Business

Inflation has eased slightly to 10.1% from 10.5% the previous month as fuel price rises slowed. Decreased transport costs were one of the main drivers of the lower inflation rate, along with restaurants and hotels, as prices dropped in cafés and restaurants from the December Christmas period to January. Cost of living – latest: Semi-skimmed

Ford has announced 1,300 jobs are being cut from its UK business as part of a Europe-wide overhaul of the carmaker. The majority of the UK losses will be at the Ford site in Dunton, Essex – its UK headquarters and technical centre. Up to 1,000 jobs are to be axed at the location with

A union representing hundreds of workers at an Amazon warehouse has revealed plans for seven more strike days. The GMB union said its members in Coventry would now take further industrial action on 28 February, 2 March and between 13-17 March. It marked an escalation in their pay fight, which began with a 24-hour strike

The number of people that passed through the UK’s busiest airport returned to pre-pandemic levels last month. Heathrow reported 5.4 million people travelled through it in January, making it the busiest start to a year since 2020, before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. The vast majority of the travellers – 1.6 million – were from

The crisis engulfing MJ Hudson, the stricken asset management services provider, will deepen on Monday when it discloses that its auditor has resigned. Sky News has learnt that the London-listed company will announce that EY has quit less than 18 months after being appointed. The timing of EY’s resignation, coming so soon after its appointment,

Castore, the British sportswear brand backed by Sir Andy Murray, is in talks with investors about a $200m fundraising as it intensifies its battle with global rivals Adidas and Nike. Sky News has learnt that the Manchester-based business, which was founded by Liverpudlian brothers Phil and Tom Beahon, is working with bankers on plans to

Wilfred Frost stands in for Ian King this week and discusses the UK avoiding a recession by the thinnest of margins. He also talks to Auto Trader’s commercial director Ian Plummer about figures suggesting the current global economic difficulties are now hitting the used car market. And with The Brit Awards celebrating the best of

The Premier League is closing in on a commercial deal with Electronic Arts (EA), the video-games maker, that would be worth close to £500m – one of the largest such agreements ever struck by English football’s top flight. Sky News has learnt that the 20 Premier League clubs were briefed at a meeting on Friday

The economy narrowly avoided recession in the second half of last year, according to early official figures, despite growth going into a sharp reverse in December partly due to the impact of strikes and lack of Premier League football. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that output between October and December was flat at

Takeaway delivery platform Deliveroo has announced it is to cut roughly 350 jobs, equivalent to about 9% of the company workforce. Roles across the global Deliveroo business will be impacted, founder and chief executive Will Shu told staff, but it is understood that UK employees will be worst hit by the losses. The majority of

Tens of thousands of rail workers may return to picket lines after their union rejected revised pay offers to avert more walkouts. The RMT union had been deliberating over a 5% pay rise, backdated to January last year, along with a 4% hike for 2023. Train operators and Network Rail called it their “best and

The company behind many popular consumer brands including Marmite and Magnum ice creams has said it expects price growth to ease later this year but not find a reverse gear. As the cost of living crisis continues to harm household spending power, Unilever forecast a €1.5bn (£1.3bn) impact from inflation during the first half of

Fixating on the short-term damage caused by Brexit is a “fake conversation”, the new Business and Trade Secretary has said, adding that it will “take time” for the shape of Britain’s new economic arrangements to become clear. In her first broadcast interview since business was added to her job brief, Kemi Badenoch told Sky News

The UK will avoid tipping into recession this year but a greater number of homes – one-in-four – will struggle to pay elevated bills, according to an economic think-tank. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) said in a forecast that the squeeze on incomes from the energy-driven cost of living crisis and

So farewell, then, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). This pantomime horse of a government department was created by Theresa May in 2016 on the premise that it would deliver the industrial strategy the last prime minister-but-two declared the UK had been so lacking when she assumed office in 2016. However, when Mrs

The bosses of Britain’s biggest housebuilders will hold talks with the chancellor this week as they face a multibillion-pound bill in the form of several new levies. Sky News has learnt that the executives from companies including Barratt Developments, Fairview and Persimmon will meet Jeremy Hunt on Tuesday. The Home Builders Federation (HBF), the leading

BP has revealed it is to miss a key climate goal while announcing record annual profits. The London-based firm said its main measure, underlying replacement cost profit, came in at $27.7bn (£23bn) for 2022. That is more than double the previous year’s sum despite weaker oil and gas costs knocking its performance in the final

Administrators have selected a rival battery start-up based in Australia as preferred bidder for collapsed Britishvolt. EY confirmed on Monday morning that its team had chosen Recharge Industries – owned by US investment firm Scale Facilitation Partners – to acquire the “majority of the business and assets” of Britishvolt following its demise last month. The

The German automotive giant BMW is in talks with the government about a £75m funding package that would secure production of electric Minis at its Oxfordshire plant. Sky News has learnt that BMW is negotiating with officials at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) over a grant from Whitehall’s Automotive Transformation Fund.

Netflix has said that updated measures to crack down on password sharing were posted by mistake. Following widespread disappointment on social media, with many threatening to cancel their memberships, the streaming giant claimed some new account rules being trialled in other countries had accidentally been added to its help pages elsewhere. While subscribers have been