Business

A new government scheme aimed at tackling long-term workplace sickness has been dismissed by business leaders and advisers as woefully inadequate, with critics warning it amounts to “emptying the ocean with a teaspoon”. The initiative, announced this morning by the Department for Work and Pensions, will fund occupational health training for 5,000 line managers working in small and medium-sized enterprises across England. The free training, delivered by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, will...

The founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, is among a group of Silicon Valley investors helping to bankroll Labour’s digital push against Reform UK on TikTok, raising fresh questions about the growing role of social media influencers in British politics. Labour has appointed FourOneOne, a digital marketing agency set up by figures behind the party’s 2024 general election campaign, to provide MPs with social media training and access to influencers. The firm has been tasked with...

The City of London is preparing to channel significantly more capital into defence as rising geopolitical tensions, and the growing threat posed by Vladimir Putin’s Russia, force a rethink of long-held investment priorities. Almost two-thirds of senior financial services leaders expect spending on Britain’s military capabilities to increase over the next year, according to new research from KPMG. More than a quarter of respondents believe defence investment will rise “much more” in the next 12...

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is once again fighting for survival at Ineos, as the industrial giant grapples with an £18bn debt mountain and an increasingly hostile debt market. Nervous bondholders have begun dumping Ineos debt at distressed prices amid a deep downturn in the global chemicals industry, opening the door for aggressive Wall Street hedge funds that specialise in exploiting corporate distress. Around £5bn of Ineos borrowings are now trading at levels that suggest investors are...

Hairdressers and barbers are joining pub landlords in banning Labour MPs from their premises, as anger intensifies across the high street over business rates, rising employment costs and what some owners describe as a “betrayal” by the government. Signs reading “No Labour MPs” have begun appearing in salon windows and barbershops, echoing a protest that has already seen more than 1,000 pubs bar parliamentarians from Keir Starmer’s party. The move follows widespread frustration with the...

A £5 billion tax raid on salary sacrifice pension schemes announced in Rachel Reeves’s Budget has emerged as the single most damaging policy for business confidence, according to new research from the Confederation of British Industry. Almost three-quarters (73%) of companies surveyed by the CBI said the move to levy national insurance contributions on pension salary sacrifice above a new cap was the most harmful measure in the Budget, warning it risks deterring workers from...

There’s a particular sound that stays with you once you’ve lived in the English countryside. Not birdsong, that’s too obvious, but the deeper rhythm of things: the tractor coughing into life at dawn, Chameau boots crunching on gravel, the hooves of the horses going out for a hack, the soft murmur of a village pub where everyone knows exactly why you’re there even if they’ve never seen you before. I had a house in rural...

Hospitals across England are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to ease pressure on accident and emergency departments, as a new AI-powered forecasting tool is deployed to help predict when demand will be at its highest. The system, now in use across 50 NHS organisations and available to all trusts, is designed to identify likely surges in A&E attendances days and weeks in advance. By analysing a wide range of data, from historical hospital admissions and...

New anti-fraud rules introduced at Companies House have led to a sharp drop in the number of new companies being registered in the UK, according to early data, as ministers claim the reforms are beginning to bite. Weekly incorporations have fallen by around 30 per cent since November, when legislation came into force requiring all new company directors and people with significant control to verify their identity. Acting as a director without verification is now...

The government is facing renewed political pressure to disclose whether Jeffrey Epstein played any role in discussions surrounding the sale of a taxpayer-backed commodities business during Labour’s last period in office. Senior Conservatives have tabled a series of parliamentary questions demanding clarity on the $1.7bn (£1.35bn) sale of parts of Royal Bank of Scotland’s Sempra joint venture to JP Morgan in 2010, when Lord Mandelson was business secretary. The intervention follows disclosures contained in an...