Burnham urged to go further to fix ‘broken’ business rates July 14, 2026 Incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham must broaden his plans to reform the “broken and unsustainable” business rates system, hospitality and retail industry leaders have warned. The former mayor of Greater Manchester has already pledged to slash business rates for high street firms but a coalition of trade bodies has urged him to go further. Ros [...]
Heatwave slows retail sales but World Cup boosts online shopping July 14, 2026 June’s scorching heat slowed retail sales, but Brits opted to shop from home instead, sending online sales soaring. Total retail sales in the UK slowed from 3.7 per cent in May to 1.9 per cent in June year on year, in line with this year’s average growth rate, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC). [...]
Top investors managing $3tn to gain access to UK infrastructure projects via AI platform July 14, 2026 Top global investors managing around $3 trillion in assets will be given access to “fragmented” British infrastructure projects under plans for an AI platform designed to fix the industry’s investment woes. Both national and regional projects will be connected to trillions of global capital through the AI platform, dubbed InvestConnect, in a bid to accelerate [...]
Industry bodies call on Burnham to bring down energy bills to fire up growth July 14, 2026 Andy Burnham’s government must slash green levies on companies’ energy bills and bring forward support for energy-intensive industries if it wants to fire up Britain’s economy and win over a sceptical private sector, two of Britain’s largest industry bodies have said. In a joint report published today, the CBI and Energy UK called on the [...]
Trump reinstates US blockade of Strait of Hormuz July 13, 2026 Donald Trump said the United States has restored its blockade of Iranian ships in the Strait of Hormuz and would demand a 20 per cent fee on all other cargo transiting the shipping lane. In a further breakdown of relations with Iran, the President said the US Navy would stop “Iran’s ships entering or leaving” [...]
Grid delays force Starmer-backed AI data centre to seek alternative power July 13, 2026 One of the UK’s flagship AI infrastructure projects is being forced to source its own energy supplies after discovering it would not be granted grid connection in time for its eagerly anticipated opening. Nscale, the British AI unicorn backed by Nvidia, is now looking beyond conventional electricity connections for its flagship £2bn data centre in [...]
Why do six Premier League clubs still not have front of shirt sponsors? July 13, 2026 Not so long ago it was unthinkable that a Premier League club would go into a new season without a sponsor on the front of their shirt. In recent years Chelsea and Nottingham Forest have made headlines for starting a campaign with a vacancy in that prime spot, precisely because it was such an anomaly. [...]
UK inks trade deal with Switzerland – despite shouting match July 13, 2026 The UK and Switzerland have inked a new free trade deal that ministers say will boost Britain’s services economy by some £5.2bn a year – despite talks breaking down just weeks ago to such an extent that both parties were “shouting at each other”. The agreement is the largest the UK has negotiated since it [...]
Monzo founder joins Anthropic as AI talent race heats up July 13, 2026 Monzo co-founder Tom Blomfield has joined Anthropic, as the US AI giant steps up its recruitment drive for senior tech leaders. Blomfield announced on Monday that he is taking a leave of absence from Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator to join Anthropic’s compute team, where he will work alongside co-founder Tom Brown on the [...]
Graduate start-ups require a new kind of office July 13, 2026 The City’s future as an economic powerhouse is being driven by a new kind of graduate. In years gone by, the Square Mile’s leading financial services, tech and consulting firms have hoovered up university leavers from the moment they don their graduation gowns, funnelling them from campus to office. The next chapter in the City [...]