Money blog: M&S loses 'grocer of year' crown - as Sainsbury's claims title for first time in 20 years (2024)

A motoring research charity says a case should be made for raising driving test fees for learners who repeatedly fail.

The RAC Foundation said this would encourage prospective drivers to wait until they are ready to pass, easing the "unacceptable" backlog of tests in the UK.

Last month, AA Driving School said it obtained Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) figures suggesting the average waiting time for a test at the start of February was more than 18 weeks.

A ban on driving tests during COVID lockdowns plus a driving examiner strike has led to a bottleneck of demand.

Before 2020, the average wait time was six weeks, from booking online to turning up at the test centre.

One way of addressing the issue, according to RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding, is to consider additional fees for those with several previous failures and even to offer a rebate to first-time passers.

"Forget about all the traffic jams out on the road, there is now an unacceptable amount of congestion in the test system with learners often waiting many months for a slot," he said.

"In part these jams are being caused by people who have failed multiple times and come back to take a test that might be their fourth, fifth or sixth attempt, or even greater."

Government figures show 93,204 practical car driving tests taken in the year to the end of March were at least the candidate's sixth attempt at passing.

Under the current pricing plan, practical driving tests cost £62 during weekday daytimes and £75 during evenings, weekends, and bank holidays.

Marks & Spencer's title as Britain's grocer of the year was taken away yesterday as Sainsbury's took the crown for the first time in nearly two decades.

At a lavish ceremony held at the Royal Albert Hall, Sainsbury's took home the top prize in the Grocer Gold Awards ahead of M&S, Tesco, Lidl, Aldi and social enterprise The Company Shop.

The supermarket was praised for being the only "big four" supermarket (Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons) to have gained shopper spend from both Aldi and Lidl amid the cost of living crisis.

"Restoring growth while increasing profits is not an easy thing to do at the best of times, but especially with the highest inflation in decades, and the discounters - and other rivals - also opening a significant number of new stores," said Adam Leyland, chair of the judging panel.

"But Sainsbury's has given shoppers permission to enjoy its wide range of food and drink through much more competitive pricing, most notably the launch of Nectar Prices last April, and its impressively rapid rollout."

Other awards handed out on the night included Britain's favourite supermarket, which was won by Tesco for the 10th year in a row.

Tesco also took home the award for employer of the year for its "pioneering" work in supporting diversity and inclusion as well as its support to young people, competitive pay, and step up in maternity and paternity benefits.

The award for customer service was won by Waitrose, while the Grocer Cup went to Greggs CEO Roisin Currie, recognising the success Greggs has had going from a high-street bakery chain into the UK's biggest fast food chain.

Santander has become the latest lender to announce cuts across a range of its mortgage products.

The high street bank has said selected residential fixed rates will be reduced by up to 0.16% on election day.

The move, which comes after three other banks cut rates this week, could "ramp up the battle" between the UK's biggest lenders.

Halifax and NatWest slashed rates by up to 0.23%, and Clydesdale Bank by 0.38%, earlier this week.

"This is Santander reacting to its competitors and joining the rate reduction party," the managing director of Yellow Brick Mortgages, Stephen Perkins, told Newspage.

"This move from Santander has the potential to ramp up the rate battle between the UK's biggest lenders."

He said more cuts were likely, ahead of the expected base rate reduction in August.

"Things are really hotting up now in the mortgage market," he added.

Simon Bridgland, director of Release Freedom, was less impressed by the move, saying it they are "abysmal rate reductions".

"Any poor soul wanting a remortgage or existing Santander borrowers in need of a new deal will just have to stay on the higher existing rates," he said.

"Residential lenders need to jump to it and drop rates further."

By Sarah Taaffe-Maguire, business reporter

The index that tracks the share price performance of the 500 largest companies listed on US stock exchanges reached a new high last night.

The rise followed comments on lowering inflation from the head of the US central bank, known as the Fed, which sparked market optimism.

Some of the world's biggest companies make up the index, Microsoft and Amazon being two prime examples.

Tesla's comeback in the form of a more than 10% share price rise will also have helped the new S&P 500 record.

Its shares were at a five-monthhigh after the electric car maker beat Wall Street expectations as price cuts helped stimulate demand.

Here in the UK, both the FTSE100 and 250 indexes are up 0.49% and 0.47% respectively.

The biggest faller on the FTSE 100 list of most valuable companies was JD Sports which has had a run of losses for more than a week. Today its share price was down 3.61%.

Bad news for motorists continues as the oil price tipped higher again today, reaching $86.64.

Anyone going on holidays to a country using the euro or importing goods from the continent can get €1.1797 for their pound.

Sterling has crept up against the dollar this month with a pound buying $1.2691.

Oreo has released a new limited edition vanilla latte flavour.

The product is already available in select supermarkets and combines a double cream vanilla filling with a vanilla latte one.

Each pack comes with 16 biscuits included and has a recommended retail price of £1.39.

Becky Latcham, brand manager for Oreo, said: "We're absolutely thrilled to introduce Oreo's latest innovation.

"We know Oreo fans love to be playful with the way they eat their cookies so we couldn't resist putting our own spin on the original cookie that people know and love."

People aged 18 to 22 are being offered a half-price Amazon Prime membership in a bid to make the subscription "more accessible to young people".

It means anyone in this age bracket can get things like free next day delivery and Prime Video for £4.49 a month (£47.49 per year) instead of the usual £8.99.

"We're always looking for ways to provide more value to our customers and offering 18 to 22-year-olds 50% off Prime membership helps to make the wide range of Prime benefits even more accessible to young people," said John Boumphrey, UK country manager at Amazon.

He said at an "important time" in their lives, helping young people save will "make a big difference" whether they are heading to university, starting work or moving away from home.

The half-price offer has been open to students since 2014, but this is the first time the company has offered it to all 18 to 22-year-olds.

Every Wednesday we ask Michelin chefs to pick their favourite Cheap Eats where they live and when they cook at home.This week we speak to Aktar Islam, chef patron of Opheem - the first Birmingham restaurant to be awarded two Michelin stars.

His entry coincides with him being crowned UK chef of the year at The Cateys last night - congratulations, Aktar!

Hi Aktar, can you tell us your favourite places in Birminghamwhere you can get a meal for two for less than £40?

I'm a big fan of Tiger Bites Pig. Grab a counter seat and watch them smash out some of the best Taiwanese bao buns in the UK. My favourite is the chicken - it's seasoned with Sichuan chilli oil and topped with chicken crackle. I could eat one every day.

Bonehead is the best fried chicken spot in Birmingham. Their Bonehead and Hothead seasonings are corkers. I usually get the burgers or the strips with a side of Nashville fries. If I'm feeling brave I'll get a pickleback too, but they are punchy!

Qavali is an Indo-Persian restaurant which takes its inspiration from the Indian subcontinent and uses spices and techniques rooted everywhere from Turkey to India. Marinated meat is grilled over charcoal, and often served in richly spiced sauces and broths. I'm a meat eater, so nothing makes me happier than a big plate of grilled meat and this is my go-to.

What's your go-to cheap meal at home?

I tend to cook with a lot of pulses when I'm at home. I usually opt for a roast vegetable and lentil dish. I just grab a tin from the cupboard and use any vegetables that I have knocking around. I add garlic, cumin, and chilli. It's so simple and flavourful. Serve with a roast chicken - perfect.

We've spoken to lots of top chefs and bloggers - check out their cheap eats from around the country here...

If you regularly order your supermarket shopping online, chances are you'll have had a delivery turn up late at least once.

The bad news is that if you didn't try to claim back any extra you paid for a specific delivery slot, you may have missed out.

The good news is you now know for future.

Consumer group Which says: "If you paid extra for special deliveryand your order arrived later than agreed, you can claim back the extra delivery cost as the service wasn't delivered."

We asked Scott Dixon, from The Complaints Resolver, to go into a bit more detail - and he flagged S49 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which states:

"Every contract to supply a service is to be treated as including a term that the trader must perform the service with reasonable care and skill."

Scott says: "Late delivery would be considered as a breach of contract under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, as you paid for a time-specific delivery as part of the contract you entered into.

"You could request a refund of the delivery charge as the time-specific part of the contract constitutes a breach and has not been fulfilled.

"I would contact customer services and be nice about it, as you are more likely to elicit a better outcome that way given the value involved."

The inspiration for this post was one of the Money team seeing their shopping arrive 45 minutes late last weekend.

They rang Tesco's customer service team who, full marks, took down the details and refunded the £7 delivery charge without much fuss.

Tesco's media team later told us they judge things case by case - but they do encourage you to contact their customer relations teams if there's any delay.

We asked the other supermarkets for their policies.

Asda said...

"Asda always aims to deliver goods within the delivery slot agreed with the customer. However, if an order is delivered outside of this slot, we will let the customer know and they are then able to request a refund for the delivery charge."

Ocado...

"We offer customers a one-hour delivery slot of their choice. If we're running late, we'll always contact the customer directly to let them know. On the rare occasion that we're really late, our customer hub advisors can issue refunds - these are assessed on a case-by-case basis."

Morrisons...

"We work with customers on a case-by-case basis to resolve any late delivery issues."

Waitrose...

"In the event of a delay, the shop makes every effort to contact each customer directly in advance of their delivery to explain the situation and provide an updated ETA. If the customer is no longer able to accept the delivery, we work with them to reschedule it at a time that suits. While delays are often beyond our control, we assess each situation on a case-by-case basis, and Partners can offer a gesture of goodwill when customers are inconvenienced."

Regardless of their policies, it's worth (politely) pushing - as the law is on your side.

The average UK house price ticked up in June, leaving first-time buyers spending almost £2 out of every £5 on their mortgages.

Typical house prices rose by 0.2% to £266,064, meaning there has been a 1.5% increase on the same time last year, a report by Nationwide found.

June saw prices rise at half the pace they did in May, but housing affordability is "still stretched", said Robert Gardner, Nationwide's chief economist.

And Amy Reynolds, head of sales at estate agency Antony Roberts, observed more people were looking to downsize to release capital to live on and pay bills in a "hugely concerning" trend.

A bank with millions of customers in the UK will soon start charging people to use their debit cards abroad.

Metro Bank emailed customers last week to tell them it will introduce a 2.99% charge on all transactions outside the UK, including Europe, as of 29 August.

Anyone wanting to withdraw cash from their account will also pay the fee plus a £1.50 ATM charge.

The bank currently does not charge for debit card use and cash withdrawals in Europe.

Walkers have confirmed one of itssnacks has been discontinued.

The Walkers Stax, which were similar to Pringles, are no longer available in the UK.

Writing on X, a customer said he had been able to find the product abroad and asked if he could buy them over here.

"We used to make Walkers Stax here in the UK, but sadly they're no more," the crisp brand replied.

It also said there were no plans to bring them back to market.

However, it seems like the crisps might not have been around for some time...

In 2021, Walkers replied to another online post saying it was sorry that they were no longer available.

Savers transferred £4.2bn extra into cash ISAs in May, according to new figures from the Bank of England - a record for the month.

It built on the previous record £12.3bn poured into the accounts in April, as people made the most of their annual tax-free savings.

Investment platform AJ Bell said figures show the 2024-25 tax year has "started with a big bang" for cash ISA savers.

Laith Khalaf, head of investment analysis, said: "Early bird ISA savers are no doubt out in force because they know taxes are rising as a result of frozen income tax thresholds."

He added: "At the same time tax thresholds have been frozen, interest rates have risen, making it more likely that savers will breach their tax-free savings allowance," he said.

"That means more people pushed up into the higher rate income tax band, where the personal savings allowance (the amount of interest you can earn each year before paying tax) falls from £1,000 to £500, or indeed to £0 for those in the additional rate tax bracket."

ISA savers can earn tax-free interest on their ISA savings, which are limited to £20,000 each year.