Business

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is setting out government spending plans and latest economic forecasts. Here are the main points: £18bn allocated to testing, PPE and vaccines and £3bn for the NHS plus over £2bn for transport arteries open How will the spending review affect you and the country? Sky’s economics editor Ed Conway will answer your

Rishi Sunak must not try to raise taxes in this parliament, the leader of the group of northern Tory MPs has told Sky News. When the chancellor delivers his spending review later, he will also unveil a set of dire forecasts, These are likely to show the lowest growth for 300 years, with a long-term

The EU’s aviation regulator has revealed plans to approve the return of 737 MAX to Europe’s skies within weeks. EASA (the European Union Aviation Safety Agency) has published a proposed airworthiness directive for the aircraft, which has been grounded since March last year after two fatal crashes. The agency is launching a 28-day consultation and

A bill that would give the government greater powers to shut out high-risk vendors from the UK’s telecoms infrastructure will be put before parliament on Tuesday. At the beginning of the year, ministers determined that additional safeguards should be put into place to protect the UK’s 5G and gigabit-capable networks and exclude ‘high risk’ vendors from

The government has been accused of “killing Christmas” for hospitality businesses and their staff through tough new restrictions after England’s second coronavirus lockdown ends next week. The sector argues it will be among the hardest hit through Boris Johnson’s revised three-tier system, which is due to come in to force from Wednesday 2 December as

Almost half of the UK’s manufacturers are unhappy with the government’s efforts to “level-up” the country. “Levelling up” is the phrase used by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to describe the government’s efforts to reverse regional inequalities. But some 42% of manufacturers say that these efforts are not enough and that regional industrial strategies need to

A former chairman of Centrica is being lined up to lead the AA by the consortium which hopes to agree a £3bn takeover of Britain’s biggest roadside recovery service this week. Sky News has learnt that Rick Haythornthwaite has been approached by Towerbrook Capital Partners and Warburg Pincus about chairing the AA if their joint

Crossrail, London’s long-delayed £19bn east-to-west rail link, faces being “mothballed” without the release of urgent new government funding, the capital’s transport chief has warned ministers. Sky News has learnt that Andy Byford, the London transport commissioner, wrote to the permanent secretary at the Department for Transport (DfT) this week, seeking £80m of immediate support to

Confidential notes seen by Sky News reveal European Union officials think a Brexit deal is 95% agreed – but show the extent of anxiety over the potential impact if negotiations break down. The notes come from a meeting of the most senior diplomats in Brussels on Friday morning, when they were briefed about the state

Britain’s biggest airport is to furlough its entire senior management team apart from its chief executive and pave the way for more permanent job losses, underlining its pessimism about the aviation industry’s short-term recovery prospects. Sky News has seen emails sent by Heathrow executives on Friday which detail plans for a new voluntary redundancy scheme

Public sector net borrowing is estimated to have been £22.3bn in October – the sixth-highest borrowing in any month since monthly records began in 1993. The figure, from the Office for National Statistics, means that public sector net debt stood at £2.076trn by the end of October – or 100.8% of GDP, a level not

UK households are expected to have spent £6,600 less this year after the pandemic slashed demand for holidays, eating out and transport, according to new research. In total, consumer spending for 2020 is on course to be £183.6bn, or 14.9%, lower in 2020 compared to the previous year, according to consumer analysts Mintel. Bucking the

Marks & Spencer is planning to open most of its stores until midnight in the run-up to Christmas to allow shoppers and staff “the time and space they need to social distance”. M&S said the three days from December 21-23, expected to be its busiest days, would see its “longest ever store opening hours”. It

Businesses should be given at least seven days’ notice of the government’s lockdown exit plan so they can prepare for the key Christmas trading period, the CBI has said. The lobby group said firms will need time to activate supply chains and call in staff ahead of the expected reopening in England on 3 December. Notice

Regulators have cleared Boeing’s 737 MAX to fly again, 20 months after the fleet was grounded globally following two fatal crashes. The decision was announced by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) just months after a highly critical congressional report accused the watchdog itself of contributing to a “horrific culmination” of failures before the accidents.

Companies recommended by MPs, peers and advisers were given priority to win government contracts as it scrambled to respond to the coronavirus outbreak, the public spending watchdog has found. A National Audit Office (NAO) investigation into pandemic procurement concludes that normal standards of transparency were waived as departments awarded 8,600 contracts worth £18bn to tackle