Business

A millionaires’ playground, Poole in Dorset boasts some of the most expensive properties in the UK, and has been called Britain’s Palm Beach. Away from the yachts and the mansions of Sandbanks, however, Poole is also a beer drinkers’ paradise, with 58 pubs in the parliamentary constituency alone. But now many of Dorset’s pub landlords…

Two of Britain’s biggest high street banks are embroiled in a £2.5bn takeover battle for Evelyn Partners, the wealth management group. Sky News has learnt that Barclays and NatWest Group were among the bidders notified last week that they were through to the second round of the Evelyn auction. Royal Bank of Canada is also…

The UK economy grew by just 0.1% in the third quarter of this year, weaker than the 0.2% growth in GDP for the previous three months, new official figures reveal. The 0.2% figure, for April to June, was itself revised down by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), from its earlier estimate for the period…

Informa, the FTSE-100 events group behind the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show and World of Concrete, is kicking off a search for its next chairman. Sky News has learnt that Informa, which has a market capitalisation of about £11.3bn, is working with headhunters to find a successor to John Rishton. City sources said on Monday…

The average person now has £38 less to spend each month after tax than they did at the end of 2024, following three consecutive quarters of falling UK living standards. The government made “improving living standards across all every part of the UK” one of their most high profile targets to achieve before the next…

The market seems to be content, for now at least, to keep betting big on AI. While the value of some companies integral to the AI boom like Nvidia, Oracle and Coreweave have seen their value fall since the highs of the mid-2025, the US stockmarket remains dominated by investment in AI. Of the S&P500…

A renewable energy group founded by the former chief executive of Petrofac, the oilfield services group which collapsed during the autumn, will this week announce a £40m fundraising despite signs of growing tension over its leadership. Sky News has learnt that Venterra, which was set up four years ago by Ayman Asfari, will unveil the…

Elon Musk has just gotten even closer to being the first-ever trillionaire after a court reinstated his Tesla stock options worth billions. According to Forbes’s billionaires index, the Tesla chief executive’s net worth climbed to $749bn (£559bn) on Friday, making Musk the first person to surpass the $700bn milestone. He is already the world’s richest…

The Christmas period is upon us, and goods are flying off the shelves, but for some reason, the tills are not ringing as loudly as they should be. Across the country, the five-finger discount is being used with such frequency that retailers are taking action into their own hands. With concerns about the police response…

The economy may be stuttering, unemployment may be rising, inflation may be above target. But even so, the Bank of England delivered mortgage payers some welcome Christmas cheer on Thursday. The quarter percentage point cut in interest rates was far from a surprise – the vast majority of economists and investors had expected the Bank…