Wetherspoon to reveal Christmas trading amid challenging backdrop for pubs January 18, 2026 Pub giant JD Wetherspoon is set to shed light on how its customers fared over the key Christmas period amid a backdrop of rising costs for the sector. The value pub chain, which runs around 800 venues across the UK, will become the latest firm to reveal its latest trading performance when it updates shareholders [...]
UK inflation faces December bump from travel and food costs January 18, 2026 UK inflation may have edged higher at the end of last year, with Christmas travel and higher duties pushing up prices, economists have warned. Several forecasters expect the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) to have ticked up in December after falling sharply in November. Economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics say they expect inflation to rise to 3.3 [...]
NBA Europe open to sovereign wealth and in talks with family offices January 18, 2026 The NBA is open to sovereign wealth funds buying franchises in its proposed European basketball league, says the US sports giant’s commissioner Adam Silver. Speaking in London ahead of the NBA game on Sunday at the O2 and a presentation to potential commercial partners the following morning, Silver said the league and its advisors were [...]
Regional stadiums: the infrastructure solution for WSL and women’s football? January 18, 2026 Women’s football is one of the fastest growing sports and investment opportunities in the UK right now – think Michelle Kang’s cash injection at London City Lionesses or Alexis Ohanian’s £20m investment in Chelsea Women. In the 2023/24 season Deloitte reported that the 12 Women’s Super League (WSL) football clubs generated an aggregate revenue of £65m [...]
Close Brothers: How the motor finance scandal reshaped one of ‘Europe’s least cost-efficient lenders’ January 18, 2026 Nearly two years ago Close Brothers chief executive said the bank would take “decisive actions” to strengthen its financial standing. The bold overhaul of the lender’s capital structure came amid the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) review into the motor finance industry – a sector which made up 20 per cent of its £9.5bn loan book [...]
The Jenga Effect: Why professional rugby’s collapse has already happened January 17, 2026 Professional rugby is not approaching collapse; it is recognising one that already occurred and mistaking that recognition for failure. What we are watching across leagues, unions and competitions is not chaos, bad luck or incompetence finally catching up, but the delayed visibility of a structural outcome that was locked in years ago. What feels sudden [...]
ChatGPT to trial adverts for some users for the first time January 17, 2026 Online AI tool ChatGPT will begin to show users adverts for the first time, as it looks to recover from financial losses. Open AI, the bot’s developer, said it would start displaying adverts in the coming weeks based on what people ask ChatGPT as well as personal data the tool stores on users. Relevant ads [...]
Tough year ahead as businesses face compliance and investigation storm January 17, 2026 A wave of complex regulations and cross-border probes is set to test the resilience of businesses worldwide in the coming year; at the same time, resource constraints expose vulnerabilities. A staggering 82 per cent of global businesses fear being hit by cross-border or multi-agency investigations this year, according to a new report by law firm [...]
Exclusive: Rachel Reeves to lead start-up delegation at Davos January 16, 2026 Rachel Reeves will lead a delegation of entrepreneurs in charge of some of Britain’s fastest growing start-ups to the World Economic Forum in Davos next week, City AM can reveal. The troupe of UK-based founders will join the Chancellor and business secretary Peter Kyle in the Swiss Alps as part of a concerted push by [...]
AJ Bell boss: Rachel Reeves ISA reforms ‘doomed to fail’ January 16, 2026 The chief executive of a top investment firm has issued a scathing broadside against the Chancellor’s proposal to restrict cash ISA limits. In a letter seen by Sky News, AJ Bell chief executive Michael Summersgill wrote to Rachel Reeves that efforts to push Brits towards investing with limits on cash savings are “doomed to fail”. [...]