Business

UK wholesale gas prices have risen again and are now at their highest level since mid-February. Prices rose to nearly 135 pence a therm (a unit of heat used to measure gas) on Friday afternoon. It comes after gas costs hit a six-month high of nearly 123p a therm on Tuesday afternoon – a level

It is considered unlucky by many – but house hunters who are happy to live in a property numbered 13 could get a bargain, analysts have discovered. Unfortunately this means sellers could get a raw deal as their homes have the lowest average value compared with other properties numbered one to 100, it has been

Households could face a one-off charge of £17 a year to help prevent energy suppliers from going bust. Ofgem says rising prices and the cost of living crisis meant consumers were £2.6bn in debt over the summer – a record high – piling pressure on businesses. The energy regulator argued that consumers could end up

Microsoft owes the US Treasury $28.9 billion (£23bn) in back taxes, plus penalties and interest according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The figure, which Microsoft disputes, stems from a long-running IRS investigation into how Microsoft allocated its profits among countries and jurisdictions in the years 2004 to 2013, according to a securities filing Critics

A new free phone line has been created by the UK’s food safety watchdog to help people report suspected food fraud. Food fraud is a blanket term used by governing agencies to describe all types of food-related crime. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) says this often involves selling food or drink that isn’t what it

Ian King talks to George Lagarias from Mazars about the economic risks from the unrest in the Middle East. He also discusses the fall in grocery price inflation with Tom Steel from Kantar. We also hear all the latest market analysis from Investec’s John Wyn-Evans. Listen and subscribe to The Ian King Business Podcast here.

Ian King speaks to the head of UK Residential Research at the real estate consultancy, Knight Frank, about house prices – which have fallen for a sixth month in a row. Plus, hear from the boss of Merlin Entertainments about its plans to launch augmented reality games at its attractions – based on hit TV

Elon Musk’s $44bn (£36bn) takeover of Twitter is under investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and he could be compelled to testify. According to court filings on Thursday, the case centres around concerns the world’s richest man broke federal security laws in 2022, when he bought Twitter stock. The investigation is also

Tesco predicts that food inflation will continue to fall, as it announces a big rise in profits. Ian speaks to the executive chairman of Aston Martin, as the British luxury car manufacturer bids for overall victory at Le Mans for the first time since 1959. And the chief executive of Vertu, Robert Forrester discusses car

Food prices have dropped for the first month in more than two years, according to an industry lobby group that says food inflation is now in single digits. The British Retail Consortium (BRC)-NielsenIQ Shop Price Index found food inflation eased to an annual rate of 9.9% in September, which is down from 11.5% in August.

The sharp decline in house prices took a pause for breath last month, according to a closely-watched report. Nationwide said prices were unchanged in September compared to the previous month. The lender had reported a 0.8% fall in August. It meant that prices were still 5.3% lower than a year earlier, equalling the biggest annual

The German media giant which publishes Die Welt, one of Europe’s leading newspapers, has joined the race to buy The Daily Telegraph and its Sunday sister title. Sky News can exclusively reveal that Axel Springer has registered its interest in acquiring the British broadsheets. Insiders said the company, which also owns the Business Insider and

Energy bills in the first three months of 2024 are projected to increase before dropping later in the year, according to a closely-watched forecast. Consumers can expect more costly bills from January as energy regulator Ofgem will bring its price cap up to £1,898 for an annual average household bill – an increase of £64,

Elon Musk has announced his social media company X, formally known as Twitter, has removed the team monitoring election misinformation. The tool to report misinformation has been taken away – except for in the European Union – prompting concern from thinktank Reset Australia ahead of the country’s aboriginal rights referendum next month. In a post

Gatwick Airport has temporarily limited flight numbers for the rest of the week as a result of sickness amongst air traffic control staff. In a statement, the airport said it would limit the number of flights to 800 a day from today, which will remain in place until Sunday 1 October. It said the limit

The shootout between one of the world’s largest tech companies and Britain’s competition regulator is, at heart, a battle for control of the new frontline of gaming.  The gaming industry is a $250bn (£204bn) industry that, on some measures, is now larger than the music, book and movie industries combined. And the fastest growing part

A sports streaming service whose customers include Manchester City Football Club, the Premier League champions, has collapsed into administration after the failure of funding talks. Sky News has learnt that Recast, which is based in Edinburgh, called in Interpath Advisory to handle its insolvency on Friday. The company operates a subscription-free live and on-demand platform

Microsoft’s revised effort to get the £55bn takeover of Activision Blizzard past UK regulators appears to be on track for clearance. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had been a sole thorn in the side of the acquisition, rejecting the original terms on the grounds it had a duty to protect innovation and choice in

The headline numbers don’t do justice to the significance of the inflation data. On the surface, this only looks like a small fall, with the consumer price index (CPI) dropping from 6.8% in July to 6.7% in August. So what, you might ask? After all, it’s a far smaller drop than the one we heard

The rate of inflation has eased slightly to 6.7% confounding the predictions of economists that it would rise. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the consumer prices index (CPI) measure slowed in the 12 months to August, from the 6.8% figure reported the previous month, thanks to food rising at a weaker pace during