Jessica nets Telegraph readers’ £780,000 in 2009

Published: 12:13PM GMT 31 Dec 2009

Readers who were unhappy with the service provided by banks, building
societies and other financial institutions gained a total of £782,526 after
complaining to The Daily Telegraph last year.

Painstaking investigation of each individual case paid off with another bumper
year for the Jessica Investigates and Ask Jessica columns. And our headline
total of refunds, retrievals, debts written off and money raised only
includes those cases where grateful readers or the institutions involved
informed us of the outcome.

Our tally also excludes payouts of more than £1m by National Savings &
Investments which had been offsetting the fall in the Retail Prices Index
(RPI) against a guaranteed fixed rate of interest. More than 15,000 people
who had sold the index-linked savings certificates at issue between
anniversaries received rebates averaging £68. But other newspapers became
involved in that campaign before it reached fruition so we cannot claim full
credit for that victory.

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New York’s Tavern on the Green to close on New Year’s Eve after 75 years

Tavern on the Green, once America’s highest-grossing restaurant, is to close
its doors after 75 years.

The picture shows the former sheepfold on the edge of Central Park on February
13, 2006, a day after a record snowfall of 26.9 inches in Central Park that
broke the previous record of 26.4 inches, set in December 1947.

The landmark restaurant, which opened amid the Great Depression, is preparing
to serve its last meal on New Year’s Eve.

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Is the emerging markets party over?

By Ian Cowie

Published: 10:20AM GMT 31 Dec 2009

There is something deeply disturbing about the near unanimity with which
financial advisers tipped emerging markets as their favourite sector for
2010 in the New Year forecasts.

No wonder some sceptics are beginning to liken the trend to the technology,
media and telecommunications (TMT) bubble that burst 10 years ago. Then, as
now, strong short-term performance statistics were combined with optimistic
growth forecasts to justify increasingly expensive valuations.

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Iceland approves Icesave repayment deal

Published: 9:00AM GMT 31 Dec 2009

The money will reimburse the British and Dutch governments which stepped in to
compensate depositors with Icesave after its parent bank Landsbanki failed
last year. The bank‘s collapse left more than 320,000 savers out of pocket.

Iceland’s MPs backed the Icesave bill last night by a narrow margin of 33
votes to 30 in a move likely to help boost the country’s bid to join the
European Union and repair its battered economy.

“I’m very relieved that the bill has been passed, as it’s been a burden on
Iceland for a long time,” Johanna Sigurdardottir, Iceland’s prime minister,
told Bloomberg. “The resolution of this case will contribute to Iceland
regaining the trust and confidence of the international community.”

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Bankers snubbed in New Year’s Honours list

By Holly Watt


Published: 8:00AM GMT 31 Dec 2009

Dyfrig John, the outgoing chief executive of HSBC in the UK receives a CBE in
recognition of his 38-year career at the bank.

HSBC was one of the few banks not to run into trouble during the credit crisis
and is now one of the world’s strongest financial institutions.

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‘Rip-off ‘ rail firms accused of hiding 15% fare increases

By
Ray Massey Last updated at 1:06 AM on 31st December 2009

‘Highway robbery’: Train fares are to increase by 15 per cent
Rail passengers are facing inflation-busting fare rises of up to 15 per cent in the New Year, sparking accusations that ‘rip-off ‘ increases are being disguised. Tomorrow annual fare increases come into force which train company chiefs say will see passengers paying an average of 1.1 per cent more for their tickets. This is largely thanks to a 0.4 per cent fall in the cost of regulated fares – including season tickets, savers and standard day returns – which are capped by the Government. But passenger groups and rail unions say the average figure masks the full extent of the New Year rises. Some passengers will see rises of up to 15 per cent in unregulated fares, which include most cheap day returns, long distance open, leisure and advance fare tickets. These prices are set by the train companies themselves, with the average rise being around 5 per cent. However the TSSA rail union said some advance purchase tickets would rise much more. It highlighted a supersaver fare from London to Swindon rising from £20 to £23, an increase of 15 per cent. TSSA general secretary Gerry Doherty said: ‘These people have no shame. ‘If there is a chance of legally ripping off the passenger they will take it. This is modern highway robbery.’ The RMT union has described the rises as a ‘taxpayer-sponsored ripoff’ and said that train companies were guilty of ’spin and gloss’ to disguise ‘massive fare hikes’ on some lines.

There is particular anger that the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) has chosen not to announce how much unregulated fares are rising. ATOC normally gives separate figures for the regulated and unregulated increases.
Regulated fares, which make up around 40 per cent of all fares, will be going down from tomorrow as they are capped according to the formula of Retail Price Index measure plus 1 per cent, based on the July inflation rate. The recession and deflation meant RPI was minus 1.4 per cent in July, meaning prices must go down by 0.4 per cent. But details from individual train companies paint a very different picture. For example Virgin Trains, which operates London to Scotland services on the West Coast main line, said its unregulated fares were rising by an average of 2.8 per cent. But some tickets are going up by as much as 6 per cent, including London to Manchester anytime standard returns, from £247 to £262. Anthony Smith, chief executive of rail customer watchdog Passenger Focus said: ‘This is a sting in the tail. ‘Many unregulated fares will continue to soar above inflation as the average figures will mask steep rises on individual routes. ‘We are also concerned that some train operators will tinker with off-peak ticket restrictions, forcing passengers into buying more expensive tickets.’ Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Norman Baker said: ‘We all recognise that times are tough but putting rail fares up will not get people back on to the railways.’ ATOC chief executive Michael Roberts defended the presentation of fare changes by saying: ‘Not only is the average rise the lowest since privatisation, but it will come in well below the rate of inflation, meaning a real-terms cut in prices for many passengers.’ He said rail travel ‘continues to be good value for money‘.

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It’s back home to Mother: Year of recession forces half a million adults aged 35 to 44 to return to live with parents

By
Becky Barrow
Last updated at 8:23 AM on 31st December 2009

James Tully has moved back in with his mother after splitting from his wifeNearly 500,000 adults aged 35 to 44 moved back into their parents’ home in the past year, research reveals today.
Devastated by the recession and rising rates of relationship breakdown, many had no option but to return to mother.
The trend has led to them being dubbed the ‘boomerang generation’. In total there are nearly two million men and women living in Britain who have been forced to go back home.
The majority - around one million - are aged between 18 and 24,
and have either returned home in the last 12 months, or have delayed
plans to move out.Many will be university graduates who have traditionally moved back in with their parents before setting up their own home.
But it is not just the young who are staying with their parents for longer than they had hoped, the research by Abbey shows.
The bank says there are around 440,000 between the ages of 25 to
34 and a further 471,000 between the ages of 35 to 44 who have been
forced to return home.The research raises fears about the impact of the ‘boomerangers’ on their parents’ finances.On
average, parents have about £11,900 in cash savings, but the money is
rapidly disappearing since their children moved back in.Over the past year, they have typically withdrawn about a fifth of their savings, around £2,100, which they blame on the rising cost of living and ‘unexpected’ expenses - such as their children returning home.

An Abbey spokesman said: ‘The return of grown-up children to the family home can be a shock for parents who have no doubt become used to the quiet life.
‘While many parents can live with more noise and a bigger laundry pile, many may be unprepared for the financial impact of their return home.’
The spokesman added that many parents wrongly assume the huge expense of having children only lasts for the first two decades of their lives.
Many grown-up children would love to escape their parents’ home to buy their own, but simply cannot afford to do so.
The average price of a home in England and Wales is £161,554, and the cost is rising - up 0.9 per cent last month, according to figures published yesterday by the Land Registry.
Rising house prices are partly to blame for the amount of middle-aged people moving home
Despite the property crash during the recession, homes in many parts of the country are still cripplingly expensive.
The number of properties bought for more than £1million has shot up by 35 per cent over the past year to 512 in September alone.
Matt Hutchinson, director of the flat and house-share website Spareroom.co.uk, said the over-35s are his fastest growing group of customers - particularly as lenders are providing far fewer mortgages.
‘This trend is likely to continue until house prices become more affordable or mortgage lenders relax their lending criteria,’ he added.
‘These days, landlords are just as likely to have a house full of over 30-something flat sharers as they are a group of university students. The UK is moving towards a nation of renters.’

Debt experts also warn the number of Britons expected to be plunged into insolvency will hit an all-time record of 150,000 next year, a 15 per cent rise on this year.
The majority will be men aged between 26 to 45, and many will be left with no option but to move back to their parents’ home, according to the research from the accountants RSM Tenon.
Mark Sands, head of bankruptcy at the firm, said it is not necessarily losing their job which tips them over the edge, but losing overtime pay or their bonus.
He said: ‘If you’ve got £50,000 of debt on your credit card and you’ve lost one of your shifts then you are going to hit the end of the line.’
The number of insolvency casualties will pick up next year, as there is usually a time lag between the start of a recession and people losing the battle with their finances.
The Government recently published a 16-page guide called the Parent Motivators, which is aimed at helping parents cope with twenty-somethings living at home.
The guide, which critics say is another example of the nanny state interfering in adults’ lives, includes tips about how to get rid of children who parents would prefer to have moved out.
It claims being ‘too supportive’ is a mistake, adding: ‘Sometimes, it really is necessary to show tough love. If you are making life too comfortable at home, why would they get a job?
‘If you are providing free board and lodgings, a well-stocked fridge, washing and ironing done, plus an allowance, there’s not much drive there. So cut back to help increase their motivation.’

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Millionairess with an Asbo… Property developer ordered to behave throughout ALL England and Wales

By
Sam Greenhill Last updated at 9:51 AM on 31st December 2009

‘Nightmare neighbour’: The magistrate said he wished he could ban Patricia Bailey from the entire planet
She lives in a £1million home in one of the most exclusive addresses in the country and looks every inch the respectable businesswoman. But 60-year-old property developer Patricia Bailey has an unlikely document in her portfolio – an Asbo. Her neighbours in the luxury apartments overlooking Lord’s cricket ground in London may not know it, but a court has ruled that the millionairess is as much a threat as a council estate hoodie. Her behaviour was so bad the exasperated magistrate said he wished he could ban her from the entire planet. Mrs Bailey pursued a relentless campaign of antisocial behaviour that caused ‘harassment, alarm or distress’ to residents in her former neighbourhood in the sought-after Harley Street area, a court found. In one incident, she is said to have abused women attending a charity meeting at a nearby apartment, calling them whores. So seriously did the court view the complaints that its order was unusually severe, covering the whole country and potentially Mrs Bailey’s entire lifetime. It also told her to pay £25,000 costs. The Asbo – or antisocial behaviour order – bans the property developer from any contact with her old neighbours. But Mrs Bailey is appealing the ruling and insists: ‘We were the victims but somehow they have managed to turn us into the perpetrators.’ It is not a view shared by her former neighbours, who include a BBC executive. They say she had made their lives such a misery the court had taken the only possible action. John Andrews, who lived next door, said: ‘I had to stop having friends and family round because she would suddenly appear at the window, having walked along the communal balcony, and scream abuse. ‘I let a group of women from a charity I’m involved in use my flat for a meeting and Mrs Bailey called them all whores. ‘They thought it was funny but I didn’t. We called the police so many times, it was ridiculous.’ Usually Asbos are restricted to a small geographical area and last only a few months.

Such was the case with the order given to yobs who hounded despairing mother Fiona Pilkington and her disabled daughter to their deaths in Leicestershire in 2007. The Asbo for Mrs Bailey, however, goes much further, stating: ‘You must not use threatening, abusive, aggressive or obscene language or behaviour towards any person, in any public place in England and Wales… until further notice.’ Mrs Bailey has made her own complaints to police and handed the Daily Mail a tape recording of what she claimed was neighbours trying to break in to her flat. She said her neighbours had formed a ‘lynch mob’ trying to kill her and described it as a ‘near-fatal break in’ during which she frantically phoned police. 
Sought-after: Bailey’s neighbours at her luxury apartment block include a BBC executive
But when two officers arrived, they could be heard on the tape arresting Mrs Bailey instead – after she subjected them to abuse. The millionairess, who said she made her money buying and selling Mayfair properties, claimed she was the victim of noisy neighbours. She said: ‘We had four-and-ahalf years of parties going on through the night. The next-door neighbour had a power-shower that made the adjoining wall shake, and would have showers at 1am, five nights a week.’ She said she tried to move but lost two sales after declaring a problem with the noise, adding that the neighbours ganged up on her and ‘it was like a 21st-century witch-hunt’. ‘They said I was banging on their windows and shouting abuse, which is nonsense. They were the ones abusing me,’ she said. Magistrates, however, disagreed. Neighbour Sharon Banoff, who is editor of strategic development at BBC Radio, said: ‘She made our lives a misery and with the help of the police and council we did manage to get the outcome we wanted. ‘The judge even said to her, “I think you truly are the neighbour from hell”.’ Mrs Bailey’s Swedish husband, Peter Engen, said: ‘Yes, the judge did say that. He even said in his very prejudicial summary of his judgment that he wanted to ban my wife from the globe if he could.’ Mr Engen described the allegations as false and said the couple had run up a legal bill of £100,000. His wife will return to court next month to appeal her Asbo, which was given by Westminster magistrates on June 30. In the meantime, at least both she and her former neighbours agree on one thing – everyone is happier now that she has moved.
 

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FTSE 100’s ‘Santa rally’ stalls

By Jonathan Sibun

Published: 8:48AM GMT 30 Dec 2009

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FTSE 100

London index of
leading shares fell 7.5 points - or 0.16pc - to 5428 by 8.13am, its
first drop in six sessions in light holiday trading.

Strong performance by miners on the back of firmer metal prices has led the
index to a 15-month high and back to the level it was before the collapse of
Lehman Brothers last September.

But today miners gave up some of their gains with Rio
Tinto and Xstrata
both edging around 0.6pc lower, despite copper prices rising to a 16-month
high.

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Japan Air shares plunge almost 25pc as investors fear bankruptcy

Published: 8:14AM GMT 30 Dec 2009

The airline’s shares closed down 24pc at 67 yen, adding to a loss of 8pc on
Tuesday, as markets in Tokyo considered the prospect of Japan Air heading
into bankruptcy.

The global downturn has deepened Japan Air’s exisiting woes, which have forced
it to seek a bail-out from the Government three times since 2001. The
airline, which was founded six years after the end of World War II, owes its
lenders more than 500bn yen (£3.41bn) and racked up a loss of 62.3bn yen
over the last financial year.

“Shareholders are becoming convinced that bankruptcy will be the case,”
Mitsushige Akino, who manages the equivalent of $450m at Ichiyoshi
Investment Management in Tokyo, told Bloomberg. “They are dumping the stock.
JAL’s value will be zero if it goes bankrupt.”

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