Yorkshire Water has raised £500mn from shareholders, the latest sign of the UK’s debt-laden water companies racing to shore up their balance sheets. Yorkshire Water, which serves 2.3mn households and 130,000 businesses, said in a statement that the equity injection, which came this week, was “better than anticipated”. The fundraising is part of a plan
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The British government is on standby for the potential collapse of Thames Water and ministers are examining options including the temporary nationalisation of the debt-laden business. Defra, the environment ministry, is holding emergency talks with industry regulator Ofwat to examine contingency plans in case the country’s largest company is unable to raise private finance in
Russia dropped charges against participants in the Wagner paramilitary force’s armed insurrection and said the group had agreed to hand over its weaponry. The announcements on Tuesday came in the wake of the deal between the Kremlin and Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin and appeared to mark progress towards resolving the stand-off. The FSB, Russia’s main
Russia has shown images of defence minister Sergei Shoigu visiting troops, the first time he has been pictured in public since warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin’s weekend insurrection against senior military leadership. The brief video, posted on Monday by the defence ministry, showed Shoigu inspecting a Russian command point and listening to a report from subordinates about
Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin and his troops were withdrawing from southern Russia on Sunday after reaching a deal with Moscow to end his armed uprising after the biggest crisis of Vladimir Putin’s presidency. Prizoghin himself maintained a rare silence after calling an end to his insurrection on Saturday evening, though the Kremlin said he would
Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed his forces were “blockading” Rostov and marching on Moscow on Saturday morning, as armed, masked men with tanks and armoured vehicles surrounded government buildings in the southern Russian city. In what would mark the first coup attempt in Russia for three decades, Prigozhin appeared to have taken over a military
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is meeting bank leaders in Downing Street to address the growing mortgage crisis caused by rising interest rates. Hunt is urging banks and building societies to examine the state of the mortgage market and see what additional help they can give those struggling to deal with surging monthly payments on their home
The Bank of England has stepped up its fight against persistent inflation with a surprise half-point rise in interest rates to 5 per cent, the highest level since 2008. Voting seven to two in favour of the larger-than-expected increase, the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee said it was responding to “material news” in recent economic
UK inflation remained stuck at 8.7 per cent in May, higher than expectations of a drop to 8.4 per cent, marking the fourth month in a row that price rises have exceeded forecasts. With the cost of a broad range of goods and services rising sharply, the figures will reinforce expectations of multiple interest rate
UK grocery price inflation eased for a third consecutive month in June, with new data suggesting it might have peaked, according to research company Kantar. The annual pace of supermarket price increases eased to 16.5 per cent for the four weeks to June 11, down from 17.2 per cent the previous month. The figure was
The cost of a two-year fixed-rate mortgage in the UK rose above 6 per cent on Monday and two-year gilt yields rose to their highest level for 15 years, piling more pressure on homeowners and Rishi Sunak’s government. Mortgage costs have been rising sharply over the past week, ahead of an expected increase in interest
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has arrived in Beijing on a highly anticipated mission to reboot US-China relations, which have cratered this year after an alleged Chinese spy balloon flew over North America. Blinken will be the first secretary of state to visit China since 2018, a reflection of Beijing’s strict coronavirus pandemic lockdowns,
UK households that come to the end of fixed-rate mortgage deals next year face an average £2,900 increase in annual payments, putting Rishi Sunak under pressure to defuse an election-year time bomb. The estimated increase in payments by the Resolution Foundation think-tank reflects concern that the UK has a worse inflation problem than other countries
Odey Asset Management has suspended trading in a fourth fund following a “sizeable level” of withdrawal requests in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against founder Crispin Odey, which have precipitated the break-up of one of London’s oldest hedge fund firms. The firm said in a letter to investors on Friday that it was temporarily
Boris Johnson, Britain’s former prime minister, has been condemned for lying to parliament over the Covid “partygate” scandal, in a damning report that casts doubt on whether he can ever stage a political comeback. The report by a cross-party committee of MPs published on Thursday is a searing indictment of Johnson’s conduct in high office,
Big asset managers are buying up UK government debt again, tempted by the higher yields on offer after a much faster sell-off than in other major bond markets. Two-year gilts suffered a sharp sell-off on Tuesday, with yields surging 0.25 percentage points to 4.89 per cent, the highest level since 2008. That followed official figures
Gilt yields surged to the highest since 2008, surpassing the level reached during the turmoil following Liz Truss’s mini Budget, after strong UK wage growth data on Tuesday. Wage growth accelerated in the three months to April against a backdrop of rising employment, raising the likelihood of further interest rate rises. Two-year gilt yields rose
Rishi Sunak on Monday turned on his predecessor Boris Johnson, claiming that the former prime minister had asked him to interfere and wave a long list of his allies through to the House of Lords. Sunak said Johnson asked him to reverse the decision by the House of Lords appointment committee (Holac) to block some
Partners at Odey Asset Management said that founder Crispin Odey would leave the firm after 13 women accused him of sexual misconduct. The high-profile financier and his firm have been at the centre of a growing crisis after the Financial Times reported on Thursday that 13 women alleged Odey had sexually assaulted or harassed them
Rishi Sunak has finally approved Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list, which includes appointments for Tory MPs and a senior official who worked in Downing Street during the partygate scandal. The former prime minister nominated several senior Conservative MPs who are his allies. Jacob Rees-Mogg, Conor Burns, and Simon Clarke were knighted, while Priti Patel and