Business

You can’t have Christmas without cardboard, or Boxing Day without a box for that matter. Corrugated board and the paper from which it’s made – fibre as it’s known in the industry – is a fundamental raw material during the festive season. Many parents will be familiar with a child enjoying the box more than

New economic support for the hospitality sector “borders on insulting” and amounts to “far too little”, the Treasury has been told. Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced an additional £1bn in financial support for the hospitality and leisure sectors, with every business able to claim a cash grant of £6,000 to help them survive the winter.

Rishi Sunak has announced an additional £1bn in financial support for the hospitality and leisure sectors, with every business able to claim a one-off cash grant of £6,000. The Treasury is also providing a £30m top-up to the Cultural Recovery Fund – which supports institutions such as museums and theatres – and reintroducing the Statutory

Manchester United Football Club is to unveil Richard Arnold as its new boss following a turbulent period that has seen the sacking of its manager and a backlash over its involvement in the abandoned European Super League (ESL). Sky News has learnt that the Premier League club could announce to the New York Stock Exchange

The UK’s tech sector has enjoyed a record year with start-ups attracting more capital than ever before, new data shows. During what was the tech sector’s best year since 2014, some £29.4bn was raised by start-ups and scale-ups, according to figures prepared for the government’s Digital Economy Council, which were released on Monday. That was

Additional funding to tackle the coronavirus pandemic in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland has been doubled – after the health secretary refused to rule out a two-week circuit-breaker lockdown. The devolved administrations can now spend an additional £860m, the Treasury said, after extra measures and guidance to tackle Omicron were announced by the first ministers

Sir Dave Lewis, the former Tesco chief, will this week be appointed to lead the £40bn separation of GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) consumer healthcare arm. Sky News has learnt that Sir Dave, who became one of Britain’s most respected corporate figures during his six years running Britain’s biggest retailer, has agreed to become non-executive chairman of the

Marks & Spencer (M&S) has drafted in headhunters to shape a three-way internal contest to become its next chief executive – a process that could see the appointment of the first female boss in the chain’s 137-year history. Sky News has learnt that M&S’s nominations committee has hired MWM Consulting, a leading search firm, to

In Bristol, the last full working Friday before Christmas didn’t feel like it. A day informally reserved for sneaky shopping, long-lunches and perhaps a stagger home still wearing a party hat looked more like a Sunday. Restaurants and bars that have been banking on December trade found themselves wondering where the next customer was coming

Chancellor Rishi Sunak and his team has held meetings with business leaders as pressure mounts on the government to provide assistance to companies impacted by the Omicron variant. Mr Sunak cut short his trip to the US to hold more talks with business chiefs in response to the fresh COVID crisis on Friday. He and

Retail sales rose by 1.4% in November, lifted above their pre-pandemic level by an increase in sales at clothing stores and computer stores. Volumes were 7.2% higher last month than February 2020 levels, according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), indicating a bounce back from the lows of the pandemic.

The Bank of England has announced a pre-Christmas interest rate hike from 0.1% to 0.25% despite fears over the economic impact of the Omicron variant. Officials have been under pressure to act with inflation at a ten-year high but many observers still thought the Bank would hold fire as the new wave of COVID-19 cases

Rishi Sunak has been urged to “get on a plane” back to the UK amid a growing clamour for support for businesses hit by warnings over Omicron. The chancellor is under pressure to respond because, though hospitality firms and shops remain open, they face a slump in trade thanks to Plan B work from home

Schroders, one of Britain’s biggest fund managers, is taking another big step into environmentally-friendly investments by buying control of a major renewable energy investment group for about £360m. Sky News has learnt that Schroders is in advanced talks to buy a 75% stake in Greencoat Capital, which ranks among the largest UK-based managers of renewable

Inflation surged to 5.1% last month, hitting a fresh decade high as the cost of living squeeze on households intensified. The consumer prices index (CPI) measure of inflation in November was up from 4.2% in October and well ahead of expectations that it would hit 4.7%. It has not been higher since September 2011. It

Britain should be “ready to redeploy” furlough aid if it faces a virulent COVID-19 wave requiring widespread lockdowns, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said. The IMF said fresh waves of the pandemic and the uncertainty they bring represented the “major risk” to the economic outlook. It pointed to a “mild slowdown” in growth in

The UK’s unemployment rate has fallen while there is further evidence that the end of the furlough scheme in September did not result in sweeping job losses, according to official figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the jobless rate fell to 4.2% in the three months to October as employment continued to recover

Britain’s financial system is healthy enough to withstand even a cataclysmic recession, the Bank of England has said, following its annual set of stress tests on the country’s major banks. The Bank said that even if there were a recession involving a rise in the unemployment rate to 12% and a house price crash of

Working households are facing the worst Christmas wage squeeze in almost a decade, according to a report by the TUC. The union organisation demanded the government deliver a “proper plan to get pay packets rising“, arguing that pressure on budgets from soaring bills and falls in wages were only set to intensify in the months

A robotics and automation company backed by Walmart, America’s biggest grocery retailer, is finalising plans for a $4.5bn (£3.3bn) merger with a ‘blank cheque’ company created by the Japanese technology giant SoftBank. Sky News has learnt that Symbotic is within days of concluding a combination with SVF Investment Corp 3, a New York-listed special purpose