Business

Taxes on personal income are set to go down in Wednesday’s autumn statement and reduce again in the spring budget, as the chancellor focuses on low and middle income working families. The Politics at Jack and Sam’s podcast, by Sky News and Politico, reveals the overwhelming focus of the autumn statement will be on helping

Jeremy Hunt will this week pledge to review the rules governing payment authentication in what he will describe as a post-Brexit crackdown on fraud. Sky News understands that the chancellor will signal in Wednesday’s autumn statement that the government will seek to repeal EU legislation and replace it with new rules overseen by the City

There will be a lot of positive talk from the chancellor when he delivers his autumn statement on Wednesday, but this will be a fiscal event full of illusory gains. The government is on track to borrow less than previously forecast, which will give rise to a fantasy that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has more space

A court hearing to liquidate a Barclay family holding companies in order to smooth a sale of The Daily Telegraph is poised to be adjourned after a last-gasp offer to repay more than £1bn to Lloyds Banking Group. Sky News understands that a hearing scheduled to take place in the British Virgin Islands on Monday

Jeremy Hunt has said there is the chance to lower taxes in the autumn statement next week, arguing the economy had “turned a corner”. Ahead of Wednesday’s financial announcement, the chancellor said that as inflation had halved over the year, “this is the moment” to focus on growth. But he argued that there is a

Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the Glazer family are on the brink of finalising a $33-a-share deal that will see the petrochemicals tycoon acquiring a 25% stake in Manchester United Football Club. Sky News can reveal that months of talks between the Ineos billionaire and the Red Devils’ controlling investors for the last 18 years have

In the narrow lanes around Aldham in Essex the countryside is close to the English ideal. On an unseasonably warm mid-October day the fields recede to a low horizon, broken only by hedgerows and the spire of the parish church, the tallest landmark this side of Suffolk. If National Grid has its way it won’t

Hotel Chocolat has agreed to a £534m takeover offer from Mars, the maker of goods from Snickers bars to Pedigree dog food. The UK specialist chocolatier retailer said the offer represented a 170% premium to its London share price of 139p and the deal would allow its brand to expand internationally This breaking news story

The chancellor has been called on to freeze business rates and to extend reliefs as business lobbyists warn a failure to do so risks jobs, businesses and the future of the high street. A host of hospitality groups have also asked for an extension of and increase in the retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) business

Manchester United has confirmed its chief executive of two years, Richard Arnold, “has decided to step down” as part of a “management transition”. The development was revealed shortly after Sky News reported that Mr Arnold would be replaced by the club’s general counsel, Patrick Stewart, on an interim basis. The change is taking place as

The chancellor has agreed to address the CBI’s first public event since the business lobbying group was plunged into crisis earlier this year. Sky News has learnt that Jeremy Hunt will be among the keynote speakers at the CBI’s annual conference in London next week, just seven months after declaring that there was “no point”

The pace of wage growth has eased back from a record level, according to official figures that also showed no change in the UK’s jobless rate despite the tough economy. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that average wages excluding bonuses were 7.7% higher than a year earlier in the three months to September.

The energy watchdog has introduced rules to speed up the amount of time it takes energy projects to connect to the national grid and begin powering it. New Ofgem regulation will allow stalled energy schemes to be kicked off the list of generators and storage projects waiting to be connected, freeing up space for ready-to-go

Royal Mail has been fined £5.6m by the industry regulator for missing targets covering both first and second-class deliveries. Ofcom said that for the 2022-23 financial year – a time when it was hit by 18 days of strikes by frontline workers – Royal Mail’s reported performance results showed that it had only delivered 73.7%

An infrastructure investor owned by Schroders, the fund management behemoth, is in pole position to buy a solar farms operator that received hundreds of millions of pounds from a scandal-hit local authority. Sky News understands that Schroders Greencoat has become the leading contender to acquire Toucan Energy, which collapsed into administration exactly a year ago.