Cramlington Concoria Leisure Centre £500k leaky roof fund
Speaking at the cabinet meeting, portfolio holder for leisure services Wendy Pattison said: "We fully recognise that our council investment into sport and leisure is an investment into the health and wellbeing of our residents."Flat roofs can be very difficult and this one is now leaking in several places."The replacement will be funded from the council's Concordia capital improvement budget, reports the Local Democracy Reporting service.The pot includes £300,000 of unallocated funding, the cabinet heard, which could be used if the project goes over budget.
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Times
22 minutes ago
- Times
Sosandar downgrades profit forecast after M&S hack dented sales
A clothing retailer for 'fashion-conscious' women has downgraded its profit forecast by more than half after the cyberattack on Marks & Spencer, its second-biggest stockist, dented sales. Shares in Sosandar dropped 20 per cent after it warned that the disruption to third-party partner sales caused by the M&S hack would persist 'at least until August'. The retailer, whose dresses have been worn by television presenters Fearne Cotton and Holly Willoughby, said there had been no sales via M&S since mid-April, when the breach forced the high street giant to halt online clothing deliveries. M&S's bosses do not expect operations to be fully back up and running before the end of next month, three months after the attack. • UK lacks resources to deal with cyberattacks, says M&S chairman 'This, alongside the decision to focus on the existing store portfolio and pausing on opening more stores for now, means that we are taking a prudent view of our full-year outturn,' Sosandar said. Sosandar now expects revenue to grow by 18 per cent this year to £43.6 million, with pre-tax profit forecast at £400,000. This is down from its earlier projection of £46.2 million in revenue and £1.5 million in profit. The business was founded in 2015 by Alison Hall, a former Look magazine editor, and Julie Lavington, its former publishing director, who believed that the high street was failing to meet the fashion needs of women. Sosandar listed on Aim, London's junior stock market, in 2017 through a reverse takeover of Orogen, a former goldminer. Until last year it sold clothing solely online and via partnerships with retailers including Sainsbury's, M&S and Next. The business based in Wilmslow, Cheshire, began opening bricks-and-mortar shops last year. It currently operates six, mainly in affluent market towns and cities. The company said it would focus on making its existing stores profitable before opening more, and remains cash generative with £8 million on hand. Like many fashion retailers, Sosandar has been affected by slowing discretionary spending amid the cost of living crisis. It reported a fall in annual revenue from £46.3 million to £37.1 million in the year to March 31, which it attributed to a 'deliberate transition away from price promotional activity to improve gross margin'. Adjusted pre-tax profit turned positive at £200,000, compared with a £300,000 loss the previous year, although audited results showed a small overall loss due to stock writedowns and one-off costs related to relocating its warehouse. The company reported a 15 per cent revenue rise in the first quarter of the current year, with its own website driving growth despite disruptions at M&S. 'We believe we are now at an inflection point, with the foundations laid for profitable, cash-generative growth,' Hall and Lavington said in a joint statement. 'We will continue to leverage our brand equity and scale the business through multiple channels, and are excited for what lies ahead for Sosandar.' Shares in the company fell 1¾p, or 21.9 per cent, to close at 6¼p on Tuesday. The stock has fallen by about 50 per cent over the past five years.
The Guardian
30 minutes ago
- The Guardian
BBC to look at overhauling licence fee as 300,000 more households stop paying
A further 300,000 households have stopped paying the licence fee, as the BBC said it was looking at overhauling the payment to secure the corporation's future 'for the long term'. As the broadcaster continues to battle the rise of YouTube and streaming services that have split audiences across numerous platforms, its annual report revealed 23.8m licences were in force at the end of the year, down from 24.1m in 2023-24. The drop means a loss of about £50m in revenue for the corporation. It comes with the government and BBC bosses starting discussion of the future of the BBC and its funding as part of the process to renew its charter. Both sides have suggested changes to the licence fee. However, BBC senior executives have set red lines around any move to a subscription or ad-based service as used by their streaming competitors. The pace of change within the media world is so great that Samir Shah, the BBC chair, said in the report it was a 'moment of real jeopardy for the sector'. 'The fight is on, and it is vital we now think very carefully about the kind of media environment we want for the UK,' he said, adding he was searching for 'the best future funding model for the BBC'. 'I have already set out some views on this and the board will be saying more over the coming months,' he said. 'But all of us are clear that we want to make sure we protect the BBC as a universal service and help it not just to survive, but thrive, for a generation and more.' Licence fee income increased slightly year on year, totalling £3.8bn in 2024-25. However, the small rise was down to the 6.7% inflationary increase in the fee to £169.50 a year. 'The current collection method remains fair, effective, and good value for money,' the report said. 'As we approach the end of the charter, we will proactively research how we might reform the licence fee to secure the benefits of a well-resourced, universal BBC of scale for the long term.' The BBC annual report also showed that, for the last time, the former Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker remained the highest-paid BBC star last year before he left the corporation in May. His earnings were about £1.3m. The next highest paid was Zoe Ball, with earnings of just over £500,000 last year. After scandals including the departure of the disgraced presenter Huw Edwards, Shah said much work had been done to improve the culture in the BBC. 'Our staff are dedicated, hard-working and treat each other with respect,' he said. 'However, there are pockets in the organisation where this is not the case. There are still places where powerful individuals – on and off-screen – can abuse that power to make life for their colleagues unbearable.' Following the Guardian's disclosure that the BBC is considering a major outsourcing project involving the help of big tech, Tim Davie, the corporation's director general, said his plans would 'require the BBC to continue to deliver reform, and to accelerate the rapid organisational transformation that has been under way in recent years'. 'We have already used gen AI to increase the value we offer audiences with initiatives such as adding subtitles to programmes on BBC Sounds, translating content into different languages on BBC News, and creating live text pages for football matches,' he said. He added that the BBC had maintained 'its near-universal reach in the face of fast-changing audience behaviours and the pressures of a highly competitive global media market'. The BBC has been trying to boost its finances and its commercial arm recorded a record revenue of £2.16bn, driven by growth in the BritBox product that lets overseas customers watch BBC content. The licensing of the Bluey brand was also a money spinner. Despite younger audiences moving away from traditional TV, the BBC argued it was performing strongly among them compared with other traditional channels. Among under-16s, it is only behind YouTube in terms of most-used UK media. It is level pegging with Netflix and ahead of Disney. Among 16- to 34-year-olds it is only behind YouTube and just ahead of Facebook and Instagram.
The Independent
35 minutes ago
- The Independent
Housebuilders' £100m offer after probe ‘definitely looks dodgy', Parliament told
An agreement by seven housebuilders to pay a record £100 million to help fund affordable new homes after an investigation into concerns they shared commercially sensitive information 'definitely looks dodgy', Parliament has been told. Critics at Westminster suggested the developers made the offer to halt the investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) 'into potentially illegal collusion … that could have inflated house prices'. They argued the Government should insist on the watchdog completing its probe. Assurances were also sought that the housebuilders at the centre of the inquiry would not be involved in building the affordable homes funded by the payout, which would see the firms 'simply get their money back'. The CMA announced last week that Barratt Redrow, Bellway, Berkeley Group, Bloor Homes, Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey and Vistry had offered the payment as part of a package of commitments to address concerns following the investigation, which was launched last year. The settlement, which is set to go into affordable housing programmes across the UK, would be the largest ever secured by the CMA through commitments from firms under investigation. The CMA will now consult on the commitments until July 24 and, if accepted, it will mean the regulator does not need to rule on whether the companies broke competition law. As well as the payment, the housebuilders have agreed legally binding commitments not to share commercially sensitive information with rivals, such as the prices that houses were sold for, except in 'limited circumstances', the CMA said. They also agreed to work with the Home Builders Federation and Homes for Scotland to develop industry-wide guidance on information sharing. The firms have said the offer of voluntary commitments does not mean they admit any wrongdoing. Speaking in the House of Lords, housing minister Baroness Taylor of Stevenage said: 'The £100 million additional funding proposed for affordable housing will mean more families can benefit from a safe and secure home.' But Liberal Democrat Baroness Thornhill, a vice president of the Local Government Association, said: 'There could be an alternative version to this – major housebuilders pay £100 million to halt the CMA's investigation into potential illegal collusion through the sharing of competitively sensitive information that could have inflated house prices. 'While this settlement might appear a pragmatic, cost-effective solution, would it not be more useful to have some evidence-led answers about whether the business models of the major developers are a significant factor in the slow delivery of housing? 'Therefore, should not the Government insist that the CMA actually completes its investigation, rather than allowing a financial settlement that obscures the fact and definitely looks dodgy?' Responding, Lady Taylor said: 'The CMA is continuing its work on this, and on July 9 it announced that it is consulting on its intention to accept commitments offered by the housebuilders in relation to the investigation. 'That consultation closes on July 25, and I have already set out some of the commitments that the seven companies have made. 'The £100 million payment, the largest secured through commitments from companies under investigation, will be split between affordable housing programmes across all our four nations. 'I hope that will make a significant contribution to delivering the affordable housing we all want to see.' Tory former housing minister Lord Young of Cookham said: 'If the Competition and Markets Authority confirms this £100 million payment for anti-competitive activity, can the minister give an assurance that none of the affordable homes to be built with that money will be built by the volume housebuilders responsible for this activity? Otherwise, they'll simply get their money back.' Lady Taylor said: 'I am sure that the Competition and Markets Authority, as part of its consultation, will be looking at the best way of distributing that money, so it is not just recycled to the people who caused the problem in the first place.' Liberal Democrat Lord Rennard said: 'The one-off payment of £100 million towards affordable housing is only about 3% of the operating profit of the five biggest housebuilders this year. Is this a relatively small penalty for them to pay for anti-competitive practices over many years?' Lady Taylor said: 'This is the biggest settlement ever achieved by the CMA.' She added: 'We have to consider what is appropriate in these circumstances. I am sure the CMA has done that.' A CMA spokesperson said: 'Our year-long study of the housing market found that the complex and unpredictable planning system, together with the limitations of speculative private development, was responsible for the persistent under-delivery of new homes in the UK. 'It was also clear that concerns about sharing of confidential information, while important, were not the main driver of the undersupply of housing. 'The £100 million payment we have secured for affordable housing would provide immediate benefits across the UK, without a lengthy further investigation. 'It is in line with fines levied in similar cases that have taken many years to conclude and comes alongside a set of commitments which fully addresses our competition concerns.' Bellway, which has agreed to pay £13.5 million, said: 'Bellway's offer of commitments does not constitute an admission of any wrongdoing, and the CMA has made no determination as to the existence of any infringement of competition law. 'Bellway welcomes the CMA's consultation on the voluntary commitments and will continue to work constructively with the CMA throughout the process.'
