Business

The Bank of England has held interest rates at 5.25% for a fifth consecutive time, but says the prospects for a cut are now “moving in the right direction”. The nine-member rate-setting committee continued to collectively judge it was too early to contemplate a downwards move, despite further progress in taming inflation revealed earlier this

Often when we talk about statistics like inflation they have a tendency to sound rather dry and boring. After all, data is an abstraction, an aggregation of numbers which often seems quite disconnected with our everyday lives. But prices are ultimately an incredibly important way of measuring what’s going on in the economy. They are

The rate of inflation slowed sharply to an annual rate of 3.4% in February, according to official figures. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed an easing from the 4% rate recorded the previous month. It marks further progress in the battle against energy-led price growth that followed Russia’s war in Ukraine and

The Mais lecture has become a kind of rite of passage for all aspirant chancellors. This annual speech, held at the Bayes Business School in the City of London, was where Nigel Lawson laid out his thinking about reforming the economy in the 1980s. It was where George Osborne provided his plan for his first

Hundreds of high street jobs are at risk after Ted Baker’s British operations veered to the brink of administration. Sky News has learnt that No Ordinary Designer Label, which trades under the Ted Baker brand, filed a notice of intention to appoint Teneo Financial Advisory as administrators on Tuesday. The move is expected to result

Britain’s car industry has insisted that an unprecedented 2,000% increase in vehicle exports to Azerbaijan has nothing to with Russia and is explained by the fact that the former Soviet state is a “flourishing market in its own right”. Sky analysis has found that the British car sector sent another £40m worth of cars to

Every household must be engaged by the government in the shift to clean heating as uptake of heat pumps to replace boilers is running at less than half of expected levels, the public spending watchdog has warned. A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) described assumptions on consumer demand for heat pumps, which use

Naked Wines, the London-listed online wine retailer, has drafted in debt advisers to explore refinancing options amid tough trading conditions. Sky News understands that Naked Wines has hired Interpath Advisory to work with it after seeing investor confidence in the company drain away in recent months. Shares in Naked Wines have slumped by almost a

Marks & Spencer (M&S) is nearing a deal with one of Britain’s biggest high street lenders to overhaul its banking arm as a financial services and loyalty ‘superapp’. Sky News has learnt that M&S and HSBC, whose UK arm owns M&S Bank, are close to announcing a new long-term relationship agreement that will pave the

AI chatbots are more likely to recommend the death penalty when a person writes in African American English (AAE) compared to standardised American English, according to new research.  AI was also more likely to match AAE speakers with less prestigious jobs. African American English is generally spoken by black Americans and Canadians. The paper, which

A group of lenders to Thames Water’s parent company have engaged advisers weeks before a £190m debt held by Britain’s biggest water utility falls due. Sky News has learnt that a syndicate of financiers which is owed the sum by Kemble Water, under which Thames’s regulated operations sit, has drafted in the big four accountancy

Bitcoin has suffered a sharp pullback from record highs. The world’s biggest cryptocurrency fell to $66,885 in the early hours of Friday – down 9%. Only yesterday, the digital asset had been touching an unprecedented price of $74,000. Image: Bitcoin’s price over the past week. Pic: CoinGecko It is difficult to pinpoint a single reason

McDonald’s customers say they have been turned away from restaurants around the world, including in the UK, after the fast food chain was hit by major IT problems. British diners have complained about restaurants being shut, despite many being able to place orders through the company’s app. McDonald’s Japan has halted all operations at most

The four largest gas boiler manufacturers face a competition inquiry after imposing price hikes of around £100 on customers to offset potential fines for missing clean energy targets, the government has confirmed. In a move first reported by Sky News last week, energy secretary Claire Coutinho has asked the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to

John Lewis has returned to profit for the first time in three years but staff face another year with no bonus. The company behind Waitrose grocery shops and the John Lewis department stores recorded a profit of £56m, after a loss of £234m in the previous financial year. The John Lewis Partnership is employee-owned by

The government is expected to commit to banning foreign governments from owning British newspapers and magazines, effectively blocking an Abu Dhabi-led takeover of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph and Spectator magazine. Sky News understands the commitment will see the government pledge to ban the foreign state ownership, influence or control of newspapers and news magazines

Growth returned in the UK economy in January, according to official figures. The measure of everything produced in the UK – a metric called gross domestic product (GDP) – rose 0.2%, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. It’s the first official economic growth announcement since a recession was declared last month as there were

A law aimed at quashing the wrongful convictions of sub-postmasters caught up in the Horizon IT scandal is being introduced by the government later. The proposed Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill “marks an important step forward in finally clearing” the names of hundreds of wronged branch managers who have had their lives “callously torn

Wages are rising less than expected and unemployment surprisingly rose, official figures show – but likely not fast enough for interest rates to come down. The rate of unemployment tipped up slightly to 3.9% in January, when it had been forecast by economists to remain at 3.8%. Pay growth has also slowed more quickly than

The Premier League has failed to secure agreement for a new financial settlement for English football amid a continued stalemate between its clubs. Sky News has learnt that a planned vote at a shareholder meeting on Monday afternoon was scrapped after it became clear it would not win support from the required majority of 14