Rolling live coverage of business, economics and financial marketsThe mood of consumers in Europe’s largest economy is darkening as the Omicron variant spreads across the region. According to the latest consumer sentiment index from Germany’s GfK insti…
UK house prices return to double-digit growth
Annual price growth hit 10% in November, up from 9.9% in October, according to Nationwide indexHouse prices in the UK continued their upwards climb in November, reaching double-digit growth again as demand remained strong after the end of the stamp dut…
UK hospitality firms hit by Christmas party cancellations over Omicron fears
Mixed messages about socialising during festive season also having an effect, say bossesCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageBosses of pubs, bars and restaurants across the UK are warning they are already receiving cancellations …
One in six adults in Great Britain not able to buy essential foods, ONS finds
Survey of impact of supply chain crisis in past fortnight also finds 15% could not buy fuelAlmost nine million people, representing one in six adults in Great Britain, have not been able to buy essential food items in the past two weeks because they we…
‘Fallen stock’: what happens now to the UK’s unwanted pigs?
Strict guidelines govern how sick or injured animals are disposed of, leaving farmers with no cheap or easy optionsHundred of healthy pigs culled amid UK shortage of abattoir workersSick or injured animals on farms which are not able to be transported …
Hundreds of healthy pigs culled amid UK shortage of abattoir workers
Farmers warned that up to 120,000 animals face being slaughtered as they lack space to house them‘Fallen stock’: what happens now to the UK’s unwanted pigs?The slaughter of healthy pigs has begun on British farms, with farmers forced to kill animals to…
BP rations petrol and diesel deliveries to its service stations
Oil giant says HGV driver shortage is disrupting supplies, with about 10% of forecourts running out of some fuelsBP is rationing deliveries of petrol and diesel to its UK network of 1,200 service stations, as the oil giant became the latest firm to war…
Thousands of leaseholders freed from doubling of ground rents
CMA says it will take further action against developers which do not remove such terms from contractsThousands of people who bought leasehold homes from the housing developer Countryside Properties will be freed from costly contract terms, following an…
Morrisons in talks with suitors and regulator to begin takeover auction
Supermarket works on basis that offers from US private equity firms CD&R and Fortress are not finalMorrisons has announced it is in talks with both of its US private equity suitors, as well as the UK’s Takeover Panel, which regulates acquisition ac…
HGV driver shortage: UK firms embark on the long road to plug the gap
Logistics sector ups its recruitment and training effort but big obstacles lie aheadFor an insight into the hottest spot in Britain’s jobs market, an industrial estate on the outskirts of Bristol is a good place to start.There, at a logistics depot on …