News

Britain’s retailers limped to the end of 2025 after a lacklustre Christmas trading period, with non-food sales failing to deliver the seasonal boost many high street businesses were relying on. New figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) show overall retail sales rose by just 1.2% in December compared with a year earlier — well below the 12-month average growth rate of 2.3%. While food sales proved resilient, demand for non-food items such as clothing,...

Senior Labour backbenchers are pressing the government to force UK banks to expand lending to small businesses and low-income communities, warning that a lack of affordable finance is holding back entrepreneurship and economic resilience. Gareth Thomas, a former business minister, has tabled a 10-minute rule bill that would require banks to measure, disclose and improve how they serve underserved communities and smaller firms. The proposal mirrors the US Community Reinvestment Act, which obliges American banks...

Up to 3,000 skilled manufacturing jobs could be at risk unless the Ministry of Defence moves quickly to place a long-delayed helicopter order, according to industry sources close to the programme. Workers at Leonardo Helicopters’s Yeovil site in Somerset, the UK’s last remaining military helicopter factory, fear the company could close the facility as early as the end of March if the government fails to commit to a new contract within weeks. Leonardo, the Italian-owned...

Alphabet has become one of the world’s most valuable companies after its market capitalisation briefly passed $4 trillion, following confirmation that Apple will integrate Google’s artificial intelligence technology into its products this year. The boost came after Apple said it would introduce the technology underpinning Google’s Gemini chatbot into its ecosystem, including Siri, marking a major strategic endorsement of Alphabet’s AI capabilities. Alphabet’s class A shares rose 1.7 per cent on the announcement, briefly touching...

Karavel, an AI-powered compliance platform built for highly regulated sectors, has secured £1.25 million in pre-seed funding in a round led by Fuel Ventures. The investment will support product development and accelerate Karavel’s commercial expansion across the UK and Europe, as the company looks to modernise compliance workflows for organisations facing increasingly complex regulatory scrutiny. Karavel is designed for legal, compliance and marketing teams operating in sectors such as financial services, fintech, insurance, healthcare and...