Northern Rock has revealed plans to shed around 1,300 jobs as it reorganises operations and looks to the future.
This figure is lower than originally expected, which is good news for some members of staff who wish to stay. Northern Rock are anticipating around 500 people taking voluntary redundancy, leaving just 800 to be selected by management. The original estimate was for around 2,000 job losses, but discussions with staff representatives and management has lowered that number.
After being nationalised earlier this year Northern Rock has a duty to pay back the money loaned to it and in order to do this it has had to revise the way it operates. Cutting costs but remaining active in the key markets is how this will be achieved, hence the job losses now being applied.
The bad news of England not qualifying for the Euro 2008 Championships is tempered by the fact that, according to the Abbey National, the average British football fan will have saved over GBP550 by England not being there.
The Abbey National survey found that around 1.8 million consumers were considering buying a new television towatch England play n Euro 2008, with nearly 2.3 million spending nearly GBP150 per person on football kit, flags, hats and so on. Celebrating victories or drowning sorrows was also planned for, with nearly GBP100 per person earmarked for alcohol at home plus a further GBP135 spent at the pub.
A spokesman for Abbey National empathised with the England supporters who would be missing out on a potentially great tournament but felt that the silver lining of saving so much money would make it all bearable. And of course it also means England will not be knocked out on penalties as usual.
Lloyds TSB has this week increased the rates of interest offered on its Plus current account to 6 percent, an enormous 2 percent more than it was previously.
The new higher interest rate is being offered on this particular Lloyds TSB current account for new customers opening their account before July 13. The only proviso is that at least GBP1,000 per month must be paid into the account, something that is quite common anyway.
Increasing their interest rate is quite a move for Lloyds TSB, though they appreciate that customers in the UK tend to be quite fixed when it comes to their current accounts, tending to stay with the same bank for many years. Lloyds therefore feel they have to really make an impact with their message in order to get people to consider moving and an impact it certainly is.