Business

More than 100 Conservative MPs have made a fresh plea to Chancellor Rishi Sunak to do more to support pubs and clubs at next week’s budget. In a letter to Mr Sunak, the group of Tory backbenchers have called on the chancellor to maintain a freeze on alcohol duties when he delivers his budget on

Green bonds offering savers the chance to back the government’s environmental projects are going on sale – but experts think the “paltry” returns on offer will see demand wilt. The bonds, described as the first ever green savings product issued by a country, go on sale online via the Treasury-backed National Savings & Investments (NS&I)

Britain is to phase out a tax on revenues made by the likes of Facebook, Google and Amazon – which was expected to have raised billions – after global reforms were agreed. The UK last year launched a 2% digital services tax on sales by search engines, social media services and online marketplaces, which netted

Household banks and asset managers have invested tens of billions of pounds financing businesses involved with deforestation, according to a new report. The research, undertaken by Global Witness and shared exclusively with Sky News, reveals the scale of investments being made in controversial and destructive agribusiness and, for the first time, calculates that financial institutions

Petrol retailers have been accused of “taking a bigger cut” by a motoring group after warning that record pump prices are expected within days. The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) – which shot to public prominence last month as the industry grappled delivery problems that sparked weeks of panic-buying in areas of England – blamed rising

Netflix has hailed the “mind-boggling” success of Korean hit Squid Game as it posted better than expected subscriber growth and pencilled in a further acceleration over coming months. The streaming giant revealed that 142 million households had watched the series – already the group’s biggest TV show – in the first four weeks since its

The government’s net zero strategy will “support up to 440,000 jobs” by 2030, a business minister has said – as he announced a move towards the end of the sale of new petrol and diesel cars. The new plan, published on Tuesday, has the intention of dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions to reach the government’s

Households will be able to apply for a £5,000 grant to swap their gas boiler for a low-carbon heat pump, as part of government plans to cut emissions. The government announced that the £450m Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which is part of the more than £3.9bn funding to cut carbon from heating and buildings, will be

A global shipping services firm has told Sky News it could be another “18 months” before the industry weathers the sea of challenges causing massive disruption to the supply chain. James Gundy, the chief executive of Braemar Shipping Services, warned that container bottlenecks around the world were only part of the problem and only going

Facebook plans to hire 10,000 people in the European Union over the next five years to help build its metaverse, the social media giant has announced. The social network announced in July that it was creating a product team to work on the metaverse, which would sit within Facebook Reality Labs, its augmented reality and

A former boss of Gucci is being lined up by Carlyle, the global buyout giant, to fashion a fresh growth spurt at End, the British online clothing business it bought this year. Sky News understands that Patrizio di Marco, who left Gucci in 2014 and subsequently had a spell with Dolce & Gabbana, another famed

The backlog of cargo ships at the busiest port complex in the US – images of which have come to define the global supply chain crisis – is unlikely to return to normal before next summer. The executive director of the Port of Long Beach in California says plans to switch to 24/7 operations, pushed

Matthew Moulding, the boss of the online beauty, nutrition and technology services group THG, is to surrender his golden share in the company in an attempt to restore the City’s confidence after a torrid fortnight. Sky News has learnt that the owner of The Hut Group, which floated just over a year ago, will announce

If the trainee truckers the haulage industry so desperately needs could change direction as fast and frequently as government ministers they would sail through the HGV test. The latest U-turn, executed to address the supply chain crisis, comes from the Department for Transport, and even by the standards of recent weeks it is a screecher.

Job adverts have soared by over 600,000 since late August to a new record high, according to the latest figures released. The number of vacancies in the UK is currently sky-high, a sign that the labour market is yet to fully recover following the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Between 4 and 10 October there

The government wants to change how frequently overseas HGV operators can deliver in the UK to help solve the current supply chain problems. A consultation on extending “cabotage” rights will be launched on Friday to try to shore up supply chains and prevent shops running out of goods or increasing prices due to an HGV

Britain should prioritise economic growth over environmental protections in trade deals, according to a leaked government document obtained by Sky News. Environmental safeguards should also not be treated as a red line when other countries demand they are broken in trade agreements, according to the paper drawn up by officials in the Department for International

The EU has offered to cut 80% of checks on some goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland in an effort to avoid a post-Brexit trade clash. It has drawn up plans designed to ease the flow of items across the Irish Sea, including chilled meats, to put an end to the so-called “sausage

UK economic growth picked up in August as bars, restaurants and festivals benefited from a first full month without COVID restrictions in England, official figures show. Gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 0.4% month-on-month, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – slightly below experts’ average forecast of 0.5% growth. However the report also

There are almost 10,000 fewer licensed premises across Britain since the start of the coronavirus pandemic – with a rush of closures taking place since the summer despite a reopening of the economy, according to a report. The latest market recovery monitor from industry consultants CGA and business advisory firm AlixPartners said the sector, including