Big Four PwC ramps up office attendance monitoring August 13, 2025 PwC has increased its monitoring of employees’ office attendance by tracking key card usage and WiFi connections to ensure staff comply with requirements
House prices in top catchment areas soar as parents race to bag places August 13, 2025 House prices in top primary and secondary school catchment areas are now nearly 50 per cent more expensive than the average as competition intensifies amid an increase in private school fees. The average price of a home in the catchment areas of the top 50 primary and top 50 secondary schools in the UK is [...]
Zilch hikes provisions amid ‘record year’ for customer growth August 13, 2025 UK fintech Zilch raised its provisions for losses in the last year as demand for buy now, pay later services ballooned. The London-headquartered firm raised provisions for credit losses – funds set aside to cover estimated losses from failed repayments – to £27.4m – a 116 per cent jump from £12.7m the year prior. Credit [...]
Reasons to be optimistic about the UK’s construction sector August 13, 2025 There are some early signs the UK’s beleaguered construction industry is turning a corner as higher demand, higher government investment and lower interest rates set shovels in the ground. Judging by the numbers so far this year, the UK’s construction industry is in a bad place: The sector contracted at the fastest pace since 2020 [...]
Experts: Sport to play role in Trump Ukraine peace talks with Putin August 13, 2025 Sport could be a key player in the Ukraine peace talks between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. While “land swapping” and “combat lines” are set to dominate the discussions at an Anchorage army base this week, geopolitical experts have suggested sport could be used as a soft diplomacy tool, to demonstrate [...]
Musk threatens Apple with legal action in escalating feud with Altman’s OpenAI August 13, 2025 Elon Musk has threatened to sue Apple, accusing the iPhone maker of unfairly favouring ChatGPT developer OpenAI in its App Store rankings and listings. In a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, the Tesla and SpaceX chief claimed Apple was making it “impossible” for any other AI company to reach the number one position [...]
Inheritance tax: Reeves could change thresholds and crack down on gift rules August 13, 2025 Rachel Reeves is exploring measures to extract more revenue from inheritance tax (IHT) ahead of the Autumn Budget, as she looks to plug a massive fiscal blackhole without breaking Labour election promises on tax. According to a report in The Guardian, the Treasury is looking into changes to thresholds as well as tightening the rules [...]
Richard Mille: Luxury Swiss watch brand’s sales tick past major milestone August 13, 2025 Sales at the Europe, Middle East and Africa arm of luxury Swiss watch brand Richard Mille have ticked past a major milestone as its growth streak continues. The London-headquartered division has posted a turnover of CHF 404.4m (£371.2m) for 2024, up from the CHF £378.7m it achieved in 2023. New accounts filed with Companies House [...]
Sir Rocco Forte enjoys record pay day after hotels empire deal August 13, 2025 The hotels group founded by Sir Rocco Forte has issued a record dividend for the first full year after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) became a major shareholder. Rocco Forte Hotels has paid out dividends totalling £8.9m for the year to 30 April, 2025, to its shareholders. The international hotels group, which is headquartered in [...]
Spurs to play for £4.3m ahead of new Premier League season August 13, 2025 Tottenham Hotspur have the chance to bag €5m (£4.3m) in prize money as they face PSG in the Uefa Super Cup on Wednesday. Spurs are set to receive €4m (£3.4m) regardless of the result, but a win against the Ligue 1 champions would add an extra €1m (£0.8m) to the prize pot. The Uefa Super [...]