Business leaders, I beseech you, join the government and steer the ship of state April 29, 2026 Business leaders embody the antithesis of what the government machine has become, which is why it needs them, writes Ameer Kotecha.
John Caudwell: Mentoring isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s an economic imperative April 29, 2026 Mentoring young people is early-stage investment in human capital , and the results are clear, writes John Caudwell.
Sadiq Khan’s ideological aversion to profit is blocking London housebuilding April 29, 2026 Just as measures to stimulate the housebuilding sector are being warmly received, Sadiq Khan is undermining efforts with talk of rent caps, writes Andrew Teacher.
West Brom shock at 24-hour verdict while Manchester City case drags on April 29, 2026 West Bromwich Albion have been left shocked at how swiftly the judgement was reached in the EFL Profit and Sustainability case that cost them a points deduction. Last week it was announced that the Championship club would be docked two points for a breach of spending rules. The two-day hearing concluded on Thursday evening, and [...]
‘Slightly unnerving’: Greene King enlists AI to answer pub phones April 29, 2026 Greene King has turned to AI-generated assistants to staff its bars as hospitality firms battle to absorb rising costs, Morning Wire can reveal. The Chinese-owned pub chain, one of the UK’s largest, is using a “virtual assistant” named “Charlie” to answer the phone at a number of sites, including in London. The shift to digital [...]
Whitbread hopes to win back investors with £1.5bn property sell-off April 29, 2026 Premier Inn owner Whitbread will hope to win back investors when it announces a £1.5bn sell-off of a shedload of its property portfolio on Thursday. The FTSE 100 giant is gearing up for its full-year results later this week, and aims to please its investors with a cash injection to turn the corner on a [...]
AI could trigger a PPI level scandal in ‘two weeks’ April 29, 2026 A multi-billion pound scandal like PPI could happen within just “two weeks” as UK finance firms plough ahead with deploying AI despite uncertainty around governance standards, a fresh report has claimed. The UK’s financial services sector faces a “capability gap” when deploying AI, according to a report from regulatory compliance firm Zango. The research pulled [...]
Banking on a storm: Natwest weathers first of AGM climate rows April 29, 2026 Natwest faced a prickly time in its Edinburgh AGM and in this week’s column Samuel Norman looks at whether fun and games could be in store for its peers. Also on the agenda this week – Revolut heads for some Spanish sun. Natwest chair Rick Haythornthwaite suffered a thorny reception on Tuesday at the bank’s [...]
Londoners wait far longer to sell homes as stamp duty weighs on confidence April 29, 2026 The wait for a London house sale is six days longer now than last year, as the capital sees the “greatest impact” from stamp duty and the Iran war’s hit to property confidence. The average time it takes for a house in the capital to be snapped up once it is listed on the market [...]
UK set to suffer £35bn hit from Iran war as growth downgraded again April 29, 2026 The UK risks finding itself on the brink of recession as a result of the Iran war, a leading economics think tank has warned, as the potential damage to Rachel Reeves’ fiscal headroom and the threat of interest rates hikes has been laid bare in a new report. In what will come as dire reading [...]