Business

Households will pay less for their gas and electricity from today but bills will still be almost double what they were before the energy crisis. The average household energy bill will fall by £426 a year from 1 July after Ofgem dropped its price cap following tumbling wholesale prices. People had been advised to submit

Apple has entered the history books as the first public company to be valued at $3trn. The 47-year-old technology juggernaut, co-founded by Silicon Valley legend, the late Steve Jobs in 1966, officially closed up 2.3% at $193.97 per share at the end of trading on Friday. This brought its market value to $3.04trn – equivalent

A firm in Iceland is pioneering cutting-edge technology that turns CO2 into stone – promising a boost to the global fight against climate change and its devastating consequences. Carbfix takes the greenhouse emissions from industrial plants and dissolves them in water, which is then injected deep underground into porous rock formations such as volcanic basalt,

Rising mortgage rates have yet to hit the housing market but threaten to be a “significant drag” in the short-term, Nationwide has said. However, the high street lender said “a relatively soft landing is still possible” against a backdrop of income growth and modest falls in property prices. The building society also said while typical

An estimated 15.7 million people in the UK experienced postal delays last month, according to new research commissioned by the charity, Citizens Advice. Many of those who experienced delays said they had suffered knock-on impacts, such as missing health appointments, fines or bills. One woman said at least four of her hospital appointment letters were

UK households withdrew a record amount from their savings last month and were more cautious with credit card spending, according to Bank of England data highlighting the extent of the squeeze on consumers. The smallest net increase in monthly unsecured lending this year, at £1.1bn, was recorded by the bank in May. A figure closer

The governor of the Bank of England, which has raised interest rates to a 15-year high, has said the UK labour market and not Brexit is to blame for stubbornly high inflation. Andrew Bailey said the tight jobs market – with near-record low unemployment, more than a million jobs vacancies and wage growth of 7.2%

The National Grid Electricity Systems Operator (ESO) has confirmed it will have no coal-fired power as back-up this winter, if needed, to help keep the lights on. There were five contingency units to call on last winter as the energy market reeled from the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine. They were warmed up several

The government has begun drawing up contingency plans for the collapse of Thames Water amid growing doubts in Whitehall about the ability of Britain’s biggest water company to service its £14bn debt-pile. Sky News has learnt that ministers and Ofwat, the industry regulator, have started to hold discussions about the possibility of placing Thames Water

Executives from the country’s biggest supermarket chains have defended their grocery prices but backed the idea of greater fuel transparency over claims customers are paying over the odds for both. The business and trade committee of MPs heard representatives of Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons deny any suggestion of food profiteering on their part as

The chancellor has told banks “in no uncertain terms” they must pass on higher interest rates to savers. Jeremy Hunt faced pressure from both Labour and his own Conservative backbenchers on the matter during a statement about support to mortgage holders agreed on Friday. Labour’s Dame Angela Eagle – a Treasury minister under Gordon Brown

The chancellor is urging a focus on rip-off charges ahead of a meeting with UK regulators this week, as stubborn inflation threatens the government’s target of halving inflation this year. Jeremy Hunt is to meet bodies with oversight of key industries such as food and energy in the week after the shock Bank of England

A Treasury minister has refused to commit to public sector pay rises, arguing it would be “irresponsible” not to take into account the impact on persistently high inflation. Speaking to Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme, John Glen signalled the government could reject recommendations by the independent review bodies in the face of concerns

Braemar, the London-listed shipbroker, faces being plunged into crisis as a delay to the publication of its full-year accounts threatens to trigger the suspension of its shares. Sky News has learnt that Braemar, which has a market capitalisation of approximately £92m, is likely to tell investors within days that it will be unable to meet

A logistics technology business run by a 29-year-old entrepreneur has swooped on parts of Tuffnells Parcel Express, the prominent delivery company which collapsed this month with the loss of more than 2,000 jobs. Sky News has learnt that Shift, which was founded by Jacob Corlett, has struck a deal with administrators at Interpath Advisory to

Security staff at Heathrow Airport have called off all strikes having voted in favour of a pay deal. Members of the Unite union had been due to walk out nearly every weekend from mid-June until the end of August but paused their planned action on Saturday and Sunday to vote on a new proposal from

Mortgage lenders and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt have agreed that people should be given a 12-month break before repossession proceedings start amid soaring interest rates. After the rise of the base rate to 5%, Mr Hunt met with leaders of financial institutions including Lloyds, NatWest, Barclays and Virgin Money. They agreed that the repossession break should

Average fixed mortgage rates are largely unchanged following the Bank of England’s shock announcement of a 5% base interest rate, according to a financial information company. There has been no change to the average mortgage rate for a two-year fixed deal, Moneyfacts data showed. The rate has remained at 6.19%, the same as the day

A rail union has revealed three fresh strike dates in July as part of a continuing fight for better pay. The RMT said its 20,000 members working across 14 train operating companies would walk out on 20, 22 and 29 July. The Open Championship is taking place at Royal Liverpool from 16-23 July, while fans

Blimey. The Bank of England was always going to increase its Bank rate this month. But every economist had expected only a quarter percentage point increase. There was good reason for this. Although inflation data had been higher than expected this week, the bank had been slowing down the rate at which it was lifting

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is selling its stake in McLaren, the supercar maker and Formula One team-owner, in a deal that will reinforce Bahrain’s status as the company’s biggest shareholder. Sky News has learnt that Mumtalakat, Bahrain’s state investment fund, will announce on Thursday that it is buying the preference shares in McLaren Group

The rate of price rises has remained 8.7% despite expectations of a fall, according to official figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced the consumer price index measure of inflation stood at 8.7% in the year up to May, the same as the rate in April. A slight decrease, to 8.4%, had been expected

The chancellor has ruled out mortgage bill support for fear it would increase inflation. Answering questions in the House of Commons, Jeremy Hunt told MPs that “schemes which involve injecting large amounts of cash into the economy, right now will be inflationary”. Despite expressing sympathy for people with higher mortgage costs he said, “we won’t

The pace of grocery inflation has eased to its slowest monthly rate this year, according to industry data that backs hopes the worst may be over. Kantar Worldpanel, which tracks supermarket sales and prices, reported a rate of 16.5% over the four weeks to 11 June. That was down from the 17.2% figure revealed a

It’s too early to talk about job losses, as part of a deal that would create the UK’s biggest mobile phone operator, the Vodafone UK chief executive exclusively told Sky’s Ian King Live programme. “Some roles” might be impacted by the merger with Three, Ahmed Essam said, in his first interview since the deal was

Thousands of jobs could be created in Scotland under a Labour proposal to create a publicly-owned clean energy company with its headquarters north of the border, the leader of the opposition has said. Sir Keir Starmer set out his proposal to launch Great British Energy (GBN) during his party conference speech in Liverpool last year

A robotics start-up in which the online grocer Ocado is a sizeable shareholder is this weekend on the brink of collapse. Sky News has learnt that Karakuri, which developed technology capable of assembling ready-meals for food industry clients, is on the brink of filing a notice of intention to appoint administrators. City sources said that

Former Tesco chairman John Allan – who was forced to step down after misconduct allegations were made against him – has insisted he is “completely innocent”. In his first broadcast interview since the controversy erupted with Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme, the 74-year-old said there was “absolutely no substance” in the claims about

The bosses of Britain’s biggest banks have told Rishi Sunak that technology companies must contribute to the cost of an online fraud “pandemic” that is undermining international investor confidence in the UK economy. Sky News has obtained a letter to the prime minister signed by the chief executives of nine lenders, including Barclays, NatWest and

Annual mortgage repayments are set to rise by £2,900 for the average household remortgaging next year, according to a think tank. As the UK’s “mortgage crunch” deepens, total annual mortgage repayments could rise by £15.8bn by 2026, the Resolution Foundation said. Prolonged inflation has raised expectations that the Bank of England’s base rate-rising cycle, which

Tesco has reported “encouraging early signs” that grocery inflation is starting to ease while revealing a leap in sales. The UK’s largest retailer said there was a slowdown in price growth across the market and it was continuing to focus on value for its customers. The company updated on its performance as the food sector

Millions of people were left waiting too long for energy support due to a lack of government “bandwidth”, according to a report from the cross-party Public Accounts Committee. More than a million households became eligible for support too late, while a further two million homes using prepayment meters have yet to redeem their £400 voucher,