Confidence is tumbling among Britain’s food and drink manufacturers, as inflationary pressures including energy, labour and raw material costs gain pace, according to a survey by the industry body. Business confidence plummeted to -47% in the final three months of last year, according to the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), down from -6% in the…

Profits at the UK housebuilder Vistry Group have slumped by more than a third in what it described as a “disappointing year” but it is pinning hopes of a turnaround on the government’s promise this week to inject £2bn into affordable homes. After three profit warnings last year, Vistry suspended dividend payouts to shareholders on…

Most e-bikes will be banned across the London Underground and other Transport for London services, after growing safety concerns over igniting batteries. Only folding e-bikes, which are less likely to have been modified and are deemed less of a safety risk, will be permitted on the London Underground, Overground, Elizabeth Line and DLR trains from…

Britain’s main measure of wage growth may need to be revised after a large employer failed to supply earnings data on time, the troubled Office for National Statistics has warned. In the latest sign of the ONS’s problems with collecting reliable economic figures, which the government uses in economic policymaking, the agency issued a caveat…