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Britain is “at the edge of a crisis” and Labour must “change tack” to revive the faltering economy, according to one of the country’s most respected business leaders. Lord Stuart Rose, the former boss of Marks & Spencer and Asda, said “we should all be worried about the state of Britain” and called for “radical action” to restart growth and create jobs. His stark warning came just a day after Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos revealed...

Lord Alan Sugar has become the latest high-profile business leader to attack remote working, insisting that young people “just want to sit at home” and need to get their “bums back into the office.” Speaking to the BBC, the 77-year-old entrepreneur and star of The Apprentice said workplace culture had suffered in the years since hybrid and flexible policies were introduced during the pandemic. “I’m a great advocate of getting them back to work,” Sugar...

Farmers across England say they feel “abandoned” as thousands of long-standing environmental land management contracts are due to expire at the end of the year, with no clear replacement in place. According to a Freedom of Information request by the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), 5,830 Countryside Stewardship (CS) agreements will finish in December. The schemes provide financial incentives for nature-friendly measures such as insecticide-free farming, wildflower strips and hedgerow maintenance. For farmers like David Barton,...

Staff at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have taken more than half a million sick days in each of the past three years, fuelling concerns over productivity and taxpayer service levels. A Freedom of Information request revealed that HMRC employees were absent for 551,064 days between August 2024 and July 2025. This was down slightly from 565,244 the year before, but still higher than the 540,052 recorded between August 2022 and July 2023. With a...

Hospitality businesses across London should be given a rent and business rates holiday to help them cope with the disruption caused by tube strikes, according to leading audit, tax and advisory firm Blick Rothenberg. Andrew Sanford, a partner at the firm, said many restaurants, bars and cafés are located in Transport for London (TfL) properties, and urged the Mayor, Sadiq Khan, to step in with immediate support. “The Mayor should give them a rent and...

EDF has launched a new partnership with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) aimed at helping more than 150,000 small firms reduce their energy costs, cut carbon and gain greater control over their consumption. Through the collaboration, FSB members will gain access to a dedicated online hub featuring free resources such as guides, blogs, videos, webinars and focus groups. The hub is designed to provide practical advice on how to manage energy more efficiently, while...

British workers are taking more sick days than at any point in the past 15 years, with staff absent for the equivalent of nearly two working weeks on average over the past 12 months, new research shows. Figures from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) reveal absence levels have risen sharply since the pandemic, up from just over a week of sick leave per worker on average before 2020. The trend has been...

Britain has recorded the steepest decline in hiring intentions of any major European economy, as employers struggle with the fallout from last autumn’s £26bn payroll tax raid and brace for another squeeze in the Chancellor’s November Budget. Data from recruiter ManpowerGroup UK shows the UK labour market is slowing at a pace unmatched elsewhere in Europe. Before last year’s Budget, 41 per cent of British employers planned to expand their workforce, while only 13 per...