Business

Hundreds of high street jobs are at risk after Ted Baker’s British operations veered to the brink of administration. Sky News has learnt that No Ordinary Designer Label, which trades under the Ted Baker brand, filed a notice of intention to appoint Teneo Financial Advisory as administrators on Tuesday. The move is expected to result

Britain’s biggest high street lenders have pledged to upgrade dozens of shared banking hubs and commit to more than 100 new locations amid a growing political row over access to cash. Sky News has learnt that Bim Afolami, the City minister, convened a group of industry stakeholders and MPs on Monday to discuss urgent improvements

Britain’s car industry has insisted that an unprecedented 2,000% increase in vehicle exports to Azerbaijan has nothing to with Russia and is explained by the fact that the former Soviet state is a “flourishing market in its own right”. Sky analysis has found that the British car sector sent another £40m worth of cars to

Every household must be engaged by the government in the shift to clean heating as uptake of heat pumps to replace boilers is running at less than half of expected levels, the public spending watchdog has warned. A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) described assumptions on consumer demand for heat pumps, which use

Naked Wines, the London-listed online wine retailer, has drafted in debt advisers to explore refinancing options amid tough trading conditions. Sky News understands that Naked Wines has hired Interpath Advisory to work with it after seeing investor confidence in the company drain away in recent months. Shares in Naked Wines have slumped by almost a

Marks & Spencer (M&S) is nearing a deal with one of Britain’s biggest high street lenders to overhaul its banking arm as a financial services and loyalty ‘superapp’. Sky News has learnt that M&S and HSBC, whose UK arm owns M&S Bank, are close to announcing a new long-term relationship agreement that will pave the

Sainsbury’s has said it is suffering “technical issues affecting some stores” – impacting its ability to fulfil the “vast majority” of online deliveries today. The supermarket chain said it was “experiencing technical issues affecting some stores, our Groceries Online service and our ability to contact customers”. “Unfortunately, we will not be able to fulfil the

A group of lenders to Thames Water’s parent company have engaged advisers weeks before a £190m debt held by Britain’s biggest water utility falls due. Sky News has learnt that a syndicate of financiers which is owed the sum by Kemble Water, under which Thames’s regulated operations sit, has drafted in the big four accountancy

Bitcoin has suffered a sharp pullback from record highs. The world’s biggest cryptocurrency fell to $66,885 in the early hours of Friday – down 9%. Only yesterday, the digital asset had been touching an unprecedented price of $74,000. Image: Bitcoin’s price over the past week. Pic: CoinGecko It is difficult to pinpoint a single reason

McDonald’s customers say they have been turned away from restaurants around the world, including in the UK, after the fast food chain was hit by major IT problems. British diners have complained about restaurants being shut, despite many being able to place orders through the company’s app. McDonald’s Japan has halted all operations at most

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

The chancellor is unveiling the budget for 2024. Here are the key points so far: Budget 2024: Live updates Money blog: What budget means for you This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version. You can receive Breaking News alerts on

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