A decision on whether to bring forward the date when the state pension age rises to 68 has been postponed until after the next general election, the government has announced. Responding to a review of the UK retirement system’s funding, the work and pensions secretary, Mel Stride, told MPs on Thursday that now was not […]
NatWest and Lloyds are to axe a further 81 bank branches as both announced fresh cuts to their high street networks. Lloyds Banking Group is closing 39 branches – 26 Lloyds Bank outlets, nine Halifax branches and four Bank of Scotland outlets – between July and September this year. NatWest Group said it was shutting […]
Ocado Group has seen off claims from an international rival “goods retrieval” company that alleged the British online retailer and technology group had stolen several of its technology inventions. A High Court judge ruled that two patents held by the Norwegian company were invalid and that, regardless, Ocado had not infringed them. In its claim […]
Virgin Orbit will lay off 85 per cent of its workforce after the satellite launch business failed to find new funding in the face of a cash crunch. Shares in the group, founded by Sir Richard Branson in 2017, tumbled sharply in out-of-hours trading in New York last night after it announced it would cut […]
Business confidence has risen to its highest level in ten months as companies become increasingly optimistic about filling staff shortages, according to the latest Lloyds Bank business barometer. An easing of wage demands from last year’s highs boosted optimism among business leaders that they will be able to recruit staff, according to the survey of […]
A gas-fired power station and plants making low-carbon hydrogen will be among Britain’s first projects to capture their carbon emissions under plans unveiled by the government yesterday. A cement works, a lime plant and energy-from-waste projects were also among eight winning carbon capture and storage schemes across Teesside, the northwest and north Wales that have […]
UK car production rose 13.1% in February, up to 69,707 units, according to the latest figures published today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Factories made an additional 8,050 cars, with volumes buoyed by an easing of supply chain shortages – notably of semiconductors – which have bedevilled the global industry since […]
Eamonn Holmes has lost an appeal over a tax ruling associated with his earnings as a presenter on This Morning. Upper Tribunal judges upheld a previous decision that the 63-year-old broadcaster should pay tax as an ITV employee for his work on the programme, rather than as a freelancer. In a judgment given on Wednesday, […]
Twitter has reversed course on plans to limit presence on its “for you” timeline to paying users only, with Elon Musk claiming he “forgot to mention” that other users would be visible as well. When the company’s owner first announced the plan on Tuesday he said it would limit the tab that algorithmically curates tweets […]
Start-ups backed by venture capital (VC) could be wiped out in droves this year as cash dries up and investors turn off the taps, analysts have warned. The venture capital sector globally has been buffeted by rapid interest rate hikes and wild market gyrations in the past 12 months, with investors dramatically scaling back investment […]