Business

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 head of markets at the National Grid Electricity System Operator has told Sky News that its new energy saving scheme “is likely how we’re all going to operate in the future.” The new Demand Flexibility Service, which allows consumers to volunteer to use less electricity at times of peak demand to help avoid blackouts,

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,

After Flybe went into administration on Saturday, many travellers will be out of pocket having bought tickets, while others are stranded in their outbound destination. Flybe has told its passengers to “not travel to the airport” unless they have arranged alternative flights with another airline. What are passengers’ rights if your flight is cancelled? Flybe

Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, is closing in on a multibillion pound deal with Britain’s biggest housebuilders to help resolve the national cladding crisis exposed by the 2017 Grenfell Tower disaster. Sky News has learnt that major companies including Barratt Developments and Persimmon are preparing for the imminent signing of a legally binding contract

Jeremy Hunt became chancellor because he was the most sensible candidate left standing in the wake of Liz Truss’s catastrophic mini-budget. Four months on, he’s earned praise for balancing the books but still had a blank space to fill in when it comes to growth – a crucial plank of economic policy in danger of

Asda’s owners have revealed a planned shake-up that places hundreds of jobs at risk and will see thousands moved to lower-paid roles. The UK’s third-largest grocery chain by market share said its changes were the result of an “efficiency” drive but they were met with stinging criticism by the GMB union. The company has proposed

Royal Mail’s parent firm has raised its estimate for the cost of industrial action so far to £200m and claimed that up to 12,500 union members have worked on strike days. International Distributions Services (IDS) said 18 days of walkouts at Royal Mail helped push the division to a £295m operating loss in the first

A London-based estate agent chaired by the former Sainsbury’s chief Justin King is on the brink of a deal to buy rival Marsh & Parsons. Sky News has learnt that Dexters, which is privately owned, has been in talks for weeks with LSL Property Services, Marsh & Parsons’ London-listed parent company. Sources said a deal

A proposed reunion of two parts of Rupert Murdoch’s empire has been abandoned by the media tycoon. The 91-year old and his son Lachlan had floated the idea of bringing together News Corp, the US company behind the Wall Street Journal, Harper Collins and The Times newspaper, and Fox News owner Fox Corp. The two

Darren Westwood knows how to stick up for himself. As a kid, he was bullied in the playground and beaten up in his local town centre. Now he doesn’t take stick from anyone, no matter how big or strong they appear, even if they happen to be one of the biggest companies in the world.

Thousands of pensioners left facing an uncertain retirement by the collapse of Sir Philip Green’s high street empire are on the verge of a funding deal backed by one of Britain’s biggest insurers. Sky News has learnt that the trustees of the Arcadia Group pension scheme are close to striking a binding deal with Aviva

It’s hard to imagine the internet without Google. The tech giant has become so synonymous with searching the web that it has become a verb – we don’t look it up, we “Google it”. Google ended 2022 as it ends every year, as the most visited website in the world. Its estimated share of the