Self-appointed anti-disinformation groups threaten freedom of speech
Partly funded at one time by the British government, the GDI engages in 'shadow banning'. Sir Paul Marshall, the hedge fund manager and owner of The Spectator, highlighted the dangers of what he termed the 'misinformation industry' in a lecture on Tuesday. Sir Paul's targets were the
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Telegraph
9 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Post Office victims ‘to wait three more years for payouts'
Victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal could wait another three years for compensation, lawyers have warned. Many victims of the scandal are still awaiting full redress, as one of the final reports from the long-running inquiry – looking at the impact on those who had their lives destroyed and compensation – is set to be published on Tuesday. More than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongfully prosecuted by the Post Office between 1999 and 2015 after faulty Horizon software made it look as though money was missing from the business accounts. The previous Conservative government said those who had their convictions quashed were eligible for £600,000 payouts – with victims such as Amanda and Norman Barber accepting the fixed offer. Despite losing their business and home, the couple, from Warrington, said they found it 'almost impossible' to provide the details required to have their case individually assessed so did not want to risk 'getting less'. Unexplained shortfalls in their accounts at Thelwall Post Office eventually led to them being prosecuted over a deficit of £5,600 – despite using around £200,000 of their own money to attempt to balance the books. Both received a community order of 12 months and 100 hours' community service. Missing evidence Speaking about the redress process, Mrs Barber, 55, said: 'We were being asked to produce evidence we simply couldn't get our hands on with regards to our losses as we are talking going back 15 years. 'We found it almost impossible to provide the details needed to go down the route of having our case individually assessed. 'It just didn't seem worth it. I think sub-postmasters are still being left in an impossible situation when it comes to seeking true and full redress. 'Given the time it would take we simply couldn't risk a full assessment and getting less, particularly because the lack of documents we had. 'It got to the stage where, when the £600,000 was offered, it seemed the best way to bring years of torture to an end.' Redress has been a key issue for sub-postmasters since the scandal came to light, with many finding the various compensation schemes difficult to navigate. Lead campaigner Sir Alan Bates previously described the various processes as 'quasi-kangaroo courts', telling The Sunday Times that the Department for Business and Trade 'sits in judgment of the claims and alters the goal posts as and when it chooses'. The chairman of the Horizon IT inquiry, Sir Wyn Williams, is due to publish his findings on redress on Tuesday. Mrs Barber, who will join other sub-postmasters in attending the report's publication event, said: 'We feel we just need to be there to hear what is said. 'Lives were ruined and compensation has been made too hard to get, and too little by far.' One law firm involved in securing redress for victims, Hudgell Solicitors, said it still had more than 700 compensation cases to resolve. Solicitor Neil Hudgell said the firm had agreed damages for more than 300 people, totalling £170 million, but said the redress process had 'far too much red tape to get through'. He said: 'We have seen inconsistencies between the various compensation schemes, which remain over-engineered and over-legalistic, with far too much red tape to get through. 'There has also been a repeated failure to give the benefit of the doubt to sub-postmasters in appropriate circumstances. 'It's made it far too long a process for so many people who have been through so much, and are now in the latter stages of their lives. 'It has been re-traumatising for many, and increasing numbers are sadly passing away without seeing redress.' Addressing how long it could take for all claims to be settled, the solicitor added: 'At the current speed, we are looking at another two to three years.' Mr Hudgell said one client who was initially offered £50,000 has seen their offer rise to £500,000. He added: 'It is not a one-off glitch, but a stark illustration of a very common issue. 'It has been a painful process for all, and ended with a new appeals process being confirmed earlier this year, in recognition that many people had been under-compensated.' In a statement, the Department for Business and Trade said: 'We are grateful for the Inquiry's work, which has revealed the immeasurable suffering that victims of the scandal have endured. 'This Government has quadrupled the total amount paid to affected postmasters to provide them with full and fair redress, with more than £1 billion having now been paid to over 7,300 claimants.'
Times
13 minutes ago
- Times
Property flipping hits lowest level in a decade after tax raid
The number of homes flipped by property investors is at its lowest level in 12 years as it becomes harder to make any kind of profit. Homes bought and sold within a year accounted for 2.3 per cent of all sales in the first three months of the year, the lowest proportion since 2013, according to the estate agency Hamptons. It found that that 7,301 properties were flipped between January and March in England and Wales, well below the ten-year average of 10,000 homes per quarter. The average gross profit made on these properties was £22,000, an increase of £6,000 on the same period last year but down from £38,000 in 2022. It comes after Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, raised the stamp duty surcharge on additional properties from to 3 per cent to 5 per cent in her budget in October. The property value threshold at which you start paying stamp duty was also lowered in April, meaning bigger bills for all homebuyers, when temporary reliefs introduced by Liz Truss in 2022 ended. Aneisha Beveridge from Hamptons, said: 'The 5 per cent surcharge for investors, coupled with the value at which buyers start paying stamp duty being reduced, means it's harder than ever to make the sums stack up.' 'The extra 5 per cent stamp duty surcharge for those buying additional properties comes on top of the rates that apply for main homes — these are 2 per cent on the value of a property between £125,001 and £250,000 and 5 per cent for the amount between £250,001 and £925,000. From £925,001 to £1.5 million the charge is 10 per cent, and above that it is 12 per cent. The 5 per cent surcharge does not apply on properties worth less than £40,000. The stamp duty surcharge on additional properties was introduced in April 2016 under the Conservative government. Before this, an investment property could be bought at the same stamp duty rate as one bought by an owner occupier, with an average of £1,900 paid per property in the first three months of 2015. The average was £6,375 in the first three months of this year. Hamptons calculated that on properties flipped in the first three months of the year, stamp duty had lost owners 21 per cent of the average gross profit. In April the property value threshold at which buyers start paying stamp duty fell from £250,000 to £125,000 — for first-time buyers it fell from £425,000 to £300,000. This has heaped further costs on property investors, with the average stamp duty bill for someone buying an additional property now £11,920. • UK house prices fall as stamp duty hits demand Beveridge said: 'If you take into account the new thresholds, stamp duty bills for property investors account for nearly a third of gross profits. And in some cases, these bills are now higher than the cost of renovating the property. 'This, together with rising material and labour costs and, in some places, falling house prices, makes flipping homes an increasingly tricky business.' According to Hamptons, 80 per cent of homes flipped between January and March were sold for more than they were bought for, but only 66 per cent made a profit once stamp duty was accounted for. This didn't include any spending on renovations. • Should landlords get more tax breaks? The northeast is the area with the highest proportion of homes being flipped, with about 4.7 per cent of all homes sold being those bought less than a year before. This was nearly double the average for England and Wales of 2.3 per cent, and three times the 1.5 per cent of flipped homes in London. The three local authorities with the highest proportion of flipped properties were all in the northeast. Redcar and Cleveland was highest with 7.6 per cent, then Co Durham with 6.6 per cent and Hartlepool with 6.5 per cent. Only one of the top 20 local authorities for flipped homes was in the south of England — Torridge in the Devon. Beveridge said: 'These rising upfront costs have pushed investors further north, where properties can still be bought without paying any stamp duty. It's also where more house price growth has been concentrated over the past few years.'
Times
13 minutes ago
- Times
Business live: Trump to send out tariff letters at noon
Alpha Group International, the London-listed financial services group chaired by Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia, has extended the deadline for a firm offer from US rival Corpay. The company said it has 'held constructive discussions with Corpay, which are advancing, and believes that it is in the best interests of shareholders to continue this engagement'. The Takeover Panel has consented to moving the deadline from today until July 24. Corpay is a S&P 500 company. It has been in discussion with Alpha about a possible cash deal since May. PHP: The healthcare real estate investment trust has reported 'improving rental growth and stabilisation in yields', which it claimed underpinned valuation growth and was further evidence of an inflexion point in the cycle. Last month, the board of PHP recommended that shareholders accept a cash and share takeover bid from rival Assura, which then valued the business at £1.79 billion, dropping its previous recommendation for a rival bid from KKR and Stonepeak, the American private equity firms. Shell: In a brief trading update before publishing second-quarter results at the end of the month, the oil company said that 'trading and optimisation' revenues are expected to be significantly lower than in the first three months of the year. Plus500: The online trading group has reported a 4 per cent rise in revenue to $415.1 million in the six months to the end of June. The FTSE 250 group said it would announce new shareholder returns, comprising dividends and share buybacks, alongside interim results in August. The UK housing market was steady in June, with house price growth flat compared to a dip of 0.3 per cent in May, figures from mortgage lender Halifax showed. The average property price is now £296,665 compared to £296,782 last month. The annual rate of growth edged down to 2.5 per cent from 2.6 per cent in May. Amanda Bryden, Halifax's head of mortgages, said: 'The market's resilience continues to stand out and, after a brief slowdown following the spring stamp duty changes, mortgage approvals and property transactions have both picked up, with more buyers returning to the market Halifax said first-time buyer numbers have returned to pre-stamp duty change levels. Last week, rival mortgage lender Nationwide reported that house prices fell by the most in more than two years in June as an increase in stamp duty costs dampened demand. Property prices fell by 0.8 per cent month-on-month to £271,619. The annual rate of house price growth slowed to 2.1 per cent in June, from 3.5 per cent a month earlier. US President Donald Trump has announced that tariff letters or deals with multiple countries will be delivered later said on his social media platform Truth Social: 'I am pleased to announce that the UNITED STATES TARIFF Letters, and/or Deals, with various Countries from around the World, will be delivered starting 12:00 P.M. (Eastern), Monday, July 7th. Thank you for your attention to this matter! DONALD J. TRUMP, President of The United States of America.'Stock markets slipped in Asia amid concerns about the lack of detail. The dollar weakened against a basket of currencies. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNN yesterday that Trump was going to be sending letters to some trading partners saying that 'if you don't move things along, then on August 1 you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level'. The president announced a 10 per cent base tariff rate on most countries in April and higher 'reciprocal' rates ranging up to 50 per cent, with an original deadline of this Wednesday. However, he also said levies could range in value from 'maybe 60 per cent or 70 per cent', and threatened an extra 10 per cent on countries aligning themselves with the 'anti-American policies' of the BRICS group of Brazil, Russia, India and China.
