Business

Banks will be forced to give customers three months’ notice of account closures and to provide a full explanation of the reasons under reforms that could be unveiled in the coming days. Sky News has learnt that the Treasury plans to force British lenders to be more transparent with customers amid an escalating freedom of

The rate of price rises has dropped to 7.9% in the year up to June, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The consumer price index (CPI) measure of inflation shows prices are still rising, just at a slower pace than before, as the rate fell from 8.7% in the year to May. Another

A decision by Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) to invest in electric vehicle battery production in the UK is “very welcome”, a Labour MP has said. Darren Jones, chair of the cross-party Business and Trade Committee, was responding to reports that Tata will establish a battery gigafactory in Somerset for its JLR operation, potentially creating thousands

Supermarket deals have helped grocery price inflation ease for a fourth consecutive month. Closely watched data from Kantar Worldpanel, which tracks supermarket sales and prices, charted the steepest decline in checkout costs during the four weeks to 9 July since grocery inflation peaked in March. Its inflation measure fell by 1.6 percentage points to 14.9%

Music tourism generated £6.6bn of spending in the UK in 2022, attracting more than 14 million international and domestic tourists to live events, a report has found. Figures show a resurgence for the live music industry in the first full year of festivals, gigs and concerts following the suspension of events during the COVID pandemic.

Train drivers will refuse to work overtime for a week – threatening disruption to services at the height of the summer holidays. The action – part of a long-running dispute over pay – will begin from 31 July, the ASLEF union announced on Monday. It will affect services across 15 train operating companies, and marks

Gresham House, a London-listed asset manager which invests in sectors including forestry and battery storage, is in talks about a private equity takeover. Sky News has learnt that Searchlight Capital, a US-based buyout firm, is targeting a take-private of the alternative investment manager, which is run by chief executive Tony Dalwood. If completed, the deal

The government has signed an agreement to join an Indo-Pacific trading bloc, although the estimated benefit could only be £1.8bn in GDP. In announcing the formal plans to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Rishi Sunak administration highlighted the £12trn value of the combined GDPs of all the member nations if

Kemi Badenoch has signed off UK membership to a major Indo-Pacific trade bloc. The business and trade secretary signed the accession protocol to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in New Zealand on Sunday. The move brings British businesses a step closer to being able to sell to a market of half

The government is poised to shelve plans to crack down on Britain’s fast-growing ‘buy now pay later’ (BNPL) industry amid Whitehall concerns that it could curb the availability of low-interest products. Sky News has learnt that Treasury officials have been told during recent talks with the industry that a number of its biggest players could

Young adults and renters are some of the groups of people worst hit by rising prices as official figures show around 1 in 20 said they’d run out of food in the past 2 weeks and couldn’t afford more. Those aged 25 to 34 were at greater risk of financial vulnerability than those over the

Almost 1,000 workers at Gatwick Airport, including baggage handlers and check-in staff, will stage eight days of strikes from later this month. Staff will strike in a dispute over pay, the union Unite announced, at the start of the school summer holidays. Significant disruption, delays and cancellations are “inevitable”, the union said. The workers will

The UK’s national debt could hit 300% of GDP by the 2070s because of the string of major challenges still facing national governments after a “rapid succession of shocks”, according to a report for the Treasury. The independent Office for Budget Responsibility laid out how climate change, defence and the fact people were living longer

The economy contracted in May as the additional public holiday for the King’s coronation weighed on output, according to official figures. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed negative growth of 0.1% during the month, better than economists had predicted but continuing the yo-yo pattern seen throughout the last year that has left

Billions of pounds allocated to tackle Britain’s housing crisis has been returned to the Treasury because the housing department was unable to find projects to fund. Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) was unable to find projects for the £1.9bn of funding budgeted

The Bank of England says it expects the proportion of income UK households spend on mortgage payments to remain below levels seen during the financial crisis. Its latest Financial Stability Report declared that squeezed households were proving resilient in the face of challenges posed by rising living costs and interest rate hikes to tackle high

A new economic organisation, set up by Liz Truss, will launch on Wednesday, with a report claiming the average British person is £10,000 worse off than people in the US. The Growth Commission, made up of economists brought together by the former prime minister, said its work would focus on highlighting the issue of low

The pace of wage growth, already described as “unsustainable” by the governor of the Bank of England, has ticked up further, according to shock official figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported average weekly earnings excluding bonuses hit an annual rate of 7.3% during the three months to May. That matched the highest level

The Bank of England is reiterating its forecast that inflation will fall over the rest of the year, with governor Andrew Bailey saying it will fall “markedly”. The rate of price increases will come down due to lower energy costs, which should result in falling food bills for shoppers, Mr Bailey’s Mansion House speech is

EasyJet has revealed the cancellation of 1,700 flights during the peak summer holiday season. The low cost airline indicated that, like many rivals, it had been forced to act in response to the impact of air traffic control (ATC) strikes in Europe and knock-on effects of the closure of airspace due to the Russia-Ukraine war.