Business

Navantia, the Spanish shipbuilder, is racing to finalise a takeover of the stricken shipyard-owner that built the Titanic amid urgent talks to reshape a major government contract. Sky News has learnt that Navantia is attempting to negotiate more favourable terms for a deal to build three Fleet Solid Support ships (FSS) for the Royal Navy

Restaurant chain TGI Fridays has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US. The bankruptcy protection filing was made by TGI Fridays Inc, a Dallas-based American arm of the casual dining brand, which operates 39 restaurants in the US. It comes after the company faced financial challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic and after a deal

The joint owner of Chelsea Football Club has joined forces with one of his fellow board members to bid for the most valuable team in English cricket’s Hundred competition. Sky News has learnt that Todd Boehly is backing a bid spearheaded by Jonathan Goldstein, a British property entrepreneur, in an offer for a large stake

UK markets stabilised on Friday, offering some reassurance to Rachel Reeves as investors, policy makers and business continued to absorb the scale and implications of her first budget. Thursday saw an unusually large increase in the cost of UK government borrowing in response to the massive package of tax rises and increased borrowing. Yields on

The business secretary will next week hold talks with dozens of private sector bosses as the government contends with a significant corporate backlash to Labour’s first fiscal event in nearly 15 years. Sky News has learnt that executives have been invited to join a conference call on Monday with Jonathan Reynolds, in what will represent

The cost of government borrowing has jumped, while UK stocks and the pound are up, as markets digest the news of billions in borrowing and tax rises announced in the budget. While there was no panic, there had been concern about the scale of borrowing and changes to Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s fiscal rules. At the

The football financier Keith Harris is spearheading a bid to buy a 45% stake in the Premier League football club Crystal Palace in a deal that could be worth close to £200m. Sky News has learnt that Mr Harris is advising a group of businessmen including Zechariah Janjua and Navshir Jaffer on an offer to

The 2024 Autumn Budget in one word? Big. What we got from Rachel Reeves today was, in economic terms, a major departure from economic policy as we’ve known it in this country for the past decade-and-a-half. We got the single biggest increase in taxes in any fiscal event since 1993. The tax burden itself is

Are you richer or poorer? Use our budget calculator to see how you have been affected by Labour’s first budget in more than 14 years, and the first ever from a female chancellor. Rachel Reeves had promised “more pounds in people’s pockets”. Put your details in the table below and find out if that is

The minimum wage for those aged 21 years and over will rise by 6.7% to £12.21 – with pay for those aged 18 to 20 set to go up by 16.3% to £10 an hour. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed the increases ahead of Wednesday’s budget, and they will take effect from April 2025. The

Small businesses have called for the government to “significantly increase” the employment allowance to prevent them from having to shut down following the budget. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to raise national insurance contributions paid by employers – despite promising not to increase the tax “for working people” – to help fill a £40bn black

A second group of Thames Water lenders will this week submit a fully funded £3bn financing package that it will argue is cheaper and more certain than a rival offer endorsed by the company last week. Sky News has learnt that the water utility’s Class B bondholders – which are reported to include Aviva, BlackRock

Rent has remained unaffordable in England, having been so since records began, the latest official figures show. The typical private sector renter, on a typical wage in England, paid a figure deemed to be unaffordable by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Renters on a median income – the midpoint between the highest and lowest

The Labour government’s first budget will embrace the “harsh light of fiscal reality” but “better days are ahead”, Sir Keir Starmer will say in a speech on Monday. Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver the budget on Wednesday and setting the tone for the announcement, the prime minister will warn of “unprecedented” economic circumstances and the

A former chair of one of Britain’s biggest auditors is to step down as chairman of Interpath, the independent advisory firm, because of a potential conflict of interest involving its private equity backer’s choice of auditor. Sky News has learnt that Interpath, which has been engaged by billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe on his cost-cutting campaign

Britain’s biggest energy retailers have told ministers that they will provide more than £500m of extra help for households as the government tries to deflect criticism over the winter fuel payments row. Sky News has learnt that EnergyUK, the industry body, is planning to make a joint announcement with the Department for Energy Security and

The Premier League is drawing up plans to present its clubs with fresh proposals for a financial settlement with the English Football League (EFL) as soon as next month. Sky News has learnt that a meeting of the top flight’s shareholders on November 22 is expected to include a discussion on a range of new

The amount employers pay in national insurance is set to rise in next week’s budget to raise money for public services, Sky News understands. Reports have suggested it could be increased by up to two percentage points and will – in part – be used to help fund the NHS. A government source told Sky

Mitie Group, the London-listed outsourcer, has kicked off a search for a successor to Derek Mapp, its long-serving chairman. Sky News has learnt that the FTSE-250 company is working with the search firm MWM Consulting on a hunt for Mr Mapp’s replacement. Potential candidates have started being sounded out in the last few weeks, according

The chancellor will need to spend an extra £20bn by the end of the parliament to maintain public investment at its present levels. Rachel Reeves has promised to unveil a “budget for investment” next week, while reversing the “years of underinvestment” overseen by the previous Conservative government. However, this would involve taking on billions of

Frasers Group, the owner of Sports Direct, House of Fraser and Flannels, has written to Boohoo ordering it to sack its chief executive and appoint Frasers founder Mike Ashley instead. Boohoo, the online fast fashion retailer, had ignored a private Frasers request to install Mr Ashley, according to an open letter from Frasers Group to

The owner of fashion chains Whistles and Phase Eight is in advanced talks to buy White Stuff, another prominent high street clothing retailer. Sky News has learnt that The Foschini Group (TFG), the South African-based retailer, is close to concluding a deal to acquire White Stuff and invest in its future expansion. Sources said a

Folkestone has been drawing in crowds in recent years with regeneration and private developments transforming parts of this port town on the Kent coast. But many residents will tell you that the fabric of this community is being torn apart. Local services are deteriorating and have been for some time. Leisure centres have shut down

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has upgraded its projection for UK growth this year by 0.4% to 1.1% – the largest upward revision for any advanced economy. In a boost to Chancellor Rachel Reeves as she prepares to travel to Washington for the IMF’s annual meeting this week, its latest world economic outlook predicts strengthening

A new commission is to investigate Britain’s troubled water industry in a bid to tackle sewage pollution, “broken” infrastructure, and toughen up weak regulators. The new Independent Water Commission will deliver the “largest review of the sector since privatisation”, the UK and Welsh governments said as they unveiled the plans. Campaigners have warned against trade-offs

Government borrowing is at its highest since the pandemic due to public sector pay rises and the high cost of borrowing, official figures show. Last month had the third highest September borrowing on record, coming only behind 2020 and 2021, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). While more money came in

The prospects of a rescue deal being struck for a British hypersonic aviation pioneer appeared to recede this weekend when it emerged that talks with a Gulf-based state fund had stalled. Sky News has learnt that negotiations between Reaction Engines and the UAE’s Strategic Development Fund, the investment arm of the UAE’s Tawazun Council, about

Ministers will oversee the HS2 project as the cost of delivering the high-speed train line has been allowed to “spiral out of control”, the transport secretary has said. Louise Haigh announced on Sunday she has launched an independent review into how costs have been allowed to balloon “without sufficient explanation”. The transport secretary and her

Ministers are exploring plans to hand ownership of the Post Office to thousands of sub-postmasters across Britain in an historic shake-up at the 364 year-old institution. Sky News has learnt that the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has asked BCG, the management consultancy, to examine options for mutualising the Post Office. The work is

Tony Danker, the former director-general of the CBI, is to receive in the region of £500,000 from the business lobbying group in a settlement reached nearly a year after he was ousted in the midst of a wider sexual misconduct scandal. Sky News has learnt that Mr Danker, who left the organisation in April 2023,

The founder of BrewDog has claimed that entrepreneurs will abandon Britain if capital gains tax is increased. James Watt, the founder of the brewery and pub chain, told Sky News that a significant rise in the tax “will do far more damage to our economy” and deal a hammer blow to the prosperity of every

Overhauling workers’ rights could cost businesses around £5bn a year, the government has said. The Employment Rights Bill, which aims to tackle low pay and poor working conditions, is being debated by MPs today as it passes through its next stage in parliament. Within the bill are a series of reforms branded the biggest overhaul

Baillie Gifford, the Edinburgh-based fund manager, has told staff to return to full-time office working, the latest in a string of employers to cool on pandemic era remote working practices. Sky News understands that Baillie Gifford’s roughly-1,800 employees were notified in a video call several weeks ago that they were expected to attend its offices