Welcome to the Money blog, Sky News’s personal finance and consumer news hub. Today: we’ve got the latest entry in our Diary of a Buyer, tracking the ups and downs of trying to move house. Our buyer says she’s losing her mojo after getting beaten in a bidding war…
Wednesday 10 September 2025 08:14, UK
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By James Sillars, business and economic reporter
There’s much to digest this morning on global markets.
Russian drones over Poland and Israeli attacks against Hamas leaders in Qatar do nothing to help risk sentiment.
Brent crude oil’s up 1% at $67 a barrel this morning and trading a dollar higher than this time yesterday.
Safe haven gold prices remain at record levels.
Those shifts are not being reflected on the FTSE 100 as energy and precious metal mining shares have dragged on the index at the open.
It’s 0.2% up in early dealing, trading at 9,262. Industrial and healthcare stocks are leading the way.
Earlier, Wegovy-maker Novo Nordisk revealed plans to cut 9,000 jobs, about 11.5% of its workforce.
The Danish firm, shares in which have plunged 46% in the year to date, says the bulk of the job losses will be in its home market.
It is looking to save money to invest more in treatments as its weight loss drug market share collapses.
The company, which is also known for its Ozempic diabetes treatment, is under particular pressure in the US where Wegovy copycat treatments have capitalised on shortages of the drug.
Shares in Primark’s owner ABF are down 9%.
It has forecast that like-for-like sales in the clothing business will be down around 2% in the second half of its financial year, which ends this week.
Plunging sales in Italy, France and Germany have proved a bigger drag than expected. ABF said it had offset an improved performance in the UK and Ireland.
Children can travel free on National Express buses until the end of the month thanks to an offer.
With coaches to hundreds of British cities, this might be a good chance for a September family day out.
What you need to know
For every paid adult ticket, you can get up to three free children’s tickets – with kids up to the age of 15.
To claim the offer, you need to use the code KIDSFREE when buying your tickets on the National Express site or app.
The offer is in place for trips booked and taken before 30 September.
A booking fee will still apply for any free tickets, and the offer cannot be retrospectively applied to any existing orders.
It’s worth checking the company’s terms and conditions before you book.
Mortgage rates are high, house prices are rising again and saving for a deposit has become increasingly difficult. So what is the process of buying and selling a home really like in 2025? Over this year, we’ll find out with two people, a buyer and a seller, who are going through the process.
This week our buyer, Minreet Kaur, goes from riding the high of finding a great home to completely losing her mojo…
The mission
With a £650,000 budget, Minreet is looking for a three or four-bedroom property that suits all her family’s needs. Her mother suffers from incurable blood cancer, her dad needs enough space for his garden tools and a prayer room is also on the list for all of them to use.
She is looking in Windsor, Egham or Burnham, but she’s discovering anything in her price range isn’t much bigger than where she is now in Hayes, Middlesex.
‘We’ve lost our mojo’
Minreet has been searching for a home for months, with nothing on the market in her price range, so when a property finally appeared it was a moment of hope.
On for £650,000, it had four bedrooms, a good-sized garden and a garage, and was nestled in a lovely cul de sac in Windsor.
Minreet snapped up the chance to make an offer, going in at £625,000.
“It was rejected. The agent showed me the other offers, which I thought was strange… so I put in an offer of £635,000 which was also rejected,” she said.
She explained the estate agent revealed two other offers had been made, and one was by a friend.
“I knew from there that I was wasting my time. I knew it was going to turn into a game as any offer I put in, the friend would offer more,” she said.
She refused to go any higher, and lost out on the home, which was eventually sold.
“We have lost our mojo now as we really need the help from a trusted agent who isn’t out to make a profit but to help us find a home,” she said.
‘I’m feeling really desperate’
Feeling defeated, Minreet has been spurred on to continue her search due to her mum’s deteriorating health, but it’s easier said than done…
“I can’t find a way forward and feel stuck,” she said. “I’ve not found anything else I like. I’m feeling really desperate – we can’t go another winter in our house as a lot of things are falling apart.”
“Time doesn’t wait for anyone, we really need to find something soon but the houses now we have seen are just too expensive or not right for us.
“I’m very anxious, struggling to take a full breath because I feel stressed and it’s impacting my mental health. I just need to find something asap as my mum really can’t sleep on a sofa.”
Minreet has already got two more viewings in the pipeline. We hope her next update will come with much better news…
There’s already a lot happening in the world of business – so let’s get you up to speed on all the latest developments.
Mirror and Express publisher to axe 321 jobs
The owner of the Daily Mirror and Daily Express has announced plans to axe 321 journalism jobs as part of a major editorial overhaul.
Reach, which also owns the Daily Star and several regional titles, has put 600 editorial jobs at risk, in what it says is its biggest ever restructure.
The latest cull adds to around 40 redundancies across its sports editorial team, which were announced in July.
Staff affected by the cuts were informed on Monday.
Retail sales up 3.1% last month
Retail sales were up 3.1% in August, driven in part by good weather and an interest rate cut, new figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) show.
Computer and mobile phone sales performed well ahead of the return to school, with food sales also increasing.
New school clothing and footwear did not sell as well as expected as some families opted for second-hand alternatives, the BRC said.
But it warned that retail sales could dip in the following months.
“With the later-than-expected Budget falling just days before Black Friday, many are uneasy about how consumer confidence and spending could be impacted by tax rise speculation in the run-up to Christmas,” said BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson.
Water firms hit with £86m fines
Two water firms have been hit with fines totalling more than £86m over failures linked to sewage spills.
Anglian Water will have to pay £62.5m and South West Water will pay £24m towards benefiting the environment and their customers, regulator Ofwat said.
Lynn Parker, senior director for enforcement at Ofwat, said: “These are serious breaches and are unacceptable.
“We are pleased both companies have accepted that they got things wrong and are now focusing on putting that right, and taking action to come back into compliance.”
The UK is badly exposed to illegal meat smuggling, according to a new parliamentary report.
The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee said that it was “by luck rather than design” that the UK had so far avoided a “major disease outbreak”.
It warned: “Alarming amounts of meat and dairy products are now being illegally imported to Great Britain for both personal consumption and sale.
“”Criminal smuggling operations are largely responsible for this and are bringing in products of some of the greatest risk.”
It said prohibited products were entering the country by plane, boat, cars and in parcels.
In some cases, it said meat is arriving “stashed in plastic bags, suitcases and cardboard boxes”.
“This meat is finding its way to our high streets, farms, markets, restaurants and kitchen tables, demand driven by the cost-of-living crisis as well as cultural preferences,” it added.
The report said that there was no clear data showing the scale of the smuggling.
While it welcomed a government ban in April on most meat and dairy imports from the EU, it warned that the enforcement of it was “toothless”.
Our Money feature writer Brad Young recently explored how the UK would feed itself in a crisis, and found it was “criminally” unprepared…
By Sarah Taaffe-Maguire, business and economics reporter
The mobile banking app and internet banking are down at Britain’s biggest building society.
Nationwide’s online services have been offline since around 3pm.
It apologised “for any problems this may cause”.
“We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as we can,” it added.
Direct debits and standing orders are working normally, and customers can still use cards online and in shops, withdraw money from cash machines and receive payments.
Initially, Nationwide said some customers were unable to access the app or internet banking and told users to try again later.
Barclays is cutting the interest rate on two of its popular savings accounts on Friday.
The bank is reducing the rate on its Reward Saver from 2.25% AER to 2.1% AER, while its Blue Rewards Saver, which comes with a £5 monthly fee, will drop from 2.91% to 2.75%.
The interest rate applies to the accounts when no withdrawals are made in a given month, otherwise a lower interest rate of 0.6% AER applies.
Several banks have been cutting interest rates in recent weeks, after the Bank of England reduced its base rate from 4.25% to 4%.
While this is good news for borrowers, for savers it means a dip in the amount they can earn on their stashed away cash.
If you have one of the latest Barclays accounts to see a cut, here’s what you could do…
Savings expert Anna Bowes, from The Private Office, says the rates offered by the Barclays accounts are already “highly uncompetitive” and the reduction makes them worse.
“There is no need to wait until the rate cut to find a better paying account. The rates currently on offer can easily be beaten – and with no restriction on the number of withdrawals,” she says.
The best paying easy access account available is with Chase, though this is only available to new Chase customers, joining since 9 June.
The rate is 4.75% AER – considerably more than the rates offered by Barclays both before and after the new rates are applied.
For those who do not want to open a new current account, and do not want restricted access to their cash, Bowes says Cahoot’s Simple Saver is paying more.
It is paying 4.4% AER, but after 12 months your money will be moved to a cahoot Savings Account paying a far lower rate (currently 1% AER), she warns.
Santander is paying 6% AER on its Edge Saver account, but only on balances of up to £4,000, and this rate includes a 2% variable rate bonus for 12 months.
“More importantly, you have to be an Edge Current Account customer, which comes with a £3 monthly fee to be aware of,” Bowes says.
Up to 30 million people could be eligible for compensation under the UK financial watchdog’s motor finance redress scheme, its boss has said.
Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, said he hoped compensation could start being paid next year.
It comes after the FCA found many car finance firms broke the law or its rules by not properly informing customers about commission paid by lenders to the car dealers that sold them the loan.
Motorists who bought cars on finance between 2007 and 2021 could be eligible for the compensation.
“During the period that we’re looking it – from 2007 through to approximately 2020 – there are around 30 million agreements… and all of those will be eligible for compensation,” he said.
“One of the things that we are looking at very closely is what the scope of the scheme will be.”
He said the FCA was looking into so-called discretionary commission arrangements, of which there were about 14.6 million over the same period.
Under “discretionary commission arrangements”, brokers and dealers charged higher levels of interest so they could receive more commission, without telling consumers.
“A very significant proportion of those agreements… we do think probably breached the law when it came to disclosure and, by extension, unfair relationships,” Rathi said.
He told a group of MPs on the Treasury Committee that the FCA was consulting on an industry-wide compensation scheme because there was “evidence that there have been unfair relationships between lenders and their consumers”.
He said a “large number of consumers were not properly informed” about the interest rate on their motor finance deal.
The consultation is due to be launched by early October.
Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that motorists would not be able to claim compensation for hidden commissions paid on car loans, which narrowed the scope for the people who would be eligible for a payout.
After the ruling, the FCA said it would consult on what issues would make a driver eligible for compensation in a redress scheme.
While it’s looking at hidden commissions, it is also looking at other commission agreements that could mean lenders have charged unfair amounts to customers.
We look at who might be eligible for the payment under the redress scheme if it goes ahead…
You can get a £1 pizza at Pizza Express this month.
At the popular chain, customers can get a £1 classic or Leggera pizza when they buy other classic or Leggera pizza at full price.
Prices differ across the country, but are typically between £11 and £20.
The offer is available until 28 September for eat in, collection or delivery via Pizza Express.
It isn’t available for orders through delivery platforms such as Just Eat, Uber Eats and Deliveroo.
Under the terms and conditions, the most expensive pizza on the bill cannot be discounted to £1 and Pizza Express’s airport locations do not qualify either.
The chain is running a similar offer for its Romana pizzas until 28 September – buy one for full price and get a second for £2.95.
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