Babcock and Rolls-Royce stocks rally after Healey appointment Industrials Defence stocks including Rolls-Royce have stormed to new highs as investors added to bets that the new Chancellor John Healey would plough further cash into London-listed arms companies. Defence supply giants Babcock and BAE Systems were among the biggest risers when markets opened on Tuesday, some 12 hours after former defence secretary Healey was appointed [...]
Defence and immigration help Serco weather outsourcing pressure Business Serco said a boost in defence contracts and higher demand for its immigration services across Europe helped offset delays in its North America business, as it reiterated guidance for the year. The FTSE 250 outsourcing group said revenue for the first six months of the year is expected to rise around three per cent to [...]
Serco hits back after Zia Yusuf accuses FTSE 250 firm of being ‘hostile to Reform’ Politics One of the UK government’s biggest private sector contractors has denied being hostile to Reform UK after the party’s home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf after accused it taking “political positions” against his immigration policy. Citing a report in the Telegraph that suggested FTSE 250 firm Serco would refuse to support Reform’s deportation plans if it [...]
Burnham would end asylum hotel contracts if he was PM, allies say May 30, 2026 Andy Burnham would end the multibillion-pound asylum accommodation contracts if he became prime minister, according to allies of the Labour leadership hopeful. Since March, the Home Office has had the opportunity to trigger a break clause in the ten-year contracts it signed with three private companies which are responsible for sourcing accommodation. The clause allows [...]
‘Cracks are showing’: Asylum contract deadline pushed back as pressure on Labour grows April 7, 2026 The Home Office has pushed back a crucial deadline for private sector companies to bid for a key asylum accommodation contract, piling pressure on the government to see through its effort to reform the wider immigration system. A deadline for businesses to engage the Home Office on a new contract for managing asylum accommodation has [...]
City AM Awards 2026: Meet the Finalists March 18, 2026 And the nominees are…. Personality of the Year Greg Jackson CBE The entrepreneur and CEO of Octopus Energy has become one of the UK’s most prominent business leaders, known for his straight talking and punchy views across a range of topics including UK entrepreneurship, the business environment, capital markets and, of course, energy. In August [...]
Defence boosts Serco amid asylum hotel decline March 5, 2026 Government defence contracts helped Serco deliver a higher profit in 2025 despite a drop in the use of migrant hotels, once a key revenue stream for the London-listed company. Serco, an outsourcing company that covers government work on everything from migrant hotels to waste collection, was boosted by higher state expenditure both in the UK [...]
Profit slashed at billionaire’s asylum accommodation empire November 5, 2025 Profit at one of the Home Office’s providers of asylum accommodation has been slashed in half during its latest financial year, it has been revealed. Clearsprings Ready Homes, which is run by ‘asylum king’ Graham King, has posted a pre-tax profit of £58.7m for the 12 months to 31 January, 2025. That total is down [...]
Big Brother: Can your employer monitor your whereabouts? September 1, 2025 As businesses grapple with the current economic challenges, the support measures previously offered to employees during the pandemic are being tightened. However, as companies adopt more stringent monitoring practices, the question arises: where is the line drawn between necessary oversight and the invasion of employee privacy? Headlines have been lighting up over the last year [...]
UK defence tech pivots from taboo to City darling August 28, 2025 The UK’s deep tech sector is navigating a seismic shift in investor sentiment toward defence technology. Once a frowned-upon sector, defence is now shedding its taboo, driven primarily by global instability and recent geopolitical headwinds. This transformation, while opening the doors to new investment opportunities, also reveals underlying issues in the UK’s approach to technology [...]