SMEs fear high energy costs will act as a barrier to growth October 25, 2021 Seventy per cent of small and medium enterprises (SME) owners believe that high-energy costs will negatively affect the growth of their businesses, according to a new survey from Tyl by Natwest. The group questioned 500 UK SME business owners, and discovered that 65 per cent of SMEs are spending up to one fifth of their [...]
Mastercard partners with Bakkt to power crypto payments and rewards October 25, 2021 Mastercard has taken another stride into the crypto space by partnering with Bakkt, a digital assets payments platform. Mastercard will allow its US partners to issue branded crypto credit and debit cards powered by its payments network which will let consumers buy, sell and hold digital assets through custodial wallets supplied by Bakkt. Consumers will [...]
Brexit: Frost leaves door open for EU courts to have minor role in NI Protocol October 25, 2021 Lord David Frost has today left the door open for the EU’s courts to still have a minor role in the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol as negotiations over its implementation heat up again. The UK’s Brexit minister, who wants the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to lose its role as the main arbiter of the [...]
BrewDog announces plans for flagship site at former Eurostar terminal October 25, 2021 BrewDog has outlined plans to open a 26,500 sq ft flagship site on the former Eurostar terminal at Waterloo, in what it called one of biggest projects yet. The Scottish craft brewer said on Monday it will launch a two-floor venue next summer. The site will be kitted out with a pub, pop-up food truck, [...]
Burger King owner’s shares tumble on back of revenue update October 25, 2021 A lower than expected appetite for Burger King and Tim Hortons caused parent company Restaurant Brands International (RBI) to miss quarterly revenue estimates. While the company’s total sales jumped by 10.8 per cent the latest quarter after declining 5.4 per cent over the same period in 2020, the group continued to feel the impacts of [...]
Central London office take-up hits highest level since 2019 October 25, 2021 Central London office take-up has reached its highest level since the end of 2019, according to real estate advisor CBRE. According to CBRE’s analysis of deals in central London, take up of office space has seen another increase for the third consecutive quarter. For the third quarter, some 2.7m sq ft was taken on, with [...]
London’s hospitality sector to lose £2.3bn as commuter numbers lag October 25, 2021 The slower return of commuters aboard trains could cost London’s hospitality sector £2.3bn, warned membership body Rail Delivery Group. Data from the group revealed that commuters into London are slower when it comes to getting back to the office, as on 41 per cent of pre-pandemic train commuters have returned, compared with 54 per cent [...]
Scotland: Covid passports lead to chaos with hundreds refused entry October 25, 2021 Vaccines passports have led to chaos in Scotland as hundreds of people were refused entry to venues, the BBC reported. According to the Scottish Hospitality Group, a trade body that is opposed to the scheme, during its first weekend of implementation, the vaccine passport scheme lead to venues denying access to people 550 times and [...]
Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle hits out at Sunak for revealing large parts of Budget in advance October 25, 2021 Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has lashed out at Rishi Sunak for releasing more than a dozen spending announcements in the lead-up to Wednesday’s Budget, saying that ministers would resign over similar briefings in years past. Referring to Hugh Dalton’s 1947 resignation after briefing the Budget hours before it took place, Hoyle said: “At one [...]
Shipping will not reach net zero without a carbon tax says industry report October 25, 2021 The global shipping sector is going in the wrong direction when it comes to net zero commitments, as it is currently at risk of registering a 20 per cent increase in its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. According to a report from Maersk McKinney Moller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping, at the current pace only [...]
