Home / News / £1bn cash pot for 50 high streets, Bank of mum and dad is going bust helping homebuyers, and more top news

£1bn cash pot for 50 high streets, Bank of mum and dad is going bust helping homebuyers, and more top news

Fifty towns in England will be given a share of £1bn to tackle the high street crisis that has left one in 10 shops in UK town centres lying empty. The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) declared an additional £325m in funding to the £675m High Street Fund announced by then chancellor Philip Hammond last year. The money could be used by towns — including Blackpool. Scarborough and Clacton — for schemes such as improving transport links or converting empty shops into homes or offices.

Forget the big banks, the biggest lender helping Britons get on the housing ladder is the bank of mum and dad, according to a survey. Life insurer Legal & General (L&G) reports the average parental contribution for homebuyers this year is £24,100 or £6.3bn collectively — putting BoMaD on par with Clydesdale Bank, the UK’s 10th largest mortgage lender which lent £5bn. But the trend is somewhat worrying. 15% said they had already accepted a lower standard of living due to helping out their children, while a quarter voiced concerns around retirement savings.

Colonel Sanders is taking a bite out of the meatless-meat craze with vegan fried chicken. KFC will run a one-day trial testing a plant-based fried chicken alternative and consider customer feedback before deciding on next steps. Last week, Greggs said it was developing vegan versions of its most popular foods including steak bakes and pasties. The move follows the success of a Quorn-filled vegan sausage roll it launched in January, which helped the UK’s largest bakery chain boost sales 14% in the first half of the year.

The world’s largest hotel management companies – Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt and Wyndham – have purchased or conceived hotel chains at “a dizzying pace,” The New York Times reports. Particular attention was directed at millennial travellers with a cluster of brands created for those who were shunning “the cookie-cutter sameness that was once the industry’s strong suit.” Marriott, for instance, now has 30 brands in its stable. PWC forecast that while the weak pound continues to support UK tourism, Brexit uncertainty could translate into softer growth for the hospitality sector.

Work-from-anywhere policies for employees have the power to increase productivity and revenue and decrease hiring costs, according to research from Harvard Business School. The study, which examined the effects of such policies at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, also found that letting employees work from anywhere allowed people to move to less expensive areas, increasing their earning power and strengthening local economies in the process.

Idea of the Day: Leadership is something to be practised, says Amazon’s Andreas von der Heydt. It doesn’t just happen overnight.

“It takes constant effort and time to develop the skills, experience, and trust to become a leader and be seen as such by others.”

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