Business

Jeremy Hunt struck an upbeat tone following the publication of the latest economic growth data for February. “The economic outlook is looking brighter than expected – GDP grew in the three months to February and we are set to avoid recession,” he said. In some respects he’s right. Even though the country was deep into

Andrew Bailey has called into question whether UK banks have large enough cash buffers to cope with crises similar to the recent run on Silicon Valley Bank. The Governor of the Bank of England (BoE) said last month’s turmoil, which led to the rapid takeovers of the bank’s US and UK arms, served as a warning

The overall supply of candidates for jobs has increased for the first time in more than two years, a survey of recruiters suggests. While the rise in the availability of workers in March was “modest”, it marks the first such upturn in the UK since February 2021, a report from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation

Police are now investigating alleged sexual misconduct at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). The City of London Police said its inquiries were “at a very early stage”. Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Waight said: “The City of London police takes all acts of sexual misconduct and violence against women and girls extremely seriously. “We approached

Ultra-low interest rates are set to return with inflation due to tumble in the near future, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This will be welcome news to homeowners, many of whom have recently been hit with a steep rise in mortgage costs. The United Nations financial agency says that the combination of an

Swipe through your social media apps of choice and you will likely notice them looking increasingly similar. The rapid ascent of TikTok, now with more than a billion monthly active users, to become the attention-sapper of choice for many has threatened the dominance of old favourites like no app before it. With Instagram‘s Reels and

Thousands of UK Vodafone customers have complained after suffering from a broadband connection outage. Downdetector, a website where people can log outages, reported a peak of 2,820 people experiencing problems on Monday morning. Vodafone said in a post on Twitter: “We’re aware of and investigating an issue impacting some of our home broadband customers since

Wizz Air was the worst major airline for flight delays from the UK last year, according to an investigation. The figures, from the Civil Aviation Authority and reported by the PA news agency, found that the Hungarian carrier’s UK departures were an average of 46 minutes and six seconds behind schedule last year. This delay

Atom Bank, the app-based lender, has picked advisers to secure a further £100m in capital in what is expected to be its final fundraising before an attempt to list its shares publicly. Sky News understands the Durham-based company is working with bankers at Jefferies on a share sale that will take place in the coming

The FTSE-100 gambling giant behind Paddy Power is lining up a US-based businessman as its next chairman – a move that will further cement plans to abandon its presence on the London stock market. Sky News has learnt that Flutter Entertainment, which also owns SkyBet and Betfair, is in advanced talks to appoint John Bryant

Britain’s pensions lifeboat is to hoist a ‘for sale’ sign above Kodak Alaris, the photographic equipment group it took control of as part of a rescue of its retirement schemes. Sky News has learnt that the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has kicked off talks with bankers about an auction of the company behind the ‘Kodak

High interest rates, US bank failures and geopolitical divisions in Europe are reasons why the world economy is expected to grow less than 3% in 2023, the chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said. The growth is down from 3.4% last year, and even further below the average of 3.8%, increasing the risk

Illegal immigrants will have their bank accounts shut down in a new crackdown by the Home Office – who have been accused of “demonising” asylum seekers. The Home Office announced it began sharing data with the financial sector on Thursday so it can refuse to open new bank accounts and close existing accounts of people

EY, the big four accountancy firm, has ended the secondment of one of its employees to the CBI as the business lobbying group grapples with an unfolding crisis over allegations of sexual misconduct. Sky News has learnt that EY has opted not to renew the secondment of a staff member who was serving as an

Some of the UK’s biggest and best-known businesses say they are closely watching the unfolding crisis at the CBI. Sky News contacted more than 30 FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies on Thursday and found that many of those who are CBI members are keeping their membership – for now. It comes after a number

The average house price continued to rise in March – but at a slower rate than the previous month, according to a closely-watched index. The Halifax House Price Index shows that average prices rose by 0.8% in March – following a 1.2% rise in February, with the typical UK property now costing £287,880. The annual

Coach travellers will be asked to delay Channel crossings over Easter as ferry companies and the Port of Dover attempt to avoid a repeat of the shambolic delays that blighted the start of the school holidays last weekend. Thousands of holidaymakers, many of them children on school trips, faced delays of up to 18 hours

Most UK businesses expect sales to rise over the coming year, despite seeing no growth over the past three months, according to a new survey. The British Chambers of Commerce Quarterly Economic Survey is based on the responses of 5,200 mostly small and medium-sized companies. It said 52% of firms surveyed between 13 February and

TikTok has been fined £12.7m for breaches of data protection law, including using the personal data of children aged under 13 without parental consent. The UK Information Commissioner’s Office said the Chinese-owned video app had not done enough to check that its users were over 13 and it had also not done enough to remove

Virgin Orbit has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US after failing to secure the funding needed to recover from a January rocket failure. Virgin Orbit, which is 75% owned by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, lodged the filing in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware seeking a sale of