Business

The boss of British Gas owner Centrica has warned that household bills could see a further increase in the autumn on top of the 54% hike set to take place in April. Chief executive Chris O’Shea told Sky News that “nobody really knows” where the wholesale costs of energy – which are running about four

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has suggested that workers should not ask for big pay rises as it battles surging inflation. The Bank has acted to combat accelerating price growth by hiking interest rates to 0.5%. But if employees ask for wage increases to match the cost of living its task could be made

It is hard to think of another day – certainly one outside a recession – when so much bad economic news came in one single torrent. Energy bills up by £700 (with more to come thereafter), interest rates raised, inflation set to exceed 7% for the first time in a generation and now households expected

The Bank of England has raised interest rates, slashed its growth forecast and warned that families are about to suffer the biggest fall in living standards since comparable records began three decades ago. On a red letter day in Britain’s cost of living crisis, the Bank said that households will see their post-tax disposable income

The energy regulator will reveal this morning the extent of the additional financial pain households face through its revision to the price cap. Ofgem is expected to confirm a rise from 1 April of up to 50% – about £700 – taking a typical annual bill for gas and electricity up towards the £2000 mark.

Millions of households will discover on Thursday how much their energy bills will rise this spring after the regulator brought forward its announcement of the new price cap. Ofgem will reveal what is expected to be an increase of up to 50% to the price cap for gas and electricity, adding around £700 to bills

A retail lobby group has warned it will be “impossible” for the sector to shield shoppers from rising costs in the months ahead as till prices hit their highest level for almost 10 years. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said there was no let-up in sight for the price pressures facing the industry which, it

The academic bookseller Blackwell’s has put itself up for sale for the first time in its 143-year history after scrapping plans to hand ownership of the business to its employees. Sky News has learnt that Blackwell’s, which has been owned by its founding family since its first store opened in Oxford in 1879, has appointed

Wearing face masks on flights will be one of the last COVID measures to be dropped globally and could be enforced for years, experts have said. Different coronavirus measures around the world will mean airlines are unable to move individually in allowing passengers to travel without coverings, sources have told The Times. Other such travel

Labour is calling on Rishi Sunak to allow the National Crime Agency (NCA) to investigate fraud associated with the government’s COVID support schemes. In an opposition day debate in the Commons today, the party will urge the government to allow the “astronomical levels of fraud” committed during the coronavirus pandemic to be investigated. But the

Shoppers are facing a further rise in grocery bills equivalent to £180 a year on average as the squeeze on households intensifies, new industry figures show. Grocery prices in the four weeks to 23 January rose by 3.8%, according to data company Kantar. It adds to the cost of living surge facing households with consumer

Royal Mail has added special barcodes to stamps, making it possible for people to watch videos, read messages and view other information from senders. The move, which starts on Tuesday, follows a successful trial, with the aim of connecting a letter with the digital world. Customers can scan the barcodes while using the Royal Mail

PlayStation maker Sony has announced a $3.6bn deal to buy Bungie, the games developer behind titles such as Destiny. It comes two weeks after Microsoft, maker of the rival Xbox console, said it was paying $68.7bn for Activision Blizzard, whose titles include Call of Duty and Candy Crush. US-based Bungie was founded in 1991 and

Britain’s cyber security centre has urged UK organisations to check their cyber defences because of concern about the potential for new Russian cyber attacks linked to tensions with Ukraine. The public-facing arm of the spy agency GCHQ encouraged everyone to read new guidance published on its website entitled: “Actions to take when the cyber threat

The boss of the largest sports crypto-currency trading platform has defended a business model that has generated millions of dollars in new revenue for football clubs and sports leagues, but drawn criticism that it tempts supporters into high-risk, opaque investments. Alex Dreyfus, chief executive of socios.com, told Sky News that the crypto-based “fan tokens” his

Oil has hit $90 a barrel for the first time since October 2014 on latest worries about tight supply and tensions in Europe in the Middle East. The Brent crude benchmark was up by 2% on Wednesday – with the increase likely to add to the cost of living headache facing UK consumers as it

UK car production plunged to its lowest level since 1956 last year as a shortage of semiconductor chips piled further pressure on an industry battered by the pandemic, new figures show. The impact of the shortages – which is being experienced by manufacturers worldwide – is expected to reduce later this year but continue to

Anyone looking for clues that inflationary pressures in the UK economy will ease in coming months would do well to avoid the CBI’s latest industrial trends survey today. The survey, conducted on a quarterly basis by the employer’s organisation, indicates that manufacturers are not only facing big cost increases at present but are also looking

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has taken an axe to its global growth forecasts while listing a string of threats to the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. The world’s lender of last resort downgraded a prediction, made in October, for 4.9% growth in collective gross domestic product this year, saying it now expected a

Britons complained more about their treatment at the hands of businesses last year than any other on record, according to a long-running consumer survey. Issues with supply and service were most likely to cause trouble. A number of the issues were related to COVID-19, according to the Institute of Customer Service (ICS). The survey from