Podcasts

Georgie Frost was joined by Sara Benwell, Consumer Editor at Good Housekeeping this morning. Today on the agenda, they discussed how uSwitch has been defending its service after reports it wasn't showing customers the best available deals. Plus they look into the new 12-sided one pound coin entering circulation today. All these stories and more on The News Review.

Georgie Frost was joined by Jack Sommers of the Huffington Post to look at some of the biggest political stories of the day. Theresa May has held talks with Scotland's First Minister as she prepares to formally trigger the Brexit process. The Prime Minister and Nicola Sturgeon met at a hotel in Glasgow for around an hour, where they also discussed the prospect of a second independence referendum. What came out of the meeting? The Scottish Parliament is expected to pass a vote in favour of seeking another independence referendum later.

Nigel Cassidy joined Georgie Frost to discuss the main market headlines of the morning, starting with Tesco being hit with a 129 million pound fine for overstating its profits in 2014. The supermarket giant said its subsidiary - Tesco Stores - had reached a deal with the Serious Fraud Office following a two-year investigation. It means the chain will avoid prosecution as long as it pays the fine and fulfils other requirements. We've also hard from Ladbrokes Coral and Thomas Cook. What have they announced?

Today, the new 12-sided pound coin is entering circulation. The coin has not changed in 30 years, however due to the high volume of fake pound coins in circulation - up to three in every 100 - Royal Mint and The Treasury had no choice but to protect the integrity of currency in the UK and change the coin. So what does this huge change mean for the vending industry? There's half a million vending machines which will require a software upgrade. Jonathan Hart, CEO of Automatic Vending Association spoke to Nigel Cassidy this morning.

According to the latest Adzuna Job Market Report, the total number of job vacancies has increased by 3.5%, highlighting the growth within the jobs market and the diversity in terms of opportunities available for jobseekers. In terms of salaries, monthly wage growth has started to pick up speed, rising 0.3% between January and February. Generally the report looks positive, however with Theresa May about to trigger Article 50, the job market could see another shake-up. Joining Nigel Cassidy is Becky Barr, author of the report to discuss further.

Inland Homes, a leading brownfield regeneration specialist and housebuilder has released it's half year results today. Earlier last week the company also announced it had received planning permission to develop a site in High Wycombe and has secured resolutions for planning consent to be granted at a number of other sites, taking its total pipeline to 2,340 permitted plots. So, good news for the housebuilders. How are the numbers looking? To tell us more, Nigel Cassidy was joined by Stephen Wicks, Chief Executive of Inland Homes.

Totally Plc, the company providing out-of-hospital healthcare across the UK, released it's latest full year results today. The AIM-listed company has big ambitions and is aiming to become the UK's leading provider in it's sector. The company's prospects have certainly appealed to some, Chairman Robert (Bob) Holt (also Chairman of Mears Group, DX, Lakehouse and a few others) purchased 76,977 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 17th. Bob joined Nigel Cassidy to discuss further.

Technology is changing almost every aspect of daily life and business and finance is no exception. Share Radio's Simon Rose and Steve Caplin, Share Radio's technology editor, look at the big technological changes that impact on the world of business, finance and money as well as some of the gadgets that help make everyday life a bit easier. On today's programme: Netflix is to start making interactive programmes, Speedlite - world's first controlled lighting stem for bikes, the US Army fires its first 3D printed grenade and much more.

On today's politics: May visits Scotland (and Sturgeon). Meanwhile, power-sharing has broken down in Northern Ireland.

On today's Wrap: stocks have been under pressure following the collapse of Donald Trump's first attempt to overturn Obamacare; the Bank of England will perform stress tests of the UK's biggest banks, including a worst case Brexit scenario; and the telecoms regulator has given BT a record 42 million pound fine for failing to properly compensate businesses.