The six stores to close in April are Birkenhead, Bournemouth, Durham, Fforestfach in Swansea, Putney and Redditch. Staff have been offered jobs in nearby stores.
The closure of another eight shops has been proposed, which will affect 468 staff. The eight stores are: Andover, Basildon, Bridlington, Denton outlet store, Falmouth, Fareham, Keighley and Stockport.
It follows a disappointing Christmas period for M&S, when sales of both food and clothing fell.
According to UK Finance, the number of landlords who are seriously behind with their mortgage payments has increased by 20%.
There were 1,200 buy-to-let mortgages in “significant arrears” in the last quarter of 2017, a fifth higher than in the same quarter in 2016.Significant arrears means they owe more than 10% of the outstanding balance.
The figures suggest some landlords may be beginning to struggle financially, following a series of tax changes.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has already warned that landlords are pulling out of the market as a result of the tax changes. It said rents may rise as a result.
Among the tax changes facing landlords have been a 3% surcharge on Stamp Duty for any property they buy, and a gradual reduction in the amount they are able to claim in tax relief.
The UK Finance figures also show that 600 buy-to-let properties were re-possessed by banks in the last quarter of 2017. That was the same number as in 2016.
A Russian billionaire has appealed a decision that he pay his wife £453 million, as part of their divorce. It is believed that this is the largest award ever made in the English courts.
The court found that the wife’s claim totalled 41.5 % of the marital assets, which was considered fair and just in the circumstances.
In the meantime, despite the existence of the current order, the wife states that she has not received “a penny from him” to date.
In his judgement, Mr Justice Haddon-Cave made the point that the wealth had been built up throughout the course of their married lives together and that there had been equal contributions towards the welfare of the family. The sharing principle, established in previous big money cases, was therefore applied and the wife was awarded 41.5% of the total marital assets.
This case contrasts with the approach in the case of Cooper-Hohn v Hohn where the court recognised the husband’s special contribution towards the wealth of the marriage. The court did not apply the sharing principle and the wife did not achieve an equal division of the assets.
The different approach in this case highlights the very wide discretion that the court has, deciding each case on a fact specific basis.
Wrigley Claydon, we fight on your behalf to make this difficult time a little easier. We are experienced family lawyers and can assist you with the legal aspects of any family situation in which you may find yourself. We deal with our cases sensitively.
If you are looking for family advice then please call 0161 624 6811 to speak to our Family Department.
The courts service (HMCTS) spent £50m last year on agency and contract staff; it spent less than £4m in 2010, whilst more than 220 courts across England and Wales have closed.
Part of the increase appears to be linked to a £1bn court modernisation programme aimed at transferring more court hearings online or operating them through remote video-links. More than £30m is being spent on external management consultants.
Critics have said spending tens of millions of pounds more on agency staff is a false economy and a reckless use of resources.
Last week the MoJ revealed that a further eight courts had been earmarked for sale. These are Wandsworth county court and Blackfriars crown court in London, and magistrates’ courts in Cambridge, North Allerton, Banbury, Maidenhead, Chorley and Fleetwood.
New rules for recording domestic violence published in the journal Criminology & Criminal Justice argues that multiple incidents as serious as grievous bodily harm would be lumped together under the umbrella of one offence under the Domestic Abuse Bill.
The Home Office said that “We will introduce a landmark Domestic Abuse Bill to protect and support victims, recognise the life-long impact domestic abuse has on children and make sure agencies effectively respond to domestic abuse.”
Critics have said that the new offence of coercive control would mask the fact that women tend to be the victims of a higher number and a more serious level of offences.
98 per cent of those who reported experiencing repeated domestic violent crime which left them with injuries were female.
The offence of coercive control was introduced in 2015 and is designed to help those who experience “extreme psychological and emotional abuse”.
It was brought in following concerns that existing offences of harassment and stalking were not effectively identifying and punishing perpetrators of repeated domestic abuse.
Wrigley Claydon, we fight on your behalf to make this difficult time a little easier. We are experienced family lawyers and can assist you with the legal aspects of any family situation in which you may find yourself. We deal with our cases sensitively.
Online fashion retailer Asos saw strong sales over the Christmas period as total sales rose by 30% to £790m in the final four months of 2017.
Online Manchester-based rival, Boohoo, which also owns PrettyLittleThings and Nasty Gal brands, saw revenues double to £228m in the four months to the end of December.
The performance of online retailers is putting pressure on the likes of Next and Marks and Spencer.
Lloyds Bank has said it will provide £50m to support its small business customers who are struggling following the failure of outsourcing company Carillion and after the government refused to insure its debts.
Meanwhile, Nationwide building society has said it will take in-house jobs which were performed by Carillion.
Lloyds said its fund was for small businesses within Carillion’s supply chain that “may now be experiencing financial difficulty”.
From 22 January 2018, 250 staff, mainly cleaners and maintenance workers, who were on the Carillion payroll, will be employed directly by Nationwide.
It will also take over contracts arranged by Carillion, which provide employment for another 1,500 workers.
Carillion went into liquidation earlier this week, threatening thousands of jobs, about 20,000 of them in the UK.
Phone-hacking allegations against both The Sun and the now defunct News Of The World are due to be heard at the High Court.
The latest round of the long-running litigation involves four individuals – including comedian Vic Reeves, and Coronation Street actor Jimmi Harkishin.
The others are TV presenter Kate Thornton and talent manager Chris Herbert.
They allege they were the victims of unlawful information gathering by News Group Newspapers (NGN), resulting in 79 disputed articles.
The trial in London, before Mr Justice Mann, is expected to last at least four weeks.
It is only concerned with the disputed issue of liability.
The four individual claims are likely to be heard first with the “generic” case to follow.
The presenter, who co-hosts several shows with Declan Donnelly including I’m a Celebrity Get me Out of Here and Britain’s Got Talent, released a statement, asking for privacy “for both himself, Lisa and their immediate families”.
The couple met in 1994 when they were performing as singers on the Smash Hits tour in Newcastle. Lisa Armstrong is now a make-up artist on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing.
They were together for 23 years and married in 2007.
Lawyers have been instructed to negotiate a £31m divorce settlement.
Wrigley Claydon, we fight on your behalf to make this difficult time a little easier. We are experienced family lawyers and can assist you with the legal aspects of any family situation in which you may find yourself. We deal with our cases sensitively.
Changes to evidence requirements in private family law disputes came into effect on 8 January 2018. There will no longer be a time limit on abuse evidence, which previously stood at five years. Additionally, the range of documents accepted as evidence of abuse has been widened to include statements from domestic violence support organisations and housing support officers.
The changes are the latest in a series of reforms the government is making to support victims of domestic violence, having previously announced a £17 million fund to support 41 projects across the country to tackle violence against women and girls.
Wrigley Claydon, we fight on your behalf to make this difficult time a little easier. We are experienced family lawyers and can assist you with the legal aspects of any family situation in which you may find yourself. We deal with our cases sensitively.