‘No plans’ to raise council tax but cut to discount not ruled out September 2, 2024 The government has no plans to increase English council taxes, Angela Rayner confirmed, but she declined to say whether she would scrap the single person discount to the bill. The deputy Prime Minister, who is also the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, said her government “is about making sure working people [...]
Tory leadership race gets underway as Badenoch and Cleverly launch small state campaigns September 2, 2024 The Conservative leadership race was set alight today as frontrunner Kemi Badenoch and rival James Cleverly launched their campaigns, both calling for a “state that does less”. Former business and trade secretary Badenoch argued: “Government should do fewer things but better – and what it does, it should do with brilliance.” While former foreign and [...]
Innovate UK U-turns on female founder grants after outrage September 2, 2024 Innovate UK has promised to grant awards to a total of 50 business projects as part of its Women in Innovation funding competition after hundreds of founders came together to criticise its decision to only hand out 25 awards. The group was criticised by female business leaders after announcing that it intended to only award [...]
Private equity groups circle UK pharmacy wholesaler September 2, 2024 HIG and Capvest have joined a line of private equity groups looking to buy the largest supplier of goods to British pharmacies, AAH Pharmaceuticals, from German private equity firm Aurelius. AAH has been put up for sale again only a few years after being bought by Aurelius in 2022, according to the Financial Times. The [...]
Easyhotel chief hails ‘era of the mega-event’ as driving force behind bookings surge September 2, 2024 The boss of budget chain Easyhotel said the company had the rising cost of ‘mega-event’ tickets to thank for its recent surge in revenue, which rose by almost half in 2023. Karim Malak, who became chief executive of the British business just over two years ago, said the company had experienced a boom in bookings [...]
Citypoint tower up for sale as owner seeks cut-price deal September 2, 2024 Canadian asset manager Brookfield has put Citypoint tower up for sale in what could be the biggest commercial office sale in the capital all year. Brookfield has reportedly started the sale in the hope of avoiding a default on a £460m loan secured on the building, according to the FT, which it previously extended in [...]
Airport liquid rule: Why UK and European airports are keeping the 100ml limit September 2, 2024 European airports are bringing back back into force the 100ml liquid limit due to a "temporary technical issue" with newly installed security scanners.
The best and worst performing funds in August 2024 September 2, 2024 Funds focusing on North American smaller companies were the worst performing in the UK last month, as a weakening dollar and fears over a US recession shook the market. North American Smaller Companies funds fell by 3.3 per cent in August, followed by funds focusing on China (-2.9 per cent), commodities (-2.3 per cent) and [...]
Lloyds Bank and Nationwide hit by online issues as Microsoft reports outage September 2, 2024 Lloyds Bank and Nationwide have apologised to customers for issues affecting their online services amid a report from Microsoft about a fresh outage that affected its public cloud computing platform.
Innovate UK funding furore highlights women’s start-up struggles September 2, 2024 Anger at the unexpected shortfall in grants in an Innovate UK funding competition shows that more must be done to support female entrepreneurs, Jennifer Sieg writes
