Business

Corporate insolvencies have reached their highest level since the aftermath of the great financial crisis, official figures show. There were 22,109 insolvencies in 2022, the highest figure since 2009 and an increase of 57% from 2021, when 14,059 businesses went bust. Businesses are reeling from the end of the pandemic support packages, which provided a

Tesco is poised to snap up the Paperchase brand in a surprise swoop that will cast a shadow over hundreds of high street jobs. Sky News has learnt that Britain’s biggest supermarket chain is in advanced talks about buying Paperchase’s name and other intellectual property through a pre-pack administration that could take place as early

Support for trade unions is rising even though strike action is bringing public services to a standstill , Sky News polling shows. Industrial relations are at their most fractious since the 1980s, with the country having lost more than a million working days to strikes last year. Despite this, sympathy for striking public sector workers

Flybe is a smaller, less significant business than when it collapsed for the first time in March 2020, but a second failure in three years raises questions not just for prospective owners, but the connectivity of the UK. Three years ago the failure of what was then Europe’s largest regional airline was blamed on the

The first “blank cheque” company to list in London after an overhaul aimed at helping the City compete with rival financial centres is in talks to merge with a privately owned drugs group developing treatments for chronic diseases. Sky News has learnt that Hambro Perks Acquisition Company (HPAC) is in advanced negotiations about a deal,

After Flybe went into administration on Saturday, many travellers will be out of pocket having bought tickets, while others are stranded in their outbound destination. Flybe has told its passengers to “not travel to the airport” unless they have arranged alternative flights with another airline. What are passengers’ rights if your flight is cancelled? Flybe

Passengers due to travel with Flybe have been told not to go to the airport after the regional carrier ceased trading and all flights were cancelled. The airline has gone into administration less than a year after returning to the skies following a previous collapse. Ticket-holders were advised to check the Civil Aviation Authority website

HS2 will end at Euston after reports the high-speed line could stop before reaching central London, the chancellor has confirmed. Jeremy Hunt said he did not see “any conceivable circumstance” the original plan would not be followed and that he was “incredibly proud” of the work going ahead. The endpoint of the line came into

Jeremy Hunt became chancellor because he was the most sensible candidate left standing in the wake of Liz Truss’s catastrophic mini-budget. Four months on, he’s earned praise for balancing the books but still had a blank space to fill in when it comes to growth – a crucial plank of economic policy in danger of

Ian King speaks to the CEO of the London Technology Club about why it’s a challenging time for global investment in the sector. Plus, hear from the chief executive of Airtel Africa about how population growth is expected to affect business. And more on the bakery chain that’s promising the most lavish doughnuts London’s ever

The Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley is to offload Britain’s biggest independent operator of high street slot machine venues. Sky News has learnt that the bank, which owns GameNation through a fund that it manages, has hired bankers to kick off an auction of the business. GameNation, which trades from 50 sites across the UK,

Britain’s two biggest steelmakers would be required to guarantee thousands of jobs for a decade in return for £600m of government support to help decarbonise the industry. Sky News has learnt that Grant Shapps, the business secretary, has told Tata Steel and British Steel that they must safeguard UK-based jobs for ten years if they

Shares in listed companies controlled by one of the world’s richest men have lost $48bn (£39bn) in market value over three days after a report by a short seller that claimed he was behind the “largest con in corporate history”. Shares of Gautam Adani’s flagship Adani Enterprises sank by 20% on Friday alone after Wednesday’s

Asda is facing the prospect of strike action unless it makes significant concessions on its self-styled “efficiency” plans that have placed thousands of jobs at risk, a union source has told Sky News. GMB representatives met late on Thursday – hours after Asda revealed a set of proposals that mainly involved moving away from some

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has dismissed economic “gloom” in a major speech today as he promised to use “Brexit freedoms” to increase growth and productivity in the UK. Speaking at Bloomberg’s European headquarters in London, he attacked “declinism”, instead saying the country was “poised to play a leading role in Europe and across the world in

It’s hard to imagine the internet without Google. The tech giant has become so synonymous with searching the web that it has become a verb – we don’t look it up, we “Google it”. Google ended 2022 as it ends every year, as the most visited website in the world. Its estimated share of the