Category Archives: Business

Ikea to pilot online buyback service for secondhand furniture

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Service to be tested in Spain and Portugal this year, with a UK rollout if successful, as pre-loved markets boom

Ikea is to test an online version of its buy-back service where the retailer offers vouchers for unwanted secondhand furniture.

The service will be tested in Spain and Portugal before the end of December and will be launched in the UK if it proves successful. Ikea already offers buy-back in stores, including in the UK. The online version will extend it to a much wider audience, with Ikea predicting pre-owned goods are likely to grab 16% of the UK homewares market by next year

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Ikea to pilot online buyback service for secondhand furniture

Posted on by

Service to be tested in Spain and Portugal this year, with a UK rollout if successful, as pre-loved markets boom

Ikea is to test an online version of its buy-back service where the retailer offers vouchers for unwanted secondhand furniture.

The service will be tested in Spain and Portugal before the end of December and will be launched in the UK if it proves successful. Ikea already offers buy-back in stores, including in the UK. The online version will extend it to a much wider audience, with Ikea predicting pre-owned goods are likely to grab 16% of the UK homewares market by next year

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Australian consumer confidence plunges to worst level since 1990s after RBA rate rise

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Key indicator dropped about 20% after the Reserve Bank last month announced the highest interest rates since 2011

Australian households are the most persistently pessimistic they have been since the early-1990s recession, after a fourth rate rise this year.

Confidence among Australian consumers has plunged about 20% since the Reserve Bank of Australia lifted interest rates to the highest levels since 2011, according to the Westpac–Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index.

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Tory plan to cut energy efficiency rule for builders will cost new home owners £1,000 a year, says thinktank – as it happened

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A researcher at a climate change think tank says the Conservative policy would be a ‘disaster for first time buyers’

Yesterday, as a gimmick, the Tories were handing out “Bottler Burnham” bottles of water (“0% strength”) to make a point about Burnham supposedly cancelling plans for an early election under pressure from the Tories. It is a version of a stunt they pulled in 2008 when they gave journalists bottles of a “Bottler Brown” beer. (Gordon Brown did pull plans for an early election at the last minute; this time the jibe is unfair, because there were no Burnham plans for an early election.)

The new bottles feature the image of Burnham produced by the Manchester artist Stan Chow.

The SNP’s effective ban on new nuclear energy in Scotland flies in the face of common-sense.

No part of Great Britain should be missing out on plans for new nuclear renewal.

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Strikes by North Sea oil workers could ‘severely disrupt’ UK fuel supplies

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Union says staff left with no choice but industrial action after breakdown in pay talks with Texas oil firm Apache

A looming strike by oil workers in the North Sea could “severely disrupt” UK fuel supplies, the Unite union has said, adding that staff were left with no choice after a breakdown in pay talks with the Texas oil company Apache.

The union said Apache workers had “emphatically” backed strike action after being given what it said was an unacceptable pay offer that amounted to a real-terms pay cut for many employees, at a time when the company was “raking in eye-watering profits”.

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UK car industry faces ‘difficult trade-off’ between Chinese and EU markets

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Britain under pressure to put tariffs on cheap Chinese vehicle imports ahead of protectionist trade measures

Britain’s car industry is grappling with a “difficult trade-off” between China and Europe, as manufacturers struggle to balance the benefits of both markets ahead of looming trade measures that could restrict UK exports to the EU.

The UK is an outlier in choosing not to put import taxes on Chinese vehicles, even as the US has shut them out almost entirely, and the EU imposes duties of up to 45%.

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DoJ declines to reopen investigation into former Fed chair Jay Powell

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Kevin Warsh’s predecessor had been investigated over cost overruns related to central bank renovation project

The US ⁠justice department is not reopening a criminal investigation into former Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell ⁠for cost overruns ⁠related ​to the central bank’s building renovation project, a department spokesperson said on Friday.

Attorney general Todd ⁠Blanche – in comments to Bloomberg News, which first reported the development – said he has not ruled out ⁠continuing to look into the project’s oversight and potentially take ​action if evidence of ‌wrongdoing came to ‌light.

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UK airlines to be banned from charging parents to sit with children

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Planned rule change forms part of Burnham’s bid to crack down on the ‘little charges that add up’

Airlines will be blocked from charging parents extra to sit with their children on planes, according to government plans.

The new rule would require airlines to seat passengers aged under 14 next to their parents or an accompanying adult free of charge. Passengers will also no longer need to pay to tweak the name on their flight booking if they need to correct a mistake.

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Britain in talks with European allies over release of emergency diesel stockpiles amid Trump pressure

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Ministers discuss drawing down EU countries’ reserves after Donald Trump threatens to cut off US supplies

Britain is in talks with European allies over releasing emergency diesel stockpiles after Donald Trump threatened to cut off US supplies of the fuel.

Ministers held calls with counterparts from the European Commission (EC), Germany, France, Italy and Ireland on Thursday to discuss whether to draw down reserves after the Trump administration told Germany and France to release their stockpiles to help ease soaring global energy prices or face a US export ban.

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Crude oil exports from strait of Hormuz largely return to pre-war levels

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Alternative ways being used to move fuel out of Gulf region, but flows of refined products such as diesel still constrained

Exports of crude from the strait of Hormuz have largely returned to levels seen before the outbreak of the Iran war, as oil producers and the shipping industry have found alternative ways of transporting crucial fuel out of the Middle East.

Pipeline exports and ship-to-ship transfers are among the methods being used, according to analysts tracking the situation, while the US military continues to escort some vessels. However, flows of refined products such as diesel remain constrained, pushing prices higher.

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Global bond sell-off intensifies, as UK long-term borrowing costs pass 6%

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Fears that US deficit is unsustainable drive yields on Treasury bills and UK gilts to multi-decade highs

The turmoil in global bond markets has intensified amid fears the US deficit is reaching unsustainable levels, helping drive UK long-term borrowing costs to a 28-year high.

The threat of a renewed round of inflation from the persistently high cost of oil has spooked investors, who believe central banks will be forced to raise interest rates in the coming months to prevent price increases from becoming embedded.

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Ukraine persists with Russian oil refinery strikes in defiance of Trump

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US president blames attacks for driving up fuel prices before midterms, though analysts say his Iran war is main cause

Ukraine is pressing on with strikes on Russian oil refineries, defying Donald Trump, who blames the attacks for exacerbating a global diesel shortage and pushing up fuel prices.

Kyiv struck an oil facility in Russia’s southern Samara region overnight, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday in a statement on social media. The Ukrainian president added that a Russian vessel in the Black Sea was hit, as well as a launch and storage site for attack drones in the Oryol region.

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Tech in cars can be used to snoop on you, Dutch spy chiefs warn

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Hostile states could access cameras, microphones or GPS, says intelligence agency amid concerns over Chinese imports

Drivers have been warned that the smart features built into modern cars such as microphones, cameras and GPS trackers could be used by hostile states to spy on them.

The Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) called for “awareness of espionage risks around modern vehicles”, including microphones that can by switched on remotely to listen to conversations.

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Property prices are plunging in almost every capital city across Australia – see how your suburb rates

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Cotality data shows median house prices fell in September as interest rates hit borrowing capacity

Housing prices are falling in almost every suburb in Australia’s biggest cities, with values dropping faster in Brisbane than Sydney as the slowdown intensifies.

Prices nationally have fallen 5.2% from their peak in March to where they were a year ago, Cotality data released on Thursday shows.

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We need ‘right to intervene’ in AI amid growing threat, says Bank of England boss

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Andrew Bailey’s comments come as fears grow that rogue models could take financial system hostage

The governor of the Bank of England has said authorities must retain the “right to intervene” in the AI industry amid growing fears that rogue models could take the financial system hostage.

Andrew Bailey said the risks posed by the rapid advancement of frontier AI models – a number of which have gone rogue in recent months – were “real and increasingly significant” and reduced the ability of society to supervise and intervene when things went wrong.

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Poundland management in talks to lead bid that could save 11,000 jobs

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Ex-Asda boss Andy Bond linked to plan, with buyout team understood to be negotiating with financial backer

Poundland’s management team are in “advanced talks” to lead a bid for the ailing cut-price retailer that could save up to 11,000 jobs.

The former Asda boss Andy Bond, who ran Poundland for a number of years from 2016 then stepped up to its former parent Pepco before leaving in 2025, is understood to be part of the negotiations to take on the business.

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Give BrewDog ‘second chance’ says new owner as it invests £50m

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US cannabis and drinks firm Tilray, which took over in March, says it will improve beers, pubs and working conditions

BrewDog’s new owner has urged drinkers to give the ailing brand “a second chance” as it invests more than £50m in improving the company’s beers, pubs and working conditions.

The US cannabis and drinks company Tilray bought BrewDog for £33m in March this year, after the company collapsed into administration after five years of losses and a series of controversies relating to the treatment of workers under the founder James Watt.

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Heat pump sales soar across Europe after states cut electricity taxes, data shows

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EU to push member states to cut tax rate below duty on gas, with 11% surge in sales also put down to fallout from Iran war

Sales of residential heat pumps increased 11% across Europe in the first six months of the year as the Iran war sent oil and gas prices rocketing and some countries lowered electricity taxes.

Homeowners bought 1.16m heat pumps across 12 European countries, up from 1.05m in the first half of 2025, according to the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA).

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John Healey says Labour will stick to fiscal rules in first speech as chancellor – UK politics live

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The chancellor announced a new local apprenticeship service to boost opportunities for young people

Lisa O’Carroll is a senior Guardian correspondent.

The head of the SDLP, Claire Hanna, has called for an international mediator to resolve the continuing crisis over a unionist parade in a nationalist area close to Drumcree, the site of some of the worst violence of the troubles almost 30 years ago.

The truth is everybody has got to want to seek mediation and seek compromise and that’s what I’m trying to find, whether there’s that little chink on both sides that we can use to get to a decent compromise that means everybody can walk away with their head held high and their sense of honour.

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Three-quarters of UK’s popular plug-in hybrid cars unable to use rapid chargers

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Only 26% of PHEVs sold across top 20 models can use chargers with power of 50kW or more, analysis finds

Three-quarters of the 20 top-selling plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) in the UK cannot use rapid chargers, research has found, amid concerns that many are essentially “petrol cars pulling round a heavy battery”.

The cars, which can run on electric batteries as well as combustion engines, have been promoted by carmakers as a way to cover long distances in a single drive – unlike fully electric cars – while still reducing emissions.

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