Britain’s pubs are at “breaking point”, hospitality chiefs have warned, after new figures reveal that the number of pub and bar insolvencies has risen 83 per cent in the last year. According to data published by accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young, some 512 pub and bar companies went bust in 2022, up from 280 the […]
Cuts to post-Brexit farming payments mean farms risk “going out of business” as new figures reveal only a tiny fraction of slashed EU subsidies went to agriculture businesses last year. The government is replacing the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which paid subsidies to farmers to keep them in business, with “payments for public goods”, […]
Scottish salmon was the UK’s biggest food export in 2022, new HMRC figures have revealed. Sales of the nutritious fish grown in cold waters off the Highlands and islands reached £578 million in the calendar year, with France leading the global demand. European destinations dominated as the sector continued to bounce back from Brexit. Scottish […]
Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt will host some of the UK’s most prominent industry leaders on Friday as part of a drive to drum up fresh investment to revive the UK’s struggling economy. The prime minister, who is expected to attend remotely, and the chancellor will address 200 business executives – including many of the […]
NatWest has announced it will stop offering loans to new customers hoping to fund oil and gas exploration, extraction or production projects, as part of a wider climate transition plan due to be unveiled next week. The banks’s chief executive, Alison Rose, said similar steps would be taken to phase out the same funding for […]
British-based employees are expected to bear the brunt of hundreds of job cuts at Deliveroo. Will Shu, the delivery group’s chief executive and founder, told staff yesterday that it would cut 9 per cent, or about 350 jobs, at all levels, but the redundancies would not include riders who deliver its takeaways. They are self-employed. […]
Britain has paid a fine of more than £2.3 billion to Brussels for allowing Chinese gangs to flood Europe with cheap clothes and shoes. In an announcement slipped out before the parliamentary recess, the Treasury revealed it had paid the European Union to settle a long-running dispute over lax customs checks when Britain was a […]
Google is searching for ways to reassure people that it is still out in front in the race for the best artificial intelligence technology. And so far, the internet giant seems to be coming up with the wrong answer. An advert designed to show off its new AI bot, showed it answering a query incorrectly. […]
The UK needs almost a million new plumbers, bricklayers and other trades over the next decade just to keep pace with demand, an industry report has claimed. The UK Trade Skills Index, conducted by Capital Economics on behalf of Checkatrade, the directory of tradespeople, said that the nation was facing an “urgent and alarming” shortage […]
Europe’s market-leading lorry manufacturer must pay Royal Mail and BT about £20 million as part of a landmark cartel damages ruling that could pave the way for further compensation orders. Competition experts predicted that DAF, a company based in Eindhoven in the Netherlands, will pay Royal Mail alone more than £17 million after the competition […]