Business

National Insurance is to be cut by two percentage points, the chancellor has announced, as he pledged to “honour the triple lock in full” and increase Universal Credit by inflation. Delivering his autumn statement in the Commons, Jeremy Hunt said the main 12% National Insurance rate would fall to 10% from 6 January – saving

It’s autumn statement time. Once upon a time, these winter budgets used to be brief updates on the fiscal forecasts, never overshadowing the far more substantial main budget in the spring. Or at least so we’re told. In practice, for as long as I’ve been covering economics, the autumn statement (or, as Gordon Brown used

The national living wage will rise to £11.44 per hour from April. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced he is accepting the recommendation from the Low Pay Commission – an increase of £1.02 from the current rate of £10.42. The national living wage is the minimum people aged 21 and over must be paid for their

The annual shopping event that many retailers, and us bargain-hunters, look forward to is almost upon us but a consumer group has warned that deals should be “taken with a pinch of salt”. According to research by the consumer group Which?, just 2% of discounted Black Friday offers were at their cheapest price on the

More than 500 employees of revolutionary artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI have said they will leave if the ousted CEO Sam Altman is not reinstated and the board does not resign. A letter from 505 of the approximately 700 OpenAI employees threatened to quit and jump ship to Microsoft, having received assurances that there are

Jeremy Hunt will this week pledge to review the rules governing payment authentication in what he will describe as a post-Brexit crackdown on fraud. Sky News understands that the chancellor will signal in Wednesday’s autumn statement that the government will seek to repeal EU legislation and replace it with new rules overseen by the City

Strong winds and staff shortages have led to temporary flight restrictions at the UK’s busiest airport causing passenger delays. National Air Traffic Services (NATS) said it was working to minimise disruption at Heathrow caused by weather conditions and short notice absences in the tower. Passengers have been encouraged to check with their airline for information

There will be a lot of positive talk from the chancellor when he delivers his autumn statement on Wednesday, but this will be a fiscal event full of illusory gains. The government is on track to borrow less than previously forecast, which will give rise to a fantasy that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has more space

A court hearing to liquidate a Barclay family holding companies in order to smooth a sale of The Daily Telegraph is poised to be adjourned after a last-gasp offer to repay more than £1bn to Lloyds Banking Group. Sky News understands that a hearing scheduled to take place in the British Virgin Islands on Monday

Jeremy Hunt has said there is the chance to lower taxes in the autumn statement next week, arguing the economy had “turned a corner”. Ahead of Wednesday’s financial announcement, the chancellor said that as inflation had halved over the year, “this is the moment” to focus on growth. But he argued that there is a

Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the Glazer family are on the brink of finalising a $33-a-share deal that will see the petrochemicals tycoon acquiring a 25% stake in Manchester United Football Club. Sky News can reveal that months of talks between the Ineos billionaire and the Red Devils’ controlling investors for the last 18 years have

In the narrow lanes around Aldham in Essex the countryside is close to the English ideal. On an unseasonably warm mid-October day the fields recede to a low horizon, broken only by hedgerows and the spire of the parish church, the tallest landmark this side of Suffolk. If National Grid has its way it won’t

Hotel Chocolat has agreed to a £534m takeover offer from Mars, the maker of goods from Snickers bars to Pedigree dog food. The UK specialist chocolatier retailer said the offer represented a 170% premium to its London share price of 139p and the deal would allow its brand to expand internationally This breaking news story

The chancellor has been called on to freeze business rates and to extend reliefs as business lobbyists warn a failure to do so risks jobs, businesses and the future of the high street. A host of hospitality groups have also asked for an extension of and increase in the retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) business

Manchester United has confirmed its chief executive of two years, Richard Arnold, “has decided to step down” as part of a “management transition”. The development was revealed shortly after Sky News reported that Mr Arnold would be replaced by the club’s general counsel, Patrick Stewart, on an interim basis. The change is taking place as

The chancellor has agreed to address the CBI’s first public event since the business lobbying group was plunged into crisis earlier this year. Sky News has learnt that Jeremy Hunt will be among the keynote speakers at the CBI’s annual conference in London next week, just seven months after declaring that there was “no point”

Roughly 500 jobs are to go at pharma giant Pfizer’s Kent site. The roles are to be cut as Pfizer is discontinuing its pharmaceutical sciences small molecule (PSSM) operations at Sandwich in Kent, the company confirmed to Sky News. It’s part of a company-wide cost-cutting program, Pfizer said. Affected staff were notified on Tuesday morning

House prices have grown in 70 local authorities across Britain despite an overall UK-wide fall, according to the latest analysis from a subsidiary of the UK’s largest mortgage lender. The area with the largest increase was Powys in Wales, which is Wales’s largest and least densely populated county, containing most of Bannau Brycheiniog, formerly known

Royal Mail has been fined £5.6m by the industry regulator for missing targets covering both first and second-class deliveries. Ofcom said that for the 2022-23 financial year – a time when it was hit by 18 days of strikes by frontline workers – Royal Mail’s reported performance results showed that it had only delivered 73.7%

An infrastructure investor owned by Schroders, the fund management behemoth, is in pole position to buy a solar farms operator that received hundreds of millions of pounds from a scandal-hit local authority. Sky News understands that Schroders Greencoat has become the leading contender to acquire Toucan Energy, which collapsed into administration exactly a year ago.