Leicester saree shop announces closure after more than 50 years
The team behind the shop also paid tribute to staff and customers in a message posted online on Wednesday.The statement added: "The Golden Mile is losing more than a shop. It's losing a cornerstone of culture and community."
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BBC News
8 minutes ago
- BBC News
NatWest bank chief predicts upturn for Scottish business
There are signs of growing optimism in Scotland's mid-market firms, according to the boss of the company that handles much of their Bank of Scotland, part of NatWest Group, says travel and tourism are showing notable signs of improvement in their outlook, despite the increased cost of payroll tax and the minimum shaft of brighter sunlight comes from technology and telecoms - but for manufacturing, June brought another month of negative Thwaite, chief executive of the NatWest Group, is referring to the firm's monthly business monitor, which draws on data from its customer base. That includes more than 100,000 Scottish business chief executive is in Scotland for two weeks to hear from those customers and from some of his 11,500 staff north of the border, covering bigger cities and a visit to Orkney. On Friday, he visited the windfarm near Eaglesham built by one of the bank's bigger clients, Scottish Power. At an accelerator unit for business start-ups, overlooking Glasgow's iconic statue of Wellington with traffic cone, he heard from the companies using NatWest facilities and offered advice to take their ideas to the next stage and one such group, all of them agree that they have to go to London for Mahapatra, 21, is fresh out of St Andrews University with an economics degree. For four years, he's been running his company, Augmentum, that links health and wellness firms with influencers. Almost all of his staff have to be in a charge also levelled at NatWest. With its name change from Royal Bank of Scotland, only retaining that brand for Scottish customers, this felt like confirmation that executive power resided in London. Thwaite, 53, is from Liverpool and a graduate of Manchester is married to a Fifer and worked in Edinburgh during his 30s. So he's alert to the risks of seeming too London-centric, reeling off the stats that suggest otherwise."Two million retail customers or households, one in three businesses, almost a third of all of our UK staff," he says. "That gives you a sense of the importance of Scotland to the NatWest Group. We are very committed."That may become more apparent in 2027, when Royal Bank of Scotland marks its 300th anniversary. There's thought already going into telling that story of heritage, while trying to look to the marks two years since he was phoned in the middle of the night with the chairman's invitation to take on the top job. Dame Alison Rose, had been forced to quit, after discussing the personal account of Nigel Farage with the BBC's business unhappy incident is not, says her successor, the reason why he's kept a low public profile, saying little to the media beyond discussion of NatWest's financial reports. His people tell me this is his first broadcast interview other than those quarterly results days. It's for radio and online but he's not for talking on most recent such results day, covering the first half of this year, had a strong set of figures. Pre-tax operating profit was up 18% on last year, to £3.6bn. The bank's share price is looking a lot been paid nearly £5m last year, it could see the chief executive get closer to his bonus-laden potential of £7.8m this guidance to markets that the next set of figures will be better than expected, Thwaite argues that his strategy - disciplined growth, simplification and a focus on risk management - is proving right and paying while he would prefer to talk about the future, the memory of another of his predecessors, Fred Goodwin, is stalking the Edinburgh International Festival as a morality tale and tragedy, borrowing from ancient Greece, of greed, power, pride and nemesis. With screen star Brian Cox in a leading role on stage and in Festival publicity, it's hard to avoid the reminders of the Fred Goodwin story, nearly 17 years on."It was relatively early in my career," Thwaite recalls. He was working in Edinburgh, with UK business customers. "I didn't know Fred personally. The bank had expanded significantly during that time. And the UK bank was actually not dissimilar to what it is now - a very strong retail bank, a very strong business bank."And a very bloated and vulnerable international and investment bank."I was shocked and surprised," he said."What it taught me was how important a role banks play in the economy and for customers, and when things go wrong how impactful that can be on communities, on society and on countries."Those who were young and in financial services at that time, and I include myself, have been shaped by the financial crisis. "The way we think about banking now, how the regulators and government think about banking is very different."Thwaite added: "I feel a great sense of responsibility to ensure that the bank is run in a thoughtful, safe, informed way... to learn the lessons from the past and run the bank really well for our customers and also for our colleagues, because they have been incredibly loyal over the last 16 or 17 years, for which I'm very grateful." Just over a fifth of staff have remained with RBS/NatWest since the crisis. For them, he says, the sale in May of the final tranche of UK government shares, having once held 82% of them, was an important symbolic doesn't change the strategy, but it does give the bank more vulnerability to takeover bids and more freedom to take over others. Recent acquisitions have included parts of Sainsbury's Bank and Metro further mergers and acquisitions 'probable', Thwaite says NatWest's market valuation is a deterrent against opportunities to acquire would be approached carefully and in a disciplined way, and would have to beat the return on internal opportunities to invest, in technology for instance. Branch closures Artificial intelligence carries a threat to finance sector jobs, but the bank boss says it's being used to do routine tasks that free up staff time for talking with customers, while helping to root out fraud and financial crime."For AI, it's still relatively early days," he says. "I see it as complementing our brilliant colleagues, but I think we'll know more over the next five or six years."There's a block on further branch closures, but only until next year. Now down to 68 Scottish branches plus bank vans, Thwaite sounds keen to retain that visibility."The successful banks of the future will combine very strong physical presence and service from bank colleagues at real moments of truth - whether that's buying a home, buying a business, buying new premises, but combined with brilliant digital experience, because our customers want and expect that."I think it's important we play a very active role in communities and I want our people to be visible and effective in them."With that, he's off to Aberdeen and Orkney, to see the islands' flying branch and to listen to the oil and gas tax weighs heavily on his customers, he says, as does the threat of further increases at the next Westminster budget."That's definitely in business owners' minds and at board tables," he says, with a message for Chancellor Rachel Reeves. "The role of business, the role of financial services needs to be at the heart of that growth agenda. "Our role is to ensure that we're supporting businesses who have growth aspirations, and I think it's very important that the policy agenda is supportive of that."
BBC News
8 minutes ago
- BBC News
Bingley Victorian lodge sale to ease council's budget woes
A derelict lodge at the entrance to a Grade II listed park is to go under the hammer to help a council address its budget of Wales Park Lodge, in Bingley, was built in the 1880s as accommodation for a park keeper and is owned by Bradford building has been vacant for a number of years and was recently listed as one of over 150 assets the council planned to sell off, in a bid to balance its lodge and its gardens are set to be auctioned online on 26 August by Pugh, with a guide price of £160,000. Bradford Council is one of 30 local authorities across England to have been given "exceptional" financial support by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).The city has been on the financial brink for the past two years and narrowly staved off bankruptcy last March, following an emergency package from to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the listing for the lodge describes it as "a rare renovation project" located at the south-western boundary of the Prince of Wales also points out that the lodge and its gardens are classed as "a village green". Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
The Sun
8 minutes ago
- The Sun
Sky Sports slashes subscription price with new ‘saver' deal as Premier League 2025/26 kicks off
SKY Sports has slashed its subscription price ahead of the Premier League 2025/26. The incredible 'saver' deal comes as a boost for sports lovers - but there is a catch. 4 4 The Sky NOW service offers incredible channels to its users and has three main packages. Viewers can either subscribe to the Entertainment, Cinema or Sports packages. The Sports package is a perennial favourite, since it gives fans access to the Premier League, Formula 1, rugby, golf, NFL and cricket. Normally costing £34.99 per month, the subscription price has been slashed to £28. The discount on Sky's NOW streaming service does come with an important caveat though. You'll have to sign up to a 12-month contract for the service. That means that, once you've signed up to the deal, you are locked in for the whole year. Even if you cancel the contract before the end of the year, you will still be charged. Sky is still offering its regular £34.99 membership on a monthly rate. However, the new deal allows you to save £6.99 per month - which is a huge saving of £83.88 per year. Alternatively, the £14.99 day membership lets you watch Sky Sports for 24 hours at a time. The news comes as football teams and their fans gear up for one of the most exciting Premier Leagues yet. However, a supercomputer thinks it might have already guessed the ending of the tournament. The incredible piece of tech simulated the campaign 10,000 times and it's bad news for several fan favourite teams. According to the supercomputer, Man City will come in third place with 70 points, following Arsenal who will come in second with 72 points. All the way down at 14th place, Tottenham are expected to get 49 points. Meanwhile, one club is expected to sweep to first place - clinching the title by just one point. The computer says that the winning club this year is going to be Liverpool. The numbers were crunched by statisticians at Opta, a leading data company. 4 4
