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Cash-strapped train travellers are being priced off the railways, campaigners have warned as fares in England and Wales are hiked by nearly 5% despite high levels of cancellations.

Critics argue passengers are being “punished” and will be angry at Sunday’s rises given the “shocking state” of the network, against a backdrop of disruption caused by rail strikes.

Sky News has previously revealed that even before the latest increases came into effect, the UK has the most expensive train tickets in Europe.

The issue is likely to be a battleground at the next general election, with Labour vowing to bring the railways back into public ownership as contracts expire.

Regulated rail fares in England and Wales have been capped at 4.9%.

These include season tickets on most commuter journeys, some off-peak return tickets on long distance routes and flexible tickets for travel around major cities.

Train companies set unregulated fares such as advance singles, although their decisions are heavily influenced by the government.

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The Scottish Government will increase ScotRail fares by 8.7% from 1 April.

Chris Page, who chairs pressure group Railfuture, said: “Why are rail passengers being punished year after year with inflation-busting fare rises?

“No matter that there’s a cost-of-living crisis, no matter that we’re facing a climate emergency, the government seems more determined than ever to price us off the railway and on to the roads.”

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What it’s like travelling on some of the country’s worst rail routes

Campaign for Better Transport campaigns manager Michael Solomon Williams said: “At a time when we urgently need to encourage people to take the train, the public will rightly be angry to discover that it has just become even more expensive to do so.

“We know that people will decide to drive or fly if the train is too expensive, so this is bad news for our personal finances, the wider economy and the environment.”

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UK has most expensive train tickets in Europe

Labour’s shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said: “This fare rise will be tough for passengers to stomach given the shocking state of rail services up and down the country.

“Since coming to power in 2010 the Tories have hiked fares by almost twice as much as wages, and now passengers are being asked to pay more for less.”

Rail minister Huw Merriman said last month the UK government had attempted to “split the balance between the UK taxpayer and the fare payer” in relation to price rises, which he described as being “well below inflation”.

Office of Rail and Road (ORR) figures show the Westminster administration provided £4.4bn of funding to train operators in Britain in the year to the end of March 2023.

Last July’s Retail Prices Index measure of inflation, which is traditionally used to determine annual fare rises, was 9%.

The Consumer Prices Index, which is a more commonly used inflation figure, was 6.8% in July 2023 but fell to 4% in January.

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Getir shareholders back break-up of food delivery group

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Getir shareholders back break-up of food delivery group

Investors in Getir, the food delivery group which is abandoning its UK operations, have approved a break-up of the company that will trigger a fresh capital injection of up to $250m (£197.5m).

Sky News has learnt that Getir, which is based in Turkey, held an extraordinary general meeting on Sunday at which shareholders backed plans to split it into two independent companies.

The first will consist of its food and grocery delivery operations in Turkey, and will be majority-owned and controlled by Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi state investment fund.

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This business will be led by Batuhan Gultakan, a current Getir executive, while Nazim Salur, the company’s founder, will have no active involvement in it.

Instead, Mr Salur will run the other standalone business, comprising Getir’s other assets, including Getir Drive and BiTaksi, the ride-hailing services.

Getir’s withdrawal from the UK and other European markets, confirmed in the spring, represented a full-scale retreat for a company once-valued at nearly £10bn.

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Getir ends European expansion with 1,500 UK job losses expected

Insiders said that as part of the restructuring, Mubadala had agreed to inject up to $250m into the company, both to facilitate the orderly wind-down of its UK and European arm and to invest in growing its Turkish food delivery business.

Mubadala is said to be optimistic about the outlook for the Turkish market, and that the restructuring would leave the company in a much stronger position, according to another source close to the situation.

Part of the funding could be used to repay outstanding liabilities, which are understood to include several million pounds owed to Tottenham Hotspur FC, whose training kit it sponsored.

Hundreds of jobs are being lost in the UK as a result of the closure of Getir’s business.

Companies such as Getir were big winners during the pandemic, attracting funding at astronomical valuations.

Its decline highlights the slumping valuations of technology companies once-hailed as the new titans of food retailing.

Many of its rivals have already gone bust, while others have been swallowed up as part of a desperate wave of consolidation.

Getir, whose name means ‘to bring’ in Turkish, bought rival Gorillas in a $1.2bn stock-based deal that closed in December 2022.

Getir could not be reached for comment, while Mubadala declined to comment.

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General election 2024: ‘Conspiracy of silence’ from Tories and Labour over tax plans in manifestos, thinktank IFS says

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Voters have been left in the dark over how the major parties will be able to fund their spending commitments, a respected thinktank has said, offering just “thin gruel”.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) took further aim at what it described as a “conspiracy of silence” from both the Conservatives and Labour on how they could meet the challenges they identify, such as reducing NHS waiting lists.

Launching its report on the crucial documents, IFS director Paul Johnson warned that spending on many public services would likely need to be cut over the next parliament unless government debt was to rise or taxes increased further.

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He pointed to pressure from a 60-year high in government debt levels at a time of a near-record tax burden.

Much of the blame for this was a £50bn a year increase in debt interest spending relative to forecasts, he explained, and a growing welfare budget in the wake of the COVID pandemic and cost of living crisis that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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Labour manifesto versus the rest

“We have rising health spending, a defence budget which for the first time in decades will likely grow rather than shrink, and the reality of demographic change and the need to transition to net zero,” Mr Johnson said.

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“Add in low growth and the after-effects of the pandemic and energy price crisis and you have a toxic mix indeed when it comes to the public finances.”

“These raw facts are largely ignored by the two main parties in their manifestos”, he declared, describing the information presented to voters as a “knowledge vacuum”.

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The main verdict on tax

“In line with their unwillingness to face up to the real challenges, neither main party makes any serious new proposals to increase taxes”, Mr Johnson said.

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What is in the Conservative Party manifesto?

“Consistent with their conspiracy of silence, both are keeping entirely silent about their commitment to a £10bn a year tax rise through a further three years of freezes to personal tax allowances and thresholds.

“Both have tied their hands on income tax, NICs, VAT and corporation tax. The Conservatives have a long list of other tax rises, and reforms, that they wouldn’t do. Labour have ruled out more tax options since the publication of the manifestos.

“Taken at face value, Labour’s promise of no tax increases on working people” rules out essentially all tax rises. There is no tax paid exclusively by those who don’t work. Who knows what this pledge is really supposed to mean,” he concluded.

What about the other parties?

The IFS said the Liberal Democrats had bigger tax and spend policies than Labour or the Conservatives.

It also determined that Reform UK and the Greens offered much bigger numbers but declared that what they propose is “wholly unattainable”, helping to “poison the entire political debate”.

Mr Johnson concluded: “The choices in front of us are hard. High taxes, high debt, struggling public services, make them so.

“Pressures from health, defence, welfare, ageing will not make them easier. That is not a reason to hide the choices or to duck them. Quite the reverse. Yet hidden and ducked they have been.”

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Private equity suitors aim to wrap up £2bn parcel delivery group Evri

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Private equity suitors aim to wrap up £2bn parcel delivery group Evri

A pack of trade and private equity suitors are circling Evri, one of Britain’s biggest parcel delivery companies.

Sky News has learnt that Apollo Global Management and Platinum Equity are among the parties which have lodged initial offers for Evri, which is reportedly worth around £2bn.

City sources said that a number of strategic bidders were also participating in the auction, which is being run by bankers at Rothschild.

Evri, which changed its name from Hermes in 2022, uses more than 20,000 couriers and has a network of over 14,000 ParcelShops and lockers.

Pic: PA
Image:
Pic: PA

It is used by a large number of prominent retailers as well as the online platforms Etsy and Vinted.

The company has been owned by Advent International, another private equity group, since 2020, when it bought it from German mail order company Otto.

It has a near-20pc share of the UK market, delivering more than 700m parcels annually.

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The auction of Evri comes as Parcelforce’s parent, the Royal Mail owner International Distribution Services, is in the process of being taken private.

On Friday, Sky News revealed that Yodel, which narrowly averted collapse this year, was raising tens of millions of pounds to strengthen its balance sheet.

Advent declined to comment, while neither Apollo nor Platinum responded to a request for comment.

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