Business

The golden visa scheme many Russian oligarchs use to live in the UK will be closed as soon as this week, Sky News understands. A government source said the Tier 1 investor visa scheme will be closed by the home secretary. Those who invest at least £2m in the UK are offered residency through the

The widow of a sub postmaster wrongly convicted of theft has told Sky News that the Post Office “contributed” to his death. Julian Wilson, who ran a post office in Astwood Bank, Worcestershire, took a plea deal in 2008 after auditors found more than £27,000 missing in the branch accounts. He was among some 700

Inflation hit 5.5% in January, its highest rate since March 1992, as the cost of living in Britain continued to surge, official figures show. The consumer price index (CPI) measure of inflation, up from 5.4% in December, was in line with economists expectations – as clothing, housing, and furniture prices climbed higher, the Office for

The latest official figures for employee earnings confirm what workers have known for some time: even for those whose wages have gone up, the money is not going as far. Increases in regular pay (excluding bonuses) of 3.7% to December, rising to 4.3% if bonuses are included, look superficially healthy from an employee point of

Pay packets across Britain grew by 6.3% in January when compared with the same month in 2021, just outstripping the 5.4% rate of inflation, according to the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) data. Meanwhile, wages were 10.3% higher in January 2022 than before the pandemic started in February 2020. Recent labour market data has shown how

Vast numbers of Brits are still working from home, despite being free to go back to the office since the government repealed its advice to work remotely nearly a month ago. Boris Johnson announced on 20 January that in England the working from home guidance would be withdrawn immediately. Despite this, between 19 January and

Markets around the world were rattled on Monday morning as they digested news that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could be imminent, dealing a blow to investors already nervous about rising inflation. European indexes, including the UK’s FTSE 100, Germany’s Dax and France’s CAC 40, all fell several percentage points at the start of the

Amazon and Spotify are considering rival takeover approaches for Audioboom, the London-listed podcasting group which has seen revenues and its share price surge during the pandemic. Sky News has learnt that the two digital behemoths have been exploring bids for Audioboom in recent weeks, and could decide whether to make formal offers as soon as

Jack Monroe has praised Asda for cutting the cost of products in its Smartprice range – and making them more widely available. The poverty campaigner had gone viral last month after writing a Twitter thread to warn official inflation figures “grossly underestimated” the impact that the cost-of-living crisis was having on Britons with low incomes.

The cost of a homemade G&T could become more expensive as the price of popular tonic waters soars. The price of mixers made by brands such as Schweppes and Fever-Tree has increased sharply over the last month, according to shop price data from the research firm Assosia. Quoting the report, The Guardian said the price

NatWest Group, the taxpayer-backed lender, is to start a search for a successor to Sir Howard Davies, the City grandee who has chaired it for the last seven years. Sky News has learnt that NatWest’s board has kicked off internal discussions about the launch of a process to fill what was once one of the

The government has been warned it is falling dangerously behind in its plans to build a British battery industry, with manufacturing capacity forecast to be barely half the needed level by the end of the decade, according to internal documents seen by Sky News. The dossier of figures submitted to the Department for Business, Energy

The economy grew at its best annual pace on record in 2021 despite a December hit from measures to control the spread of the Omicron COVID variant, early official estimates have revealed. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed the pace of growth between October and December – the fourth quarter – was

US inflation has surged to its highest level in four decades according to new figures that add to pressure for interest rate hikes in the world’s biggest economy. Consumer price inflation climbed to 7.5% in January according to America’s Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS), intensifying a squeeze on consumers and wiping out the value of

Unilever, the consumer goods giant behind brands including Marmite and Magnum ice creams, has signalled that shoppers face further price increases as its own costs continue to rocket. The company, which said it was to cut 1,500 jobs in a global reorganisation just last month, used the publication of its annual results to estimate that