Business wants a green recovery

Get straight to the good stuff every day with the Multiply Minute, a lightning-quick roundup of the money news and how it affects you.

Recover, but make it green

More than 200 top companies and investors are calling on the government to use the coronavirus downturn as a springboard to deliver a greener economy. The proposals include more public investment in low carbon technologies and infrastructure, funnelling cash towards sustainable sectors, and attaching strings to bailouts to force businesses to go green.

Adviser comment: This really highlights the difference between essential and non-essential spending; the more you earn, the more you spend, but what you spend it on differs. It also demonstrates that many of us can cut back on the non-essential and use those savings towards other objectives.

Richest 20% hunker down

Higher earners have used the lockdown as a chance to spend less, save more, and pay off debts. Thinktank the New Policy Institute estimates that by mid-June, the wealthiest 20% of households will have reduced their total spend by £23 billion. The poorest 20% will have spent around £3.5 billion less than usual.

Pret bids to save stores

Three quarters of Pret’s 400 stores will open their doors this week, but it’s selling fewer baguettes these days as most office workers continue to work from home. The lunchtime favourite plans to try and renegotiate its rents in a bid to keep them all open for good.

SpaceX success

SpaceX astronauts arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) at around 6pm yesterday. They’re the first people ever to get there via a private company, and it’s also the first US space mission since 2011. Elon Musk’s company has a $2.6 billion contract with NASA. It’s next mission? “Taxi” flights between Earth and the ISS.