Money blog: Morrisons 'sorry' over inaccurate bread signs; Deliveroo branching out into DIY (2024)

Morrisons willremove its in-storebakerysignage after admitting its "made from scratch" claim wasn't totally accurate.

The retailer has "advised all stores" to take the signs down after Real Bread Campaign submitted a trading standards complaint about them on 12 June.

Such products are often made by third parties and rebaked in stores and Real Bread Campaign argued that Morrisons was "failing to tell shoppers which bakery products were manufactured elsewhere".

It was also omitting to tell shoppers which products werefrozenbetween manufacture and sale, plus which products were manufactured overseas, it said.

Morrisons told Sky News:"We make the majority of our bread and rolls from scratch in 450 of our in-store bakeries.

"However, for some of our morespecialised items, we work with trusted bakeries, who supply quality products which are baked using ovens in store.

"We apologised for the incorrect signage which was on display and instructed our stores to take it down. We're proud to have 1,300 skilled bakers and provide over 40% of the bakery apprenticeships in the UK."

The summer holidays are in full swing, with children facing an exciting six weeks off school in the sunshine (or the rain, it is the UK after all).

Many supermarkets and restaurants have deals available during the holidays to take some of the pressure off parents needing to feed their hungry youngsters.

Here are some of the supermarket offers out there:

ASDA

Children can eat for £1 at Asda cafes all day, every day - not just during the summer holidays.

There's no minimum adult spend or purchase required with this one.

Options include penne pasta, fish fingers and chicken nuggets.

Morrisons

Children and adults can grab a free bowl of cereal every day at Morrisons cafes.

No minimum spend is required but the offer is limited to one bowl of cereal per customer, per day. The offer is only on until 4 August, so you'll need to get in there quick!

As well as this, Morrisons is also offering children a free kids meal when they're with an adult spending at least £4.50 on a meal.

Tesco

Kids can eat for free at a Tesco cafe when an adult makes a purchase and scans their Clubcard.

The offer is available on weekdays until 30 August in England and Wales and until 16 August in Scotland.

There is no fixed minimum spend required.

Sainsbury's

Children can grab a hot main meal or lunch bag for free when accompanied by an adult buying a hot meal from £5.50 in its cafes during the summer holidays.

The offer is valid until 3 September.

According to the supermarket, its kids meals are suitable for youngsters aged five to 10.

IKEA

At Ikea, children can get a meal of pasta with tomato sauce, or mac and cheese, with a soft drink for 95p.

Other kids meals are priced at a reasonable £1.50.

This one's available every day from 11am, except for Fridays.

As well as supermarkets and stores, some restaurants are offering cheaper meals for children during the summer break.

Here are a few of the best offers we've found...

Bella Italia

Kids eat for free all day on Thursdays and for £1 between 4pm-6pm Sunday to Wednesday at Bella Italia restaurants.

The offer is available with the purchase of any adult main.

Beefeater and Brewers Fayre

Two children can get a free breakfast every day with one paying adult.

The Real Greek

Children can get a free meal on Sundays with an adult spending more than £10.

The offer is available to all children under 12, and is only valid for dine-in.

Pizza Hut

Kids can help themselves to a free kids buffet every day until 3pm when quoting the code SUMMERKEF.

They have to be with an adult spending at least £10 on other food to get the unlimited pizza, pasta and salad offer.

The buffet can be upgraded to include a bottomless soft drink and unlimited ice cream for an extra £2.

Yo! Sushi

Children are offered a free kids' bento box all day at Yo! Sushi restaurants when dining with a full-paying adult spending at least £10.

The offer is available until 30 August. A maximum of three children per booking can eat for free.

Las Iguanas

Children can get a free meal from the kids' menu with an adult ordering a main course.

The offer, for children up to 12 years old, excludes the lunch menu and is only available for customers with the My Iguanas app.

TGI Fridays

Children eat free with every adult main meal purchased.

The offer is available all day every day for members of its Stripes Rewards scheme.

Deliveroo has partnered with DIY giant B&Q, giving customers in London access to delivery of more than 600 products.

The partnership is launching in nine B&Q Local stores - in Camden, Harrow, Palmers Green, Streatham, Sutton, Tooting, Wandsworth, Wood Green and Staines-upon-Thames - later this month.

Customers will be able to get indoor and outdoor paint, painting tools, plumbing wares, electricals and bathroom fittings, tools and hardware delivered straight to their door.

Deliveroo said the service could help, for example, anyone "tackling an emergency job that needs a quick fix".

"There is a huge home improvement market in the UK and our data shows that customers want the convenienceof being able to order everything from paint brushes and paint to tools for delivery in as little as 25 minutes," said Eric French, chief operating officer at Deliveroo.

Amélie Gallichan-Todd, supply and logistics director at B&Q, said the service was aimed at "helping customers to get their home improvement products in the most efficient, and convenient way possible, by meeting increasing consumer demand for speed, convenience, and mobile access".

Every Friday we take an overview of the mortgage market, speaking to those in the industry before getting a round-up of the best rates courtesy of the independent experts atMoneyfactscompare.co.uk.

The only place to start this week is the Bank of England's decision - finally - to cut the base rate from 5% to 5.25%, where it had been since last August.

It's the news people due to remortgage had been waiting for - although the Bank cautioned rates wouldn't fall as quickly as they rose.

Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that in practical terms, those due to remortgage will be looking at a deal around the 4% mark.

This is a leap for many from the 2-2.5% mark - but significantly lower than the peak of upwards of 6% in 2022.

"It means the jump in rates is going to be painful, but they don’t have quite the same gap to clear as those who remortgaged before them – who faced a rise from less than 2% to more than 6.5% in some instances," she said.

It's worth noting here that no one expects rates to return to the ultra-low levels of 2009 to 2021 - instead, markets think they'll eventually settle at between 3-4%.

David Hollingworth, from L&C Mortgages, told the Money blog that many lenders had already priced in a cut, but...

"Yesterday's decision to cut a little sooner than many had previously anticipated should only help to add further weight to those reductions. We can therefore expect to see further pricing improvements in fixed rates, as lenders continue to fight hard to gain a share in a very competitive market."

He went on: "Perhaps one of the biggest boosts will be to consumer confidence, underlining that they can finally look ahead to an easing in rates, albeit potentially gradual.

"That will be important reassurance to many that have been scarred by the turbulent and volatile periods in the mortgage market over the last couple of years."

An immediate impact of a base rate cut - and we saw Santander reflect this - is likely to be on variable rates that people fall onto if they don't have a deal at the end of their current fix.

Moneyfacts finance expert Rachel Springall said: "According to UK Finance around 700,000 fixed-rate deals due to end in the second half of this year. Those that fall onto a Standard Variable Rate (SVR) will need to find surplus cash to cover higher repayments, and recent research suggests some consumers are not sure what a revert rate entails.

"Research from Mortgage Advice Bureau found that one in four (27%) prospective buyers have heard of SVRs but don’t fully understand them."

This week, we asked Moneyfacts to hone in on the remortgage market - these are the best rates available...

Moneyfacts also looks at what it calls "best buys" - which considers not just the rate, but other costs and incentives. These are their top picks this week...

Here's a round up of some other consumer news that's been happening while our focus has been on interest rates...

US fast food giant Taco Bell is expanding the use of artificial intelligence to take orders at hundreds of its drive-thrus.

The voice AI system - which interprets customers' orders based on voice recognition - has been in development for more than two years.

The Mexican-themed chain is already operating the system at more than 100 sites across 13 US states.

TalkTalk is likely to default on its debts, a ratings agency has warned.

The broadband provider has been moved from a "substantial" credit risk to a "very high level" risk after the ratings agency Fitch cut the company's credit rating.

The company has two repayment deadlines in November and February last year and owes £1bn to lenders.

Earlier, reports emerged that TalkTalk founder Sir Charles Dunstone was trying to finalise a £200m lifeline as the company tries to avoid a collapse.

A mattress company has agreed to change its sales practices after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it misled customers about price reductions and put unfair pressure on them to make quick purchases.

The company has now signed formal commitments known as undertakings. It has committed to action, including:

• Genuine discount claims: Simba Sleep will ensure any "was" price is genuine - in other words, that they actually sell a sufficient volume of the product at that price before using it as a "was" price;

• Countdown clocks:Simba Sleep will ensure that any countdown clocks used on its websites are clear, specify prominently which products they apply to, and do not give consumers a false impression that they must act quickly (or that when the clock ends the product will revert to the "was" price) if this is not the case.

There's good and bad news for the chancellor in today's interest rate cut, analysts have suggested.

The cut has been possible because inflation has fallen to target 2%. Rates are elevated to discourage spending and encourage saving - when this happens, price rises tend to slow.

Laith Khalaf, head of investment analysis at AJ Bell, says the cut to 5% "marks a significant victory in the fight against inflation", but there's still some way to go.

Most importantly, "we haven't spun off into an inflationary cycle like in the 1970s", he says, meaning Rachel Reeves can breathe somewhat easy on that front.

"But inflationary pressures are still lurking. The energy price cap is expected to rise this winter, public sector pay agreements might push up prices, and a second Trump presidency in the US could stoke further global inflation through tax cuts, tariffs, and tough immigration controls," he says.

"The bad news for Rachel Reeves is the Bank of England reckons economic growth will remain limp, with GDP growing by just 0.8% over the next year," Mr Khalaf says.

He caveats that by noting that the Bank is not well known for optimism in projections.

"This is evidenced by the fact the Bank has just upgraded its forecast for economic growth over the last 12 months to 1.5%, from 0.5% only three months ago."

Many of you will know that while today's decision is great news for those with a mortgage, it's not so good for savers.

That being said, the cut today may not do as much damage as some may fear.

We spoke toMark Hicks, head of active savings at financial services firm Hargreaves Lansdown, to explain why...

"A rate cut is never going to be music to the ears of savers, but this shouldn't do too much damage - the market was split on whether we were going to get a cut, so decisive action from the Bank of England is going to mean some banks bring rates down slightly, especially among easy access accounts, but we're not expecting massive movements," he says.

He says what really matters is what happens around expectations of rate cuts in the future.

"If the Bank of England decides to cut rates twice and then pause, we should see minimal disruption to the savings market," he says, but "more consistent rate cutting of four or more would drive greater savings rate change".

What savers should be looking at

As it stands, the market is currently not predicting any significant falls for savers.

"At the moment, the highest easy access rate and one-year fixed rate accounts still pay over 5%, so savers can still beat inflation by an impressive margin," Mark says.

The highest easy access rate on HL Active Savings is 4.67% and the highest fixed rate is 5.06%, he adds.

"When you add in the effect of the current cashback deal, this takes it to 5.26%."

Mark says if you don't need the cash for a while, fixed term rates offer the best returns from a risk reward perspective, "so it's worth securing a rate by considering a fixed rate deal while these rates last".

Money blog regular David Hollingworth, associate director at L&C Mortgages, has taken a look...

Tracker rates

Those on tracker rates will feel the most direct and immediate benefit. The mortgage rate is directly pegged to base rate so will naturally reflect the cut in base rate. You should receive confirmation of when that will come into effect and the new payment in due course.

Trackers have remained a relatively niche part of the market as base rate has held firm until today. I don't expect to see a sudden shift toward trackers but if the door opens to further cuts we may start to see more interest in base rate trackers as we head into next year.

[Editor's note: Hargreaves Lansdown forecast a saving for those on trackers of £28 per month. There are around half a million such households.]

Variable rates

There's also some potential relief for those on standard variable rate. These are not directly linked to base rate but the hope will be that lenders will pass through the full cut to SVR, even though they are not obliged to do so. We've already seen Santander announce that it will be cutting the SVR.

This has potential benefits for all borrowers as lenders will often stress their affordability based on a rate above their SVR. If SVR eases it should help to temper the stress rates as well, which could give a little more leeway on the amount lenders can offer.

Fixed rates

Fixed rates are where the majority of borrowers have been heading. Rates have already been edging down with small but frequent cuts helping to nudge five-year deals close to and even under 4%.

Today's decision to cut a little sooner than many had previously anticipated should only help to add further weight to those reductions. We can therefore expect to see further pricing improvements in fixed rates, as lenders continue to fight hard to gain a share in a very competitive market.

Borrowers should secure a rate and can then keep a close eye on rate movements to capitalise on any further movement, while avoiding any risk of drifting onto an expensive variable rate.

The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee is now asked how low we could go in terms of interest rates, and whether the public can expect a drop, eventually, to near 0% - like before COVID.

"I think it's reasonable to say that it's unlikely we're going back to the world we were in in 2009 and the point at which we started raising rates," Andrew Bailey says.

He says that's because the economic outlook of that time was driven by massive shocks - like the financial crash.

"We will be somewhere around where the neutral rate will be - which will be lower than we are at now," he says, not going into any further specifics.

Markets expect that neutral rate to be between 3-4%.

Sky's data and economics editor Ed Conwayasks the Bank chief what he means when he says the base rate is still in "restrictive territory" and when we can expect this to change.

"We look at restrictiveness in terms of where we think growth is," Andrew Bailey explains.

He says if you look at the Bank's forecast for GDP, growth is "picking up".

"We're still below potential and we do have a small output gap opening up in the forecast," he says.

"I think that's one way of capturing the fact that there is still a restrictive setting in that sense and we think that is appropriate given we have to ensure the persistence of inflation is taken out of the system," he says.

He says "there is a way to go".