Strikes have been breaking out at oil refineries throughout the UK this morning with more than 1,000 workers walking out in sympathy with a mass protest against the use of foreign workers.

Hundreds gathered on the third day of the original strike at Lindsay oil refinery in Immingham, North Lincolnshire, after owner Total negotiated a £200 million contract with an Italian firm.

Around 700 workers staged an unofficial strike at the Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland, and another 400 walked out of a refinery in Wilton, Teeside. The strike is also expected to spread to Wales, where police were called to Aberthaw power station near Barry after a demonstration broke out.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said the angry British workers were “entitled to an answer” as regarding the decision to contract work out to a foreign company.

(more…)

UK-based loan sharks are offering dodgy high-interest “pay-day” loans, according to a leading debt charity.

The Consumer Credit Counselling Service said that lenders were targeting the unsecured loans, which often carry far higher annual rates than high-street personal loans, at young debtors through social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo.

A recent Conservative Party report revealed that some borrowers are paying as much as 10,000% interest on “pay-day” loans. Whilst this was an extreme case, lenders would commonly charge around £250 for lending £200 for just one month - equivalent to an interest rate of almost 1290%.

(more…)

Two local authorities in England have announced plans to launch their own ‘banks’ to assist small businesses in securing credit.

Birmingham City Council and Essex County Council want to make loans available to local firms which have been refused credit from High Street banks. The two councils say they will screen thoroughly companies applying for cash to make sure that they are financially viable.

However, critics of the scheme say that the move is too risky, and that local authorities lack the necessary expertise to issue loans.

“We intend to do a thorough risk assessment, we’re not just using local government officers, we’re using banking people,” said Mark Wallace from the pressure group Tax Payers’ Alliance.

“I think having had their fingers burnt so badly in the Icelandic banks disaster, councils should be looking for a safe investment,” he added.

(more…)

The Nationwide Building Society has announced that it is to cut the price of its fixed rate mortgage deals by up to 1%.

The rates cut will apply to its two, three, and five-year deals and will take effect from tomorrow (21st January).

Nationwide has already slashed its standard variable rate by half a percentage point to 3.5%, following the latest cut in the official Bank Rate.

Customers with a 40% deposit who sign up for a two-year fixed rate mortgage and pay a £955 fee will see their rates fall from 4.88% to 4.39%, or from 5.38% to 5.09% with no fee. The biggest drop applies to three-year fixed rate deals, from 5.88% to 4.88% in the case of customers with a 25% deposit who pay the £955 fee.

The building society said that the cuts were a result of the lower cost of borrowing on the financial markets.

(more…)

The European Commission has predicted that the economy of the eurozone will shrink by 1.9% in 2009 and grow by only 0.4% the following year.

The commission said that annual inflation in the 16 countries that use the euro would be 1% in 2009 and 1.8% in 2010. By 2010, 10% of the workforce is expected to be unemployed, up from its current 7.5% level.

Official figures show that the eurozone has been in recession since last September. Its key interest rate currently stands at 2%, its lowest level since 2005.

The commission says that it hopes to “create the conditions for a gradual recovery in the second part of 2009″ in the eurozone economy.

Last week, Germany unveiled a package of measures worth about €50 billion (£45 billion) to stimulate the country’s ailing economy.

Discount fashion retailer Primark has launched an inquiry into whether UK factories which supply its knitwear have broken UK employment, tax and immigration laws.

TNS Knitwear, a Manchester based supplier to the fashion chain, has been accused of hiring illegal immigrants from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and paying its workers only £3 an hour, barely more than half the minimum wage in Britain, which currently stands at £5.73 per hour for workers aged 22 and over. Employees have purportedly worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week for the firm. The accusations come just one year after Primark was found to be supplied by companies that used child labour in India.

Primark, one of the few retailers defying the credit crunch, has said that it has launched an investigation into the practices of TNS and its subcontractor Fashion Waves.
(more…)

Areas around the south of England have apparently been targeted as part of a wide-reaching cash machine scam. Residents of in the Amesbury, Salisbury and Andover areas have already fallen victim to the scams, which have seen shoppers who have made withdrawals from tampered machines defrauded out amounts up to £1,000.

Apparently, several customers have reported mysterious transactions being made on their cards, at Tesco branches in Slough, Hammersmith and Fareham.

Barclays have advised customers to always make sure that no-one else is looking at the keypad when you’re entering your PIN number, and not to use any cash machine that looks like it has been tampered with in any way. As a preventative measure, customers should also consider making cash withdrawals over the counter where possible, and asking for cashback at checkouts instead of using machines.

As getting money back from fraud claims can take up to 3 weeks, and the mad shopping run up to Christmas approaches, we warn all customers to be vigilant with their PIN numbers, and to cover the keypad with your other hand whilst entering the number.

Research analysing ten million claims made over the past ten months has revealed that motorists in the village on Winchelsea, East Sussex are most likely to have their car stolen or damaged, with 4.1% of the population making claims on their car insurance in the last five years.

Next in line were the towns of Saltburn-by-the-Sea in Cleveland and Godstone in Surrey, with just over 3% of the population making a claim between 2003 and 2008.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the survey was that the highest number of claims came from villages and small towns. However, large urban centres including Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and the London borough of Hackney also proved to be a massive target for thieves.

The results of the online survey highlight the importance of taking out Third Party Fire and Theft or Comprehensive insurance, rather than relying on Third Party Only insurance, the absolute minimum amount of insurance allowed under the law. As its name suggests, Third Party Fire and Theft insurance entitles you to claim for damages if your car is stolen or sustains damage as a result of theft, or is damaged or destroyed by fire.

While no-one can fully protect their car from being broken into, motorists can certainly reduce the risk by making sure that valuable items such as mobile phones, sat-navs and stereos are hidden from view. Additional cost-effective methods include fitting an alarm or steering wheel lock. Motorists with access to a garage should keep their cars locked away at night, which can also reduce insurance premiums.

Recent research published by the Highways Agency show that many UK motorists sail dangerously close to the wind in winter months – over half of all drivers surveyed for the report said that they would be prepared to hit the road in order to get home or to work despite severe weather warnings, and of that half, a third would not carry out checks on their vehicle before heading off.

Derek Turner, director of network operations at the Highways Agency, said if motorists had to head out in more treacherous travel conditions it was important they were adequately prepared.

“Being caught out by cold weather, strong winds or heavy rain isn’t nice, especially if you’ve broken down,” he warned.

(more…)

Credit Card firms are busy cutting the rates of their balance transfer fees in order to help new and existing customers manage their finances with greater ease in these uncertain times. Credit companies are always looking out for the next big thing that will get customers to bite; for the last few years for example, we’ve seen the rise and rise of the 0% balance transfer cards.

Of course, the sting in the tail with 0% balance transfer cards has always been the handling fee that you pay for the transfer itself, and it is now this area of credit cards to which lenders are turning their attention.

(more…)