Business

Millions of households will discover on Thursday how much their energy bills will rise this spring after the regulator brought forward its announcement of the new price cap. Ofgem will reveal what is expected to be an increase of up to 50% to the price cap for gas and electricity, adding around £700 to bills

Emergency traffic measures to control congestion at the Port of Dover have already been used as many times this year as in the first six months of 2021 combined, following the introduction of new Brexit border checks. Figures provided to Sky News by National Highways reveal the Dover Traffic Access Protocol (TAP), designed to prevent

A retail lobby group has warned it will be “impossible” for the sector to shield shoppers from rising costs in the months ahead as till prices hit their highest level for almost 10 years. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said there was no let-up in sight for the price pressures facing the industry which, it

More than one in five people are cutting back on their use of gas and electricity as household budgets are squeezed by inflation, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show. The ONS said recent survey figures showed 66% of adults in Britain had experienced an increase in the cost of living over the

Wearing face masks on flights will be one of the last COVID measures to be dropped globally and could be enforced for years, experts have said. Different coronavirus measures around the world will mean airlines are unable to move individually in allowing passengers to travel without coverings, sources have told The Times. Other such travel

The academic bookseller Blackwell’s has put itself up for sale for the first time in its 143-year history after scrapping plans to hand ownership of the business to its employees. Sky News has learnt that Blackwell’s, which has been owned by its founding family since its first store opened in Oxford in 1879, has appointed

Labour is calling on Rishi Sunak to allow the National Crime Agency (NCA) to investigate fraud associated with the government’s COVID support schemes. In an opposition day debate in the Commons today, the party will urge the government to allow the “astronomical levels of fraud” committed during the coronavirus pandemic to be investigated. But the

Royal Mail has added special barcodes to stamps, making it possible for people to watch videos, read messages and view other information from senders. The move, which starts on Tuesday, follows a successful trial, with the aim of connecting a letter with the digital world. Customers can scan the barcodes while using the Royal Mail

PlayStation maker Sony has announced a $3.6bn deal to buy Bungie, the games developer behind titles such as Destiny. It comes two weeks after Microsoft, maker of the rival Xbox console, said it was paying $68.7bn for Activision Blizzard, whose titles include Call of Duty and Candy Crush. US-based Bungie was founded in 1991 and

The owner of Britain’s biggest chain of upmarket holiday villages is to launch a £4bn auction of the business after recording the most profitable half-year in its history in spite of pandemic-related operating constraints. Sky News has learnt that Brookfield Property Partners, the Canadian property giant, is paving the way to sell Center Parcs UK

UK entrepreneur Mike Lynch has lost a multi-billion pound fraud action brought over the sale of software company Autonomy to Hewlett Packard (HP) in 2011. The High Court judge found that HP had “substantially” succeeded in its bitter civil case but indicated that the US firm would get considerably less than the $5bn it had

Apple has shrugged off the impact of chip shortages to deliver record quarterly sales of $123.9bn (£92.6bn) and said the constraints will start to ease. The iPhone maker’s revenues for the three months to Christmas were 11% higher than a year ago even though the shortages put a $6bn dent in the figure – something

The competition watchdog has launched a wide-ranging investigation into the music streaming market. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) confirmed last October an intention to examine the sector but was yet to determine the full scope of its inquiry. It followed hot on the heels of a report by MPs the previous month that raised

The head of America’s central bank has declared there is “quite a lot of room to raise interest rates” as it stepped closer to a March hike. Jerome Powell, chair of the US Federal Reserve, made the remarks in a news conference after the bank declared that a hike would “soon be appropriate” – as

The chief executive of a major household energy supplier has cast doubt on whether the sector and government will be able to spare households from a huge spike in bills from April. Greg Jackson, the founder of Octopus Energy, used a letter to the three million households on its books to explain the options facing

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has taken an axe to its global growth forecasts while listing a string of threats to the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. The world’s lender of last resort downgraded a prediction, made in October, for 4.9% growth in collective gross domestic product this year, saying it now expected a

Consumer goods giant Unilever has confirmed plans to cut 1,500 jobs under a shake-up of its global operations. The maker of Dove soap-to-Marmite, which made the announcement after details were apparently leaked on Monday evening, said the cuts to senior and junior management roles were the result of a new, simpler organisational structure. The company

Consumer goods giant Unilever is preparing to cut thousands of management jobs across the business in a “major initiative” due to be announced within days. The cuts will form part of a shake-up, flagged last week by the Marmite to Domestos maker, intended to “drive greater agility, improve category focus, and strengthen accountability”. Unilever declined

Wholesale gas costs have risen sharply while Bitcoin and stock market values have plunged further as tensions over Russia’s intentions concerning Ukraine add to the cocktail of concerns being juggled by global investors. The market volatility builds on heavy sell-offs that saw the US Nasdaq index come under particular pressure and endure its worst week

The quoted bid vehicle pursuing a takeover of M&C Saatchi has tabled a fresh offer which includes a partial cash alternative for investors in the London-listed advertising group. Sky News has learnt that AdvancedAdvT, which is backed by the technology entrepreneur Vin Murria and serial dealmaking group Marwyn, submitted a revised bid to the board