Business

The UK will avoid tipping into recession this year but a greater number of homes – one-in-four – will struggle to pay elevated bills, according to an economic think-tank. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) said in a forecast that the squeeze on incomes from the energy-driven cost of living crisis and

Consumer spending remained broadly below inflation last month but people forked out for holidays and entertainment as pent-up demand was released. Closely watched data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG, as well as from Barclays, showed spending rose by 4.2% and 9.7% in value terms respectively in January compared with a year ago.

The bosses of Britain’s biggest housebuilders will hold talks with the chancellor this week as they face a multibillion-pound bill in the form of several new levies. Sky News has learnt that the executives from companies including Barratt Developments, Fairview and Persimmon will meet Jeremy Hunt on Tuesday. The Home Builders Federation (HBF), the leading

BP has revealed it is to miss a key climate goal while announcing record annual profits. The London-based firm said its main earnings measure, underlying replacement cost profit, came in at $27.7bn (£23bn) for 2022. That is more than double the previous year’s sum despite weaker oil and gas costs knocking its performance in the

The German automotive giant BMW is in talks with the government about a £75m funding package that would secure production of electric Minis at its Oxfordshire plant. Sky News has learnt that BMW is negotiating with officials at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) over a grant from Whitehall’s Automotive Transformation Fund.

Netflix has said that updated measures to crack down on password sharing were posted by mistake. Following widespread disappointment on social media, with many threatening to cancel their memberships, the streaming giant claimed some new account rules being trialled in other countries had accidentally been added to its help pages elsewhere. While subscribers have been

Google looks set to unveil how it plans to rival the wildly successful ChatGPT AI, possibly within days. The technology giant has scheduled a 40-minute event for Wednesday 8 February, when it will reveal how it is “reimagining how people search for, explore and interact with information”. “Join us to learn how we’re opening up

Elon Musk did not deceive his investors when he tweeted in 2018 that he had the funding to take Tesla private, a jury has found. Investors had sought to sue the SpaceX owner for billions of dollars because his tweet caused Tesla’s shares to soar, only to crash 10 days later when it became clear

A current employee in British Gas’s debt recovery team has told Sky News that staff feel pressured to force the installation of prepayment energy meters on customers in debt. The employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he had seen an increase in the number of indebted customers since the cost of living crisis began,

London’s FTSE 100 Index has reached an all-time high at 7905 earlier this afternoon. The Financial Times Stock Exchange index of the 100 most valuable companies on the London stock exchange beat the previous record of 7,903.5 set in May 2018. It comes as central banks – including the Bank of England and the US

The energy regulator Ofgem has asked suppliers to suspend the forced installation of prepayment meters and review their processes for dealing with customers who have fallen into arrears. Sky News understands the regulator made the request on Thursday after it was revealed that debt collectors working for British Gas had forced their way into the

The Bank of England has raised UK interest rates by a further half percentage point to 4%, but gave its clearest signal yet that borrowing costs may now be nearing their peak. This was the Bank’s tenth successive interest rate increase, but in the accompanying documentation, it hinted that there is a chance it might

About 2.3 million households missed an essential payment in January – an increase of 400,000 on the month before, but similar to previous years. Essential payments – which include mortgages, rent, loans and credit cards – often peak in January, according to Which?’s consumer insight tracker. The monthly poll of approximately 2,000 people discovered that

Britain’s second-biggest steel producer has been drawing up secret plans to axe hundreds of jobs even as it continues talks with ministers about £300m of taxpayer funding that would partly depend on decade-long employment guarantees. Sky News has learnt that British Steel has been discussing launching a consultation on around 800 redundancies, principally focused on

Corporate insolvencies have reached their highest level since the aftermath of the great financial crisis, official figures show. There were 22,109 insolvencies in 2022, the highest figure since 2009 and an increase of 57% from 2021, when 14,059 businesses went bust. Businesses are reeling from the end of the pandemic support packages, which provided a

Shop prices have yet to reach their peak – despite record highs seen in January, it has been warned. Prices are now 8% higher than they were last January, up from 7.3% in December and above the three-month average of 7.5%, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC)-NielsenIQ Shop Price Index. Overall food inflation rose

Support for trade unions is rising even though strike action is bringing public services to a standstill , Sky News polling shows. Industrial relations are at their most fractious since the 1980s, with the country having lost more than a million working days to strikes last year. Despite this, sympathy for striking public sector workers

Arrival, the UK start-up focusing on development of commercial electric vehicles, has revealed that it is to cut its workforce by half as it focuses on incentives to build its operations in the United States. The company said the layoffs, part of a plan to significantly reduce costs, would leave it with 800 employees globally.

Flybe is a smaller, less significant business than when it collapsed for the first time in March 2020, but a second failure in three years raises questions not just for prospective owners, but the connectivity of the UK. Three years ago the failure of what was then Europe’s largest regional airline was blamed on the

The first “blank cheque” company to list in London after an overhaul aimed at helping the City compete with rival financial centres is in talks to merge with a privately owned drugs group developing treatments for chronic diseases. Sky News has learnt that Hambro Perks Acquisition Company (HPAC) is in advanced negotiations about a deal,