Business

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

For the first time, finance leaders from every G20 country have agreed to tax the world’s billionaires. Treasury ministers and central bankers from the group of 20 major economies agreed to reference fair taxation of “ultra-high-net-worth individuals” in joint statements after meetings in Brazil. But an agreement to team up on taxing the world’s richest

Shares in Tesla have taken a hit after the electric vehicle maker published a 45% decline in quarterly profits and warned cost reduction targets were off track. The stock fell 8% in after-hours trade, leaving it on track for a decline of almost 50% in the year to date, following the release of its second

Utilita, one of Britain’s top ten energy suppliers, is plotting to raise tens of millions of pounds to fund projects aimed at meeting net zero targets. Sky News has learnt that Utilita, which last season sponsored the Premier League football club Luton Town, has hired Alexa Capital to advise on the equity injection. Sources close

With the London Stock Exchange Group impacted by the global outage, the usual market data is not available to bring a comprehensive update of what’s happening with companies. But the financial market reaction is clear: share prices are down across the board as the impact of system failures rips through businesses across the world. IT

The Bank of England has revealed disruption to some major financial transactions due to a “global payments issue”. In a statement, the Bank said its high value CHAPS service – which handles payments worth hundreds of billions of pounds each day – was affected and that had resulted in delays. They usually involve transactions between

Much is known about JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, not least his past criticism of the Republican presidential candidate, his tough working class upbringing and his time in the US Marine Corps. What the business world is more interested in, though, is the Ohio senator’s previous career in venture capital and his views on

Elon Musk has said California’s new gender identification law was the “final straw” and that he is moving the SpaceX and X headquarters to Texas. The billionaire posted on X on Tuesday that he plans to move SpaceX from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas, and X to Austin from San Francisco. The new law, signed

The Scottish government has announced plans for a multi-million-pound package of support to help secure the future of the beleaguered Ferguson Marine shipyard. Up to £14.2m will be invested over two years if the proposal passes detailed legal, financial and commercial scrutiny, which is expected to be completed by the autumn. The support comes as

Billionaire Elon Musk has donated to a political group working to elect presidential candidate Donald Trump, according to reports. According to Bloomberg, citing sources, the amount was not known but it was “a sizable amount” given to a group called America PAC. Bloomberg reported that the PAC – a group that can receive unlimited contributions