eBay will clamp down on the sale of e-bikes and e-bike batteries in the UK from 31 October, the BBC has learned.
The firm says that only “eligible business sellers” will be allowed to list them after this date.
It did not explain what the necessary criteria would be.
E-bikes, which have electrically-assisted pedals and are battery-powered, have soared in popularity, but incidents involving battery fires have also risen.
The brigade warned e-bike users to check their batteries after battery packs were officially classed as “dangerous” products by the UK’s regulatory body.
“Consumer safety is a top priority for eBay,” an eBay spokesperson said on Tuesday.
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Earlier this year, it said it would also audit sellers to make sure they had the CE mark for safety documentation for listed e-bike products.
A quick look at the eBay platform reveals nearly 3,000 used e-bikes currently for sale in the UK.
The charity Electrical Safety First said it welcomed the firm’s change in policy.
But it suggested that new laws were also needed because of the fire safety risks posed by the vehicles.
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“Whilst this voluntary move is welcome, we continue to call for online marketplaces to be legally obligated to take reasonable steps to ensure products sold via their sites are safe,” said a spokesperson.
The Product Regulation and Metrology Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament, could potentially enforce this in future.
THIS massive restaurant chain is to deliver a Christmas dinner feast to your door this festive season.
Côte restaurants have launched their indulgent range of Christmas meals designed by Gordon Ramsay’s former Executive Chef.
Steve Allen – who previously ran Michelin-starred restaurants – has focused on fresh seasonal ingredients to showcase the classics, with a French twist, at Christmas.
This Christmas the premium delivery Côte at Home service has come up with three luxury Christmas feasts complete with simple instructions – so there’s less stress for the season.
In less than three hours, and with minimal fuss, the luxurious meals are ready to be served.
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All three Côte at Home Christmas boxes have been specially designed so that dishes can be heated at the same temperature, avoiding oven hassle and more time to relax with loved ones.
Three of the Côte at Home Christmas boxes
The Côte Festive Turkey Feast (£124.95) serves up to six people and includes:
A 2-2.5kg marinated British turkey breast from Larchwood Farm, East Anglia as the traditional centrepiece
Pigs in Blankets with a spiced honey glaze
Spiced Braised Red Cabbage
Brussels Sprouts au Gratin
Roast Potatoes
Rainbow Roasted Carrots
Sage & Onion stuffing
Shallot & Thyme Jus
The second box of Christmas comes with the same side dishes, but you and your guests will dine on 1kg Chateaubriand instead.
The Côte Festive Chateaubriand Feast serves up to six and costs £154.95.
Or you can opt for the third box which is a vegetarian feast for two costing £54.95, featuring:
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Two individual Butternut Squash Tarte Tatin’s with toasted almonds and Chèvre Buchette goat’s cheese served with all the trimmings
Spiced Braised Red Cabbage
Brussels Sprouts au Gratin
Roast Potatoes
Rainbow Roasted Carrots
Sage & Onion stuffing
Shallot & Thyme Jus
There’s also a selection of delicious festive starters including:
Chicken Liver Pâté (£8.95), infused with Grand Marnier and served with a fig chutney
Truffled Pumpkin Soup (£5.95) topped with crumbled chestnuts and pumpkin seeds
Brûlée Camembert (£5.95) which is sprinkled with sugar and caramelised to create a hard sweet crust, with grape chutney
All starters come with a freshly baked demi baguette.
Côte at Home also offers a selection of festive desserts:
Pear & Almond Frangipane Tart with winter berry coulis (£8.95)
Brandy Butter Madeleines with whipped brandy butter (£8.95)
Bûche de Noël, a traditional chocolate roulade with pistachio cream (£15.95)
If you want to fill the fridge with other meals during the festive season, Côte’s chefs have designed another two exclusive boxes.
These mean you have more time to sit back and less time needing to focus on the big shop.
The Côte Christmas Breakfast Box (£64.95), for two or more people
You can enjoy a Continental breakfast of croissants, mini jams, French bread and butter, yoghurts, our Côte granola and Valencian orange juice.
There’s also smoked salmon, Comté cheese and Jambon de Savoie ham, alongside Cumberland sausages, Boudin Noir black pudding, Dingley Dell smoked back bacon and free-range eggs.
The Côte Christmas Evening Box (£74.95), for two or more people
Enjoy a selection of French cheeses, charcuterie and luxury fish perfect for a cold buffet of luxury food. All accompanied by crackers, confit jams, cornichons, olives and sourdough demi baguette.
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Côte Christmas Drinks Package (£84.25)
Côte at Home also offers a range of drinks gift packages this year, alongside some chocolate and Champagne gifting options.
Start (or end) the day with their exclusive house blend coffee, followed by Buck’s Fizz courtesy of Montaudon Champagne and Valencian orange juice.
Côte’s Les Mougeottes Pinot Noir pairs perfectly with your main meal, and there’s a bottle of Quinta do Crasto Port to enjoy alongside desserts of one of our French cheese boxes.
There’s also a range of wine packages – mixed, white and red wines, three bottles of exclusive French wine for £39.95.
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And a Champagne and Crémant package for £59.95.
If you’re looking for a smaller gift, this year Côte are partnering with Montezuma chocolates and offering their ‘Into the Dark’ and ‘Dairy Beloved’ gift boxes with your choice of Champagne, Crémant or Non-Alcoholic Sparkling Rosé for £34.95 – £39.95.
Executive Chef, Steve said: “Our Côte at Home Christmas boxes have everything you need to creative a fabulous festive feast.
“From seasonal starters through to the main event and show-stopping desserts, you’ll find a selection of classic Christmas dishes with a touch of French flair.
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“What’s more, everything is effortless to prepare in your own kitchen, so you won’t miss out on that all-important time with friends and family. Joyeux Noël!”
Delivered direct to your door Côte at Home festive menus and dishes are now on sale with delivery available nationwide from 18th – 23rd December.
Visit coteathome.co.uk to book your delivery and view the complete Christmas menu.
Sixty of the wealthiest people in the UK collectively contributed more than £3bn a year in income tax, the BBC has learned.
The amount of income tax they paid is roughly equivalent to around two-thirds of Labour’s entire additional spending commitments in their manifesto earlier this year.
Each of the 60 individuals had an income of at least £50m a year in 2021/22, but many will have earned far more and probably pay large amounts in other taxes too.
There is concern tax rises in this month’s Budget could prompt an exit of the super-rich, hurting UK finances. Labour ruled out income tax changes, but Chancellor Rachel Reeves left the door open for other tax hikes.
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A Treasury spokesperson said the government was committed to “addressing unfairness in the tax system”.
Swiss banking giant UBS predicted in July the UK would lose half its millionaires by 2028, partly as a result of some switching to low-tax countries.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the Treasury needed to be aware that a small number of this super-rich group leaving the country would create a “relatively big hole in its finances”.
But the Green Party argued claims taxing the wealthy more would lead to them leaving the UK were not credible.
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The BBC reported last month about concerns within the Treasury that one of the main fundraisers for those pledges, the scrapping of the non-dom scheme, would raise far less money than first hoped.
Scrapping that scheme, which allows a UK resident to be registered abroad for tax purposes, was initially thought to be worth £1bn.
Government ministers have also said the previous Conservative government left a £22bn “black hole” in the public finances.
This has led to discussions within government about potential tax increases in the forthcoming Budget and in August the chancellor refused to rule out an increase in capital gains tax.
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Stuart Adam, a senior economist at the IFS, said reports of wealthy individuals leaving the UK were currently just anecdotal.
But he warned that it would not take a mass exodus to cause issues for the public coffers, as “tax payments are very concentrated on a small number of people”.
“There’s clearly a risk there that Rachel Reeves has to think about,” Mr Adam said.
“Some of the tax changes that have been speculated are very concentrated on those at the top of the income distribution.”
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There could “be more at stake from these people than just the income tax they’re paying” as the individuals in question would likely be paying large amounts in other forms of taxation such as capital gains, Mr Adam added.
Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer warned against taking threats by the super rich to leave the country seriously.
“This didn’t happen when changes were made to non-dom status in 2017,” she said.
“There are lots of reasons that the wealthy choose to live in the UK, including work, family and culture, and many are happy to pay a bit more if it means a happier and healthier society.”
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The figures, which were compiled by HMRC, have been obtained through Freedom of Information laws and relate to 2021/22, the latest year for which data is available.
That year, the UK had a total income tax receipt of £225bn, with contributions from some 33m taxpayers.
The 60 people with incomes of more than £50m made up just 0.0002% of UK taxpayers and together paid 1.4% of the income tax receipt.
HMRC initially blocked the release of the information on the grounds that disclosing the figures would identify the individuals in question.
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But the authority agreed to release the data after further requests by the BBC.
The IFS has said a way to dissuade wealthy individuals from leaving the UK could be to introduce an “exit tax”.
Some other countries “say that if you leave the UK, we will tax you on gains that have accrued while you’re here, even if you don’t sell the asset until later”, Mr Adam said.
“And symmetrically, we will exempt people who built up gains before they came to the UK, even if they sell assets while they’re here.”
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A Treasury spokesperson said: “We are addressing unfairness in the tax system so we can raise the revenue to rebuild our public services.
“That is why we are removing the outdated non-dom tax regime and replacing it with a new internationally competitive residence-based regime focused on attracting the best talent and investment to the UK.”
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The world’s biggest frozen croissant IPO has fizzled as Spanish group Europastry postponed its planned flotation for the second time in less than four months.
Shares in Europastry, a maker of frozen baked goods for many of the world’s coffee shop chains, were due to start trading on Thursday, but its family owners cancelled the plan on Tuesday with less than two days notice.
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The founding Gallés family, who hail from Barcelona, was seeking a valuation of up to €1.5bn, but bankers said the bookbuilding process had not gone well as some investors viewed the price it was seeking as too high.
Europastry cancelled its previous flotation attempt in late June, citing market uncertainty caused by the upcoming French parliamentary election, even though it had announced the IPO plan 10 days earlier when the French election had already been called.
In a statement on Tuesday the company attributed its latest postponement to “the international geopolitical situation, which is causing profound instability in the markets”.
The company said it had “received a very good response from investors” and would “continue to evaluate the possibility of going public when the market situation allows it”.
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The investment banks working on the flotation globally are JPMorgan, UBS and ING.
Europastry has more than doubled its sales in the past seven years, logging revenue of €1.35bn in 2023.
The company wanted to raise up to €210mn from the sale of new shares and €295mn from stock sold by existing shareholders.
Europastry has been a silent force behind the growth of pre-made frozen pastries, which can be thawed then cooked on coffee shop premises and have been displacing freshly produced alternatives — even in the pastry heartland of France.
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In France, frozen products accounted for 24 per cent of all pastries and other sweet baked goods in 2021. In the UK, 21 per cent of pastries were frozen, compared with 13 per cent in Spain and 17 per cent in the US, according to research groups Gira and Global Market Insights.
Europastry operates in more than 80 countries and its clients include Starbucks, Pret A Manger and the Spanish chain Manolo Bakes, which is known for its mini-croissants.
Last month Jordi Gallés, Europastry’s executive chair and the son of its founder, told the Financial Times the company’s role was not hidden, but said: “A lot of times [clients] are shy about it, mostly because they don’t want the competition to know how they do it.”
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Europastry, which churns out more than 5,000 different products from bread to doughnuts, has 27 highly automated factories in seven countries.
Overall revenues edged ten per cent lower to £1billion.
It blamed a near ten per cent slump in advertising revenues, plus piling cash into content.
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It said the ad slump caught the entire market unaware — “even the highly paid forecasters”.
The publicly owned but commercially funded channel, which also screens Married At First Sight and The Piano, spent £663million on programming, its second-highest annual figure.
Bosses admitted they had hoped to spend even more, but the ads downturn meant budgets had to quickly be trimmed.
Ms Mahon said of the spend: “We did it knowing the single biggest contribution we can make to the financial health of the creative economy is what we spend on British intellectual property.”
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She reasserted the importance of the Government maintaining tax credits for film and drama productions.
Channel 4’s results showed consuming video content will overtake traditional linear TV.
Channel 4’s shocking new dating show Baddest in the World sees woman gag and scream during disgusting date
Streaming now makes up 15 per cent of its viewing after growing by a quarter last year.
It has been investing heavily in its digital partnerships, including YouTube which also streamed its Paralympics coverage.
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The advertising slowdown meant Channel 4 has already tightened its belt by cutting around 240 jobs and shelving shows including Banged Up and Scared of the Dark, despite good ratings.
It will quit its London HQ on Horseferry Road, due to hybrid working.
Sum mistake for Vistry with £1bn hit
MORE than £1billion was wiped off the value of housebuilder Vistry Group yesterday after it admitted that it had got its maths wrong.
The FTSE 100 group, formerly called Bovis Homes, put out an unscheduled update revealing that it had underestimated building costs on around nine of its 300 developments.
Vistry said the blooper would knock £80million off its profits and it will now make around £350million — below last year’s £419million.
Shares in the housebuilder tumbled by as much as a third as investors took fright at the error.
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Investec analyst Aynsley Lammin said the key question for the City to consider going forward would be whether this was a one-off error or “more systemic and reflective of inherent risk within the group’s model”.
The business said it believed the issues were “confined to the south division” and it was starting a review to get to the root of the cause.
Vistry has been growing at a faster pace than all of its large competitors and recently upped its forecasts for house completions, despite others blaming higher mortgage rates for lower demand.
Boom in sarnies
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BRITAIN’S biggest sandwich maker Greencore has boosted its profit forecasts for the year after a rise in sales.
Like-for-like sales were up by 3.7 per cent in the past quarter, the firm reported.
Workers returning to offices pushed up demand for its sandwiches, sushi and salads that it makes on behalf of supermarkets and retailers.
Greencore said it expects to make around £95million of profits this year, compared to £76million last year.
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Shining results at Shein
FAST-fashion retailer Shein made £1.5billion in UK sales last year — more than its British online rivals Boohoo and Asos.
Young shoppers have snapped up its cheap goods.
And fresh company accounts for Shein Distribution UK Ltd reveal its revenues rose from £1.1billion for 2023.
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Its growth eclipses the £1.4billion revenues Asos made in the UK and Boohoo’s £921.5million of UK sales.
As it gears up for a potential London stock market listing, Shein reported its UK profits doubled to £24.4million.
It is facing scrutiny for exploiting an import duty loophole by shipping goods in small parcels directly to consumers.
The China-founded group has recently shifted its headquarters to Singapore.
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But its Companies House filings confirm the ultimate controlling firm is registered in Cayman Islands, a known tax haven.
IMP’s cig boost
THE maker of Golden Virginia and Lambert & Butler is giving shareholders a £1.5billion award after benefiting from the rising prices of cigarettes.
Imperial Brands said it would increase the amount returned to investors in buybacks from £2.4billion to £2.8billion in the year ahead.
Imps still makes the bulk of its sales and profits from cigs but has been investing heavily in “next generation” products.
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It expects sales of its Blu vapes and nicotine pouches to grow by between 20 and 30 per cent in the next year.
THE CAFE and bars chain Loungers has opened 17 new sites in the past six months and has plans for 18 more.
The business now has 273 in the UK and openings are fuelling its growth, with half year sales rising by 19 per cent to £178.3million.
Oxtail of woes
THE miserable weather in September had chilly shoppers stocking up on soup and hot chocolate, according to the latest grocery figures.
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Hot chocolate sales rose 28 per cent and soup was up ten per cent at supermarkets, Kantar stats showed.
Brits are still spending more as food inflation ticked back up to 2 per cent, from 1.7 per cent in August.
They are buying more items on promotion.
Of the discounters, Aldi’s growth slowed to 1.8 per cent over the month.
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