Hull City’s ‘strange’ £55m loan beat Independent Football Regulator deadline Sport Business Hull City took a loan from an American billionaire whose previous hedge fund was fined $1.8bn for fraud and insider trading shortly before mandatory Independent Football Regulator scrutiny of such deals kicked in. Following their promotion to the Premier League, Hull City secured a £55m loan against the club’s stadium from Point72 Lending Ltd, a [...]
Burnham pledges to reform triple lock to fund new National Care Service Politics Andy Burnham has said Labour will drop the triple lock on state pensions in its manifesto for the next election in order to fund a sweeping new National Care Service. In his address to party members, Burnham said the party would link a rise in the state pension to inflation or 2.5 per cent every [...]
Closing the AI skills gap is an £80 billion opportunity Opinion Smart use of AI could add £80bn in productivity gains to the British economy by 2035, but too few businesses have the workforce to deploy it effectively, says Steve Rigby The daily AI discourse moves between a few regular topics: eye-watering investment in frontier models, soaring compute costs, crippling cyberattacks and the unknowable impact of [...]
James Watt: Andy Burnham blames everyone but himself for the NEETs crisis September 17, 2026 Telling young people they’ve been let down by ‘the system’ is a narrative of despair that removes all agency from young people. If Andy Burnham really wants to help NEETs he should get out of employers’ way, says James Watt Andy Burnham’s recent comments about the growing number of young people not in education, employment [...]
The NEET crisis is a failure of the state, not the individual September 16, 2026 The first step in solving the NEET crisis is honesty about why so many young people are now trapped in the benefits system.
Brewdog founder James Watt slams Burnham over Neets crisis September 16, 2026 Brewdog co-founder James Watt has attacked Andy Burnham for “dangerous narratives” around youth joblessness, criticising the government for hiking the cost of employment. The beer tycoon said the Prime Minister is wrong to “blame the system” and should instead cut the cost of hiring workers and “get out of the way”. The Scottish businessman, who [...]
Giving Neets jobs in hospitality would generate £2.3bn, Hilton claims September 9, 2026 Hilton has urged the government to encourage unemployed young people into hospitality, claiming that filling all the industry’s vacancies would add £2.3bn to the economy. The hotel group, in collaboration with trade body UK Hospitality (UKH), has urged Andy Burnham to lower taxes on hospitality firms to give them the breathing space to take a [...]
Gareth Southgate hits out at WFH and warns high taxes are harming youth unemployment September 9, 2026 Former England manager Sir Gareth Southgate has said he is against working from home and argued that young people need workplace mentors to develop their careers. On a trip with the Neets tsar Alan Milburn, Southgate hit out at companies’ working from home policies and linked it to the joblessness crisis facing under 25-year-olds. “What [...]
Tesco and Boots lead 100,000 jobs pledge to tackle Neets crisis September 8, 2026 Tesco, Boots and dozens of other retailers have pledged to create 100,000 new jobs in a bid to tackle the youth unemployment crisis, which they say is trapping young people in a “doom loop”. A group of top high street firms – which also includes Asda, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer – have joined [...]
Retailers urge Healey to unwind national insurance hike to boost jobs September 3, 2026 Retailers have called on Chancellor John Healey to unwind some of the national insurance reforms made by his predecessor in a bid to tackle the youth joblessness crisis. The British Retail Consortium (BRC), which represents retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer, has written to the Chancellor, urging him to unwind “soaring employment costs”. [...]