How many days a week is the FTSE 100 spending in the office? January 29, 2025 In an exclusive poll for City AM, Joanna Hodgson surveys major firms to see if hybrid working is still king in the UK A three-day office week is dominant among some of Britain’s biggest companies, with employers spanning insurance, financial services and property continuing to embrace flexible working in 2025, findings from an exclusive City [...]
Morrisons sales surge as customer loyalty pays off January 29, 2025 Eating into the market share of its rivals and growing its loyalty card scheme helped sales surge at supermarket giant Morrisons during its latest financial year. The Yorkshire-headquartered chain has reported a revenue of £15.2bn for the 12 months to 27 October, 2024, up from £14.7bn. Its group like-for-like sales also increased from 1.8 per [...]
United Utilities and Pennon to hike dividends in line with inflation as customer bills rise January 29, 2025 United Utilities and Pennon Group plan to increase dividends as consumers grapple with significant bill increases over the next five years. The water firms on Wednesday both said dividends would rise in line with inflation each year until 2030, following Ofwat’s final determination in December. The regulator’s ruling, which sets customers’ bills for the next [...]
Libby’s Naked Diary: How I created a limited edition wine with amazing artist Nigel Stefani January 29, 2025 MY FRIEND, Nigel Stefani, is the least likely looking ‘Nigel’ you could meet. A muscular, tattooed, shaven-headed chap, invariably dressed in all-black with smoky black eyeliner and a dusky melodic voice. I picked him up at The Bike Shed, a biker bar in Shoreditch, one New Year’s Eve. Platonically that is, though my opening line [...]
London’s top spot for super-prime property crowned January 29, 2025 Belgravia has taken the crown as London’s most-sought-after super prime neighbourhood, home to more than a tenth of sales in the capital last year and overtaking Chelsea for the first time since 2020. The area was even home to London’s first super prime deal of 2025, a £38m mansion on Wilton Crescent. “Belgravia has benefited from [...]
Big Law and the four day week? No, they’re moving the other way January 29, 2025 Big Law is resisting the four-day workweek trend, with City firms opting for at least four days in the office, and sometimes more
Government must improve its cybersecurity, warns UK watchdog January 29, 2025 The government must fix its significant deficiencies as the cyber threat landscape outpaces its current defensive strategies, UK watchdog has warned. According to Wednesday’s report by the National Audit Office (NAO), the UK has a huge shortage of skilled cyber security professionals within its government departments. Gareth Davies, head of NAO, said: “The risk of [...]
Grow, baby, grow… but will Labour’s growth agenda be enough? January 29, 2025 City AM’s politics reporter, Jessica Frank-Keyes, unpacks the week in Westminster. Today, she tackles Labour’s growing promises. Picture a graph with the x axis stretching from 1800 to the present day. The data is represented as a fairly flat line along the bottom, up to about 1960. Then it bumps around at about a quarter [...]
Want Gen Z to believe in democracy? Why not actually try it January 29, 2025 Reports that Gen Z are increasingly disillusioned with democracy aren’t surprising. Too many powers in Britain have been handed to unelected quangocrats with no skin in the game while autocracies like China and the UAE are offering superficially attractive alternatives, says James Price “Democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other forms [...]
Venture capital prospects are a bright spot for the UK economy January 29, 2025 Despite fears about the Budget and Donald Trump, venture capital rebounded strongly in 2024 and the view is looking optimistic for the years ahead, says Nicole Lowe It is fair to say that 2024 was a rollercoaster year when it came to venture capital (VC) investment. Major elections and political shifts on both sides of [...]