design and sell certain types of tax avoidance structures to tell HMRC about each new scheme they introduce.

HMRC say this system has enabled it to make 98 changes to tax law in the last eight years, to close loopholes.

The problem is only a few schemes have to be disclosed.

If determined promoters want to avoid disclosing a scheme, they get a lawyer to confirm that it does not need to be declared, making them immune to penalty.

Since September 2007, there were 365 enquiries into instances where it was thought a promoter had not complied with disclosure rules. Most of those concluded there was "no failure to comply".

The NAO suggests the Government needs to step up and raise the hurdle for what constitutes a "reasonable excuse" not to comply with disclosure rules.

HMRC says things are about to get better.

In Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, David Cameron repeated his boast that the Government is investing £900m to tackle tax avoidance and evasion - although they have not been specific about the timescale over which that money will be released to HMRC.

He also promised that tackling tax dodgers will be a priority for his chairmanship of the G8 from January next year.

Also, next year a new anti-avoidance rule that has been years in development will be introduced.

Tax investigators hope it will give them the ability to categorically assess and pursue schemes quickly and aggressively.

But the reality is those who design tax avoidance schemes have probably already worked out how to bend the rule and get around its wording for financial gain.

Experts argue what is needed is a "principle" rather than a "rule" - something a bit more flexible to encompass all activity where the result is fundamentally to avoid paying tax. 

HMRC is understandably on the defensive in the wake of the latest report.

A spokesman said: "HMRC has successfully challenged over 40 tax avoidance schemes through the courts in the last two years alone, successfully disrupting the avoidance industry through a combination of legal challenge and improved intelligence on new schemes, and protecting around £4bn.

"But as the avoidance landscape changes, so must our approach. The Government is building on DOTAS to give HMRC stronger powers to obtain information.

"These, together with the introduction of an anti-abuse rule in 2013 will further strengthen our anti avoidance work."

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