Business

The scandal-hit CBI, Britain’s biggest employers’ group, says it has passed fresh information to the police relating to a report of a “serious criminal offence”. The body said it was “liaising closely” with officers as it remains mired by allegations of historic workplace misconduct. They culminated in chief executive Tony Danker being sacked earlier this

Interest in new electric vehicles may be declining, data from the UK’s largest car sales website suggests. The volume of new electric car searches, ad views and messages to retailers on the Auto Trader platform was down nearly two thirds (65%) from the beginning of last year to March this year. Auto Trader has attributed

The government has made it its primary aim to halve inflation by the end of the year but things aren’t quite going to plan. Britain has shot up the leader board and now has western Europe’s highest rate of consumer price inflation. Economists were expecting the headline rate to fall from 10.4% to 9.8% in

Strong progress has been made on raising wages for the lowest paid, but the UK still remains a “laggard” on employment standards, a new report has said. The Resolution Foundation’s latest figures show the minimum wage has driven salaries up in the UK, with the number of people on the lowest wages falling below 10%,

The number of companies entering insolvency hit its highest level for more than three years in March, according to official figures. Commentators blamed a combination of higher interest rates and wider inflation for the 16% increase recorded last month across England and Wales. The Insolvency Service reported 2,457 corporate insolvencies – up from 1,784 in

Energy firms installing prepayment meters will be required to try to contact a customer at least ten times and conduct a “site welfare visit” before forcibly conducting the installation, new guidelines will say. Energy company workers will also be required to wear body cameras or sound recorders to make sure new energy regulator rules that

Air France and Airbus have been found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter over the crash of Flight 447 in 2009 that killed 228 people. The Airbus A330 was travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris when it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean during a thunderstorm in June 2009, killing people from 33 countries. Both Air

Barclays is joining the ranks of global investment banks taking the axe to jobs amid a slowdown in dealmaking and stock market flotations. Sky News has learnt that the British lender will this week cut more than 100 roles in its investment bank, with sources saying the layoffs would not be confined to a single

A former executive at Funding Circle, the London-listed finance group, has raised millions of pounds to launch a digital platform that promises to give small businesses instant credit decisions. Sky News understands that Jerome Le Luel, who spent nearly seven years as Funding Circle’s chief risk officer and head of lending strategy, is close to

Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) have reached an agreement in principle amid a long-running dispute over pay and employment terms. In a joint statement with Royal Mail, CWU confirmed the agreement will now be considered by the executive of the union before it goes before the membership. The details of the proposed

The giant American financial investor Carlyle is in talks about a major investment in Manchester United Football Club as the auction of the Premier League side nears its concluding stages. Sky News has learnt that Carlyle is among a handful of parties which have pitched proposals to acquire a minority stake in the Old Trafford

Montana has passed a bill banning TikTok in the state. The state House voted 54-43 to pass the bill – which goes further than prohibitions in place in nearly half the states and the US federal government that prohibit the video-sharing app on government devices. The measure now goes to Republican Governor Greg Gianforte for

The owner of British gambling brand William Hill has said profit is to rise and there is to be no further impact from the record fine it was issued by the UK gambling regulator last month. 888 Holdings has said there is to be “No further expected impact on our UK operations or revenue expectations

The chancellor has told Sky News there is “no room for complacency” in tackling the UK’s economic problems after official figures revealed no GDP growth in February. But Jeremy Hunt said that while inflation was too high and growth too low, he was confident that his budget plans unveiled last month would help turn things

The world’s richest man Bernard Arnault has received a boost after his luxury goods company LVMH reported a 17% rise in global sales. The group, which owns brands including Moët, Hennessy and Louis Vuitton, recorded revenue of €21bn (£18.5bn) in the first quarter of 2023. LVMH hailed its “excellent” start to the year as it

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 UK economy flatlined in February, with no growth in GDP, according to official figures. Civil sector strikes and low energy consumption offset growth in areas such as construction, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) data showed. It followed growth of 0.4% in January and confirmation that the UK economy avoided recession in the second

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

The president of the CBI expressed doubts about the survival of Britain’s biggest business lobbying group if it had run a conventional process to recruit a new chief. Sky News has learnt that Brian McBride told a group of members on Tuesday afternoon that he was concerned that the CBI might not have withstood a

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