Whitbread offloads £89m worth of Premier Inns to Londonmetric January 13, 2026 Hospitality giant Whitbread has offloaded a number of its Premier Inn hotels to property group Londonmetric for £89m as it looks to boost profits. The group sold nine South Eastern hotels to the group, ranging from Southampton Airport to Warwick, as part of its plan to reuse £250m-£300m of property proceeds for growth opportunities, including [...]
Public officials ‘not truthful’ about ‘fantasy’ net zero costs January 13, 2026 Net zero is set to cost the UK economy billions of pounds more than public officials estimate, a new report has suggested, raising questions over the supposed savings to be made from the energy transition for households and businesses. A new paper published by the Institute of Economic Affairs, a free market think tank, has [...]
VAT-free shopping debacle has sent tourists packing January 13, 2026 Five years on from the demise of VAT-free shopping, retail and hospitality chiefs say the impact is still causing pain as the industry seeks change, writes Joanna Hodgson Five years ago this month a change came in that might, on the surface , have prompted the average British shopper to get their smallest violins out: [...]
Why the FTSE is enjoying a winter uptick January 13, 2026 Amid AI bubble worries, London's FTSE is luring in American investors seeking greater diversification, writes Susannah Streeter.
Labour talked big, but London housing starts are worst since WW2 January 13, 2026 Labour may have talked big on housing and planning reform, but the figures don't lie, writes Emma Revell.
Immigration law firm put up for sale on insolvency market amid visa crackdown January 13, 2026 A London law firm specialising in immigration services has been put up for sale on an insolvency marketplace in an early sign the government’s crackdown on visas has sparked a slump in applications. Woolwich-based A Vincent Solicitors, which employs more than two dozen staff and has a second office in Manchester, offered multi-lingual support services [...]
The tax return deadline is looming. Here’s how to avoid fines January 12, 2026 Many of us are guilty of putting our personal finance admin on the back burner, opting to leave paying our bills, planning the monthly budget and checking insurance policies until the last minute. But with the deadline of the 31st inching ever closer, leaving your self-assessment tax return until the final days of January, leaves [...]
Calls for hospitality support grow as business rates outcry deepens January 12, 2026 Calls for the government to extend its rumoured support package for pubs to the entire hospitality industry grew on Monday, after a string of data releases laid bare the bleak outlook for UK venues amid fresh polling that reveals enormous public support for the embattled sector. According to the latest City AM/Freshwater Strategy poll, 70 [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Barclays slumps on credit card cap, Fed’s Jerome Powell faces probe January 12, 2026 Good morning from the City AM liveblog team. The FTSE 100 broke through the five-figure mark last week in a welcome start to the year for the London markets. The index saw its best annual performance in 2025 since the recovery from the financial crash in 2009. That was helped along in no small part [...]
Business confidence lowest in nearly five years, BDO says January 12, 2026 Business confidence fell to its lowest level in nearly five years, an advisory company indicated, as the Labour government is expected to oversee a small improvement in the UK economy this year. BDO’s optimism index, which tracks sentiment by surveying 4,000 executives, dropped to its weakest reading since January 2021 at the end of last [...]