Business

The average household water and sewerage bill in England and Wales is to go up by an average 6% from April to help unlock “record investment”, an industry group has announced. Water UK said the increases, equivalent to £27 a year, would leave households with an average annual bill of £473. The body said the

One of the members of the Bank of England’s rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee has voted for a cut in its base-level interest rate for the first time since the pandemic, as Britain’s central bank forecast that inflation could be down at its 2% target within a few months. The Bank opted to leave borrowing costs

Jeremy Hunt has cast doubts over introducing big tax cuts at the next budget, saying he is unlikely to have the fiscal “room” he had in the autumn. Earlier this month, the chancellor hinted at further reductions come 6 March, saying the government’s plan of “prioritising tax cuts” was working, and that it would “stick

Facebook is 20 years old today. On 4 February 2004 Mark Zuckerberg launched ‘thefacebook.com’ from his Harvard dormitory. Two decades later, many users struggle to remember a time they weren’t scrolling through its news feed – or that of its social media sibling, Instagram. While allowing us to find long-lost friends and family, and supporting

The new chief executive of BT Group and the boss of Britain’s biggest high street lender are among a cohort of business leaders who will be unveiled by Downing Street on Wednesday as advisers to Rishi Sunak. Sky News has learnt that Allison Kirkby, who will replace Philip Jansen as BT CEO on Thursday, is

Food and fresh flower imports from the European Union are subject to new Brexit customs controls from today, adding more than £300m a year to the price of trading with the continent and forcing up the price of food for British consumers. Under the new Brexit red tape, imports of chilled and frozen meat and

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said Jeremy Hunt should not be planning to cut taxes any time soon. In what will be seen as a bombshell intervention ahead of this year’s election, the Fund, widely regarded as the world’s most authoritative economic body, said its analysts had advised the UK Treasury not to cut

Plans by Amazon and vacuum cleaner maker iRobot to merge have been abandoned following concerns that the move would harm competition. The $1.4bn (£1.1bn) deal, which was first announced in August 2022, had previously been approved by UK regulators. But in November the European Commission expressed concerns the online retailer might give iRobot’s products preferential

Ryanair has reported a slump in quarterly profits and narrowed its expectations for annual earnings after some online travel sites stopped selling its flights. The no-frills carrier said it made profit after tax of €15m (£12.8m) over the final three months of 2023, its third quarter, compared to the €211m it achieved in the same

Channel 4 will announce plans this week for deeper-than-expected job cuts amid a steep downturn in the broadcast advertising market. Sky News has learnt that the state-owned broadcaster will say on Monday that it is cutting nearly 250 roles, a figure equating to just over 15% of its full-time workforce of more than 1,300 people.

The chairman of the Post Office is on the verge of being forced out of the role amid frustration in Whitehall over the state-owned company’s governance as it reels from the Horizon IT scandal. Sky News has learnt that Henry Staunton, who only became chairman of the Post Office in December 2022 after a long

Superdry, the London-listed clothing retailer, is weighing a radical restructuring that could involve significant numbers of store closures and job cuts after reporting weak sales. Sky News has learnt that Superdry and its advisers at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) are initiating work on plans that could lead to a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) or restructuring plan, both

New Brexit border controls will leave British consumers and businesses facing more than £500m in increased costs and possible delays – as well as shortages of food and fresh flowers imported from the European Union. The new rules are intended to protect biosecurity by imposing controls on plant and animal products considered a “medium” risk.

The legislation being used to exonerate hundreds of sub-postmasters wrongly convicted over the Horizon IT scandal should include measures to protect the specialist finance sector which helped Alan Bates to overturn Britain’s biggest miscarriage of justice, according to an influential trade body. Sky News understands that the International Legal Finance Association (ILFA) wants ministers to

A promise by the incoming National Lottery operator to slash the price of a ticket from £2 to £1 is under review. Allwyn has also said delayed plans for new draw-based games will impact sales and the amount of money it can give to good causes in the early part of its 10-year licence. The

Saga is exploring ways to release money from its ocean cruises operation which could involve selling its two flagship vessels or offloading the entire business under a licensing arrangement. Sky News has learnt that the heavily indebted company, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, is working with advisers on a range of potential

US aviation regulators have overturned their grounding of Boeing 737-MAX 9 planes following a mid-air panel blowout aboard an aircraft earlier this month but imposed an unprecedented restriction on the company. In an update on its work following the incident on an Alaska Airlines MAX 9 on 5 January, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said

Drinks company Thatchers has lost a High Court trademark battle after it claimed supermarket chain Aldi “copycatted” one of its products. The Somerset-based cider maker sued the German discount chain for infringing the trademark of its Thatchers Cloudy Lemon Cider. It claimed that the supermarket had gained an “unfair advantage” by copying the drink in

Unavoidable hidden charges for online consumers, a practice known as drip pricing, is to be banned under a wider transparency drive. The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) said additional fees, which are only revealed late in the checkout process and cost customers £2.2bn a year, must be included in the headline price under the

Paying monthly for car insurance can lead to paying hundreds of pounds extra, according to analysis from a leading consumer group. Those who pay an annual sum typically incur less cost, research from Which? said. The group assessed sales data from comparison website GoCompare and found monthly payers were charged £309 more on average than