Brexit talks to continue today after Boris Johnson and von der Leyen call December 8, 2020 Brexit talks will continue this week in Brussels after Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen agreed to give negotiations a final shot. Johnson and von der Leyen are believed to have spoken for about an hour last night to discuss if a deal can be finally agreed before the 31 December deadline. They will [...]
UK jobs market attracts global interest after visa offer to Hong Kong December 8, 2020 Interest in the UK jobs market from non-EU workers has jumped 20 per cent, driven by a surge in job seekers from Hong Kong, according to a new survey. Interest in the London jobs market from non-EU workers has overtaken that from EU ones for the first time in seven years, according to data released [...]
The government must fix the broken procurement system before the next crisis hits December 8, 2020 The two caricatures of how the government has worked with the private sector during this pandemic do not add up. In one, championed by ministers in press conferences and interviews on a daily basis, the government has leveraged the best of British and international business to answer the biggest challenge this country has faced in [...]
Mike Ashley’s firm should pay its debts to pensioners and taxpayers before it tries to buy Debenhams December 8, 2020 We are living in extraordinary times. At all levels of society people are being asked to make sacrifices — and this includes businesses. This week, news broke that Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group is making a last-minute bid to purchase Debenhams. His company — of Sports Direct fame — has been thriving throughout the crisis, and [...]
Could Goldman Sachs teach the UK how to level up organically? December 8, 2020 Almost exactly one year ago, a freshly elected Conservative government made “levelling up” one of its core priorities. Facing a new parliament with a healthy majority and a dynamic Prime Minister (remember that?), the government promised to bring individual prosperity to regions of the UK which had been “left behind”: not just the big cities [...]
The economic recovery is coming — and it will be powered by micro-businesses December 8, 2020 I wouldn’t be the first to talk about how incredibly difficult 2020 has been for small businesses. And based on the chancellor’s economic forecasts last month, those challenges look set to continue for the foreseeable future. The worst economic downturn in a generation, thousands of businesses and their employees out of work, and continued uncertainty [...]
UK hiring outlook weakest in Europe as Covid hits London jobs market December 8, 2020 UK companies are the most pessimistic in Europe about hiring in the first quarter of next year, according to a major survey, with London’s jobs outlook hitting its lowest level on record as the hospitality industry is battered by coronavirus. However, the overall jobs outlook for the UK for the first three months of next [...]
Consumer spending rises ahead of Christmas but retailers still feeling the pinch December 8, 2020 Early Christmas shopping helped boost consumer spending last month but lockdown restrictions continued to hit retailers. Spending dropped 1.9 per cent last month as restrictions took effect but spending on essential items climbed 4.9 per cent, according to the latest data from Barclaycard. Supermarkets enjoyed a 17.9 per cent rise in sales with a staggering [...]
Normal People and Killing Eve are iPlayer’s biggest successes of the year December 8, 2020 The BBC adaptation of Normal people, Sally Rooney’s romantic novel has been iPlayer’s biggest success of the year so far, closely followed by Killing Eve. Between the 1 January and the end of November there were 62 million views of Normal people on iPlayer. The romantic drama tops a record-breaking year for iPlayer, with the [...]
Uber pulls plug on own self-driving car programme December 7, 2020 Uber has abandoned plans to create its own self-driving car, and will instead take a minority stake in Aurora, a driverless vehicle start-up backed by Amazon and Sequoia, an American venture capital firm. Uber will transfer its 1,200-employee self-driving unit to Aurora, which at present has 600 staff, and will invest $400m into the project, [...]
