Category Archives: Business

Hunt urged to invest £30bn a year in infrastructure or risk ‘decade in doldrums’

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Thinktank says stronger than expected tax revenues have given chancellor scope for bold package in autumn statement

Jeremy Hunt risks condemning Britain to a decade in the doldrums unless he uses this month’s autumn statement to announce a £30bn-a-year investment plan to upgrade public infrastructure, a leading thinktank has warned.

The National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said the chancellor should ignore calls by Tory MPs for pre-election tax cuts and instead focus on measures to boost growth through improvements to transport, digital networks, skills and housing.

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AI Pictionary and a ‘robo-dog’ make UK shops’ hottest Christmas toy lists

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Retailers hope new version of top-selling board game plus Dog-E will help fuel festive sales recovery

A new version of Pictionary that pits artist against artificial intelligence and a pet “robo-dog” with a wagging tail are among the toys destined to appear on Christmas lists this year as retailers pray for better sales during the key festive trading period.

With the cost of living crisis looming large over another year’s celebrations, the Toy Retailers Association’s annual DreamToys list of the 20 “hottest” gifts includes a dozen that are under £50. Among them is Pictionary vs AI (£24), a new version of the classic board game that pitches (terrible) human sketches against the might of AI processing power.

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UK housing market is past its ‘peak pain’, declares Savills

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Upmarket estate agent says prices will start to bottom out in 2024 as interest rates fall and will return to growth in 2025

Britain’s housing market is past “peak pain” and prices look likely to bottom out by next summer, according to the estate agency Savills.

The average UK house price is projected to fall by 3% in 2024, after a 4% drop this year, the upmarket estate agent and property advisory firm said in its five-year outlook.

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Patisserie Valerie fraud trial will not start until 2026, court told

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Serious Fraud Office expects to examine 3m documents relating to collapsed bakery chain and charges against four people

The fraud trial of former employees of the collapsed bakery chain Patisserie Valerie will not take place for another two and a half years, a court has heard.

At a trial preparation hearing at Southwark crown court on Tuesday, a date was set for spring 2026, about eight years on from the accounting crisis that led to the collapse of the business.

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North Sea oil and gas: what is the new licensing scheme, and will it cut bills?

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Rishi Sunak signalled changes in the king’s speech that create a policy divide with Labour

The government has confirmed its plans to grant new North Sea oil and gas licences every year at the opening of parliament, deepening a political fault line between the Conservatives and Labour, and angering environmental campaigners who argue it undermines efforts to reach net zero. Here, we examine the move.

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WeWork bankruptcy: shared office provider expected too try and renegotiate Australian leases

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WeWork says its commitment to Australia is ‘unwavering’ after US parent files for bankruptcy

Shared office provider WeWork says it is “business as usual” for its Australian operations, even after the US parent filed for bankruptcy as debts mounted and office vacancies increased around the world.

The former high-flying New York-headquartered company operates in 15 Australian locations as part of its global portfolio spread across more than 30 countries.

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Big four consultancy firm partners could be banned from being on board of regulator after PwC scandal

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Greens say Labor has agreed to stop senior executives or partners at firms from becoming board members of Tax Practitioners Board

Partners at big four consultancy firms could soon be banned from being board members of a regulator that investigates the conduct of their colleagues due to conflict of interest concerns.

The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB), which proved instrumental in uncovering the scale of a scandal involving the misuse of confidential Treasury information by a partner at PwC Australia, has the power to deregister accountants after serious misconduct.

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Royal Mail loses 360-year monopoly on delivering parcels from Post Office sites

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Customer dissatisfaction with service thought to be reason for expanding remit to Evri and DPD

Royal Mail is to lose its 360-year-old monopoly on delivering parcels from Post Office branches, after concerns about poor quality of service persuaded the postal service to sign deals with rivals Evri and DPD in the run-up to Christmas.

The two couriers would be added to the options available at the counter from later this month, the Post Office said, with customers given a choice for the first time.

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UK recession fears grow as shoppers cut spending ‘to save for Christmas’

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Drop in retail sales also because of consumer worries over high energy bills and mortgages, surveys suggest

Fears that the UK is heading for a recession this winter have intensified amid signs Britain’s hard-pressed households are cutting spending as they save for Christmas and higher fuel bills.

Two monthly snapshots of retail activity found shops and online outlets struggling because of consumer budgets being squeezed by dearer mortgages and the UK’s lingering cost of living crisis.

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Buy now, pay later firm Klarna reports first quarterly profit in four years

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Swing to profit of £9.6m by Swedish firm improves its fortunes in run-up to possible £12bn flotation

The buy now, pay later company Klarna has logged its first quarterly profit in four years, improving its fortunes in the run-up to a potential $15bn (£12bn) stock market flotation and a regulatory crackdown under a possible Labour government.

The Swedish firm, which is the biggest BNPL provider in Britain and has about 150 million international customers, said on Monday that it had swung to a profit of 130m Swedish kronor (£9.6m) in the July to September quarter, marking a notable bounce from a 2bn kronor loss during the same period last year.

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Ryanair to reward shareholders as it heads for record profits after fares rise

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Airline to pay regular dividends as finance boss says consumers are going to continue spending

Ryanair is to hand its shareholders regular payouts for the first time after soaring air fares put the airline on track to make record profits.

The budget carrier said it expects to notch up profits of between €1.85bn (£1.6bn) and €2.05bn in the financial year to the end of March, far outstripping its previous highest profit of €1.45bn in 2018.

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Beef, soy and palm oil products linked to deforestation still imported into UK

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Campaigners accuse government of failing to stick to promises made at Cop26 climate summit in 2021

Beef, soy and palm oil products driving deforestation are still being imported into the UK, despite government promises this practice would end, data has revealed.

Campaigners have criticised the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) for failing to put practices in place to stop the import of goods from areas with high deforestation rates. This is despite the government having promised at the Cop26 climate conference in 2021 to implement the rules.

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Thousands without water after Storm Ciarán disrupts Surrey treatment works

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Thames Water has provided bottled water to people in Guildford, Godalming and surrounding areas

Thousands of people have been left without water after Storm Ciarán caused problems at a treatment works in Surrey, Thames Water has said.

A major incident was declared as at least 13,500 homes in Guildford, Godalming and the surrounding areas were left without water or with low pressure by 2.50pm on Sunday, while a further 6,500 were expected to lose supply later in the day.

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Motherhood penalty ‘has driven 250,000 women out of jobs’

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Cost and difficulties of balancing work and childcare has led one in 10 to quit, says Fawcett Society

About a quarter of a million mothers with young children have left their jobs because of difficulties with balancing work and childcare, according to a report by an equal rights charity that calls for the end of the “motherhood penalty”.

This juggling act, as well as the punitive cost, has led more than 249,124 working mothers of children aged four or under to leave their employer, according to the Fawcett Society.

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Middle East war could spark global recession, say Wall Street experts

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Fear adds to Russia-Ukraine conflict risk and increases ‘probability of European and of US recession’

A global recession could be triggered by the conflict in the Middle East as the humanitarian crisis compounds the challenges facing an already precarious world economy, two of Wall Street’s biggest names warned this weekend.

Larry Fink, chief executive of the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, said a combination of the Hamas atrocities of 7 October, Israel’s resultant attack on Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year had pushed the world “almost to a whole new future”.

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Was crypto on trial with Sam Bankman-Fried?

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Binance and Coinbase are under investigation – but Bitcoin was trading at highest value in a year as FTX founder convicted of fraud

As the trial of the former crypto star and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried began last month, headlines declared cryptocurrency was on trial too.

But when Bankman-Fried was found guilty on seven counts of wire fraud and money-laundering conspiracy Thursday evening, after less than five hours of jury deliberations, Bitcoin was trading at its highest price in a year.

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Air fares likely to stay stubbornly high as travel-hungry Australians’ tastes change

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Higher prices see the phenomenon of ‘revenge travel’ turn into a willingness to spend more on bigger trips, industry watchers say

International air fares are set to remain stubbornly high throughout the first half of next year, but the preferences of travel-hungry Australians are shifting.

After the broad reopening of borders by mid-2022, international airlines have largely enjoyed bumper profits by operating fewer flights than an average pre-pandemic year, all while Australians’ pent-up demand for travel meant they were able to charge eye-watering amounts for tickets.

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Judge in New York fraud trial extends gag order to Trump’s legal team

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Arthur Engoron forbids Trump’s lawyers from discussing ‘confidential communications’ between the judge and his staff

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s $250m fraud trial moved to gag Trump’s lawyers from talking about “confidential communications” between the judge and his staff on Friday.

Judge Arthur Engoron has already fined Trump $15,000 for attacking his clerk on social media and threatened to jail the former president if the attacks continue.

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Amazon and Facebook owner Meta agree to protect consumers, CMA says

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Sites agree to stop practices that give them an unfair advantage over businesses and shoppers

The UK’s competition watchdog has said it has secured commitments from Amazon and the Facebook owner Meta to protect consumers on their marketplaces.

The agreements come after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched separate investigations into Amazon, which sells its own products and allows sellers to retail via its online marketplace function, and Meta, which owns Facebook Marketplace.

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Maersk to cut 10,000 jobs as shipping demand drops

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Danish company has axed 6,500 of those roles already, with global economic slowdown taking toll

One of the world’s largest shipping companies, Møller-Maersk, is cutting 10,000 jobs because of a drop in demand triggered by the global economic slowdown.

The Danish company said it had already started cutting staff but was planning on “intensifying” cost-saving measures in order to safeguard its financial performance as price forecasts worsened.

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