Commercial news round-up: Uber, Ryanair, green energy, Jaffa Cakes
updated on 28 September 2017
This week has been punctuated by political speechifying, with economic theory taking centre stage. At the Labour party conference on Wednesday, Jeremy Corbyn declared the end of neoliberal economics and announced that Labour will require “big businesses to pay more tax”, while Theresa May is expected today to include in her speech to the Bank of England that “a strong and properly regulated free-market economy is the only way to guarantee higher living standards”. And the Brexit talks continue, with no real sense of them ever ending… For more business news that should be on your radar, read on:
- TfL announced last week that it would not renew Uber’s London private hire operator licence, calling the company “not fit and proper” and citing concerns that included its failure to conduct background checks on drivers and other dubious employment practices. Uber’s CEO has since apologised for its “mistakes” in an open letter, agreed that “the company must change” and is seeking a meeting with TfL to find a way forward.
- Ryanair has had a similarly bad week, with news that it was cancelling 18,000 flights on 34 routes, affecting 400,000 customers. The Civil Aviation Authority is bringing an enforcement action against the airline for “persistently misleading passengers” about their rights, which will add to the compensation that it will have to pay to those affected. The CAA is said to be “furious” with the airline, and its share price has taken a not-unexpected dip.
- In more cheerful news, the summer of 2017 was the greenest ever recorded in terms of energy use and generation. Analysis by National Grid of power generation showed that a combination of solar, wind and nuclear – and an absence of coal – pushed carbon emissions to their lowest level yet.
- Another week, another shocking example of shrinkflation – this time, the beloved Jaffa Cake. It’s not getting smaller, but there will now be only 10, not 12, in a pack. McVities has said that it will also drop the recommended retail price, hoping to soften the blow for consumers.
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