Business

It can feel like all the money is flying straight out of your bank account this month, but payday isn’t quite as far away as you may think. There is also a range of extra benefits available in December which could ease some pressures amid the cost of living crisis. Here are some key money

The cost of antibiotics needed to treat Strep A has skyrocketed – as industry professionals claim prices have been hiked up to take advantage of “unprecedented” demand. Multiple pharmacies have warned they cannot obtain the necessary medications to treat Strep A as a 16th child died in Sussex with a suspected infection on Friday –

Depending on your point of view, Jeremy Hunt’s proposed reform of financial regulations represents a potentially significant boost to the competitiveness of the UK’s financial services sector or a potentially dangerous watering-down of rules put in place to prevent a re-run of the financial crisis. The truth, as ever, is that it is probably somewhere

Santander UK has been fined £107.8m for “repeated money-laundering failures” by the financial conduct watchdog. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) imposed the fine as business banking customers suffered due to “serious and persistent gaps in its anti-money laundering controls”, it said. The millions owed for the lapse come at a discounted rate. Had Santander not

A striking Royal Mail worker has voiced fears up to 25,000 staff could be sacked and new working conditions imposed on those left after the core Christmas season has finished. The man, who usually delivers letters and parcels in the London area and is being identified as ‘Derek’ because he wished to remain anonymous, was

Germany’s biggest fraud case gets underway as the former executives of payments company Wirecard stand trial after a scandal that rocked the German establishment. In a new, bomb-proof court built 5m (16ft) underground to try terror suspects, CEO Markus Braun will appear. He, and two other Wirecard managers, Oliver Bellenhaus and Stephan von Erffa, stand

Motorists should not expect to see a return of supermarkets using cheap fuel to lure in shoppers, an industry source has told Sky News. They spoke out after weeks of criticism from motoring groups and fuel price campaigners that supermarket petrol stations are failing to reflect plunging wholesale fuel prices. Data supplied by the AA

A compensation scheme for postmasters who helped expose the Post Office scandal has been unveiled by the business secretary. Postmasters who were impacted by the Post Office scandal starting from the late 1990s will be compensated under a fought-for scheme to be delivered by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and overseen by

The government has U-turned over its ban on onshore wind by saying turbines could be installed if the projects gain the support of local communities. The Department for Levelling Up has launched a consultation to explore how councils can “demonstrate local support and respond to views of their communities when considering onshore wind development in

A minister has urged the Rail, Maritime and Transport union not to “hold the country to ransom” after it announced days of extra strikes over Christmas in a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions. Calling on the union to cancel the strikes, Nick Gibb, the school minister, said the walkouts are “inconveniencing people up

The UK is already in a recession which is expected to last into next year, according to the UK’s biggest business group.  The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) downgraded its economic growth outlook amid a stormy picture of declining business investment, higher price forecasts, continued high interest rates and worker shortages. The economy is to

Workers across the UK will soon be able to request flexible working from day one on the job, under new plans by the government. Under the legislation making its way through parliament, employees will no longer be required to wait 26 weeks before making a request for flexible working arrangements. Employers will be required to

The RMT has rejected an offer from train operators aimed at preventing strikes over the Christmas period, the union has announced. The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) said its proposed framework would have supported pay increases of up to 8%, covering 2022 and 2023 pay awards, while delivering much-needed reforms. But the RMT, led by secretary

Amazon is planning to resume multimillion dollar advertising on Twitter, according to reports. The move will see Amazon ply about $100m (£81.3m) per year into the platform, now owned by Elon Musk, according to Reuters news agency, citing a tweet from the tech blog Platformer. The tweet by a Platformer reporter said the company’s return

McLaren Group, the supercar manufacturer and Formula One team-owner, is in talks to raise hundreds of millions of pounds in new funding aimed at steering the British-based company into the electric vehicle era. Sky News has learnt that McLaren has opened talks with existing shareholders including the sovereign wealth funds of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia

The number of landlords selling up has risen by nearly 13% in four months, Sky News has learned. The statistics, given to us by the estate agents trade body Propertymark, show an increase from July to October. Why should we care what happens to landlords? In basic terms, if the landlord exodus continues we could

Travellers have been told to brace for more Christmas chaos after road workers announced 12 days of strikes to coincide with rail walkouts. National Highways employees, who operate and maintain roads in England, will take part in a series of staggered strikes from 16 December to 7 January, the PCS union said. “We know our

British Gas is the latest energy supplier to offer its customers up to £100 off their energy bill by cutting down on usage at certain times. The National Grid’s ‘Demand Flexibility Service’ first launched with Octopus Energy on 1 November but is being rolled out by other major suppliers such as Eon and EDF. Amid

Collapsed fashion retailer Joules will live on after Next agreed a £34m cash rescue deal that preserves most of its stores and jobs. Under the deal Next will pick up 100 of its 132 stores and only 133 of 1,600 staff will lose their jobs. The 100 stores now owned by Next are to remain

Union leaders could coordinate industrial action across the NHS this winter to cause “maximum impact”, the head of the GMB has suggested. Andy Prendergast, the GMB national secretary, said health workers have had enough of “public school boys who run the government and simply don’t care” about their pay demands. More than 10,000 ambulance workers