Marketing Newscast

Rupert Soames, President of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), is warning that the Government’s proposed reforms within the Employment Rights Bill will be “highly damaging” to business investment in the UK. Writing in The Times, Soames argues that tweaks made this week to statutory sick pay and protections for agency workers, and the removal from the Bill of the “right to switch off” do not go far enough. Soames also said the views of the CBI and other trade bodies such as the British Chambers of Commerce, UKHospitality, and the Institute of Directors, have been “largely ignored”. “By the government’s own estimates, this legislation will add £5bn to companies’ costs,” he wrote.

The Treasury is reportedly accusing some of Britain’s largest pension firms of using “opaque ESG ratings” to block vital private investment in the defence sector. Aviva, Royal London and the National Employment Savings Trust (Nest) are pension giants restricting or block investment in the defence industry on “ethical” grounds, The Telegraph says, quoting a treasury source as saying: “this has to change”. However, he did not refer to any specific companies.

Catherine Mann, one of The Bank of England (BoE) interest rate setters, has said the institution should adopt a more “activist” – rather than a “gradualist” - approach to monetary policy to deal with the “substantial volatility” affecting geopolitics and financial markets, a rate-setter has said. Mann, who sits of the BoE Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), argued that rate-setters should be more willing to vote for more radical shifts to monetary policy to keep inflation anchored at its 2% target in the near future. At the last MPC meeting, Mann shocked observers when she voted to cut interest rates by 0.5%, having previously been among the most hawkish on the committee. However, BoE Deputy Governor Huw Pill has said that in an “age of uncertainty”, rapid interest rate cuts are unlikely to be coming to the UK.

Thames Water has a 50-50 chance of going bust this month, according to The Telegraph, despite the fact the High Court approved an £3bn emergency loan from its lenders last month. Because a Court of Appeal challenge has been launched by a group of rival investors and Lib Dem MP Charlie Maynard, Thames has been prevented from receiving any of the cash. A hearing is scheduled next week. The delay means Chancellor Rachel Reeves risks being forced to nationalise the water utility - Britain’s largest - just two days before her Spring Statement, an eventuality that would force her to tear up her spending plans.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says the Co-op supermarket chain has admitted to 107 breaches of an order put in place to stop it from blocking rivals opening nearby stores. Having already addressed 104 agreements, Co-op has also agreed to resolve the remaining three.

Harbour Energy has reported losses of $93m (£72.1m), down from a prior year profit of $45m. The firm blames the UK’s windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas producers, which demands an additional 38% levy on profits over and above other taxes. The London-listed firm said its post-tax loss figure reflected a 108% effective tax rate, up from 93% in 2023.

Boots owner Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) has agreed to a $10bn (£7.8bn) takeover by US private equity firm Sycamore Partners.

Poundland owner Pepco Group is considering selling its UK branch, citing a weak economic environment and the Government’s Autum Budget tax hikes. The polish firm said it was considering "all strategic options" for the chain.

ITV has reported record profit for 2024 of £318m, having made £60m in savings and seeing a 12% increase in earnings.

Nine of Britain’s largest banks and building societies suffered IT failures for over 803 hours – or 33 days – over the last two years, according to fresh data released by the House of Commons’ Treasury Committee. A minimum of 158 IT failure incidents affected millions of consumers. Barclays, which had the most outages, confirmed to the committee that it would pay between £5m and £7.5m in compensation to customers for “inconvenience or distress.”

Demands from some members of the House of Lords to put a deadline on the sale of The Telegraph Media Group have been rejected by ministers.

The former public affairs lead of FTSE 250 renewable energy firm Drax has accused it of “misleading the public, Government and its regulator” over how it sources wood for its biomass pellets. Rowaa Ahmar, who was employed by Drax in 2022 at the time the BBC’s Panorama programme alleged it had sourced wood from environmentally important forests in Canada instead of using sawdust and waste wood, claims she was fired after raising her concerns via a letter to Drax CEO Will Gardiner that “the allegations in the Panorama programme were correct”. She is now claiming unfair dismissal. Drax claims created a “maelstrom of chaos” during her tenure in the public affairs team; was “unwilling to accept any fault or make reasonable concessions;” and “lost the trust and confidence of multiple colleagues” within weeks of starting her role. She would have failed her probation regardless of whether she raised concerns, the firm said.

Rolls-Royce CEO Tufan Erginbilgic has taken a £10m pay cut despite transforming the fortunes of the FTSE 100 giant, largely because of the expiration of a one-time £7.5m share award he received upon joining Rolls-Royce to compensate for lost earnings from his previous role at BP. Ocado CEO Tim Steiner, however, took home more than £2.6m for his company’s latest financial year, a rise from the £1.9m he was awarded in the prior 12 months. despite another year of heavy losses.

One of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets exploded after launching yesterday, in a repeat episode of a failed launch in January. The explosion caused chaos in Bahamas, where fiery debris rained down from the sky over the Caribbean, leading to flights being grounded at several US airports, among them Florida and Miami. In a statement on X, SpaceX confirmed that it had lost contact with the rocket, which it said “experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly”.

Microsoft's $13.0bn tie-up with OpenAI has been cleared by the UK Competition and Markets Authority.

There will be no Daily Business News on Monday next week due to other work commitments. Have a lovely weekend!