Business

The average price tag for a home has shot up by almost £8,000 in the space of a month as the easing in the COVID crisis sparks renewed interest in city living, according to a report. The Rightmove website said its measure of asking prices stood at a record level of £348,804 following the jump

An American investment giant is plotting a £5bn takeover of Motor Fuel Group (MFG), Britain’s biggest independent operator of petrol forecourts. Sky News has learnt that Fortress Investment Group is drawing up plans to bid for MFG after losing out in a hotly contested auction of Wm Morrison, the supermarket chain, last year. By coincidence,

A former boss of Amazon UK is being lined up as the next president of the CBI, Britain’s most influential employers’ group. Sky News has learnt that the CBI was due to ratify Brian McBride’s appointment as Lord Bilimoria’s successor at a board meeting on Friday afternoon. Mr McBride, who chairs the rail ticket booking

Britain is currently in the grips of its worst storm in nearly 30 years, with rare red warnings issued for large swathes of the country. Schools have been closed, and at least 80,000 homes are without power. So what can you do if Storm Eunice directly impacts you? Will my insurance cover damage to my

Retail sales rebounded in January after falling in December, posting their biggest monthly rise since the shops reopened last spring. Despite rising prices due to inflation, volumes jumped by 1.9% last month following a drop of 4% in December, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), triggered by surging rates of Covid-19. The figures

NatWest announced a swing back to profit in 2021, aided by the UK’s economic recovery, but warned of storm clouds on the horizon as inflation begins to bite. The taxpayer-owned bank reported pre-tax profits on Friday of £4bn for 2021, up from a £351m loss it made the previous year. British lenders have been boosted

As Storm Eunice barrels towards the South West of England, the UK’s energy watchdog has issued an initial report on the impact of Storm Arwen last November, which left more than a million homes without power. Ofgem found that network operators were hard to reach in the aftermath of the storm, with many customers waiting

Aldi, named recently by Which? as the UK’s cheapest supermarket, has now been declared the worst for online order substitutions by the consumer group. A report covering grocery deliveries, which have shot up in demand over the past two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, also found that substitute foods across the sector did not

The golden visa scheme many Russian oligarchs use to live in the UK will be closed as soon as this week, Sky News understands. A government source said the Tier 1 investor visa scheme will be closed by the home secretary. Those who invest at least £2m in the UK are offered residency through the

The widow of a sub postmaster wrongly convicted of theft has told Sky News that the Post Office “contributed” to his death. Julian Wilson, who ran a post office in Astwood Bank, Worcestershire, took a plea deal in 2008 after auditors found more than £27,000 missing in the branch accounts. He was among some 700

Inflation hit 5.5% in January, its highest rate since March 1992, as the cost of living in Britain continued to surge, official figures show. The consumer price index (CPI) measure of inflation, up from 5.4% in December, was in line with economists expectations – as clothing, housing, and furniture prices climbed higher, the Office for

The latest official figures for employee earnings confirm what workers have known for some time: even for those whose wages have gone up, the money is not going as far. Increases in regular pay (excluding bonuses) of 3.7% to December, rising to 4.3% if bonuses are included, look superficially healthy from an employee point of

Pay packets across Britain grew by 6.3% in January when compared with the same month in 2021, just outstripping the 5.4% rate of inflation, according to the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) data. Meanwhile, wages were 10.3% higher in January 2022 than before the pandemic started in February 2020. Recent labour market data has shown how

Vast numbers of Brits are still working from home, despite being free to go back to the office since the government repealed its advice to work remotely nearly a month ago. Boris Johnson announced on 20 January that in England the working from home guidance would be withdrawn immediately. Despite this, between 19 January and

Markets around the world were rattled on Monday morning as they digested news that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could be imminent, dealing a blow to investors already nervous about rising inflation. European indexes, including the UK’s FTSE 100, Germany’s Dax and France’s CAC 40, all fell several percentage points at the start of the

Amazon and Spotify are considering rival takeover approaches for Audioboom, the London-listed podcasting group which has seen revenues and its share price surge during the pandemic. Sky News has learnt that the two digital behemoths have been exploring bids for Audioboom in recent weeks, and could decide whether to make formal offers as soon as

Jack Monroe has praised Asda for cutting the cost of products in its Smartprice range – and making them more widely available. The poverty campaigner had gone viral last month after writing a Twitter thread to warn official inflation figures “grossly underestimated” the impact that the cost-of-living crisis was having on Britons with low incomes.

NatWest Group, the taxpayer-backed lender, is to start a search for a successor to Sir Howard Davies, the City grandee who has chaired it for the last seven years. Sky News has learnt that NatWest’s board has kicked off internal discussions about the launch of a process to fill what was once one of the

The cost of a homemade G&T could become more expensive as the price of popular tonic waters soars. The price of mixers made by brands such as Schweppes and Fever-Tree has increased sharply over the last month, according to shop price data from the research firm Assosia. Quoting the report, The Guardian said the price

The government has been warned it is falling dangerously behind in its plans to build a British battery industry, with manufacturing capacity forecast to be barely half the needed level by the end of the decade, according to internal documents seen by Sky News. The dossier of figures submitted to the Department for Business, Energy