Mitie's boss takes £10m pay cut - but he still banks £6.5m
Mitie's boss has taken a £10m pay cut – but he still took home £6.5m.
Phil Bentley hit the jackpot when he was awarded a one-off bonus worth £11.2m at the cleaning, security and waste management group, taking his total pay in 2024 to £16.7m.
The sum was linked to Mitie's takeover of rival outsourcer Interserve's facilities management arm in 2020. The windfall was not repeated this year, meaning his pay fell to £6.5m.
Despite the huge drop Bentley, 66, has still bagged almost £40m since becoming chief executive in 2016.
Mitie was named Britain's most unequal company this week by the High Pay Centre think-tank. Bentley was paid 653 times more than the typical employee in 2024.
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BBC News
39 minutes ago
- BBC News
Wearing shorts still a 'grey area' as offices scrap dress codes
When I call Tony Hardy, it's a sunny day. As he often does during the summer months, he's wearing a pair of shorts in the office."We wear shorts all the time," he runs a branding agency in Northumberland, with nine employees. His company, Canny Creative, doesn't have a dress code. Instead he encourages staff to dress professionally but comfortably - especially because the air conditioning in their office has recently broken."Imagine sweating buckets all day and being really uncomfortable and then expecting them to also turn out great work," Tony says. What the stylists say With summer upon us, and much of Britain set to be basking in a heatwave this week and next, keeping cool in the office and during the commute can be a challenge. Take one look at TikTok, and you'll see that the topic of whether or not shorts are ever appropriate for the office remains highly in a 2022 YouGov poll, 66% of Britons said that it was acceptable for men to wear shorts in the office, up from 37% in 2016 - though the 2022 poll was conducted on the UK's hottest-ever people wear to the office has "just gone so casual" in the past few years, with more people wearing jeans and trainers to work, says personal stylist Karina Taylor. She attributes that largely to the Covid pandemic, when people could dress much more casually to work from included people wearing shorts as they worked from their kitchens or home offices, says Carmen Bellot, style editor at Esquire magazine - they no longer had to think about the bottom half of their outfits while on video-call wearing shorts to the office is still "very much a grey area", Karina says, describing them as "the ultimate casual piece of clothing". Stylists agree that whether or not you can wear shorts to the office is overwhelmingly based on context - and they're often too casual for client-facing roles such as law and professionals advise that if your company has no explicit dress code, you should monitor what your colleagues are wearing and decide whether shorts would look out of "you may be pushing the boundaries," warns Nick Hems, a personal stylist in London. What the companies say The BBC contacted a range of companies to ask if they had a formal dress code and whether shorts would be acceptable to wear to the office, if styled professionally. Many companies, including consultancy Accenture and British American Tobacco, told the BBC they don't have explicit dress codes but expect staff to dress both comfortably and professionally, and to take extra care to dress appropriately when meeting clients or attending giant PwC says it trusts staff to make "appropriate decisions" about what to wear to work. "We don't list items that people can and can't wear," a spokesperson said. Santander says both casual and business dress is acceptable for staff who aren't required to wear a uniform, but noted "anything that could be beachwear isn't okay for the office". The type of shorts So if your company does allow you to wear shorts to the office, what sort of shorts should you go for?There's a clear consensus among the experts: keep it formal - ideally tailored - and don't go too short. Beach, sports, cargo and denim shorts are generally all this isn't the case for all companies. At social media marketing agency We Are Social, some employees have even worn hot pants to work, according to managing director, Lucy Doubleday."You can wear what you want," she says, with the company seeing clothing as an expression of a similar story for CEO Tony and his team, who even wear shorts to client meetings, including when they visited London to meet staff at a major bank's headquarters in Canary Wharf."We did get really strange looks," Tony says. "Everybody there was in suits and it was boiling hot. But we're a creative agency and we went as we would go to our regular meetings." He argues that if another company has a problem with how his staff dress, they probably aren't the right fit to work together. What's right for you? Shorts might be perceived differently on men and women, stylists suggest. Carmen says that even outside the office, shorts can be "quite divisive among men," she says."When I speak to men about their opinions on shorts, they tend to say that they don't feel comfortable wearing them when not on holiday," Carmen says. "I don't think there's this type of sentiment in womenswear." Some men embrace the opportunity to get out of long trousers, though - including 46-year-old primary school headteacher, Dave McPartlin. At his school in Lancashire he spends most of the final weeks of term before the summer holidays wearing thinks it's "ridiculous" people are still discussing whether it's appropriate to wear shorts for work - and the students don't treat him any differently based on what he wears, he says. "I don't think they could care less."Diane Brander wears shorts to work sometimes, too. She says her performance in her account administration job "would probably suffer" if she was too hot in the office and unable to wear shorts, and says she finds them more comfortable than skirts and dresses. So what should you do? Karina's best advice is to only wear shorts to work if you're confident about your company's dress code and how to style them. "If in doubt, probably avoid," Karina says, "because it will cause you far too much stress to get the look right and you maybe won't feel confident about pulling it off."
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Huge high street retailer launches 20% off closing down sale ahead of store shutting for good in weeks
A HUGE high street retailer has launched a 20 per cent off going out of business sale with just weeks left until the store shuts for good. The hugely popular town centre video game shop is due to close down in a matter of weeks it has announced. 4 4 GAME, in Festival Place, Basingstoke, suddenly announced it will be closing down next month. The retailer will be holding a 20 per cent off everything closing down sale before shutting up shop for good on August 10. GAME sells a variety of video games, consoles and pop culture merchandise. The retailer came under fire recently when it cancelled pre-orders of heavily anticipated Nintendo Switch 2 consoles. Its Basingstoke location is now due to close for good with signs seen in the window announcing the closure. No reason has been given for the retailers abrupt departure from the shopping centre. Products including popular video games and Lego sets have had their stock prices reduced. Retailer GAME, which specialises in consoles, games and accessories was acquired by Frasers Group in 2019 as part of a £52 million deal. The retailer has closed a number of locations across the UK in recent months. Signs in the window of the Basingstoke store read: "This store will cease trading on 10th August. Why are so many shops going bust? "Please shop online at A number of GAME stores have closed with some being converted into concessions within Sports Direct and other Frasers Group stores. Locals have been left disappointed by the news of the Basingstoke location's closure. Following Frasers Group acquiring GAME in 2019 significant restructuring and downsizing of the video game retailer has commenced. While plans don't indicate that the stores will disappear from the British high street completely many locations are expected to close. 4 4 Downfall of GAME Game was acquired by billionaire businessman Mike Ashley's Frasers Group in 2019 as part of a £52million deal. However, by January 2020, the retailer announced plans to close 40 of its more than 300 stores across the UK. Today, there are approximately 240 Game stores operating nationwide. This decline comes amid a significant drop in sales of physical video games, compared to Game's heyday in the early 2000s. The Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA) revealed that in 2022, nearly 90 per cent of all video games sold in the UK were digital downloads. Why are retailers closing stores? RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis. High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going. However, additional costs have added further pain to an already struggling sector. The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs from April will cost the retail sector £2.3billion. At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40. The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year. It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year. Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: "The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025." It comes after almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs in 2024. End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research showed the number of job losses spiked amid the collapse of major chains such as Homebase and Ted Baker. It said its latest analysis showed that a total of 169,395 retail jobs were lost in the 2024 calendar year to date. This was up 49,990 – an increase of 41.9% – compared with 2023. It is the highest annual reading since more than 200,000 jobs were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns. The centre said 38 major retailers went into administration in 2024, including household names such as Lloyds Pharmacy, Homebase, The Body Shop, Carpetright and Ted Baker. Around a third of all retail job losses in 2024, 33% or 55,914 in total, resulted from administrations. Experts have said small high street shops could face a particularly challenging 2025 because of Budget tax and wage changes. Professor Bamfield has warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector. "By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer's household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020."
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
What war in the Middle East means for your money
The conflict between Israel and Iran is the latest geopolitical shock set to hamper the outlook for the UK economy — and, ultimately, your bank balance. Since the attacks began on June 12, the price of oil has risen to a six-month high. Hopes for interest rate cuts have been dashed, fears of rising inflation have been amplified, and any respite from stock market turmoil appears to have been short-lived. • Read more money advice and tips on investing from our experts This week the prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, said: 'I'm always concerned about the effect of international issues on people back at home. You saw with Ukraine the direct impact it had on energy bills. Equally, with this conflict, you can see the effect it's having on the economy, particularly on the price of energy.' From petrol prices to pension pots, here's what you need to know: Iran is the third-largest oil producer among the 12 members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), and there are worries about how a wider regional war could affect the transport of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, which accounts for about 25 per cent of seaborne crude oil transportation, according to the consultancy Capital Economics. The price of a barrel of Brent crude hit a six-month high of about $78 after Israeli attacks on Iran began, up from about $65 at the start of this month. That is bound to have a knock-on effect on motorists, said David Oxley from Capital Economics: 'A rough rule of thumb is that a $10 rise in the oil price will add about 7p to the price at the pump.' It normally takes about two weeks for oil prices to feed into pump prices, Oxley said. Motorists have, however, had some recent respite from the cost of living crisis as petrol and diesel prices hit their lowest in almost four years. Petrol cost an average of 132p a litre last month, the lowest since July 2021, while diesel was at 138p, the lowest since September 2021, according to the motoring organisation the RAC. While prices are likely to rise, they are not expected to reach the high of March 2022, when Russia's invasion of Ukraine caused the oil price to reach $127 per barrel. The price in sterling peaked in July of that year at more than £100 with pump prices hitting 192p per litre for petrol and 199p per litre for diesel. More than a million homeowners whose fixed deals come to an end this year may have their hopes of further interest rate cuts dashed. The lowest two-year fix was 3.72 per cent last month, but rates are starting to tick up again, according to the property portal Rightmove. The lowest two-year deal is now 3.82 per cent from Lloyds Bank for those with a Club Lloyds account. The lowest five-year fixed rate has gone from 3.78 per cent to 3.88 per cent, also from Lloyds. Lenders had been cutting mortgage rates to compete for business, but changed tack after inflation went from 2.6 per cent for the year to March to 3.5 per cent in April. This makes cuts to the Bank of England base rate less likely — the Bank generally keeps the rate high when inflation is above its target of 2 per cent. The Consumer Prices Index inflation figure for the year to May, released this week, was 3.4 per cent. Uncertainty around President Trump's trade tariffs and conflict in the Middle East has also dampened hopes of further base rate cuts. The Bank held rates at 4.25 per cent this week, which, although a lot higher than the sub 2 per cent rates many mortgage holders will have fixed at three or five years ago, is down from the peak of 5.25 per cent in August last year. Fixed mortgage rates are based on swap rates (the rates at which banks lend to each other, which are in turn based on forecasts of where Bank rate is expected to be in the future), which have edged up over the past week or so, suggesting that mortgage rates could follow. Homeowners who want certainty can lock in a new deal up to six months before theirs ends yet still swap if a cheaper deal comes along. Rising oil prices could also cause other expenses to creep up, particularly if the Iran conflict continues or escalates. Lotanna Emediegwu, an economics lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, said that prolonged conflict could drive up energy bills. The price cap that limits how much suppliers can charge customers on standard variable tariffs will work out at an average bill of £1,720 a year for gas and electricity from July 1 (down 7 per cent from today's cap). At the moment analysts expect the cap to go up 2 to 3 per cent in October, but this could change dramatically. He said: 'Until recently, fuel prices had been rising less than other things, so actually mitigating some inflationary pressures. The recent conflict is expected to reverse this trend. 'The financial repercussions extend beyond immediate energy costs into transportation and logistics. Transport expenses are particularly vulnerable to fluctuations in fuel prices. This affects everything from airline fares to shipping costs for products, ultimately hitting consumer prices.' Before June 12, when Israel launched strikes on Iran, inflation had been expected to rise to 3.5 per cent by the autumn — now it could go further. A sustained $10 per barrel rise in the oil price typically pushes up annual inflation by 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points, according to The Economist, meaning that it could be closer to 3.7 per cent by September. Emediegwu said a prolonged blockade of the Strait of Hormuz shipping route could add a further 0.5 to 1 percentage points, which could take it close to 5 per cent. So far the stock market has been fairly resilient to the conflict in the Middle East. The UK's FTSE 100 is down about 0.77 per cent since the turmoil started, while the US's S&P 500 is down about 1.06 per cent. If a sustained conflict leads to an increase in the price of oil, stock valuations may fall — this is because higher oil prices lead to higher inflation, which means interest rates are likely to stay higher for longer, which makes it more expensive for companies to borrow money to grow and often curbs investors' risk appetite. Losers are likely to include airline and travel stocks, as well as so-called growth stocks, which include technology and healthcare companies. Many investors will have exposure to the US 'Magnificent Seven' tech stocks of Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Tesla, Amazon, Meta and Nvidia. These companies are often valued on their future earnings potential, which means their stock price can be volatile if company results or wider economic conditions point towards a slowdown of earnings. The good news is that Iran and Israel are a very limited part of the global stock market, so direct exposure for most UK investors will be immaterial. However, Michael Field from the research firm Morningstar said that the risk is that wider markets get jittery about the potential for the conflict to escalate further. Investors should avoid making any kneejerk changes to their portfolio. Ultimately, while geopolitical tensions may create short-term turmoil, historically markets have been resilient in the long term. Jacob Falkencrone from the investment bank Saxo said: 'As an investor, your greatest tool is a disciplined approach — staying informed, remaining calm and focusing on your long-term investment goals rather than reacting impulsively to temporary shocks.'
