The Evening News has seen an email sent to staff at Frankie and Benny’s and Chiquito outlets in Fountain Park and the Frankie and Benny’s and Filling Station eateries in the Omni Centre, saying redundancies will begin from next Monday.

The branches are owned by Restaurant Group, one of the country’s biggest restaurant operators.

A former Frankie and Benny’s employee at one of the affected Edinburgh branches estimates that between 50 and 60 jobs could be affected in total.

The former staff member, who does not want to be named, says they have been shown emails from people working in all four of these restaurants confirming their closure, including from general managers.

The email, from the company’s ‘people director’ Jacqui McManus, says that while they are keen to reopen as many restaurants as possible this year, a “large number of locations are no longer viable and will remain closed permanently.”

The email said proposed closures were announced last year and again in February during a results presentation, with Covid-19 now “significantly impacting” the company’s ability to trade profitably.

It continues: “We need to advise you that we have taken the tough decision to permanently close the restaurant you work in.

“We are proposing to commence a redundancy process across our closed businesses from Monday 8th June, we will contact you again to confirm the timings for your restaurant and also outline the full process and next steps.

“This decision does not by any means reflect your performance within the company and we appreciate your loyalty and commitment to the business. We will do our upmost to ensure you are fully supported during this very difficult time.”

Check the original content: Edinburgh Frankie and Benny’s branches among four city restaurants believed to be permanently closing after lockdown

EasyJet and cruise operator Carnival are set to lose their place in the FTSE 100 index of the UK’s biggest companies following the collapse in their share prices due to the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the travel industry.

The budget airline has lost half of its market value since the start of the pandemic as almost all flights have been cancelled, and the aviation industry warns it will take years to convince people to take to the skies in the same numbers they did before the virus struck. EasyJet last week announced plans to cut 4,500 jobs, although it plans to restart flights on the majority of its routes this summer.

Carnival, the world’s largest cruise operator, has seen its shares drop by 70% since the start of the year. The cruise industry has been among the worst-affected sectors as several ships were hit by outbreaks of infection, and some cruises have been cancelled until at least October.

EasyJet and Carnival are expected to be joined in relegation by Centrica, the UK’s largest energy supplier, and engineering company Meggitt.

They will be replaced by companies in the ‘second division’ FTSE 250 which have seen their market values leapfrog those at the bottom of the bluechip FTSE 100 index.

Those jostling for promotion are GVC, the gambling company that owns Ladbrokes and Bwin; cybersecurity firm Avast; Kingfisher, the group that owns B&Q and Screwfix; home repairs company Homeserve; and medical equipment supplier ConvaTec.

Under the FTSE 100 index’s rules, a company is automatically relegated if it falls below 111th place among qualifying companies on the London Stock Exchange at the end of each quarter. Promotion is given to FTSE 250 companies that rise to 90th position or above.

The latest quarterly calculations are based on the closing share prices on Tuesday 2 June, and announced officially by FTSE Russell, the company that runs the index, on Wednesday.

The broadcaster ITV and hotel and restaurant company Whitbread are also suggested to be close to the relegation zone.

Russ Mould, investment director at investing platform AJ Bell, said he expects four companies to be relegated and promoted, but if more companies change it would be the biggest shakeup in decades: “Six promotions and relegations, for a total of 12 changes, have not been seen in one single quarterly reshuffle since September 1992 and even four pairs changing places is relatively rare, with the last instance of this being March 2016.”

Nicholas Hyett, an equity analyst at investment group Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “The world has changed since the last FTSE review at the beginning of March.”

Inclusion in the FTSE 100 index is important both for companies’ reputations and because some investment funds only buy shares in the UK top 100 companies – and may therefore be forced to sell their stakes in easyJet and Carnival.

Check original content: Coronavirus impact to push Carnival and easyJet out of FTSE 100

Nationwide said prices fell by 1.7% last month from April, the biggest monthly decline since February 2009.

In annual terms, prices rose by 1.8%, slowing from 3.7% in April.

A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to a monthly fall of 1.0% and an annual rise of 2.8%.

Britain’s government relaxed some of its restrictions on the housing market in England in May. Property website Rightmove said on Saturday it had its busiest day on record last week, suggesting activity was picking up.

But Nationwide said the medium-term outlook remained highly uncertain.

Samuel Tombs, economist with Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the May fall was probably just the start of a slide in house prices over the rest of this year.

“The huge size of the blow from COVID-19 to households’ incomes and the deterioration in consumers’ confidence suggests that house prices must drop,” he said. “We look for a 5% decline in prices by the end of the third quarter.”

Nationwide said the impact of the pandemic on the mindset of homebuyers was likely to weigh on the market.

A survey it conducted suggested people had put off moving as a result of the lockdown and would-be buyers were planning to wait six months on average.

Nationwide said official tax data showed residential property transactions were down by an annual 53% in April.

“Nevertheless, our ability to generate the house price index has not been impacted to date,” it said.

Check original content: UK house prices fall by most since 2009 as COVID hits- Nationwide