Business

House prices rose by 0.8% in July following three flat months for the market, according to one of the UK’s biggest mortgage lenders. Halifax said the average cost of a home rose by more than £2,200 to £291,268 last month, when compared with June. The month-on-month increase was bigger than expected. Economists had forecast a

English rugby chiefs have agreed to sell the naming rights to Twickenham Stadium, the home of the national rugby union side for the last century. Sky News can reveal that the Rugby Football Union (RFU) has struck a deal with Allianz, the German insurer, to add its brand to one of the world’s most famous

At the end of a mixed fortnight’s worth of trading updates from the US tech giants, it was down to the biggest of them – Apple – to lift investor spirits. The $3.35trn (£2.63trn) giant, established again in June as the world’s biggest company after five months during which Microsoft was bigger, reported sales of

Freetrade, the stock trading app set up to rival the likes of Hargreaves Lansdown, is to pull out of the Swedish market and focus its business solely on the UK. Sky News understands that Freetrade, which has about 750,000 customers in Britain, plans to inform customers on Friday that it is winding down operations in

Microsoft’s cloud service has been hit by another outage, weeks after an IT failure in the company’s services ground the world to a halt. In a post on X, Cambridge Water said some of its services were down this afternoon. “Due to worldwide issues with Microsoft Azure, a problem with our website is affecting several

The number of mortgage approvals in the UK was “broadly stable” last month, the Bank of England has said. There were 59,976 net approvals in June, down slightly from 60,134 in May, according to officials figures on Monday. The Bank also said net borrowing of mortgage debt increased from £1.3bn in May to £2.7bn in

For the first time, finance leaders from every G20 country have agreed to tax the world’s billionaires. Treasury ministers and central bankers from the group of 20 major economies agreed to reference fair taxation of “ultra-high-net-worth individuals” in joint statements after meetings in Brazil. But an agreement to team up on taxing the world’s richest

Shares in Tesla have taken a hit after the electric vehicle maker published a 45% decline in quarterly profits and warned cost reduction targets were off track. The stock fell 8% in after-hours trade, leaving it on track for a decline of almost 50% in the year to date, following the release of its second

Utilita, one of Britain’s top ten energy suppliers, is plotting to raise tens of millions of pounds to fund projects aimed at meeting net zero targets. Sky News has learnt that Utilita, which last season sponsored the Premier League football club Luton Town, has hired Alexa Capital to advise on the equity injection. Sources close

With the London Stock Exchange Group impacted by the global outage, the usual market data is not available to bring a comprehensive update of what’s happening with companies. But the financial market reaction is clear: share prices are down across the board as the impact of system failures rips through businesses across the world. IT

The Bank of England has revealed disruption to some major financial transactions due to a “global payments issue”. In a statement, the Bank said its high value CHAPS service – which handles payments worth hundreds of billions of pounds each day – was affected and that had resulted in delays. They usually involve transactions between

Much is known about JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, not least his past criticism of the Republican presidential candidate, his tough working class upbringing and his time in the US Marine Corps. What the business world is more interested in, though, is the Ohio senator’s previous career in venture capital and his views on

Elon Musk has said California’s new gender identification law was the “final straw” and that he is moving the SpaceX and X headquarters to Texas. The billionaire posted on X on Tuesday that he plans to move SpaceX from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas, and X to Austin from San Francisco. The new law, signed

The Scottish government has announced plans for a multi-million-pound package of support to help secure the future of the beleaguered Ferguson Marine shipyard. Up to £14.2m will be invested over two years if the proposal passes detailed legal, financial and commercial scrutiny, which is expected to be completed by the autumn. The support comes as

A total of 1.6 million children are now affected by the two-child benefit cap as the Labour government faces pressure to lift it. The Conservative government introduced the cap, which prevents parents from claiming child tax credit or Universal Credit for more than two children for those born after April 2017. Politics live: Streeting orders

A fight for better pay among workers at South Korea tech giant Samsung will now result in an indefinite strike, according to a top union official. A walkout over pay and conditions by members of the National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) in the country began on Monday. But a row over the apparent effectiveness of

Google has admitted its greenhouse gas emissions have risen 48% over the past five years – largely because of artificial intelligence – scuppering its climate aims. AI systems require intense levels of computational power, and this has piled pressure on the tech giant’s data centres around the world. In its latest environmental report, Google went

An online crafts retailer which saw sales boom during COVID-19 lockdowns is exploring a cut-price sale. Sky News understands that Lovecrafts, which is chaired by the media veteran Sir Peter Bazalgette, is working with Interpath Advisory on a sale. Founded in 2012, Lovecrafts is backed by leading growth investors including Highland Ventures, Balderton Capital and

Financial markets are giving their first reaction to the early evidence of a record-breaking win for Labour in the general election. A respected exit poll by Ipsos, carried out for broadcasters including Sky News, was the first to put an estimate on the size of the majority expected for Sir Keir Starmer’s party. The 170

Drivers are being warned that fuel prices are on the rise again amid rising oil costs and suggestions that motorists are still getting a raw deal. The AA declared on Tuesday that a 10-week run of falling pump prices had come to an end. The motoring group said that while average costs were still locked