Property fund penalties?

Tuesday 17th December

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.

Withdrawal fees

If you have money invested in a property fund, you might have to pay to withdraw it at short notice under new proposals from the Bank of England. Why? Property assets take more than a day to sell, and the Bank is concerned about people trying to rush to the front of the queue to get their money out. The proposals are designed to stop a run on funds like the one seen earlier this year when Neil Woodford got into trouble and prevented investors from accessing their money.

TV licence laws sexist?

You may have heard about Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans to decriminalise non-payment of the £154.50-a-year TV licence. The move has been welcomed by charity the Centre for Criminal Appeals, which says women make up 72% of all prosecutions for non-payment of the licence (paywall). In fact, it’s the most common reason that women end up in the dock: in 2017 licence fee evasion accounted for 30% of all prosecutions against women.

Nationwide gender imbalances

The UK has dropped six places in the global rankings for gender equality - from 15th to 21st. Latvia, South Africa, and Albania are among the countries the World Economic Forum (WEF) have listed as surpassing the UK in closing the gender gap in politics, economics, health and education since the previous audit in 2018.

Strike deal

British Airways pilots have reached an agreement over their longstanding pay dispute with the airline. It involves an 11.5% pay rise over three years and will put the brakes on the kind of strike action that caused 2,325 fights to be cancelled when pilots walked out on the 9th and 10th September.