Airlines including Wizz Air and Ryanair owe millions of pounds to passengers from unpaid refunds and expenses, according to an investigation by the consumer group Which?.
Category: News
The latest news affecting small and medium sized (SME) businesses in the UK
Rolls-Royce secures funds to develop nuclear reactor for moon base
Rolls-Royce has received funding from the UK Space Agency to develop a nuclear reactor for a moon base.
Visitors to the UK’s leading attractions down 25% on pre-Covid numbers
Visitor numbers at the UK’s leading attractions are still almost a quarter lower than before the pandemic, thanks to a perfect storm of Covid, Brexit, energy prices and the wider financial crisis, according to the sector’s trade body.
Royal Mail CEO accused of ‘incompetence or cluelessness’ by MPs
The chief executive of Royal Mail has been accused of “incompetence or cluelessness” by MPs calling on the regulator Ofcom to investigate whether the company broke legal service requirements.
Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group snaps up Luton mall in £58m deal
Mike Ashely’s Frasers Group has snapped up The Mall in Luton in a £58m deal as the retail giant expresses its “confidence in the future of the UK high street”.
Virgin Orbit stops operations and furloughs almost all staff
Virgin Orbit has paused its operations and furloughed its workforce as it hunts for a funding lifeline.
Britain slips to 29th in global life expectancy rankings
The UK now ranks 29th in a global chart of life expectancy, down from seventh place in 1952, according to new analysis.
John Lewis falls to £78m loss and ditches staff bonus
The John Lewis Partnership has confirmed that it will ditch the annual bonus for its 74,000 employees next year after it sank back into the red.
Deliveroo shares slide as 350 jobs loss spooks market confidence
Deliveroo shares have continued to pedal downwards this morning as investors struggle to regain confidence in the brand following its decision to slash some 350 job roles and disastrous IPO listing.
Grant Shapps backs nuclear power in net zero push
Nuclear must form part of a decarbonised portfolio of energy production, argued Grant Shapps, energy and net zero secretary.
Immigration rules relaxed for builders and carpenters
Overseas bricklayers and carpenters could be able to get work visas more easily in the UK after the government updated its shortage occupation list.
Make capital allowances permanent, firms urge
Business groups have urged the government to make permanent a new £9 billion-a-year capital allowances scheme designed to stimulate investment.
Key points as Jeremy Hunt announces Spring Budget
Jeremy Hunt announced his Spring Budget today, with many for UK business, those looking to get back into the employment market
Britishvolt owed £160m at its collapse
Britishvolt collapsed owing about £160 million to unsecured creditors who are unlikely to see a significant dividend from the company’s insolvent estate.
![Jeremy Hunt hit the TV and radio studios yesterday like a whirlwind. Hours into his new job as chancellor, his task was to calm the financial markets, which had so brutally moved against his predecessor and triggered surging borrowing costs for homeowners. But has he done enough? Can his words calm turbulent gilt yields when trading opens on Monday morning? The risk is that markets will be hugely volatile on what will be the first time in two weeks that the Bank of England is not standing behind gilts, or government bonds, ready to buy them to ease pressure on pension funds. IN YOUR INBOX Business briefing In-depth analysis and comment on the latest financial and economic news from our award-winning Business teams. Sign up now Hunt’s media appearances were seen as an attempt to address the problems Kwarteng had created with the unfunded tax cuts in his mini budget. Acknowledging that mortgage rates have already rocketed — to as high as 7 per cent, according to some estimates — Hunt pledged credible tax and spending policies. “No chancellor can control the markets or should ever seek to do so. But the thing that is within your power is to demonstrate certainty in public finances,” he told the BBC. ADVERTISEMENT Rupert Harrison, an adviser to George Osborne when he was chancellor and now at BlackRock, said Hunt’s comments were a “turning point”. “Markets now have someone in the Treasury who gets it and who they can trust,” he said. There has been an unprecedented sell-off of gilts in the past two weeks amid fears that the tax cuts proposed by Kwarteng would fuel inflation and force the Bank of England to raise interest rates. Markets are pricing in a rise of a full percentage point from the Bank next month to take the base rate to 3.25 per cent. Even after Kwarteng’s replacement by Hunt on Friday afternoon, bond markets kept selling. Some analysts have suggested they will keep attacking until Truss resigns. Economist Julian Jessop, who has been advising the Truss camp, said Hunt’s pledge of fiscal discipline meant “Trussonomics” had been junked. SPONSORED “The whole point about Trussonomics was growing the economy ... not about a combination of tax cuts and big cuts in spending [the traditional approach]”. Jessop has previously said that Kwarteng’s mini budget went too far in announcing tax cuts, as this had spooked the markets. Hunt attempted to show yesterday that he would start work on plans to balance the books ahead of the budget planned for October 31. Unlike with the mini budget, the Office for Budget Responsibility will publish economic forecasts to accompany the government’s fiscal plans. He acknowledged to the BBC that two mistakes had been made by Kwarteng: abolishing the 45 per cent top rate of income tax; and the decision to “fly blind” without the OBR forecasts. On Friday, Truss also ditched plans to reverse a rise in corporation tax from 19 per cent to 25 per cent. That will raise £18 billion. ADVERTISEMENT Hunt also warned about “difficult decisions” on spending and taxes. “We’re going to ask all government departments to find efficiencies,” he said. “But we’re also going to have pressure on the tax side — taxes are not going to come down by as much as people hoped, and some taxes will have to go up.” George Buckley, economist at Nomura, said more detail was still needed. The reversal of the corporation tax move, he argued , “goes only a portion of the way”. Business leaders, as well as the financial markets, were watching Hunt’s performances closely. Dominic Blakemore, chief executive of FTSE 100 catering giant Compass, said the events of the past few days had been “pretty shocking”. “Throughout, we’ve needed robust, fully costed plans, because markets just can’t operate without that and in a vacuum,” he explained. Phil Urban, chief executive of FTSE 250 pub chain Mitchells & Butlers, called the situation “ shambolic”. “Business is probably realising that it can’t rely on government or politics to sort things out. So we’re just focusing on what is in our gift to do,” said Urban. One FTSE 100 boss, who did not want to be identified, resorted to expletives to describe his frustration. Describing Truss and Kwarteng as “goons”, he added: “Every single household is spending most of their time trying to balance their books, and our f***ing prime minister and chancellor don’t have to? Are you f***ing taking the piss?” His view was that Truss also had to go, to restore credibility. And that may be what the markets start to demand when trading resumes on Monday. ADVERTISEMENT Jessop said: “I don’t think Hunt did anything that would upset the markets or surprise them. But markets don’t like uncertainty. Uncertainty about economic policy — that’s maybe eased a little bit. But now we’ve got an increase in political uncertainty as we can’t be sure who the prime minister is going to be next weekend.”](https://b3935509.assetcdn.net/2.0/3935509/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Jeremy-Hunt-230x129.jpg?lossy=2&strip=1&webp=1)
Jeremy Hunt announces extension to energy price guarantee
Jeremy Hunt has confirmed that the energy price guarantee that limits the typical annual bill to £2,500 is to be extended.
