Business

Transport for London has secured around £1.2bn in funding from the government, but the city’s mayor has warned the agreement is “far from ideal”. The funding package replaces TfL’s last bailout, which was the fourth since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. Andy Byford, Transport for London commissioner, said the agreement, which

Energy price increases of more than 300% are in danger of forcing pubs and brewers across the UK out of business in the coming months, industry leaders have said. Unlike domestic customers, who are facing an 80% increase in average bills in October, businesses operate without any sort of regulated price cap, with some pub

Asda is preparing to accelerate a long-awaited move into Britain’s convenience store market with a £450m swoop on the Co-op Group’s petrol forecourt business. Sky News has learnt that Asda is the leading contender to buy the mutual’s fuel retailing arm, which includes a sizeable convenience operation. Sources said a deal could be struck as

Millions of people in the UK will not turn their heating on this winter because of rising energy bills, a survey suggests. The poll, commissioned by the Liberal Democrats, showed 23% of adults plan to take this drastic move, rising to 27% for those with children at home. The results also showed 23% would be

The struggling fashion chain Joules’ hopes of securing a lifeline from the high street behemoth Next have hit a stumbling block days after it issued a fresh profits alert. Sky News has learnt that the two companies are not close to agreeing the terms of an investment from Next more than three weeks after confirming

Liz Truss is considering a “nuclear” option that could see VAT cut from 20% to 15%, according to reports. A source told Sky News that Ms Truss “will consider options to help people but it would not be right for her to announce her plans before she has been elected prime minister or seen all

We have never seen anything like this.  The UK has been through all sorts of ups and downs (sadly more of the latter than the former) in recent years. There was the financial crisis of 2008 and the recession that followed, a lost decade of stagnating real wages and productivity, Brexit and of course the

Britons on £45,000 salaries will need government help to pay their energy bills – not just people on benefits, the chancellor has warned. Nadhim Zahawi also told The Daily Telegraph that households must try and reduce their energy consumption, and that he fears gas prices could remain elevated for another two years. Energy bills will

Millions of households will see their energy bills rocket as the price cap is hiked to £3,549 a year, plunging many into financial hardship. The record 80% October increase, announced by the regulator Ofgem, will see a typical default tariff customer paying an extra £1,578, laying bare the deepening cost of living crisis. The rise

A third of households are already struggling to pay their energy bills, an exclusive poll for Sky News has found. This is without the additional pain from the rise in the energy price cap, which will be announced on Friday and is expected to push up bills by a further 80% from October. According to

The business secretary has warned Royal Mail that a Czech billionaire’s bid to raise his stake in the company faces a national security investigation. The news was revealed by Royal Mail in a notification to the London Stock Exchange, saying that Kwasi Kwarteng “reasonably suspects” that Vesa Equity Investment might increase its stake from 22%

The government must increase its energy bills discount by at least 150% or risk pushing millions of households into financial distress. That is the warning from consumer group Which? ahead of Friday’s announcement of the energy price cap for the three months from October. It comes as British Gas announced it will donate 10% of

A British aerospace company backed by Boeing and Rolls-Royce Holdings is plotting a flight-path towards an eventual public flotation. Sky News has learnt that Oxfordshire-based Reaction Engines has told shareholders that it intends to raise a pre-IPO round of funding in about 18 months, paving the way for the company to sell shares publicly. In

The minimum wage should be raised to £15 an hour, the Trades Union Congress says, as it declares it is “time to put an end to low-pay Britain”. Currently, workers aged 23 and over are entitled to a minimum wage of £9.50 with lower rates for younger employees, but the TUC says all workers should

UK private sector growth has moved closer to stagnation as it slowed to a new 18-month low, dragged down by a slump in factory output, latest data indicates. The closely watched S&P Global/CIPS Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) composite flash estimate dropped to 50.9 in August from 52.1 in July, its lowest since February 2021 and