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The poorest half of UK families will have to wait until the end of 2026 for their real incomes to return to pre-COVID levels, according to independent analysis.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said low to middle income households face seven years of falling living standards due to the fallout from the pandemic and, latterly, the continuing cost of living crisis.

Lockdowns and restrictions on earnings, followed by price hikes and Bank of England interest rate hikes since December 2021 to help tame inflation, have meant wages have mostly struggled to keep pace with price growth and rising borrowing costs alike.

The rate of Inflation peaked last year above 11% but it currently stands at 6.7%.

The annual pace of price increases is forecast to have fallen dramatically last month.

That is mostly due to the worst impact to energy bills from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, falling out of the calculations.

Nevertheless, the NIESR said that real incomes, which take account of inflation, in the bottom half of the income distribution, will be around 5% lower in the 2023/24 financial year compared with the year ending March 2020.

That is despite average wage rises of around 7% in the current year, a figure that is expected to remain around the same level next year.

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‘Most households are just one pay cheque away from being homeless’

Professor Adrian Pabst, deputy director for policy at the NIESR, said: “Higher real wages this year are a welcome boost, especially for low-income working families who have been hit hardest by the COVID and inflation shocks.

“But a return to pre-pandemic living standards will require sustained real wage growth, including further increases in the National Living Wage.”

The NIESR’s latest quarterly forecast report said that if living standards were to rise, and help boost the country’s “anaemic” economic growth, public investment must be the focus of the looming autumn statement.

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Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has ruled out pre-election tax giveaways and also signalled a focus on bringing down debt.

A lack of new spending or tax cuts, while tough for many Tory MPs who are worried about their seats, will aid the government’s target to halve inflation this year.

The NIESR believed that the Bank of England would not have to impose further interest rate hikes beyond the 14 consecutive increases already seen, given that inflation was expected to continue to ease sharply.

Its report warned that while rising borrowing costs, which have exacerbated the shocks to household bills, may have peaked, there was no prospect of Bank rate returning to its COVID-era level of 0.1%.

It saw the interest rate settling at levels closer to 3-3.5%, with the first declines expected later next year.

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iPhones sold in US will no longer come from China – as Apple reveals impact of Trump’s tariffs

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iPhones sold in US will no longer come from China - as Apple reveals impact of Trump's tariffs

Apple says devices sold in the US will no longer come from China, as the tech giant tries to mitigate the impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Most iPhones will be sourced from India instead, with iPads coming from Vietnam, to prevent dramatic price rises for American consumers.

Unveiling financial results from January to March, the company said the US president’s escalating trade war has had a limited impact on its performance so far.

However, Apple CEO Tim Cook believes the tariffs will add £677m in costs during the current quarter – assuming Trump’s policies don’t change.

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Revenue for the first three months of the year stood at £71.8bn, with earnings of £18.6bn also beating analyst expectations.

High demand for iPhones during this period may have been driven by US shoppers rushing to make purchases before the new tariffs came into force.

But the full impact of any panic buying will only emerge when Apple reports its results from April to June later in the year.

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Apple’s reliance on Chinese factories to manufacture its iPhones meant the company was far more exposed to the impact of Trump’s trade war than others.

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Trump: Tariffs making US ‘rich’

After the president unveiled plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries – now largely paused for 90 days – Apple’s stock plunged by 23%, wiping out £582bn of value.

While its share price has recovered slightly, it remains 5% lower than before “Liberation Day”.

Growing tensions between Washington and Beijing are also having an impact on Apple’s sales in China, which fell 2.3% between January and March.

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Addressing the planned changes to manufacturing, Mr Cook added: “We have a complex supply chain. There’s always risk in the supply chain. What we learned some time ago was that having everything in one location had too much risk with it.”

Devices sold outside of the US will continue to be made in China.

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Space NK owner kicks off £300m-plus sale process

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Space NK owner kicks off £300m-plus sale process

The owner of Space NK has kicked off a formal sale process more than a year since it hired bankers to auction the high street beauty chain.

Sky News has learnt that teasers have begun being circulated to prospective bidders in recent weeks, despite anxiety about consumer confidence in a stuttering UK economy.

Manzanita Capital, a private investment firm, engaged bankers at Raymond James to oversee an auction in April 2024.

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A deal is expected to fetch between £300m and £400m.

Manzanita has owned Space NK for more than 20 years, and is not expected to sanction a sale unless it receives an attractive offer.

One party contacted about a potential bid said the business appeared to be in good financial health.

Manzanita has also owned the French perfume house Diptyque and Susanne Kaufmann, an Austrian luxury skincare brand.

Founded in 1993 by Nicky Kinnaird, Space NK – which is named after her initials – trades from roughly stores and employs more than 1,000 people.

It specialises in high-end skincare and cosmetics products.

Manzanita previously explored a sale of Space NK in 2018, hiring Goldman Sachs to handle a strategic review, but opted not to proceed with a deal.

Manzanita has been contacted for comment, while Raymond James declined to comment.

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Tesla’s board members have reportedly started looking for Elon Musk’s successor as CEO

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Tesla's board members have reportedly started looking for Elon Musk's successor as CEO

Tesla’s board members have reportedly started a search for someone to replace Elon Musk as CEO.

Several executive search firms were approached to find a successor around a month ago, the Wall Street Journal reported.

But it added that the current status of the succession planning for the electric car-maker was not known.

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Tesla’s chair, Robyn Denholm, later reacted to the report by insisting that any suggestion of an active search was “absolutely false”.

She added that the board was highly confident in Musk’s ability to continue “executing on the exciting growth plan ahead”.

Musk’s net worth has plunged and Tesla stocks have fallen sharply amid a public backlash over his role in Donald Trump’s government. He owns just under 13% of Tesla stock and is the largest shareholder.

The world’s richest man has been leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where he has overseen the firing of tens of thousands of government employees.

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He has also supported far-right parties in Europe, which has led to protests against Musk and Tesla, which have seen its showrooms and charging stations vandalised across the US and Europe.

President Trump has labelled the vandals “terrorists”.

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Musk pulls back from DOGE role

It comes after Musk said the time he spends with DOGE would “drop significantly” from May and he will dedicate more time to running his companies, such as Tesla, SpaceX and X.

The board members met with Musk and asked him to announce publicly he would spend more time at Tesla, the report said.

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It was unclear if Musk, who is a member of the board, was aware of any attempts to identify a successor, or if his pledge to spend more time at Tesla had affected succession planning, it added.

On Wednesday, Mr Trump said Musk could be part of his administration for as long as he wants.

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“You’re invited to stay as long as you want,” Mr Trump said.

He said Musk had been “treated unfairly” for his role in helping Mr Trump slash the size of the federal government, adding: “You really have sacrificed a lot.”

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