Business

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

The minister responsible for the UK’s sanctions against Russia has told UK carmakers to check their supply chains after Sky News analysis suggested luxury models were finding their way to Moscow showrooms via ex-Soviet states. Foreign Office minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan told a committee of MPs the report was a prime example of the “whack a

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

British Land, the London-listed property giant behind some of Britain’s most prominent commercial real estate assets, will this week name a City banking veteran as its next chairman. Sky News has learnt that the company, which owns Broadgate in the City of London and Sheffield’s Meadowhall shopping centre, has lined up William Rucker to replace

Scrapping the non-dom tax status for wealthy foreign nationals is “an utter humiliation for this government”, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has said. “The last budget of this parliament – they’ve had 14 years and they use this moment to close a non-dom tax loophole that everyone has been aware of for years,” Ms Reeves told

Premier League bosses are this weekend scrambling to finalise a landmark £836m financial settlement just days before the publication of legislation to establish English football’s first statutory regulator. Sky News has learnt that the 20 top-flight clubs, which include Aston Villa, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur, will on Monday be asked to approve a revised version

Plans to impose targets for electric heat pump sales on gas boiler manufacturers could be confirmed as early as next week, after fierce debate within government and intense lobbying from industry to abandon the policy. Sky News understands energy secretary Claire Coutinho had intended to ditch the policy, known as the Clean Heat Market Mechanism

The owners of Riviera Travel, one of Britain’s biggest providers of escorted foreign tours for the over-55s, have hired bankers to prepare a sale of the company. Sky News understands that Silverfleet Capital, which has owned Riviera since 2017, has hired Baird, the investment bank, to oversee an auction later this year. Riviera runs river

A minister has admitted that the government’s desire to scrap national insurance could take “several parliaments” to achieve as confusion over the policy mounts. In his budget earlier this week, Jeremy Hunt slashed national insurance by 2p and said the government intended to scrap payments entirely, branding them “unfair” and a “double taxation” on work.

An influential committee of MPs has called on the government to legally mandate the inclusion of pay scales in job adverts and ban hirers from asking for employment history as efforts to tackle sexism in the City of London “are moving at a snail’s pace”. A litany of failings, including the “shocking” extent of misogyny,

Nationwide Building Society has agreed terms for a takeover of Virgin Money in a £2.9bn deal that would create a larger rival to the UK’s major lenders. While nothing has been finalised, the offer on the table would see the two brands continue to be run as separate entities, with the Virgin Money brand retained

The Post Office should be removed from involvement in the Horizon scandal compensation processes, a committee of MPs has demanded while piling further pressure on its chief executive. The Business and Trade Committee published recommendations for delivering faster and fuller payments to the hundreds of victims, describing efforts to deliver redress to date as an

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Young drivers with automatic-only licences face paying £760 more for car insurance than those who can also drive a manual vehicle, according to new figures. In what is described as a “concerning” rise, figures from comparison site Compare the Market show motorists under 25 with automatic licences now pay £2,803 on average. That is a

Rachel Reeves is winning a sizeable minority of former Conservative backers despite nagging worries about Labour overspending if they get into power, Sky News Voters Panel has revealed. The Voters Panel, a two-week online community run by YouGov, who backed Boris Johnson’s Conservatives in 2019, has been asked to explain their preference for either Tory

The chief executive of Marks & Spencer (M&S) has described operating under the current government as “like running up a downwards escalator with a rucksack on your back”. Writing on his LinkedIn account, Stuart Machin appealed to the chancellor to take three steps to help the retail sector in Wednesday’s budget, describing planned increases to

The independent directors appointed to oversee the sale of The Daily Telegraph have been warned that the removal of the newspaper’s two most senior executives breached a government order – and that any subsequent transgression could result in a multimillion pound fine. Sky News has learnt that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)

British Land, Microsoft and Vodafone are among the backers of a new business coalition that will launch this week with the aim of tackling the UK’s perennially weak productivity. Sky News understands that the trio, along with Churchill Retirement Living, NHBC and Pension Insurance Corporation, are among the founding members of the Building Back Britain

Britain’s biggest banks have been placed on alert over hundreds of ‘rogue’ filings which appear to have been lodged at Companies House, the UK’s central corporate register. Sky News has obtained a note issued by UK Finance, the banking trade association, which warned its members that approximately 800 forms relating to the discharging of financial

The Post Office should be “handed over” to postmasters, its former chairman has said, accusing the government of using it as a “fig leaf” for stalling and evasion. In a letter seen exclusively by Sky News, Henry Staunton told the business and trade committee the government has “consistently hidden behind the Post Office’s skirts, spinning

The long-standing owner of the Moto GP global motor-racing series is in advanced talks to sell the business for more than £3bn. Sky News has learnt that Bridgepoint, which is the biggest shareholder in Moto GP’s parent company, Dorna Sports, is seeking a valuation of up to €4bn (£3.4bn) in its negotiations with prospective buyers.

Elon Musk, the multi-billionaire owner of Tesla and X, is suing artificial intelligence company OpenAI, accusing the firm of prioritising profit over developing AI for the public good. Mr Musk is bringing the suit against OpenAI, which he co-founded, and its chief executive, Sam Altman, for breaching a contract by reneging on its pledge to

The UK car industry has pleaded with the chancellor to help get the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) back on track when he delivers his budget next week, accusing the government of creating an own goal. The Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said it was clear that the decision to delay the ban

Post Office Limited (POL) “intended to pervert the course of justice” by relying on knowingly flawed cash accounts, an inquiry submission filed today alleged. Sir Edward Henry KC, who represents former sub-postmasters Lee Castleton and Seema Misra, among others, in the Post Office scandal, made the remarks in a closing statement for the Horizon inquiry.

The Home Office immigration system statistics for 2023 tell a different story to the one that dominates the political discourse. While government commentary and policy has focused on illegal migration via small boats, the largest driver of rising immigration is people coming to work, primarily in a health and care sector that would not function

Vape ads across social media platforms “need to stop” and advertisers pleading ignorance is not an excuse, the advertising regulator has warned. The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) – which regulates non-broadcast adverts – launched a crackdown on e-cigarette advertisers, warning the law prohibits them from marketing vapes containing nicotine that are not licensed as

Labour will inherit the worst economic situation of any incoming government since the Second World War, Rachel Reeves warned today, accusing the Conservative Party of “burning the house down” during its time in government. Talking in the run-up to next week’s budget, the shadow chancellor said that while George Osborne had promised to “fix the

You might not trust the Post Office with your parcels but one thing it seems the disgraced organisation can still deliver is drama. After ITV’s Mr Bates vs The Post Office did what a decade of investigative journalism could not – and made the public and politicians give a damn about wrongly convicted postmasters –

MPs have raised concerns over the treatment of small businesses by major banks after figures showed more than 140,000 accounts were shut down by lenders over the past year. As part of an inquiry into access to finance, the Treasury Committee gathered information from eight banks, including the so-called big four, on how many business