Royal Mail has said it will need to rise prices and cut costs in the face of soaring inflation. The company warned that it sees “significant headwinds” from rising costs including wages, energy and fuel. Royal Mail revealed that it aimed to make cost savings of £350m over the course of its current financial year […]
The chairman of Marks & Spencer has backed government plans to override parts of the Northern Ireland protocol, saying that some food exported south of the border now requires 700 pages of customs documents, partly written in Latin. Archie Norman, a former Conservative MP, called on the UK government and EU to come to an […]
The business department’s handling of Covid support schemes left an “open goal” to fraudsters and embezzlers that has added “billions to taxpayer woes”, parliament’s spending watchdog has found. In its review of the annual report of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said it recognised that the […]
The UK’s unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest in nearly fifty years but workers are still suffering sharp falls in real income as wage growth lags behind soaring inflation. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the country’s jobless rate dropped to 3.7 per cent from 3.8 per cent in the […]
The average price of a litre of diesel has hit a high of just over £1.80 a litre – and could rise even further if the EU ban on Russian oil goes ahead. The RAC reported that the price a litre in the UK has outstripped the previous record of £1.79, set in March after […]
Tesco is to hand pig farmers £6.6m in additional support, taking the total to £10m, after warnings that a slew of producers could go out of business. The UK’s biggest supermarket said farmers would get £6.6m until August on top of £3.4m handed out since March under an “accelerated and enhanced payment plan”, after being […]
Home improvement business Screwfix is to create 800 retail jobs by January as part of plans to open 80 new shops across the UK and Ireland. The retailer’s sales were boosted during the pandemic as locked-down Britons hired tradespeople to spruce up their properties and gardens. Screwfix and B&Q owner Kingfisher enjoyed profits of more […]
Greggs has said it has a “good” start to 2022 after launching 49 new shops in the first 19 weeks of the year. The sausage roll seller said its sales had increased 27.4 per cent compared to the same time last, from £378m in the first 19 weeks of 2021 to £495m this year. The […]
Lifestyle brand Made.com lowered its expectations for the rest of 2022, with both gross sales and revenue expected to drop 15 per cent and seven per cent respectively. These projected figures differ from the initial zero per cent and eight per cent expected in sales and revenue this year. Although MADE’s performance has remained strong […]
HMRC collected a record £157.2bn from VAT bills in in the last tax year, a 55 per cent jump on the £101bn collected in 2020/21, after businesses were forced to make up for VAT payments they deferred during the pandemic. Accountants have said that HMRC’s VAT income has risen sharply after the rate of VAT paid […]