Urban Pubs and Bars defies hospitality gloom with doubling of profit February 2, 2026 One of London’s biggest pub chains has defied hospitality gloom after posting a more than doubling of profit. Urban Pubs and Bars, which operates more than fifty venues across the capital including The Wren in Bank, the Commercial Tavern in Spitalfields and the Punch Tavern in Fleet Street, saw pre-trax profit climb to £1.7m for [...]
CBI board member Peter Hogg to lead Arcadis’ UK and Ireland business February 2, 2026 The CBI’s senior council chair, Peter Hogg, has been appointed as Arcadis’ country director for the UK and Ireland, City PM can reveal. Hogg is a 28-year veteran of the global design and consultancy firm and will succeed Simon Bimpson, with a focus on leveraging Arcadis’ position in sustainable design to deliver infrastructure that improves [...]
Mandelson to Epstein: JP Morgan should ‘threaten’ UK over banker tax February 2, 2026 Lord Peter Mandelson told Jeffrey Epstein that the boss of banking giant JP Morgan should “mildly threaten” the UK Treasury over a tax on banker bonuses whilst the peer was serving as business secretary. New bombshell revelations in the latest drop of the Epstein files by the US Department of Justice showed Mandelson, who worked [...]
Hundreds of Treasury jobs at risk in civil servant cost-cutting shakeup February 2, 2026 Rachel Reeves wants to slash about 300 of her department’s roughly 2,100 staff by 2030, as HM Treasury plans to offer officials up to £100,000 to take voluntary leave.The proposed cuts to the Treasury are part of a wider drive to reduce Whitehall’s administrative costs by 16 per cent, according to the Financial Times. The [...]
Fitzwalter backs off Auction Tech after hostile bidding campaign February 2, 2026 Investment giant Fitzwalter has backed off Auction Technology Group after a hostile campaign between the two led to 13 different takeover attempts of the latter. The London-headquartered said on Monday ATG’s Board had unanimously rejected its proposed offer of 400 pence per share. The offer sat above the UK market median for similar cash transactions [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Miners lead stock fall as gold rout deepens February 2, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City PM liveblog. There’s one big event the City is looking towards this week but all signs point to zero surprises. On Thursday, the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee will meet for the first time this year and decide whether to take the chop to interest rates. [...]
Arm boss says lack of risk appetite ‘holding UK back’ February 2, 2026 The chief executive of British semiconductor company Arm has said the UK’s lack of risk appetite is holding businesses back. Speaking on the Master Investor Podcast with Wilfred Frost, Rene Hass, who leads the Nasdaq-listed firm Arm holdings, said startups in the UK struggled to grow because of scale opportunities in the UK arising from [...]
Scrapping stamp duty could boost investment in UK stocks February 2, 2026 Brits have called for the removal of stamp duty on UK shares in order to incentivise them to allocate capital into the London market. Three quarters of investors said that the scrapping of stamp duty on UK shares and trusts would prompt them to take more interest and potentially invest more, according to the latest [...]
Premium bonds fall short as investors miss out on thousands February 2, 2026 Premium bond holders are falling short compared to UK investors, missing out on thousands by choosing to dodge the stock market. Brits who keep capital instead of premium bonds instead of stocks could be losing out on almost £3,800 in earnings, according to data from investment platform Lightyear. The average premium bond holder with the [...]
Crackdown on social media migrant adverts to begin, Home Office says February 1, 2026 Social media users who tout illegal routes into the UK face up to five years in prison, starting on Monday. The Home Office will activate part of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act, passed last year, as part of its crackdown on adverts telling migrants how they can circumvent immigration checks. Border security minister [...]
