Santander begins closing 40 branches from 28 April 2026, with NatWest shutting 15 by end of May. Total of 244 branches closing across Santander, NatWest and Lloyds in 2026-27.
Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated sharply over the weekend following a cross-border incident in the Kashmir valley that left at least 26 civilians dead and dozens more injured, triggering the most serious diplomatic crisis between the two nuclear-armed neighbours…
The government announced on Sunday a £2 billion public-private investment in a new artificial intelligence supercomputer campus to be built on the outskirts of Manchester, in what ministers described as the largest single commitment to AI computing infrastructure in British…
Six years after Brexit formally took effect, the contest for European financial supremacy is no longer theoretical. Amsterdam has emerged as the undisputed centre for European equity trading. Paris has established itself as the leading location for investment banking operations…
British businesses are pouring money into artificial intelligence at a rate that has no historical precedent — and struggling to demonstrate that the investment is translating into the productivity improvements that justified it. A new survey by the Confederation of…
The Bank of England held its benchmark interest rate at 4.25% at its May meeting, as expected, but significantly softened its forward guidance in a shift that markets interpreted as signalling a faster pace of rate reductions over the coming…
Millions of voters across England went to the polls on Thursday for local council elections that were widely seen as the most significant electoral test of the Starmer government since the 2024 general election. With 1,847 council seats contested across…
UK manufacturing output declined for the third consecutive month in March, according to data from the Office for National Statistics released on Thursday, with the sector contracting by 0.4% compared to February as export orders weakened and domestic demand remained…
Manchester’s commercial property market is experiencing its strongest period of activity since before the pandemic, with office take-up in the city centre reaching 1.2 million square feet in the first quarter of 2026 — a 34% increase on the same…
Rolls-Royce Holdings reported its strongest order book position in over a decade on Thursday, announcing that civil aerospace orders had reached £28 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2026 — a record figure that reflects the ongoing…
