JCB heir: Inheritance tax raid could force us out of Britain April 13, 2026 The heir to the billion-pound JCB fortune has warned that the government’s inheritance tax crackdown on family firms could force his father’s sprawling business empire overseas. Jo Bamford, whose billionaire father Anthony owns the digging equipment maker, said he could be forced to move abroad in order to safeguard the number of jobs at the [...]
Firms slash jobs at fastest pace this year and pay growth slows April 13, 2026 Businesses slashed jobs at the fastest pace in 2026 as employers also resisted giving staff big pay increases over March, research has suggested, exposing the Iran war’s damaging effects on all sides of the UK economy. Research by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG said there was a steeper rise in the number [...]
OECD tells Reeves to reform ‘inefficient’ UK tax system April 10, 2026 Top economists have urged Chancellor Rachel Reeves to launch a sweeping review of the UK tax system in order to improve growth prospects and boost investment. Researchers at the OECD – Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for long –said the UK economy suffered from distortions in its tax system as well as loopholes exploited [...]
Iran crisis has exposed the folly of net zero April 10, 2026 While net zero is an incredibly important economic and sustainability goal, long-term, idealistic agendas like these just cannot come at the expense of short-term economic health – especially when our country is already so frail, says Issac Goldring This week in a rare case of diplomatic nous, President Trump chose relative peace over Armageddon. Remarkably [...]
The six reasons why startups fail (and only one is unavoidable) April 10, 2026 Why do so many startups fail? Dr Bernard Bulkin, who has worked in venture capital for 21 years, says there are six main reasons.
Easter boosts high street footfall but retailers hold their breath April 10, 2026 Retail footfall jumped in March as Easter boosted shopping activity, but business leaders fear tax and employment costs could yet cause havoc. Total footfall in the UK increased by 2.4 per cent last month, according to trade body the British Retail Consortium (BRC), offering a welcome boost for retailers after wet weather drove shoppers away [...]
AS Invest Capital Ltd Group Launches €50 Million Bond Offering with 8.5% Yield April 9, 2026 AS Group, Hagenstraße 67, 14193 Berlin, Germany, is continuing to advance its capital markets–oriented growth strategy and is initiating a new corporate bond with a target volume of €50 million. The structuring of the issuance is being carried out via its subsidiary, AS Invest Capital LTD, London. With this planned issuance, the AS Group once [...]
Moody’s Brings Credit and Compliance Workflows Directly into Anthropic’s Claude April 9, 2026 Moody’s Corporation (NYSE: MCO) and Anthropic today announced that Moody’s Agentic Solutions (MAS) will be available natively in Anthropic’s Claude environment – including Claude Desktop, Claude.ai, and Claude Enterprise – through a purpose-built Model Context Protocol (MCP) application. Together, the companies are bringing Moody’s decision-grade risk intelligence into Anthropic’s frontier AI environment, delivering trusted, auditable [...]
John Lewis boss takes 20 per cent pay rise as retailer cuts jobs April 9, 2026 The new chairman of John Lewis took a pay rise and bonus despite the retailer cutting thousands of jobs. Jason Tarry saw his basic pay rate increase by 21 per cent and took a two per cent bonus, despite his firm slashing more than 3,000 jobs last year. Tarry took the reins of the John [...]
Sumitomo Corporation, SMBC Aviation Capital, Apollo and Brookfield Complete the Acquisition of Air Lease Corporation April 8, 2026 Sumitomo Corporation, SMBC Aviation Capital, Apollo-managed funds (“Apollo”) and Brookfield today announced that they have completed the previously announced acquisition of Air Lease Corporation (“Air Lease”) and have renamed the business Sumisho Air Lease Corporation (“Sumisho Air Lease”). This transformational transaction improves the financial position of the business with long term support and aviation expertise [...]