Wilko could be making a comeback as a retail boss has revealed plans to reopen nearly 300 branches of the high street chain across the UK – with three set to reopen before Christmas. Billionaire founder of The Range Chris Dawson is reportedly working on deals which are ‘with the lawyers’ to get 50 shops […]
Amazon has become the latest tech giant to announce a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence (AI). It said that the bot, called Q, would help businesses to do things like summarise long documents or group chats and would increase productivity. It comes a year after OpenAI’s bot ChatGPT shook the market, sparking a rush among […]
Thousands more families are renting smaller homes than they were three years ago. Renters aged over 30 are more likely to move to cheaper areas as the cost of renting has soared and availability squeezed, Dataloft figures also show. The consultancy said trade-offs were needed so people could stay in budget. The National Housing Federation […]
Media presenter Kaye Adams of Atholl House Productions Limited has won her IR35 case after nine years and four tax tribunal hearings. Judge Tony Beare delivered his decision on 29 November 2023, again upholding Ms Adams’s appeal. None of the four hearings ruled that HMRC was right to claim that Ms Adams was a “deemed […]
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has taken a 10% stake in Heathrow for £1bn from the Spanish infrastructure company Ferrovial, which is selling off its holding in Europe’s biggest airport after 17 years. Ferrovial has sold its entire 25% stake in Heathrow’s parent company, FGP Topco, for £2.4bn, with a 15% share of the firm […]
Rolls-Royce will sell its electric flight division as it focuses on improving profits in its jet engine business, under a new plan from its chief executive, Tufan Erginbilgiç. The FTSE 100 manufacturer will aim for record operating profits of between £2.5bn and £2.8bn a year, compared with £837m in 2022, it said in a strategy […]
Annual shop prices inflation is at its lowest level since June 2022, a survey suggested yesterday. Shop prices in early November were 4.3 per cent higher than they had been a year earlier, down from the 5.2 per cent inflation reported in October and from the peak of 9 per cent inflation recorded in May, […]
UK tech chiefs gathered in Parliament last night to discuss the country’s chronic skills crisis with MPs, business leaders and government policy makers. Speaking at the Parliament Street think tank’s Digital Skills Summit on Monday night, which was hosted by Dean Russell MP for Watford and chaired by Steven George-Hilley of Centropy PR, the panel of […]
Eurostar services from the Netherlands to London will be suspended for six months from June next year. Renovation work in Amsterdam means officials will be unable to process cross-Channel passengers until 2025. Passengers from Amsterdam and Rotterdam to London will be required to change trains in Brussels. Outbound travel from London to the Netherlands will […]
Customers and businesses who bank with HSBC UK are facing disruption on one of the busiest days for online purchases after the lender’s mobile and digital services were hit by an outage. The group said it was investigating the situation “as a matter of urgency” after thousands of customers complained of problems with online banking. […]