Business

Business confidence has dropped to a four-year low following Britain's vote to leave the EU, with the outlook for demand, employment and investment weaker across all sectors of the economy. The service sector saw the biggest fall, down by a sizeable 30 points  across hospitality and leisure, retail and wholesale, business and other services. The Lloyds' Business in Britain report found more than a quarter of companies said the main threat to growth in the next six months was economic...

A new study that spoke to 2,000 people has charted the habits of the average British office worker. With Brits working for an estimated 47 years’ employees have been found to arrive to the office late 1,026 times, take 98 days off sick and endure 1,174 meetings. It may come as no surprise that offices are not the most harmonious environment with the average worker falling out with colleagues 479 times. The biggest cause of conflict at work is the...

To be honest we thought the figure might be higher, but a new Australian study has found that one out of every five CEOs are actually psychopaths. Quite worrying and kind of makes you kind of glad you’re not one. I’m happy to be broke and a little bit weird rather than rich and possibly capable of murder, and possibly even enjoying it. Although journalist comes sixth in one table of careers with the most psychopaths, and even more worryingly,...

Under-fire billionaire Mike Ashley pulled out a wad of £50 notes on a recent trip to a Sports Direct factory which have been likened to Victorian workhouses. The Newcastle United and Sports Direct owner was leading journalists on a tour of the company's headquaters amidst a barrage of criticism over poor working conditions and low pay. But when he had to empy his pockets for security, he produced a fat wad of £50 notes. Asked why he had so much cash...

In a victory for business transparency, a cross-party call for multinationals to make public where they pay tax and in what places they do business, has been given the nod by the Government. There has been increasing pressure from politicians and the wider public to hold these huge companies to account. Many people believe these companies purposefully move revenues across the world to avoid paying taxes where they have made a lot of money. It appears that this might be...

In news that will make rail users across the country angry, but probably not surprised, Southern Rail’s owner announced their profits hit £100m and also received a £20m Government “bailout.” If that wasn’t enough bad, boss David Brown got a pay rise. He will get £2.16 million in 2016, up from £1.96 during 2015. Brown’s bumper pay rise will still go-ahead in spite of being the head of a network that has the worst punctuality record of any franchise in the...

FDI figures that show the UK enjoyed record breaking inward investment have been branded misleading. New figures show that 2,213 inward investment projects were secured in 2015-16 - an 11 per cent increase on the previous year. This led to around 116,000 jobs being created or safeguarded - the second highest number on record, the Department for International Trade said. However Professor Nigel Driffield of Warwick Business School said that in the period that covers these figures the expectation among political commentators...

Over two hundred Scottish schools that have been constructed under PFI (private finance initiative) are in some way owned by investment funds located offshore. This means that 80 per cent that could be at least partly located outside of the UK. PFI schemes have come under criticism recently as schools, hospitals and other large public sector build projects are locked into huge payments over a number of years, that can typically range up to 30. Many public institutions are struggling to...

After months of delays, strikes and negotiations, the London night tube is finally set to run from midnight tonight. Trains will initially run on the Victoria and Central lines on Fridays and Saturdays, before moving to a 24/7 model across Central, Jubilee, Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines. According to the BBC, there are also plans to expand the service to parts of the Metropolitan, Circle, District, and Hammersmith & City lines after modernisation and on parts of the London Overground...