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The Bank of England is set to impose another interest rate hike on the UK economy today, the 12th consecutive increase in its battle to curb rampant inflation.

Both financial markets and economists widely expect a 0.25 percentage point rise to 4.5%.

The Bank Rate had stood at 0.1% in December 2021 before the tightening cycle began to tackle the pace of price rises, which were initially caused by economies getting back in gear after the COVID pandemic.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the following February then exacerbated the inflation problem, with soaring energy costs piling additional misery on western nations.

Those considerable extra costs, not only faced by households, are still filtering through in the form of stubborn inflation for many goods and services despite wholesale energy costs easing in recent months.

The latest official figures showed the headline consumer prices index (CPI) measure at 10.1% – fed by the highest grocery inflation for 45 years.

The bank will have also been concerned that higher-than-expected wage increases will embed inflation in the economy over the months ahead.

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But there is good news on the CPI number just around the corner.

The inflation data for April is set to strip out the effects of the leap in household energy bills seen in April 2022 while fuel, which was also on the march at that time, is now well down on the levels seen in the same month a year ago.

Some economists predict a CPI number for April below 8% just because of the energy impact alone.

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This does not mean that prices are necessarily coming down and the cost of living crisis is over.

It is just that the contributions to inflation from the energy components are not so severe when it comes to measuring the pace of price increases over a 12-montn period.

Raising Bank Rate is a tool to reduce demand in the economy – to cool activity and help inflation ease back towards the Bank’s 2% target.

But there are consequences.

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April: Another interest rate rise ‘almost a done deal’

Chief among them is the impact on borrowers, especially households on variable mortgage deals or those who have had to secure a new fixed deal over the past year.

According to research by TotallyMoney and Moneycomms, a further quarter point interest rate rise will add £26 to monthly repayments for variable customers on the average UK property costing £270,708 with a 75% loan to value ratio.

The Bank rate increases, they said, meant the same customers were now facing forking out an extra £482 per month compared to pre-December 2021.

The Bank is mindful of the impact its actions are imposing on millions of households that are already struggling under the weight of meaty bills.

With that in mind, the remarks contained in the minutes of the Bank’s meeting and wider monetary policy report, all released at midday, will be crucial to understanding the likely way forward for borrowing costs.

The Bank is formally expected to raise its forecasts for economic growth as its staff no longer expect a recession this year but the outlook for Bank rate is a bit more clouded as inflation has proved more stubborn to bring down.

Bank governor Andrew Bailey’s comments to reporters will be especially closely watched for signs the rate-setting committee is edging towards a pause in its rate hikes.

The prospect of an end to the tightening will largely depend on the data ahead.

Andrew Hagger, personal finance expert at Moneycomms.co.uk, said: “Consumers and businesses will be praying that this is the last rate hike…. they will have their fingers crossed that inflation numbers will fall sharply before the next MPC (monetary policy committee) rate decision on 22nd June.

“Savers may be enjoying the best returns on cash savings for more than a decade but those with borrowing have been pushed to the brink by the financial impact of a dozen consecutive rate hikes.”

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Bank of England job fears as Andrew Bailey warns of tough choices

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Bank of England job fears as Andrew Bailey warns of tough choices

Staff at the Bank of England are on alert for potential job cuts in Threadneedle Street after the governor, Andrew Bailey, warned of tough decisions about the institution’s future cost base.

Sky News has learnt that Mr Bailey informed Bank of England employees in a memo last week that it was taking a detailed look at costs, although it did not specifically refer to the prospect of redundancies.

One source said the memo had been sent while Mr Bailey was attending the International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting in Washington.

Its precise wording was unclear on Monday, but one source said it had warned of “tough choices” that would need to be made as the bank accelerated its investment in new technology.

They added that managers had been briefed to expect to have to make savings of between 6% and 8% of their operating budgets.

The Bank of England employed 5,810 people at the end of February, of whom just over 5,000 were full-time, according to its annual report.

Those numbers were marginally higher than in the previous year.

More on Money

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The central bank’s budget, funded through a levy, is expected to be £596m in the current financial year.

The workforce figures include the Prudential Regulation Authority, Britain’s main banking regulator, which is set to get a new boss next year when Sam Woods steps down after two terms in the role.

A Bank of England spokesperson declined to comment on the contents of Mr Bailey’s memo.

They also declined to provide details of the timing of any previous rounds of redundancies at the bank.

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Pizza Hut to shut 68 restaurants in UK after company behind venues falls into administration

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Pizza Hut to shut 68 restaurants in UK after company behind venues falls into administration

Pizza Hut is to close 68 restaurants and 11 delivery sites with the loss of more than 1,200 jobs after the company behind its UK venues fell into administration.

The company has said 1,210 workers are being made redundant as part of the closures.

DC London Pie, the firm running Pizza Hut’s restaurants in the UK, appointed administrators from corporate finance firm FTI on Monday.

It comes less than a year after the business bought the chain’s restaurants from insolvency.

On Monday, American hospitality giant Yum! Brands, which owns the global Pizza Hut business, said it had bought the UK restaurant operation in a pre-pack administration deal – a rescue deal that will save 64 sites and secure the future of 1,276 workers.

A spokesperson for Pizza Hut UK confirmed the Yum! deal and said as a result it was “pleased to secure the continuation of 64 sites to safeguard our guest experience and protect the associated jobs.

“Approximately 2,259 team members will transfer to the new Yum! equity business under UK TUPE legislation, including above-restaurant leaders and support teams.”

Nicolas Burquier, Managing Director of Pizza Hut Europe and Canada, called Monday’s agreement a “targeted acquisition” which, he said, “aims to safeguard our guest experience and protect jobs where possible.

“Our immediate priority is operational continuity at the acquired locations and supporting colleagues through the transition.”

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The administration comes around six weeks after a subsidiary of Yum! filed a winding up petition against DC London Pie.

DC London Pie was the company formed after Directional Capital, which operated franchises in Sweden and Denmark, snapped up 139 UK restaurants from the previous UK franchisee Heart with Smart Limited in January of this year.

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Oil and gas workers offered cash to retrain, in major plan for future clean energy workforce

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Oil and gas workers offered cash to retrain, in major plan for future clean energy workforce

Ministers have unveiled their flagship plan to train and recruit workers for the booming clean energy sector, which it is hoping to supercharge in the next five years.

Up to £18m of new money has been pledged by the UK and Scottish governments specifically to move those working in the oil and gas sector into new roles.

Their jobs are about to fall off a cliff as the industry declines, with at least 40,000 of the current 115,000 jobs forecast to disappear by the early 2030s.

Almost all of those roles are thought to be fairly easily transferable into green industries – requiring little more than a few months of extra training.

But in the absence of government help, workers have been moving abroad, industry says, taking with them the expertise Britain badly needs to for its new greener energy system.

And it has left them feeling forgotten about after years of working to keep the lights on, and increasingly swayed by Reform UK, both GMB and Unite unions have warned Labour.

Pledge to double green jobs by 2030

More on Renewable Energy

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told Sky News that creating jobs in sectors like carbon capture and storage and hydrogen would help “create a future for those in the North Sea communities”.

The new £18m will pay for careers advice, training, and “skills passports” to enable oil and gas workers to make the switch without having to repeat qualifications.

The cash was announced on Sunday in the new Clean Energy Jobs Plan, which details how the government hopes to make good on its promise to double green jobs by 2030.

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Renewables overtake coal for first time

Mr Miliband said in an interview: “This plan shows 400,000 extra jobs in the clean energy economy by 2030.

“This isn’t a target. This is actually what we believe is necessary to meet all the plans we have across the economy.”

The first strategy of its kind hopes to plug the UK’s massive skills gap that threatens to derail the government’s target to green the electricity system by 2030.

It identifies 31 priority occupations that are particularly in demand, such as plumbers, electricians and welders, and lists a target to convert five colleges into new “Technical Excellence Colleges” to train workers.

‘You can’t train people for jobs that aren’t there’

Unions welcomed the plan, but pointed out that skills and training do not equate to new jobs.

They say it will mean nothing without extra money and a revitalised domestic supply chain to build all the green technology needed, from fibreglass wind turbines to aluminium sub-sea cables.

Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary who has threatened to cut ties with Labour over its policy to end North Sea oil and gas drilling and watering down of a ban on zero-hours contracts, welcomed the “initial steps” but called for “an equally ambitious programme of public investment”.

Professor Paul de Leeuw from the Energy Transition Institute in Aberdeen said the plan was “genuinely new and different”, and had for the first time joined up relevant information and strategies in one place.

But “you can’t train people for jobs that aren’t there”, he added, also calling for an investment plan.f

Reform heartlands could benefit from Labour’s jobs plan

The boom in clean energy jobs stands to benefit Reform heartlands along the east coast of Britain.

That fact is more by luck than design, given the east coast’s proximity to offshore wind farms and carbon capture and storage fields in the North Sea.

Reform promises a radically different vision for the country’s future, based on reopening coal mines and maxing out nuclear power and what’s left of North Sea oil and gas to boost jobs and the economy.

Its deputy leader, Richard Tice, objects to land being used for solar panels and pylons.

Government modelling forecasts an additional 35,000 direct jobs in Scotland, 55,000 in the East of England and 50,000 in the North West.

To keep the unions sweet, the government will also have to follow through on its pledge to boost the rights of those working offshore in green energy.

A current loophole gives protections like the minimum wage to oil and gas workers in UK territorial seas, but not to workers in the clean energy sector.

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