Business

Water company bosses could face up to two years in prison and be banned from taking bonuses under the new government’s first major proposals to crack down on England’s sewage, chemical and manure infested waterways. The new Water (Special Measures) Bill is designed to beef up feeble regulators so they can take on water companies

Senior business leaders have welcomed discussions with Angela Rayner over proposals to improve workers’ rights as “positive”, but warned the “devil will be in the detail” of legislation due to be put before Parliament next month. The deputy prime minister and business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, met the bosses of major employers including John Lewis, Octopus,

Bidders for The Daily Telegraph and its Sunday sister title are this week holding their first direct talks with the newspaper group’s bosses ahead of a deadline for formal bids later this month. Sky News has learnt that the remaining bidders for the right-leaning newspapers are participating in management presentations as they seek to finalise

American tech giant Hewlett Packard has said it is to continue with legal proceedings “through to their conclusion” to seek up to £3bn in damages from late British billionaire Mike Lynch’s estate in the UK. The company had been seeking compensation over its acquisition of British tech firm Autonomy amid claims of fraud masterminded by

The Reform Party leader Nigel Farage will this week embark on a renewed drive to raise millions of pounds to “professionalise” its operations two months after it won five seats at the general election. Sky News understands that Mr Farage will attend a fundraising event hosted by Holly Candy, the former Neighbours actress, on Wednesday

Shares in Rightmove, the online property portal, have risen sharply on confirmation of bid interest from an Australian rival majority-owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. REA Group said early on Monday that it was considering a takeover proposal to create a globally-focused real estate company. Any bid would likely comprise a cash and shares offer.

Labour is facing a drop off in confidence among business leaders amid plans for tax rises and improvements to workers’ rights, according to a survey. The Institute of Directors (IoD) had noted a leap in optimism in July among its membership as the new government came to power. But its latest economic confidence index showed

The government has promised to look into dynamic ticket pricing, after the cost of tickets for the Oasis reunion tour more than doubled while on sale. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy described the selling of inflated Oasis tickets as “incredibly depressing” as she said surge pricing would be included in a government review of the secondary

A full-fibre broadband builder is accelerating its search for merger partners amid growing financial strains on some of the industry’s smaller players. Sky News understands that Zzoomm, which is backed by the giant US-based investor Oaktree Capital Management, has drafted in Acuity Advisors, a specialist technology firm, to identify prospective deals. Zzoomm operates in nearly

The economy could have crashed had the government not found savings by cutting winter fuel payments for pensioners, a minister has said. Lucy Powell told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that the loss of the benefit, which will now be means tested, was necessary because of a “£22bn blackhole” left behind by the Conservatives. Politics

A British hypersonic aviation campaign which has been hailed as a successor to Concorde is this weekend racing to avert collapse. Sky News has learnt that Reaction Engines has lined up PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the accountancy firm, to act as administrator if its quest to secure new funding is unsuccessful. The company is understood to be

GE, one of the world’s best-known conglomerates has swooped to buy a British climate technology start-up in its quest to reduce the aviation industry’s environmental impact. Sky News has learnt that GE Aerospace has struck a deal to buy Satavia, a Cambridge-based company which helps to mitigate the warming effect of aircraft contrail clouds. Founded

The government’s plan to ban smoking in pub gardens and other outdoor venues is a “sensible approach” to help people stop, a minister has said. Sir Keir Starmer confirmed leaked reports on Thursday his government is considering the smoking ban, which would also include outdoor restaurants and outside sports venues, hospitals, nightclubs, and in some

A director of Marks & Spencer Group (M&S) is quitting the retailer’s board after being blindsided about the poaching of its new finance chief from another company he chairs. Sky News has learnt that Andrew Fisher, a long-serving M&S non-executive director, only discovered late in the recruitment process that M&S intended to hire Alison Dolan

Manchester City – a Premier League club with deep pockets thanks to its Abu Dhabi owners – is taking the league to court. It’s over the current Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules which determine whether sponsorship deals are financially ‘fair’ and require independent valuation for such deals. The rules aim to prevent clubs from inflating

The next government is being urged to do more to help drive the transition to electric vehicles as private sales of new pure battery models go into reverse. According to data covering May released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), there was a 2% dip in UK sales of new battery electric

Before we get on to any of the numbers – from Rishi Sunak’s claim about Labour raising taxes by £2,000 to the more outlandish numbers going around today – here’s the most important thing you have to know right now. The parties fighting this election have yet to publish their manifestos. Election latest:Starmer wins another

Since 1992 the Premier League has been funnelling previously unimagined wealth to the elite players, coaches and clubs of English football.  For almost as long as it has existed, however, those running the league have battled to maintain the commercial and competitive balance on which its success is based. Competition is its essence, predictability a

A former senior executive at the Post Office was told by auditors the Horizon IT system was “a real risk”, four years before sub-postmaster prosecutions stopped. Post Office’s auditors Ernst and Young (now called EY) warned Alice Perkins, the company chair in 2011, that the accountancy software “is a real risk” and asked, “does it

Manchester City are taking legal action against the Premier League over its financial rules. The legal challenge, in the form of arbitration, will be heard on Monday, according to The Times. Sky News reported in February the competition was facing legal battles and had been warned by a club that changes to rules governing commercial

If, as expected, the European Central Bank (ECB) cuts its main policy rate on Thursday it will be a hugely significant moment. At a very basic level, the cut – the ECB is expected to trim its deposit rate from 4% to 3.75% – should benefit millions of households and businesses across the eurozone, who

The commitments offered by the Czech tycoon seeking to buy Royal Mail’s parent firm do not go far enough, according to the union leader representing its 112,000 UK frontline workers. Communication Workers Union (CWU) general secretary Dave Ward made his remarks following talks with representatives of Daniel Kretinsky’s EP Group. International Distribution Services (IDS) revealed

Ofgem has launched a discussion on the energy price cap, floating options such as a cap based on things such as vulnerability and when energy is used. The price cap was introduced in January 2019 to prevent people on variable tariffs being ripped off. Initially it was changed a couple of times a year but

The owner’s of Gail’s, the chain of bakeries and coffee shops, are preparing to hire advisers for a sale that would value it at well over the £200m price tag at which it changed hands nearly three years ago. Sky News understands that Bain Capital Credit and EBITDA Investments, a fund backed by serial restaurant

Nadhim Zahawi, the former chancellor, is in talks about chairing the biggest remaining part of the Barclay family’s business empire, fuelling speculation that he will join a mass exodus of Conservative MPs at the general election. Sky News has learnt that Mr Zahawi, the MP for Stratford-on-Avon since 2010, is among the candidates to become

The owners of The Daily Telegraph have been dealt a fresh blow after the collapse of the parent company behind Arrow XL, a UK-wide delivery business. Sky News has learnt that Logistics Group Limited, which until recently also owned Yodel, fell into administration earlier on Friday. The decision is understood to have been orchestrated by

JD Wetherspoon hopes to soon open its 1,000th pub in the UK after reporting another leap in profits. The chain currently has more than 800 branches but says its “best estimate” is the potential for around 200 more in the coming years. It comes as the pub giant revealed that its pre-tax profits soared to

Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund has completed a deal to take full ownership of McLaren Group, one of the most revered names in British manufacturing, after years of negotiations to put the company on a stable long-term footing. Sky News understands that McLaren will announce later on Friday that the recapitalisation of the supercar manufacturer and

A new £24m border control post may have to be demolished because repeated changes to post-Brexit border arrangements have left it commercially unviable. The facility at Portsmouth International Port is due to begin physical checks on food and plant imports from the EU at the end of next month, but changes to border protocols since

Next, the clothing to homewares retailer, is anticipating a “small reduction” in selling prices this year due to falls in the cost of goods. The company said it was anticipating some relief for hard-pressed shoppers despite a £60m hit from rising wage bills. It made the prediction while revealing a 5% rise in pre-tax profits

The Bank of England has held interest rates at 5.25% for a fifth consecutive time, but says the prospects for a cut are now “moving in the right direction”. The nine-member rate-setting committee continued to collectively judge it was too early to contemplate a downwards move, despite further progress in taming inflation revealed earlier this

Often when we talk about statistics like inflation they have a tendency to sound rather dry and boring. After all, data is an abstraction, an aggregation of numbers which often seems quite disconnected with our everyday lives. But prices are ultimately an incredibly important way of measuring what’s going on in the economy. They are

The rate of inflation slowed sharply to an annual rate of 3.4% in February, according to official figures. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed an easing from the 4% rate recorded the previous month. It marks further progress in the battle against energy-led price growth that followed Russia’s war in Ukraine and