Podcasts

Sarah Lowther was joined by Sara Benwell, Consumer Editor from Good Housekeeping this morning. Today on the agenda, they discussed how nearly half of UK families with dependent children would struggle to survive a month on their savings if they had to. Plus they look into why money worries are the biggest strain on relationships in the UK. All these stories and more on The News Review.

Labour's Party membership is expected to fall below half a million for the first time since its peak under Jeremy Corbyn. And the Scottish government is expected to win a vote calling for a second independence referendum later. The First Minister will call on Members of the Scottish Parliament to back her request for a second poll. For more on this and all the biggest political stories of the day, Sarah Lowther was joined by Professor Peter Catterall, Reader in the History Department of the University of Westminster.

Joining Sarah Lowther to discuss the main market headlines of the morning is Share Radio's Nigel Cassidy, starting with Kingfisher profiting from the weak pound. We've also heard from fashion house Hermès. Plus, we check out how the pound and FTSE is fairing.

Cello Group, the UK based healthcare and consumer strategic marketing company has released their latest preliminary results today. Cello Group has two distinct businesses, Cello Health which delivers marketing advisory services to the global pharma and health sectors, and Cello Signal which delivers digitally-led insight and marketing services to global consumer and B2B clients. So how is the company doing? Mark Scott, CEO of Cello revealed to Nigel Cassidy.

Today, the London Taxi Company (LTC) announced the official opening of the UK's first car plant dedicated solely to the production of range-extended electric vehicles. This new, state-of-the-art, vehicle plant in Ansty, Coventry, is where the world's first purpose-built, mass-market electric taxi will be built. The investment and expansion of LTC has created more than 1,000 new jobs, including 200 engineers and 30 apprenticeships. So to tell us more, Nigel Cassidy was joined by Chris Gubbey, CEO of London Taxi Company.

On today's programme: France has held its first Presidential debate; the former deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, Martin McGuinness, has died at the age of 66; and EU leaders will hold a summit on Brexit on 29th April - a month after Article 50 is triggered.

On today's Emerging Opportunities: cooperation in opening its nuclear facilities to international inspectors had brought Iran to the brink of ending decades of economic sanctions - opening investors to opportunities in one of the world's leading oil producing economies, with an active stock exchange and consumer population. What does the future hold for Iran?

Donald Trump, Brexit, and elections in France and Germany are all hogging the headlines at the moment - should you focus on them? Asset allocation expert Andy Brown from Prudential joined Juliette in the studio to discuss.

The failed attempt by the US food company Kraft to snap up the Anglo-Dutch consumer giant Unilever has been one of the big talking points in the Merger & Acquisitions sector - but what's next? The professional services firm Deloitte has released its 2017 M&A Index which claims that in spite of Brexit and Donald Trump's election as US President, the sector held up surprisingly well in 2016 and the stability has carried over into this year. But will it last, given the prospect of further political turmoil on the horizon? Share Radio's Matt Cox spoke to Deloitte's Sriram Prakash, Global Lead of M&A.

Rising fuel and food prices drove last month's inflation rate to its highest since September 2013 and beyond the Bank of England's 2 per cent target. As measured by the Office for National Statistics' Consumer Prices Index, inflation jumped to 2.3% in February - up from 1.8% in January. Juliette speaks to Pete Comley, inflation expert and author of Inflation Matters.