Money: Toblerone axes popular flavour - fans aren't happy (2025)

Is a Birkin bag about to get even more expensive?

It certainly seems that way. Hermes has confirmed that it will be hiking its prices to deal with the impact of Donald Trump's tariffs.

The luxury French fashion brand said it will fully shift the burden of the tariffs to its wealthy clientele after its first-quarter sales showed a rare sign of weakness.

"We are going to fully offset the impact of these new duties by increasing our selling prices in the United States from 1 May, across all our business lines," said finance chief Eric du Halgouet.

The brand is known for its Kelly and Birkin handbags, which sell for at least £7,500.

In the three months to March, it reported sales of €4.1bn (£3.4bn).

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Toblerone has risked upsetting fans by discontinuing one of its flavours.

Sweet giant Mondelez has confirmed that the 360g dark chocolate version of the bar is being axed.

A spokesperson for the firm said it was a "difficult decision".

"We continuously adapt our product range to ensure it meets changing tastes whilst supporting growth for our customers and business, and as a result made the difficult decision to discontinue our Toblerone Dark (360g) bars in the UK," they told Money.

"While we understand that this may be disappointing for some consumers, we continue to invest in Toblerone."

The original Toblerone bar was invented in 1908, with the dark chocolate version launched in 1969.

One X user wrote: "First they came for Bounty, now Toblerone...💔"

Another said: "No... it was my favourite."

A third fan wrote: "Does anyone know anywhere in the UK I can get a bar of Dark Toblerone? I've spoken to Toblerone who said its not been discontinued but I've been looking for absolutely ages and can't find them anywhere."

By Sarah-Jane Mee, lead UK news presenter

Not all heroes wear capes… some just provide carpets.

Did you know many local councils and housing associations across England provide homes with no flooring?

I spent the day in St Albans with Pia Honey from NoFloorNoMore.org rescuing carpets destined for landfill to give to families living in substandard homes.

Pia first found out about this problem when she gave away her own carpet on a freecycle website - and the response was overwhelming.

"I helped three families with carpets from my home, but there were so many more. One woman told me that she had nowhere to open presents at Christmas, so I ripped out more carpets from my home."

Pia had so many enquiries, she started to ask questions. The answers shocked her into action.

Tenants told her that when a council property is reissued it is required to be stripped bare.

Properties are stripped no matter the condition of the existing flooring.

Tenants are often unable to afford new flooring, which can leave their homes cold and miserable to live in.

The issue is country wide - Pia gets enquiries from all over the UK.

We met Sophie, who had contacted Pia for help. Sophie had waited more than a decade to move from a two-bed flat to a house big enough for her five children to have their own beds - she felt she couldn't refuse, despite the substandard condition of the floors.

Pia used carpets destined for landfill from a film studio to kit out the entire house and make it a home.

"No Floor No More" is what's known as a Community Interest Company. It's currently unfunded and relies solely on donations from carpet manufacturers and big companies looking to dispose of flooring sustainably - and Pia's own savings.

Pia's aim is to support the community as best she can and eventually bring about a change in policy.

The Local Government Association told Sky News that councils across the country are fully committed to providing quality social housing but "local government is under mounting pressure to find suitable homes for an ever-increasing number of people, and there are currently over 1.3 million families in England on waiting lists for social housing".

The response went on: "This means councils are having to make impossible decisions about maintaining existing housing stock and building more homes that the country seriously needs.

"Government needs to use the upcoming spending review to ensure that councils are sufficiently resourced and empowered to deliver the homes that the country desperately needs."

Right of reply:St Albans City & District Council

Chris Traill, strategic director for community and place delivery, said: "We are committed to ensuring our social housing properties are in the best possible condition for new tenants when they move in.

"In doing so, we provide all tenants with our flooring policy and our team are happy to discuss any issues they may have.

"As part of their tenancy agreement, tenants are asked to remove all flooring such as carpets and grippers before the property is handed back.

"This is because the flooring may be in a poor condition and unpleasant for the incoming tenants and because pets may have been in the house, posing a risk of flea infestations.

"However, exceptions are made where the flooring is in a good enough condition to be 'gifted' to the incoming tenant.

"Gifting is welcomed if the carpet is newly laid and where there is confirmation that there have been no pets and the carpet was treated for fleas as a precaution.

"We also allow for gifting where the flooring is suitable for new flooring to be laid on top.

"Recently, we have left flooring down in three properties that met the criteria."

Topshop has hinted that its stores could be coming back to the high street this summer.

In several Instagram posts, the clothing brand said: "We'll see you IRL in August."

It has been teasing its millennial fan base with a return since March, posting a number of cryptic messages on social media such as "we missed you too" and "we've been listening".

Websites for Topshop and Topman went live last month, both with a holding page that reads "coming soon".

The retailer disappeared from high streets in 2021 after its owner, Arcadia Group, fell into administration.

Asos quickly acquired it for £265m and has been selling its products on its online fashion site since then.

Last year, it sold a huge 75% stake of Topshop to Danish firm Heartland for £135m, which opened the possibility for a high street relaunch.

The number of people who stream sports illegally has gone "through the roof", the head of Britain's intellectual property crime unit has said.

Emma Warbey said people were largely able to use illegal fire sticks or TV media boxes without the risk of being caught, with officers instead focusing their attention on organised crime groups.

According to the Financial Times, she said her team at the City of London Police force were tackling "resellers and the people at the top of the tree", given that it's "really hard" to stop people from illegally streaming content.

Illegal firesticks and boxes can be preloaded with software that can stream sporting events and channels that owners would otherwise have to pay for.

Broadcasters have said the devices cost the industry hundreds of millions of pounds and called for more to be done to tackle pirated content.

Forgot to pick up Yukon Golds for your roast lunch this weekend?

Not to worry - here's every major supermarket's opening hours over the Easter holiday weekend.

This is for "big shops" (not smaller Tesco Express-style shops), though many in Scotland are open on Easter Sunday - so it's worth checking if you live there.

Morrison's

• Good Friday:7am-10pm
• Saturday:Open as normal
• Easter Sunday: Closed
• Easter Monday: 7am-8pm

Tesco

• Good Friday: 6am-10pm
• Saturday: Open as normal
• Easter Sunday: Closed
• Easter Monday: 8am-6pm

Waitrose

• Good Friday:8am-8pm
• Saturday: Open as normal
• Easter Sunday:Most stores closed
• Easter Monday:8am-8pm

Asda

• Good Friday: 7am-10pm
• Saturday: Open as normal
• Easter Sunday: Closed
• Easter Monday: 7am-10pm

M&S

• Good Friday:8am-7pm
• Saturday: Open as normal
• Easter Sunday:Closed
• Easter Monday:8am-6pm

Aldi

• Good Friday: 8am-10pm
• Saturday: 8am-10pm
• Easter Sunday:Closed
• Easter Monday:8am-8pm

Lidl

• Good Friday: Open as normal
• Saturday: Open as normal
• Easter Sunday:Closed
• Easter Monday:8am-8pm (til 10pm in London)

Every Friday, we take an overview of the mortgage market with industry experts and round up the best rates withMoneyfactscompare.co.uk.

There was some positive news for first-time buyers this week with data showing the number of low-deposit mortgages had reached a 17-year-high.

There were 442 mortgage deals available for buyers who can put down a 5% deposit on a home, according to Moneyfacts.

For buyers with a 10% deposit, it counted 845 available deals.

It means that both are at the highest point since the 2008 financial crisis, when banks were forced to tighten their lending rules.

Lenders have been under pressure to better cater for people trying to get on the housing ladder, and many have been rolling out low-deposit deals in a bid to stimulate activity in the housing market.

On Wednesday, Santander lowered first-time buyer rates by up to 0.21%.

Rachel Springall, finance expert at Moneyfacts, said: "The flourishing choice of low deposit mortgages will no doubt be welcomed by borrowers who are either looking to remortgage or are a first time buyer.

"The government has been clear that it wants lenders to do more to boost UK growth, and so a rise in product availability for aspiring homeowners is a healthy step in the right direction.

"However, there is still much more room for improvement, particularly as the choice of deals at 95% loan-to-value represents just 6% of all deals available to borrowers across fixed and variable mortgages."

Here are the top first-time buyer deals on the market...

Moneyfacts also rounds up what it calls "best buys", which look beyond the lowest rates and take in incentives and fees...

Overall, fixed rate mortgage reductions outweighed rises this week.

With inflation coming in lower than expected, analyst predictions for base rate cuts by the Bank of England this year rose from three to four, giving lenders more encouragement to make reductions.

HSBC reduced rates by up 0.24%, The Mortgage Works by as much as 0.25% and NatWest and RBS made cuts of up to 0.13%, resulting in more deals priced below 4%.

"Borrowers are the winners here as the market becomes more competitive, giving them more options and encouraging more people to jump into the market rather than sitting on the fence, trying to time the market," said Pete Mugleston, managing director at Online Mortgage Advisor.

What's going on in the housing market?

Official figures released by the Office for National Statistics showed house prices jumped by 5.4% in the year to February - the fastest rate in more than two years.

House price growth has been accelerating since last summer, and activity has picked up this year as buyers rushed to beat stamp duty increases.

From April, first-time buyers in England and Northern Ireland started paying stamp duty on properties costing more than £300,000. They were previously exempt from paying the tax on properties up to £425,000.

"Official house prices will be boosted for at least another two months by the flurry of activity ahead of the stamp duty changes," Elliott Jordan-Doak, senior UK economist for Pantheon Macroeconomics, said.

"But there is genuine strength in the housing market."

We also got data from Rightmove showing asking prices rose by more than £5,000 to an average of £377,182 in April, despite less generous stamp duty discounts taking effect.

Rightmove property expert Colleen Babcock suggested people putting their homes on the market should be careful considering the number of homes for sale is at a decade high.

We've brought you the news earlier this month that Asda is trialling live facial recognition at five of its stores in Greater Manchester in a bid to tackle crime.

But the measure has been widely condemned on social media, with people using #StopFacialRecognition and #StopAsdaSpying to express their discontent.

"Just the beginning," one user warned, while another commented "to shop there, people must surrender their right to privacy".

'Significant backlash on the horizon'

No matter how you feel about the technology, its use is becoming more widespread, the chairman of private investigating firm Tremark told Sky News.

"I believe this kind of technology will expand and become popularly used," Mark Hodgson said.

"Customers are already having their movements tracked and shopping habits monitored in stores, which raises serious concerns about linking this to AI and biometrics."

Although the technology is becoming more widely used, Hodgson said whether it should be was a different matter entirely.

He called on supermarkets to provide clear communication with shoppers, who he said were becoming even more data-conscious.

"Supermarkets must be able to demonstrate legitimate interest in their data practices; whether they meet the necessary threshold as it stands is open to debate," he added.

"They should be clear that biometric data will only be used for specific stated purposes like combating theft.

"Consumers these days are more data-conscious than ever, so if businesses fail to be transparent about the way they are using facial recognition and biometric data, I foresee a significant backlash on the horizon."

Is it an invasion of privacy?

Hodgson said the fact that Asda was only using a trial period could indicate it was waiting to assess the results before making further decisions.

"I hope they consider the legal and ethical ramifications of this process and act accordingly if rolled out nationwide," he added.

But what are the legalities with this, and is it an invasion of privacy like people are claiming?

The technology is "particularly intrusive", according to Will Richmond-Coggan, a data and privacy partner at law firm Freeths.

But he explained there were a number of steps that could be taken to ensure customers' rights are protected.

He said responsible retailers would make sure they consult consumers ahead of time and use prominent signage that draws the use of the technology to the public's attention.

"They should be supported by the developers of the technology to understand how privacy concerns are managed and the intrusiveness limited to what is necessary to detect or deter crime or other harmful behaviours," he added.

"Failure to take these elementary precautions will inevitably result in damage to public confidence and resistance to the use of the technology."

In announcing the two-month trial, Asda said: "The trial comes at a time when retailers are facing an epidemic of retail crime. According to the BRC trade body, there are more than 2,000 incidents of violence and abuse against shopworkers every day – a threefold increase since 2020.

"Asda recorded circa 1,400 assaults on colleagues last year, an average of four per day.

"With these figures highlighting the growing threat of retail crime, Asda and other businesses are exploring new ways to combat this problem, including trialling facial recognition technology.

"The technology is integrated into Asda’s existing CCTV network and works by scanning images and comparing the results to a known list of individuals who have previously committed criminal activity on an Asda site.

"If a match is found by the automated system, in a matter of seconds a member of the Asda head office security team will conduct a check and feedback to the store in real time."

In a comment to Money regarding this piece, Asda also pointed out this would help keep customers safe - and added: "This trial uses Asda's existing CCTV system and fully complies with all data protection regulations."

Business leaders have warned the government that plans for a new bill will lead to widespread strike action and damage the economy.

Critics argue that the Employment Rights Bill will make it easier for trade unions to put their members on strike by weakening thresholds needed to trigger a walkout.

The bill could scrap the requirement that unions have at least half of their membership participate in strike votes before calling industrial action.

A letter, signed by the "B5" club of business groups - made up of the British Chambers of Commerce, the Confederation of British Industry, Federation of Small Businesses, Institute of Directors and Make UK - says: "Many businesses work well with their trade unions, but some are faced with unions behaving unreasonably.

"By empowering trade unions rather than empowering whichever party is behaving reasonably, this legislation will guarantee continued conflict and prevent the reset in industrial relations that is needed."

But union bosses say changes would bring voting methods into the 21st century and wouldn't harm discussions between them, companies and the government.

What's in the bill?

• Day one rights for workers (meaning immediate eligibility for parental or bereavement leave, statutory sick pay, and the right to claim unfair dismissal from day one)
• Flexible working as default (employees can request flexible arrangements from the start; employers must justify refusals)
• Enhanced protections for new parents (unlawful to dismiss someone within six months of returning from maternity leave)
• Stronger enforcement of rights (single enforcement body proposed to tackle workplace abuses)
• Ban on exploitative contractsand fire and re-hire (zero-hours contracts to be restricted unless workers opt in)
• Right to switch off (employees protected from being penalised for not engaging with work outside hours)

What do you think about the proposed changes?

Let us know in the comments box at the top of this page.