UK house prices fell at their fastest annual pace for nearly 14 years in May, the Nationwide has said. The building society said prices in the year to May dropped by 3.4%, the biggest decline since July 2009. It also warned that more rises in mortgage interest rates could hit the housing market. Mortgage rates […]
Amazon’s main UK division has paid no corporation tax for the second year in a row after benefiting from tax credits on a chunk of its £1.6bn of investment in infrastructure, including robotic equipment at its warehouses. Amazon UK Services, which employs more than half of the group’s UK workers, received a tax credit of […]
Senior Tory MPs including former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and Jacob Rees-Mogg are calling for inheritance tax to be abolished. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt face a call from more than 50 of his MPs to scrap the tax, according to The Telegraph.
Toys ‘R’ Us will make its return to the high street after five years, revealing plans to open nine concession stands in WH Smith. In 2017, the children’s retailers declared bankruptcy after years of rising debt and dwindling sales and the following year it shut all 100 of its UK stores. Its collapse was linked […]
Almost 60% of people would like to see the UK government regulate the use of generative AI technologies such as ChatGPT in the workplace to help safeguard jobs, according to a survey. As leading figures in the tech industry call for restrictions on the rapid development of AI, research by the Prospect trade union suggests […]
Rail services will grind to a halt in parts of the country today as a fresh wave of strikes begins. Members of the train drivers’ union Aslef will walk out on Wednesday and again on 3 June, the day of the FA Cup Final, while members of the RMT will strike on Friday. Aslef said […]
Food inflation cooled slightly in May as lower energy and commodity costs finally showed signs of filtering down to consumers. According to data by the British Retail Consortium, grocery inflation fell to 15.4 per cent in during the month, down from 15.7 per cent in April – but remained the second highest inflation rate in […]
House prices are continuing to fall, according to a closely watched index, but transactions are ahead of the long-term average due to landlords selling up. According to estate agent Zoopla, landlord properties accounted for 11 per cent of sales in the last month, as high mortgage rates and energy bills forced many property owners to […]
Global businesses want a louder voice at the upcoming UN climate change talks, according to a new survey across 14 nations. The polling revealed that large businesses are increasingly losing confidence in the world’s ability to limit global warming below the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C threshold proposals. The researchers interviewed the top 100 revenue-ranked corporates across […]
Resilient UK SMEs are weathering the storm caused by the cost-of-living crisis and the economic fallout from Covid-19 and Brexit, according to new research. A survey of small business owners from across the UK, conducted by FreeAgent, has revealed the scale of the challenge facing the SME sector – with many business owners highlighting energy […]