Business

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

The hospitality sector has issued a plea for the chancellor to extend VAT support beyond April as rising inflation threatens to inflict more damage on an industry among those worst hit by coronavirus restrictions. UKHospitality said on Thursday that the COVID pandemic had resulted in almost £115bn of lost sales since March 2020 for its

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 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

There are many unknowns in the Russia-Ukraine situation. Will Russia invade? Will it stop short of invasion while taking other steps to destabilise Ukraine? Will it face European or American sanctions? What form would those sanctions take? And so on. But perhaps chief among the unknowns is what might happen to Europe’s energy supply. This

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Vast numbers of Brits are still working from home, despite being free to go back to the office since the government repealed its advice to work remotely nearly a month ago.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

US inflation has surged to its highest level in four decades according to new figures that add to pressure for interest rate hikes in the world’s biggest economy. Consumer price inflation climbed to 7.5% in January according to America’s Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS), intensifying a squeeze on consumers and wiping out the value of

The economy grew at its best annual pace on record in 2021 despite a December hit from measures to control the spread of the Omicron COVID variant, early official estimates have revealed. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed the pace of growth between October and December – the fourth quarter – was

Unilever, the consumer goods giant behind brands including Marmite and Magnum ice creams, has signalled that shoppers face further price increases as its own costs continue to rocket. The company, which said it was to cut 1,500 jobs in a global reorganisation just last month, used the publication of its annual results to estimate that

Workers seeking wage rises and firms trying to maintain profits in line with inflation could help sustain a spiral of prices and force further rate rise action, a top Bank of England official has warned. The Bank’s chief economist Huw Pill said officials expect these so-called “second round” effects to be contained but that if

Higher costs, more paperwork and border delays have been “the only detectable impact so far” of Brexit for British businesses, according to a new report by MPs. Trade volumes have been suppressed since the end of the transition period in December 2020 – though the COVID-19 pandemic and wider global issues were also key factors,

The energy regulator has told MPs that it estimated around £200m in household credit balances was lost through the failures of energy companies over the past year – with up to £10 set to be added to rocketing bills as a result. Ofgem chief executive Jonathan Brearley made his remarks as the business, energy and