Business & Finance News

Wednesday 04 November 2026 3:00 am | Updated: Tuesday 03 November 2026 5:19 pm The Shadow MPC has called for interest rates to be hiked. The Bank of England should raise interest rates on Thursday in order to “protect credibility” and stamp out any risks of inflation spiralling out of control, top economists have said.

Poundland filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators at the High Court last Thursday, leaving the jobs of its 12,000 staff uncertain. Owner Gordon Brothers stopped funding the chain, and it is believed to be unwilling to accept Martin Property's offer of about £15m, only half payable immediately. The offer falls short of repaying a £30m shareholder loan, while Gordon Brothers said in a letter reported by Sky News that it had supplied £85m of extra financing since buying the chain for £1 last year.

The international benchmark Brent fell over 6.5% to as low as $105.55 a barrel on Monday, its lowest since 16 October, after Tehran said talks with Washington to end the eight-month war were continuing. Foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said mediated consultations were very intensive, according to state media outlet IRNA. Yields on 10-year UK bonds fell 10 basis points to their lowest since 22 September, while IAG shares rose 4.2% in London.

Virgin Media O2 is set to shed thousands of roles as it looks to save around £300m. The BBC understands the cuts could be a sizeable chunk of its 16,000-strong workforce, and most affected staff are in non-customer-facing roles. The Prospect union called the cuts disappointing and very unsettling, while the firm, with £27.2bn of liabilities against £45.9bn of assets as of 30 June, declined to comment.

Primark will launch home deliveries in the UK by December next year, boss George Weston said, after pulling plans forward by about two years. It snapped up a robot-assisted Sheffield warehouse from Debenhams and takes it over by the middle of next year. Sales rose 4% to £9.8bn in the year to 12 September, but profits fell 10% to £1bn after price cuts.

FCA chief Nikhil Rathi said he is prepared to investigate a possible leak of market-sensitive information that lifted bank shares before John Healey's maiden Budget. In a letter to the Treasury Committee, he said the FCA would consider evidence from the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury before deciding what action, if any, to take. Committee chair Meg Hillier had asked whether the leak of the windfall tax's severity was an improper release of inside information.

The UK government proposed on Tuesday a default option giving private sector retirees an income for life, often linked to inflation. The government says 17 million workers would be affected, and nearly half of pension pots accessed for the first time in 2025-26 were emptied. Pensions minister Torsten Bell said workers deserve a much better deal, while Yvonne Braun of the Association of British Insurers wants people to keep their freedom to decide.

Drax has proposed a £20 billion datacentre at its North Yorkshire biomass power station with Brookfield and Radiant, a plan announced on Tuesday. The first phase would deliver up to 100MW by early 2028, backed by a proposed £2.5 billion investment, with a second phase adding 500MW between 2028 and 2031. Drax CEO Will Gardiner said the project could help secure the site's long-term future and protect hundreds of jobs. The first phase still needs planning permission, approvals, commercial agreements and a tenant.

Roli, the music device maker, went into administration after two licensed insolvency practitioners were appointed joint administrators on October 20, the company told users by email on Monday. It is the second time Roli has gone bankrupt, after its 2021 administration, and some customers say they paid for orders months or years ago with no refund. Its backers TriplePoint Capital and Hoxton Ventures did not respond to requests for comment, and the company did not reply to WIRED.

Asda has appointed David Potts, 69, as chief executive with immediate effect as it struggles to lift sales. Potts started at Tesco aged 16 and led Morrisons from 2015 to 2023, while executive chair Allan Leighton, 73, steps back to a non-executive role. Asda's sales fell 0.5% in the three months to 4 October, and Aldi is poised to overtake it as the UK's third-largest supermarket.

Downing Street said on Tuesday that Poundland's 600 stores and 12,000 staff are at risk as the discount retailer hurtles towards collapse. Gordon Brothers must explain why it rejected solvent offers, including a Martin Property Group bid that lacked up-front payment for a £30m loan. The firm says it has found buyers for about half the stores, sources said, before the moratorium lapses next Thursday.

Barclays will this month start offering early full and final settlements to tens of thousands of customers who have complained of car loan mis-selling. The offers must at least match the Financial Conduct Authority's £9.1bn scheme, which the regulator partly suspended after legal challenges, with a hearing due in February next year. Customers have a month to accept, and Barclays has set aside £430m for alleged motor finance mis-selling.

Capita's Smart DCC handed over running Britain's data network for 39 million smart meters this week, ending its 13-year licence. The network will become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Smart Energy Code Company, whose board includes Dame Gillian Guy of Citizens Advice. Ofgem said Smart DCC had 'played a critical role', while three in 10 households still do not have a meter.

Barclays confirmed it will cut roughly 5,000 jobs this year as part of plans to save more than £1.1bn by 2027, with boss CS Venkatakrishnan saying AI is driving the bulk of efficiency gains. NatWest said its staff count fell by 1,000 in the last quarter, taking its total to 1,400 so far this year, and it reported £420m in annual savings for the first nine months. Morgan Stanley has doubled its forecast for AI-driven job losses across European banking to 400,000.

London's blue-chip FTSE 100 came under pressure on Tuesday morning as Brent crude nudged higher. Brent has crept above $106 per barrel after reports of a US attack on Iran's Qeshm Island, a strategic military location controlling the Strait of Hormuz. Bank of America analysts said Korea and Taiwan equity outflows continue to dominate amid concerns about AI spending.

Babcock awarded KierBAM the main works phase of the £600m Devonport project, moving the joint venture from early contractor involvement. The work will prepare 10 Dock for deep maintenance of Royal Navy Astute-class attack submarines, with strengthened dock walls and a new heavy-lift gantry crane. Craig Small of Kier Infrastructure said the project is critical to UK defence resilience, and KierBAM is recruiting 120 people.

Chancellor John Healey did not mention income tax allowances in this week's budget, keeping a freeze set by Rachel Reeves that runs to 2030. The freeze costs an average full-time worker £88 next tax year, based on a £40,911 salary and 3.5% inflation, close to the £100 council tax payment. PensionBee's Maike Currie called fiscal drag the ultimate stealth tax.

London-based LO:TECH has raised $12 million in a Series A funding round led by MMC, with participation from existing investors Faction and 13 Books Capital, alongside Atka. The capital markets firm was founded by Tim Meggs as CEO and Marcus Horsley as CTO, and develops trading infrastructure designed to run continuously across venues and asset classes. That infrastructure covers traditional financial markets, digital assets and prediction markets.

The Bank of England is widely expected to raise its base rate from 3.75 per cent to 4 per cent on Thursday, 5 November, its first rise in more than three years. The move would respond to UK inflation, which rose to 3.5 per cent in September. About 2.3 million households are due to come off fixed-rate mortgage deals in 2027, according to the banking industry body UK Finance. On a £200,000 mortgage taken out on a five-year fix in 2022, monthly repayments could rise from about £986 to £1,289, which is more than £3,600 a year extra. Mortgage approvals fell to a near three-year low in September, while remortgaging surged as borrowers try to lock in rates before they climb further. Markets price in up to four rate rises by next July, though many City economists expect two, and Barclays predicts another increase in early 2027.

Business Minister Kate Dearden will meet senior Poundland executives later this week, as the chain has until Thursday to find a rescue deal for up to 12,000 staff. Gordon Brothers, the US firm that bought Poundland from Pepco last year for £1, has stopped funding it and rejected a takeover offer from Martin Property Group. Government sources conceded there is limited scope to intervene, and the meeting will be predominantly a fact-finding one.