Business

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.

IKEA has purchased a second UK shopping centre amid plans to open its first British city store outside of London. The Ingka Group, which owns IKEA, confirmed it will open a store in Brighton city centre after buying Churchill Square Shopping Centre for an estimated £145m. Investment company Abrdn had originally hoped to sell the

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.

Nigel Farage will next week begin a formal legal fight with NatWest Group and its former boss as he seeks millions of pounds in damages over the debanking scandal which escalated into a crisis for the state-backed lender. Sky News has learnt that Mr Farage, the former UKIP leader, has instructed London-based Grosvenor Law to

£7.6m is a lot of money to leave on the table by anyone’s standards. NatWest Group, the taxpayer-backed bank, hopes that headline-grabbing number will persuade stakeholders that it has taken a tough line on the severance package handed to Dame Alison Rose, its former chief executive. Indeed, Dame Alison herself might claim that she herself

Families “should feel optimistic” that the worst of the cost-of-living crisis is over, the chancellor has told Sky News. Acknowledging households have “suffered enormously” from energy, food and fuel inflation in the last 18 months, Jeremy Hunt said they should now feel some relief despite the UK economy slowing to a halt in the third

Former NatWest boss Dame Alison Rose is to lose £7.6m of her payout as the bank group seeks to draw a line under the debanking row sparked by the closure of Nigel Farage’s Coutts accounts. However, she will still receive around £1.7m. Dame Alison stepped down in late July after admitting she discussed the former

The number of mortgage holders who have fallen significantly behind on their repayments has risen by 18% over the past year, according to industry data that suggests landlords may be struggling most. UK Finance said 87,930 homeowner mortgages were in arrears during the third quarter of the year – up 7% on the previous three

A regulator has outlined concerns about the “intensity of competition” between fuel retailers. In its first monitoring update since finding that drivers were overcharged by supermarkets last year, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was yet to receive crucial data on fuel margins covering September and October. It said that while margins –

US actors union Sag-Aftra has agreed a “tentative deal” with Hollywood studio bosses to end a historic 118-day strike. In an announcement on Wednesday, the union said the longest walkout in its history will end at 12.01am US Pacific time on Thursday following a “unanimous vote”. The union, which represents around 160,000 members of the

The Barclay family has renewed its efforts to persuade Britain’s biggest high street lender to regain control of the Telegraph newspapers after restating an offer to repay the bulk of the debt it owes to the bank. Sky News understands that the newspapers’ former owners wrote to Lloyds Banking Group again last week to repeat

After six months of falls house prices across the country are on the rise again, according to analysis from part of the UK’s biggest mortgage lender. Last month, for the first time since March, the cost of buying a house increased as the number of properties on the market shrunk, according to the Halifax house

Office sharing company WeWork – once regarded as one of the most valuable start-ups – has filed for bankruptcy in the US. The company, which rode the waves of the venture capital boom of the late 2010s with a promise to revolutionise flexible workspace, was valued at $47bn (£38bn) at its height. But its shares

British Steel has revealed a decarbonisation plan that could result in the loss of 2,000 jobs in Scunthorpe, according to unions. The Chinese-owned company confirmed it was to shut down its blast furnace and replace it with two cheaper, greener electric arc furnaces (EAFs) – one of which was to be located up the coast

White people are 36% more likely to receive a positive response when applying to rent a home than black people, Sky News has learned. Exclusive figures provided by Generation Rent show apparent racism currently in the rental market. The campaign organisation used artificial intelligence to set up two fake profiles, a black and a white

More than 16 million people have missed payments on key household bills this year – two million of them for the first time. The government-backed Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) says 30% of British adults have fallen behind on at least one payment in 2023. Credit card repayments were the most common bill that went

The England footballer Ollie Watkins is among a group of investors ploughing new funds into a fast-growing British online sneaker and streetwear marketplace. Sky News understands that Mr Watkins, who played for Aston Villa on Sunday in the 2-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest, is backing The Edit LDN, which has operated concessions in department stores

Seafood allegedly produced using the forced labour of Uyghur people in China may have been sold at Iceland – and could be on sale now at other British supermarkets, according to an investigation. Iceland told Sky News it no longer had a relationship with the Chinese supplier in question. Since 2018, the Chinese government is

Klarna, the buy now, pay later (BNPL) finance giant, is setting up a new British holding company as it clears the path to a stock market flotation that could value it at more than $15bn (£12.1bn). Sky News has learnt that the Stockholm-based consumer credit provider has informed investors it has kicked off preparatory work