A major £13.8m redevelopment is set to begin in the new year - despite the council facing bankruptcy, BBC.com reported. Gloucester City Council's cabinet members will vote later on releasing £4m to start phase one of the Greyfriars Quarter, which will see Eastgate Market relocated to Bell Walk. Under the wider scheme, a new market and food hall will also be created, as well as a park and gardens, all set within the grounds of the 13th Century Greyfriars monastery.

In a significant post-Brexit development, the High Court has, for the first time, recognised and enforced a Northern Ireland Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) in the Republic of Ireland, Irish Legal News reported. The application was brought on behalf of the IVA nominee and supervisor, Séamas Keating, with Daly Hempenstall Solicitors LLP acting and Keith Farry BL appearing before Mr Justice Oisín Quinn.

AILS Sejours Linguistiques, an established agency with offices in Switzerland and France, has ceased trading and filed for bankruptcy, StudyTravel Magazine understands. Communication to a partner provider in Australia shared that AILS filed for insolvency on 5 November 2025 at the First Instance Court of the Canton of Geneva. The message states that the company is "no longer authorised to manage its files, dispose of assets or make any payments or reimbursements".

U.K. household spending fell at its fastest pace since the pandemic last month, as families cut back amid growing fears over the economy, The Telegraph reported. Spending on credit and debit cards fell 1.1pc compared with November of last year, according to data from Barclays, the steepest annual drop since February 2021, when the country was still battling strict Covid restrictions. The fall comes despite weeks of discount offers in the run-up to Christmas, particularly those relating to Black Friday late last month.

German corporate insolvencies are projected to hit their highest level in more than a decade this year, a new study revealed ​on Monday, as the nation grapples with a stubborn economic downturn, Reuters reported. Approximately 23,900 companies are ‌expected to file for bankruptcy in 2025, an 8.3% increase from 2024 and the highest figure since 2014, according ‌to a report by credit agency Creditreform. While that growth would be slower than in previous years, the rising numbers underscore deep-seated challenges facing German businesses following two years of economic contraction.

Leen Bakker Belgium was declared bankrupt on Wednesday by a court in Antwerp, forcing the permanent closure of 29 stores that failed to find a buyer, NLTimes.nl reported. The bankruptcy will cost 250 employees their jobs, while about 50 others may find work in other stores. The furniture chain had been struggling in Belgium for years due to “particularly challenging market conditions” and mounting losses. This summer, the company put more than 40 Belgian locations up for sale.

Turkey’s Pegasus Airlines said on Monday it has signed an agreement to acquire the biggest Czech airline, Smartwings, along with its owner, Czech Airlines, from Prague City Air, the Associated Press reported. Pegasus said that the deal, which is worth 154 million euros (almost $180 million) was a “step forward in our continued global growth journey.” The process of transferring the ownership of Czech Airlines should be completed in 12 months, Smartwings spokeswoman Vladimíra Dufková said.

Swiss companies plan to relocate some of their operations and production abroad to deal with the impact of U.S. tariffs, according to a study by business association economiesuisse, Reuters reported. It surveyed more than 400 companies before and after Switzerland last month agreed a deal to reduce U.S. tariffs from 39% to 15%, with a quarter of the firms already having identified concrete steps they were taking. Nearly a third of those firms have decided to increase investments outside Switzerland and shift production and operations abroad, the survey said.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), in its recently released Regional Economic Prospects report, cites the uncertainty surrounding trade policies among the main reasons for revising global growth projections for 2025 from 3.5% to 3.2%, EuroNews reported. The US government has now threatened 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports and doubled levies on Chinese goods to 20%. While the direct effects of these policies have been widely discussed, the consequences for other countries remain unclear.

Scottish mountain bike brand, Deviate Cycles Limited, is insolvent, and the directors have been working with their professional advisers to try to find a buyer. Offers made were deemed insufficient, and so co-founder Ben Jones has stepped in to buy the company's assets, PinBike.com reported. Jones explained that Deviate Cycles, like too many bicycle brands, found itself in financial difficulty in the latter half of 2025 after major delays to stock availability. Stock that was supposed to arrive in the UK and be available for sale in summer did not arrive until late autumn.