Business

The bank executive who helped to transform Virgin Money into one of Britain’s biggest high street lenders has landed a role at the helm of a British-based digital wealth manager. Sky News understands that Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia will on Monday be unveiled as chair of Moneyfarm. Dame Jayne-Anne’s appointment will ignite speculation that Moneyfarm, which

Grant Shapps has launched a crackdown on energy suppliers, following reports some are not doing enough to support vulnerable customers amid the cost of living crisis. The Business and Energy Secretary has written a letter to energy suppliers, telling them to stop the practice of forced fitting prepayment meters as the answer to families struggling

The outgoing chief executive of Rightmove is among a pack of contenders to become the next boss of Future, the Marie Claire and Wallpaper publisher. Sky News has learnt that Peter Brooks-Johnson, who will leave the property portal in March, has been shortlisted to succeed Zillah Byng-Thorne, the media group’s veteran chief. Mr Brooks-Johnson is

The Treasury is close to agreeing a £300m aid package for the UK’s second-biggest steel producer in a move aimed at reducing its carbon footprint and averting the loss of thousands of industrial jobs across northern England. Sky News has learnt that Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, has been advised by officials to approve a request

Google workers in the UK and Ireland face uncertainty after its parent company Alphabet announced 12,000 jobs are to be axed globally. The Silicon Valley giant employs more than 5,000 staff in both countries, but the company would not be drawn on how the mass redundancies would impact them. The “difficult news” about the job

Lloyds Pharmacy is to pull out of 237 in-store Sainsbury’s branches, potentially putting more than 2,000 jobs at risk and exposing the financial pressure on UK pharmacies at the height of the NHS crisis. Lloyds Pharmacy, which bought Sainsbury’s 280-strong pharmacy network in 2015 in a deal worth £125m, said it would close the branches

Argos will shut all of its stores in the Republic of Ireland in June this year, the company said on Thursday, following a “period of careful consideration”. The move is expected to result in 580 employees losing their jobs and the closure of 34 sites across the country. The company, which sells electronics, gadgets, and

Ferry services to and from Calais are suspended today because of a national strike in France. P&O Ferries says it had produced an “optimised” sailing schedule, but has warned a “lack of details” means it cannot anticipate how much disruption there will be. “If your journey is not essential, we do advise that you rearrange

Britain’s battery sector has been delivered some unexpected good news, after an Australian billionaire told Sky News he will be opening an advanced battery plant in Oxfordshire later this year, creating up to 300 new jobs. Andrew Forrest, the founder of the Australian iron ore giant Fortescue, said he was expanding operations at WAE Technologies,

Billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe has confirmed his interest in buying Manchester United. The 70-year-old’s chemical firm Ineos announced it had formally lodged interest with the club’s current owners, the Glazer family. “We have formally put ourselves into the process,” an Ineos spokesperson said. There have been other expressions of interest, with Saudi and other money

Microsoft is preparing to axe thousands of jobs in the latest move by one of the world’s biggest technology companies to reduce its workforce in the face of a slowing global economy. Sky News has learnt that the US software giant could announce plans to cull a significant number of posts around the world within

The governor of the Bank of England has told MPs there is still “something of a hangover effect” in the wake of the mini-budget market chaos last year but declared that the hit to mortgages was over. Andrew Bailey used remarks to the Treasury committee to declare that market conditions had returned to normal after

Davos, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and its founder, Klaus Schwab, have become more famous than ever before in the past couple of years – albeit not for the reasons they might have wanted. As COVID-19 spread and the world battled the pandemic, Mr Schwab and the WEF, not to mention regular delegates such as

A stricken financial services group that has had its shares suspended amid apparent accounting irregularities will this week disclose that it has received takeover approaches for parts of its business. Sky News has learnt that MJ Hudson, which floated on London’s junior stock market on the day of the 2019 general election, will announce on

The energy watchdog must step in to penalise price-gouging behaviour by energy suppliers, according to the head of the lobbying group representing thousands of pubs, restaurants, hotels and gyms across Britain. In a letter to the chief executive of Ofgem from Kate Nicholls, the boss of UK Hospitality, which has been seen by Sky News,

Land Securities Group, the FTSE-100 property owner, is lining up one of Britain’s most prominent boardroom figures as its next chairman. Sky News has learnt that Sir Ian Cheshire, the chairman of Channel 4 and Spire, the private hospital operator, has emerged as the leading candidate to replace Cressida Hogg as Landsec’s chairman. People close

Attempts to settle public sector pay disputes have been undermined by “spiteful” anti-strike legislation tabled by the government this week, the UK’s senior union official has told Sky News. Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), vowed to fight the proposed laws “tooth and nail”, and questioned whether ministers negotiating with public

Good news has been in such rare supply in economics recently that it’s worth dwelling on it when it arrives. This morning, on Friday 13th of all days, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced that the economy had grown by 0.1% in November. This is hardly especially strong gross domestic product growth, but it’s

The economy grew by 0.1% in November, partly aided by the football World Cup, according to official figures which call into question predictions the UK is already in recession. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed pressure on demand from the effects of high inflation, but a boost from people packing pubs and

The Treasury is set to make £3.8bn in profit from the intervention the Bank of England made in markets last year. The Bank bought £19.3bn worth of government debt – or gilts – in the wake of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng‘s mini-budget in September. Soaring interest rates put some pension funds at risk of