Commercial news round-up: high street stores, Royal Mail, potential energy merger, price rises
updated on 16 November 2017
Commerciality is an important part of being a successful lawyer, but law firms won’t expect you to be a fully formed, business guru when you arrive as trainee – they appreciate it takes years to develop. However, what they will expect is that you have started to gain some understanding of what is required to advise your clients in a business-appropriate way. The best place to start is by keeping up with big business news stories of the day; examples to follow:
- The number of high street stores closing down has slowed to its lowest level for seven years. So, while 2,564 outlets closed in the first half of 2017, in the same period, 2,342 new stores opened, meaning that a net loss of just 222 shops.
- Shares in Royal Mail enjoyed an upward surge with news that the company was to receive some tax relief following the controversial decision to close its pension scheme.
- The GMB union has urged the business secretary to block the merger of two of the country’s biggest energy companies, SSE and npower. The union says that the merger would lead to the creation of a “private cartel”.
- BBC economics editor Kamal Ahmed asks whether we have seen the worst of recent price rises, with a number of factors combining to take “inflationary pressure out of the system”.
Be sure to check the News every Thursday for this weekly commercial news round-up. Follow @LawCareersNetUK on Twitter and like us on Facebook for instant business news updates.
