Howden: Insurance giant expands sport portfolio with SailGP sponsorship January 16, 2025 Insurance giant Howden this morning expanded their sports sponsorship portfolio, announcing a three-year partnership with SailGP team Emirates GBR. The group, headquartered at One Creechurch Place, will see Sir Ben Ainslie’s sailing team join their roster of sporting sponsorships, which include the British and Irish Lions, Ascot Racecourse, Victoria Racing Club in Australia and the [...]
Rachel Reeves – “Gilty” as charged January 16, 2025 The verdict is in. The Gilt market has found the Chancellor Rachel Reeves guilty of reckless endangerment of the country’s finances. A large electoral majority led her to think the world would happily finance what she described in her Mais Lecture as the “smart and strategic state”. Sticking to fiscal rules is for nought if [...]
Young’s: Pub chain in ‘great shape’ after Christmas despite Budget burden January 16, 2025 Young & Co have reported an excellent Christmas trading period, with optimism abound despite a higher cost burden for the hospitality sector this year. The pubs-and-rooms operator, which has around 228 pubs and 5,600 employees, said that revenue in the five weeks to January 13 rose 30.4 per cent, with like-for-like sales up 11.6 per [...]
UK economy grows just 0.1 per cent following Budget January 16, 2025 Economic momentum has ground to a halt since Labour took office while business confidence has also fallen sharply, particularly in the wake of October's Budget.
The Debate: Will RTO mandates help or harm businesses? January 16, 2025 RTO mandates are riling up employees, but are businesses right to clamp down on working from home? Our writers hash it out in The Debate.
Vacancies back to pre-pandemic levels as UK jobs market slows January 16, 2025 The number of vacancies in the UK economy has fallen back in line with pre-pandemic levels, according to new figures from the REC.
Pub giants allay fears of hospitality crisis despite higher wage bills January 15, 2025 Pub giants Mitchells & Butlers and Fuller, Smith & Turner have both expressed confidence as the firms adapt to higher wage bills, in a positive sign for an industry which warned of crisis last year. Mitchells, the owner of Harvester, Toby Carvery and All Bar One, reported like-for-like growth of 10.4 per cent over the [...]
Vistry: Housebuilder avoids fourth profit downgrade but warns of market uncertainty January 15, 2025 Vistry has warned of uncertain market conditions as it reaffirmed previously downgraded profit guidance for the year ahead. The UK’s largest housebuilder by output said the outcome of the government’s spending review and a “recovery in consumer confidence” would prove pivotal in determining performance in 2025. Group adjusted pre-tax profit is forecast to be around [...]
Demand for AI tech boosts Currys January 15, 2025 Electrical retailer Currys has reinstated its dividend after a jump in sales related to AI tech helped boost the firm’s top and bottom lines. In a trading update issued this morning, the FTSE 100 firm said it expected to record a profit for its 2024/25 financial year of £145m to £155m, up 23 per cent to [...]
Business confidence plunges to lowest level since Liz Truss’s mini-budget January 15, 2025 Rachel Reeves’s tax hikes have pushed business confidence to its lowest level since the wake of Liz Truss’s calamitous mini-Budget, as firms fret over a surge in costs and slowdown in the domestic economy, a closely watched survey has suggested. Concerns over a looming tax bill and a slump in sales caused business confidence to [...]