Clean power move

Tuesday 10th December 2019

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

Carbon negative power plant

Drax power station produces 5% of the UK’s energy and has announced plans to capture more carbon than it creates by 2030. It’ll burn wood that absorbs carbon as it grows, and is trialling carbon-capture technology which could absorb 8 million tonnes of carbon each year. Drax’s boss William Gardiner said: "This is not just critical to beating the climate crisis, but also to enabling a just transition, protecting jobs and creating new opportunities for clean growth - delivering for the economy as well as for the environment."

Fewer deals for tax dodgers

Last year, 438 individuals who had committed tax fraud were offered a chance to pay the tax they owe, plus fines, to avoid being prosecuted. That might sound high, but 486 “get out of jail” deals were offered in 2017-18 and 550 the year before that. Why the decline? Legal experts say HMRC has a growing evidence stack, giving it greater abilities to prosecute, so there’s less need to make deals with tax dodgers.

A pause on hiring

Employers in Britain have slowed down hiring this year, according to a survey by recruitment firm ManpowerGroup. The findings have unveiled that strong jobs growth has ended in 2019 as Brexit uncertainty tightens its grip. Hiring intentions, which measures the appetite for taking on new staff, were at a 10-year low among the 2,101 employers asked.

Big pub spend

Wetherspoons is set to spend £200 million on its pubs and hotels over the next four years. The chain predicts that the expansion plans will create around 10,000 jobs across the UK and Ireland.