Personal finance and consumer features
I’m a journalist focusing on personal finance, business and technology.
I started my career writing for trade publications covering the media and advertising industries after graduating from Goldsmiths as a mature student just after the global financial crisis in 2008.
Since then I’ve covered broad business news, ranging from economics, property and retail, to politics, policy and tech while at London’s leading daily business newspaper City A.M.
As part of the online team, I helped drive record traffic, covering breaking news alongside follow-up insight and analysis to maximise engagement.
This included stories ranging from company profit updates like Tesco’s accounting scandal to politics - including Brexit and too many general elections to count - as well as events, such as Apple’s iPhone launches, and sadly, terrorist attacks.
Becoming technology editor for both print and online, I was lucky enough to cover the tech startup ecosystem springing up in London, including the wave of fintech and rise of challenger banks as Silicon Roundabout and The City collided.
I won Tech Journalist of the Year at the UK Tech Awards 2016, in recognition of incisive, accurate, readable commentary and in-depth knowledge of UK tech companies, public and private. Previous winners include writers for the Financial Times, The Times and Business Insider.
I spent time freelancing after a stint setting up the content function of a financial wellbeing startup, where our communications on pension contributions for a global technology client were awarded by the Association for Business Psychology.
I have also worked with clients in the technology space to produce content ranging from op-eds and blog posts to awards entries, including for startups and venture capital firms.
Most recently I've written for The Sun online covering personal finance and consumer issues, helping millions of readers keep up with how the cost of living crisis is affecting their finances, and understand their money and their rights.
As consumer news editor, I now help lead a team of reporters covering these topics for The Sun Money section, from pensions and taxes to benefits and bills.
You can see some highlights of my work below.
Personal finance and consumer features
CASH for Christmas could end up being a gift worth millions if you start early enough. Just a few pounds a day stashed in a savings account could set your kids up for life - and will likely l...
THE Bank of England dramatically stepped in yesterday to avoid pension funds collapsing. It will buy government bonds, preventing a Northern Rock-style run on the firms. It follows fallout from the...
MAJOR mortgage lenders including Halifax, Virgin Money and Skipton Building Society have pulled deals for new customers. Halifax, the UK's largest lender, has announced it is temporarily with...
WORKERS could save thousands of pounds more for retirement without needing to save a penny more into their pension. Savers can increase how much they are invested in the stock market, which could i...
THOUSANDS of people on benefits have had their payments terminated amid a massive shake up of Universal Credit. Tax credit claimants are being asked to move to the new all-in-one benefit that repla...
THOUSANDS of billpayers could get help paying off water debts through a little-known scheme - and even get the balance written off. The household bill is the second most common arrears for people in debt, behind only Council Tax. And the average water bill debt adds up to £988, according to debt charity Stepchange.
STRUGGLING Universal Credit claimants can get help with rent costs that could be worth thousands of pounds. An investigation by The Sun found that councils have given payments worth as much as £32,000 over the past year to the most hard-up tenants trying to keep a roof over their heads.
IF you've ever been tempted to buy clothes online that you just don't need, I may have found the perfect app for you. In an effort to spend less, I turned to a new virtual wardrobe on my phone which catalogues your clothes just like in the hit 90s movie Clueless.
MILLIONS of workers could be missing out on free cash worth thousands of pounds in retirement. When you save cash into your workplace pension, the company you work for pays in too. There's a ...
RECYCLING is good for the environment but it can also be good for your wallet too. More and more high street shops are offering incentives to shoppers who bring back old clothes and plastic packaging for recycling. These savings come in the form of money off your shopping, vouchers, loyalty points and even freebies too.
HARD-UP Brits are being targeted with misleading adverts for loans with sky-high interest rates on social media. An investigation by The Sun found sponsored posts on Facebook promoting loans with eye-watering rates as high as 1,721%. Several promised cash within minutes or on the same day and some did not display the potential sky-high rates until reading the small print.
THOUSANDS of people struggling with bills could get EXTRA help on top of a £150 council tax rebate. Councils are giving the most hard-up households additional money to help cover rising energy bills. Millions are getting £150 one-off payment if they live in council tax bands A-D.
COUNCIL tax rebates worth £150 will start being paid to millions of households from tomorrow. The payments are designed to help with the cost of living crisis and arrive just as the average energy bill will rise by nearly £700 a year.
SAVING a small amount of money now could get you tens of thousands of pounds in free money for retirement. When stashing your cash into your pension, the government tops it up too, adding to the am...
GETTING a bottle of Baileys in for Christmas (or several) is top of the shopping list in many households this festive season, including my own. A blend of cream and Irish whiskey, a bottle of the b...
A REFRESHING fizzy drink is just a button press away with soda making machines. Sodastream is the best known but there are several other brands on the market giving the original a run for its money...
MONEY you owe to a bank or on a credit card can be sold on to another company if you fall behind on repayments. The new company will try and collect this unpaid debt and if you ignore it, you may e...
BUYING a home can come with a lot of extra costs - and you may not know that energy efficiency bands could be a red flag for bigger bills. Properties come with ratings that tell you how good - or bad - the potential home is when it comes to energy efficiency.
Case studies
A YOUNG woman with cancer has told how she can't afford food, heat or rent because of the spiralling cost of living. Lara Burwell, 30, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2019 and is undergo...
HARD-WORKING mum Leanne, 38, wants to buy her nine-year-old daughter an ice cream, just like countless other parents across the country might do. But she has no cash left to buy the simple treat, e...
IF there's way to save money then self-confessed money saving addict Trevor Branton has tried it. But like everyone else the 48-year-old, who lives in Devon with his wife Natasha, is concerned about rising bills - and has been looking for more ways to save money.
OUTSIDE the temperature dips to just below 10°C - but instead of switching on the heating Katie Swann turns on her tumble dryer to warm up her home. The 42-year-old mum of two says that is enough to keep her family warm for hours.
SAVVY shopper Lee Chambers has been using cashback websites for more than a decade - and uses his profits to have Christmas for "free". The 36-year-old has earned a whopping £20,000. He told The Sun: "I've been buying Christmas presents each year by withdrawing the cash I've earned every year in October.
AFTER seeing a mate make a decent return on investing in cryptocurrency, Frank Bird decided to try his luck too. Sitting on £2,000 saved during the coronavirus lockdown, the 27-year-old bought Dogecoin when it was rocketing in price earlier this year.
TUBE engineer Alex Russell lives in the lush Surrey Hills countryside where homes can sell for millions of pounds. But the savvy homeowner, 47, has revealed how he paid just £150,000 for a three-bed single-storey static caravan, allowing him to live mortgage free.
BRITS claiming Universal Credit have welcomed a change to harsh rules which take away cash the more you work. The government has slashed the taper rate which reduces Universal Credit when earning over a certain amount.
MICHELLE sits anxiously by her energy pre-payment meter watching the last of her £20 credit run down to zero, trying to calculate where the cash for her next top-up will come from. The single mothe...
A DESPERATE young mum has considered doing online webcam modelling so she can afford bills and feed her family this winter. Jada Brittain, 18, told The Sun: "I know that you can make a lot of money doing it. I'd rather lose my dignity online than not be able to pay my bills or my child go without."
A DEVASTATED father has warned other parents to avoid a big mistake when buying Christmas gifts after his home was destroyed. Andrew Beaton, 59, from Lancashire thought he was giving his son a drea...
A SINGLE mum has welcomed a huge change to unfair Universal Credit rules that plunged her into thousands of pounds of debt. Gemma Widdowfield, 37, has been campaigning for years to get childcare co...
POLLY Klidaras has just returned from a trip of a lifetime - and unlike most other people coming back from a holiday, she hasn't spent a penny. That's because she won an all-expenses pa...
A CASH queen has shared how she's made thousands of pounds just by doing online surveys in her spare time. Anna Lykova told The Sun how she has made nearly £4,000 from filling in questionnaires on websites every day. She told The Sun: "I spend four to five hours a day doing them, sometimes seven on a slow day.
NEW parents Jack and Gabby Darracott faced a tough dilemma just like millions of other mums and dads - how to juggle jobs and childcare. As son Theo approached his first birthday, the pa...
Expert in-depth interviews
A UNIVERSAL Credit work coach has explained how nearly two million Brits will see their payments change from today. And it could mean you're better off by as much as £1,000 a year. Chris Buckley, 53, who works for the Jobcentre Plus in Swansea high street told The Sun: "For Universal Credit claimants earning money, their payments can be reduced."
MILLIONS of families are tightening their belts in an effort to cope with the cost of living crisis - but have you thought how to explain it to the kids? Energy bills and food prices are amon...
A PLUMMETING pound means pain for many - including pension savers. Sterling hit $1.03 against the dollar on Monday, the lowest level since decimalisation in 1971. A weak pound means if you...
MILLIONS of Brits face paying more for energy within weeks leaving many worried about bills. Struggling households will pay on average nearly £700 more a year when the price cap goes up from April 1. The majority of billpayers are now on a price-capped standard variable tariff for gas and electricity.
BENEFIT rules have recently changed and you could be asked to apply for a job that's different to your previous experience. If you don't then your Universal Credit payments could be reduced or even stopped altogether. We spoke to benefits expert Lee Healey, who told us what the change means for you - and how you can avoid sanctions under the new rules.
Business - M&A, investments and deals
Exclusive on UK startup Darktrace's ambitions to go public.
Exclusive on the acquisition of a high profile bank.
Exclusive on digital bank fresh funding round.
France's fourth largest bank has gobbled up a fintech startup that specialises in digital banking. BPCE has acquired German challenger Fidor to push forward its digital strategy across Europe. Fidor, named one of Europe's hottest fintech companies, currently operates in several countries including the UK.
The Wellcome Trust is set for a huge windfall from the hottest tech IPO of the year. Snap's public offering, expected next week, will return around $100m (£80.3m) to the science institution following on from successful early bets on Facebook and Alibaba, among others.
Analysis of major UK tech deal.
Exclusive on investment deal being pulled.
Blockchain and digital currency
Every single public sector organisation across the UK will be able to use blockchain technology for the first time after the government rubber-stamped fintech startup Credits as one of its approved suppliers in a major step forward for the potentially revolutionary technology.
The Co-Operative Group is exploring how blockchain technology can be used to prove the authenticity of its food in a pilot of a "fairtrade for the digital age" project.
Exclusive on government testing new technology.
DeepMind is using technology "related to blockchain" in an effort to become more transparent in the way it handles patient data in a tie-up with NHS health trusts which has caused concerns over privacy.
Several of the world's biggest banks are working together to create a digital currency to speed up settlements with the ambitious goal of putting the blockchain-based system into practice by 2018. UBS has been working on the Utility Settlement Coin (USC) since last year and is now being joined by Santander, Deutsche Bank, BNY Mellon and the broker Icap on the project.
Uber
Exclusive on Uber legal challenge in London.
London's black cab drivers expect the Mayor of London to look again at the way the industry is regulated in the capital after arch-rival Uber called on the Mayor of London to do just that.
Uber has succeeded in the first stage of its legal challenge against new rules on English language tests for drivers in London after the high court today approved a judicial review. The billion dollar startup argues the English exam, which it claims is tougher than the test for British citizenship, is discriminatory and contravenes the Equality Act.
Uber's cost of operating in London is set to rise even further after the transport regulator pushed forward with new plans that are set to add nearly £1m to its bill. Transport for London is now planning to charge a maximum fee of £2.9m for the largest mincab firms to operate in the capital, it can be revealed, amending its original plans to increase it to £166,000.
Uber is turning to its customers to help it fight "bureaucratic" new rules imposed by Transport for London, including an English exam "harder than the test for British citizenship", renewing its feud with regulators in the capital.
Business and tech - exclusive news, Q&As, explainers and more
Rich Ricci, the former head of Barclays investment banking and right-hand man of Bob Diamond, has warned that fintech startups will snatch market share from established financial institutions and change the landscape of banking. Efforts of big banks to innovate will continue to be thwarted by their archaic technology as they face increasing competition from more nimble startups, said Ricci, writing exclusively for City A.M..
Britain's spooks are tapping startup geeks to help fight the growing battle against cyber threats, opening the insular intelligence agency to innovation and kickstarting ambitious plans for Britain to become a world leader in cyber security.
Exclusive on Samsung Pay launching in Europe.
You'll be hearing a lot of talk about Open Banking, which is set for take off this Saturday. Here's everything you need to know about it but were afraid to ask. The markets watchdog told nine of the biggest banks that they must open up the information they hold so that it can be used to create new products and services.
How do you leak 2.6 terabytes of data? That's 11.5m records, 4.8m emails and 2.1m PDFs - 40 years worth of data, about 214,000 offshore entities and numerous famous names and faces and how they secretly arranged their taxes. The Panama papers leak is the biggest in history - but how did it ever get leaked and who was behind it?
Driverless car technology relies on computers being able to see things. That's pretty hard to do, but now there's a new technology that uses deep machine learning to help them, and shows us just what a driverless car really might see while winding down the roads.
Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and the rest of the Rebel Alliance may have triumphed in defeating the Galactic Empire's overlord Lord Palpatine, but with freedom would have come financial collapse. As government infrastructure projects go, Death Stars are rather pricey.
The competition watchdog has today handed fintech startups a bazooka for their mission of disrupting banks, with new rules for making data more open to improve customer choice. The so-called big four - HSBC, Lloyds, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland - and other smaller high street banks will have to work together to create standards for sharing data, on everything from the pricing of products to individuals' transactions.
A newspaper investigation uncovered examples of several high profile brands being advertised against extremist content such as videos of a preacher banned from Britain and from white extremist David Duke insulting Jewish people.
Tech and politics
Meet the chart that might put your mind at ease over the hand wringing brought about by Brexit. Gartner's hype cycle is the go-to chart that lays out the ups and downs of the trends in technology, if you're not familiar.
Millions of pounds in funding for startups from the European Union that were put on hold after the vote to leave Europe have been unfrozen. Cash from the EU Regional Development Fund was paused by the Treasury almost immediately following the vote for Brexit putting at risk a shot in the arm for the country's tech startups worth nearly £4m.
LinkedIn has warned that Brexit could stop UK business from accessing the best and the brightest talent from Europe, with professional services, technology and finance likely to be the hardest hit.
It was just two weeks after the Brexit vote that the city of Berlin sent a billboard van around Shoreditch beckoning London tech firms to move to the German capital. However, firms that took up the offer have found the German city to be lacking London's supportive, tech-friendly environment.
The UK's reputation as one of the leading digital economies in the world and a global tech hub could be at risk from fresh government plans to crackdown on foreign workers. The new home secretary Amber Rudd yesterday revealed plans to reduce immigration, including proposals to "tighten" the test for companies recruiting from abroad to encourage hiring of UK workers.
Souring relations between the US and Europe in the wake of the EU competition watchdog ordering Apple to pay a record multi-billion pound tax bill could hand the UK a post-Brexit boost. Britain could be the big winner from the tax feud between Europe and the US after the EU competition commission ruled Apple should pay a record €13bn in back taxes.
London's fintech industry is rallying to action after the vote for Brexit in a bid to alleviate the fears of startups, along with their investors and supporters, over issues such as capital, market access and talent.
The UK's tech industry has welcomed the eventual arrival of a new Prime Minister in Theresa May, who effectively became David Cameron's successor and the woman to lead Britain out of Europe after her only other rival dropped out of the running in the leadership race.
London
Transport for London (TfL) is turning property mogul after identifying 50 locations it will develop into properties for homes and retail over the next decade.
Transport for London will lose out on billions of pounds of funding after the government announced it will cut its subsidy in the Spending Review. The Department for Transport will phase out TfL's resource grant which makes up around six per cent of its annual budget, amounting to £2.8bn by 2019.
An innovative new way to travel that's part bus, part taxi, is launching in London to help commuters get to and from work on routes that are currently tricky to navigate.
The London Underground map is a design classic. But it has one major problem: there's not enough orange - the colour of London Overground. And there's not enough in south London, which is a foreign land to most of the tube network. London's suburban rail users - particularly in south London - are faced with a postcode lottery.