Business

The UK’s public sector debt has hit 100% of the value of the country’s annual economic output for the first time since the 1960s, according to official figures released ahead of the chancellor’s maiden budget. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said, in a preliminary estimate, that the figure had risen from the 99.3% figure

One of the City’s most prominent fund management groups is heaping fresh pressure on the environmental record of Britain’s water industry by calling for suppliers to take steps to curtail the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Sky News understands that Royal London Asset Management (RLAM), which manages £169bn in assets, is calling on the UK’s

Manchester United’s losses grew to £113.2m last season due to the cost of selling a stake to Sir Jim Ratcliffe and investment in players failing to translate into Premier League success. It followed net losses in the previous two years of £28.7m and £115.5m, putting a spotlight on the club’s compliance with football’s profit and

A bid for The Daily Telegraph spearheaded by the owner of The New York Sun has raised the extraordinary possibility of a return to the British newspaper group for Conrad Black, its former proprietor. Sky News can reveal that Lord Black – who is listed as a contributing editor to and founding director of the

A slump in oil prices could lead to further reductions at the fuel pumps but any benefit risks being stripped away next month as the chancellor seeks ways to bolster the public finances. A barrel of Brent crude, the international benchmark, slipped below $70 for the first time since December 2021 on Tuesday afternoon. The

The European Court of Justice has ordered Apple to pay $13bn (£11bn) in back taxes to Ireland following the conclusion of a long-running legal fight that the country did not bring. The European Commission brought the action in 2016, to the fury of both Apple and Ireland‘s government, on the grounds that the EU member

Apple is launching its latest iPhone in what is billed to be its biggest release of the year. As well as the iPhone 16 being rumoured to come in a new range of colours, it should also be capable of running Apple Intelligence, the company’s new AI. Apple Intelligence will eventually be embedded throughout the

More than 100 Body Shop stores have been saved from closure after a deal was struck to rescue one of Britain’s best known high street chains. The well-known retailer was bought out of administration by a consortium led by “Cosmetics King” Mike Jatania. The millionaire tycoon’s investment firm Aurea announced the completion of the acquisition

GE, one of the world’s best-known conglomerates has swooped to buy a British climate technology start-up in its quest to reduce the aviation industry’s environmental impact. Sky News has learnt that GE Aerospace has struck a deal to buy Satavia, a Cambridge-based company which helps to mitigate the warming effect of aircraft contrail clouds. Founded

The number of mortgages approved reached a near two-year high, according to Bank of England figures, as hopes of cheaper borrowing encouraged would-be buyers. Mortgage approvals increased to 62,000 in July, a level not seen since September 2022, a sign that buyers were waiting for hopes of reduced interest rates and the associated lower mortgage

The government will not defend the legal challenges brought against plans to develop the UK’s largest untapped oil and gas field and a second North Sea site. Rosebank, 80 miles west of Shetland, contains around 300 million barrels of oil and is the UK’s last major undeveloped oil site. It is twice the size of

The owner of Ted Baker will on Wednesday announce that it has struck a deal with an American group to re-establish an online presence in the UK, days after its remaining retail stores were shut for good. Sky News has learnt that Authentic, which has owned Ted Baker since 2022, has struck a deal with

Dozens of Ted Baker stores will shut for the last time this week amid growing doubts over a future licensing partnership with the retail tycoon Mike Ashley. Sky News understands that talks between Mr Ashley’s Frasers Group and Authentic, Ted Baker’s owner, have stalled three months after it appeared that an agreement was imminent. Administrators

The UK inflation rate is up for the first time this year. Prices went up by 2.2% in the year until July – moving the rate above the Bank of England target of 2%. Experts had expected an uptick as energy prices are falling by less than they did a year ago. The increase doesn’t

The pace at which prices are rising has sped up, according to official figures. The rate of inflation grew to 2.2% in July, up from 2% a month earlier, data from the Office for National Statistics showed. It is the first time since December last year that the rate has increased, rather than fallen. But

House prices rose by 0.8% in July following three flat months for the market, according to one of the UK’s biggest mortgage lenders. Halifax said the average cost of a home rose by more than £2,200 to £291,268 last month, when compared with June. The month-on-month increase was bigger than expected. Economists had forecast a

English rugby chiefs have agreed to sell the naming rights to Twickenham Stadium, the home of the national rugby union side for the last century. Sky News can reveal that the Rugby Football Union (RFU) has struck a deal with Allianz, the German insurer, to add its brand to one of the world’s most famous

At the end of a mixed fortnight’s worth of trading updates from the US tech giants, it was down to the biggest of them – Apple – to lift investor spirits. The $3.35trn (£2.63trn) giant, established again in June as the world’s biggest company after five months during which Microsoft was bigger, reported sales of

Freetrade, the stock trading app set up to rival the likes of Hargreaves Lansdown, is to pull out of the Swedish market and focus its business solely on the UK. Sky News understands that Freetrade, which has about 750,000 customers in Britain, plans to inform customers on Friday that it is winding down operations in

Microsoft’s cloud service has been hit by another outage, weeks after an IT failure in the company’s services ground the world to a halt. In a post on X, Cambridge Water said some of its services were down this afternoon. “Due to worldwide issues with Microsoft Azure, a problem with our website is affecting several