Reeves faces £20bn fiscal hole as energy crisis drives up costs March 22, 2026 Rachel Reeves is facing a potential £20bn shortfall in her spending plans as the Middle East energy crisis pushes up inflation, borrowing costs and pressure on public sector pay. The warning from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) comes as surging oil and gas prices begin to feed through into the wider economy, threatening to [...]
Iceland boss calls for profit cap on energy firms as prices surge March 22, 2026 Richard Walker has urged the government to consider imposing a temporary cap on energy company profits, warning that households risk bearing the brunt of another price shock linked to the Middle East conflict. The Iceland boss, recently appointed as a Labour peer and cost of living adviser, said ministers should examine limiting earnings for producers [...]
Sunak urges rethink on taxing jobs as AI begins to reshape hiring March 22, 2026 Rishi Sunak has called for a rethink of how work is taxed, warning that AI is beginning to shift hiring patterns as companies weigh the cost of people against automation. Writing in The Times, Sunak said employers face immediate costs when hiring through national insurance contributions (NIC), while deploying AI carries no equivalent tax burden, [...]
Reeves hosts top UK scale-ups as new cohort revealed in growth drive March 19, 2026 Rachel Reeves will host the latest cohort of the UK’s top scale-ups at Number 11 tonight, as the government looks to reinforce its pitch as a home for high-growth tech firms. The new intake of Tech Nation’s future fifty programme brings together 25 late-stage companies spanning AI, healthtech, cybersecurity and climate technology, sectors ministers see [...]
HSBC job cut plans add to mounting AI warnings for banks March 19, 2026 HSBC is weighing up cutting as many as 20,000 jobs across its global business as part of a longer-term push towards automation and AI, forming the clearest signal yet of how the technology is beginning to reshape the banking workforce. According to reports, the lender is understood to be considering reductions equivalent to around 10 [...]
‘Here’s a picture of a hamster’ – 4Chan ridicules Ofcom after UK regulator issues £500K fine March 19, 2026 US-based forum 4Chan has ridiculed Ofcom after the UK regulator hit them with a £520,000 fine for breaching the UK’s Online Safety Act, in a case that underlines the growing challenge of enforcing digital rules on overseas platforms as well as the increasingly combative response from parts of the tech ecosystem. The bulk of the [...]
Ex-Google executive puts AI hiring under scrutiny March 18, 2026 A former Google Cloud executive has put AI hiring and its consequences under renewed scrutiny in a US courtroom. The unnamed ex-Big Tech employee’s testimony revolved around how automated, agentic systems are increasingly shaping recruitment decisions, not at the final interview stage, but much earlier, where candidates are filtered, ranked and, in many cases, excluded. [...]
Government drops AI copyright opt-out plan after industry backlash March 18, 2026 The government has scrapped its preferred proposal to allow AI firms to train on copyrighted material by default, as it shifts its approach after sustained opposition from the UK’s creative sector. In a report published on Tuesday morning, ministers confirmed they are U-turning from the proposed ‘opt-out’ model, which would have allowed developers to use [...]
FCA tightens cyber reporting rules as UK firms face rising risk March 18, 2026 The City watchdog has moved to tighten cyber and operational resilience rules for financial firms, as attacks grow more frequent and increasingly spread through third-party providers. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) confirmed new requirements to standardise how firms report incidents and manage third-party risks, in a bid to improve visibility over disruptions ranging from cyber [...]
Nvidia’s $1 trillion bet keeps bubble fears at bay March 17, 2026 Nvidia has raised its estimate of the potential market for its artificial intelligence chips to $1 trillion by 2027, in a move that helped steady investor concerns about the durability of the AI boom. Speaking at the company’s developer conference in California, chief executive Jensen Huang said demand for AI computing continues to expand as [...]
