<?xml encoding="utf-8" ?????????>Meta, the owner of Facebook, has paid £149 million to surrender lease on a London office block having not moved in any staff two years after signing the deal.The American social media group’s UK division is handing back the keys to the eight-storey block near Regent’s Park, which it took on in 2021 at £21 million a year. ...
<?xml encoding="utf-8" ?????????>Senior business leaders and trade bodies have backed Keir Starmer’s comments that Britain should not part from the European Union on standards ranging from the environment to employment.The Labour leader has come under fire from the Conservatives, who accused him of wanting to “unpick” Brexit after saying that “most of the conflict” since 2016 had arisen because the ...
<?xml encoding="utf-8" ?????????>Stress was one of the biggest contributors to a rise in workplace absences over the past year, according to research that found the number of workers taking sick leave has hit a 10-year high.The Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) analysed sickness absence and employee health among 918 organisations representing 6.5 million employees, with 76% of respondents ...
<?xml encoding="utf-8" ?????????>Creative UK has launched a new creative industries investment fund to support the UK’s ambitions to grow the sector by £50bn and create one million extra creative jobs by 2030.The £35m Creative Growth Finance II (CGF II) fund will provide the investment needed to meet the targets set out in the UK government and Creative Industries Council’s recently ...
<?xml encoding="utf-8" ?????????>Rishi Sunak is “alarmed” by the escalating cost of HS2 amid claims that executives on the project have acted like “kids with the golden credit card”.The prime minister has told allies that he is not prepared to watch the cost continue to escalate after being presented with figures suggesting that the overall price could pass £100 billion.He is ...
<?xml encoding="utf-8" ?????????>Offices in London have lost almost a fifth of their value over the past year, much more than blocks in most other European countries.On average, London office values have dropped 17.1 per cent since summer 2022, having fallen in each of the past five quarters, data from BNP Paribas shows.Commercial property around the world has repriced over the ...
<?xml encoding="utf-8" ?????????>The ongoing late payment threat facing UK businesses is now so bad, it has caught the attention of Westminster.According to recent polling, almost two-thirds of MPs support the introduction of a compulsory Prompt Payment Code (PPC) to protect small-medium sized enterprises’ (SME) cash flow.As it stands, the Prompt Payment Code (PPC) remains voluntary for businesses to abide by, ...
<?xml encoding="utf-8" ?????????>The Institute of Directors urges the government to aim higher on its strategy for export growth – the current target of £1 trillion exports in current prices by 2030 is not sufficiently stretching.Instead, the IoD is calling for a chained-volume target of £900bn of exports in 2019 prices by 2030 with a second target of 15% of all businesses ...
<?xml encoding="utf-8" ?????????>Nearly seventy per cent go UK SMEs say that recruiting and developing adequately skilled staff is their biggest barrier to growth, a think tank reveals today.The Social Market Foundation – a cross-party think tank – has warned that a lack of focus on the skills crisis is limiting the UK from being a place for not just start-ups, ...
<?xml encoding="utf-8" ?????????>Financial wellbeing startup Mintago has closed a $4.75 million funding round to further enhance its platform and accelerate its growth across the UK.Founded in 2019 by Chieu Cao, the former co-founder and CMO of Perkbox, Mintago helps employers to attract top talent, retain existing employees and boost productivity. It also enables businesses to reduce their national insurance costs ...