United Kingdom

Swansea University’s Bay Campus on the outskirts of the Welsh city was expected to attract a wave of new fee-paying students to boost revenue after the government squeezed funding to the sector. These days, it’s more of a millstone after overseas enrollments failed to grow as much as expected, a symbol of the wider financial problems facing universities across the U.K., Bloomberg News reported. It takes 30 minutes by bus from the city center to reach the campus, which looked bleak last Friday with almost empty bike racks and fenced-off construction machinery.

The U.K. economy will grow slower than previously forecast in 2025, and the government will have to borrow more heavily over the coming years, Treasury Chief Rachel Reeves told lawmakers Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Office for Budget Responsibility lowered its growth forecast for this year to 1% from 2% previously. On taking office in July, the left-of-center Labour government said reviving growth after 15 years of stagnation was its top priority.

U.K. inflation cooled a little in February, but remained well above the Bank of England’s target, likely keeping policymakers cautious as they mull further rate cuts, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices were 2.8% higher in February than a year earlier, compared with a 3.0% annual rate of inflation in January, according to data released Wednesday by the U.K. statistics agency. That slight decrease came in a little faster than economists had expected, and was driven by a shallower rise in energy prices and goods such as clothing and footwear.

The UK’s top financial watchdog has promised a “less intensive approach” to firms whose intentions are pure, signaling a more pragmatic stance in a new five-year strategy that leans heavily into the government’s growth agenda, Bloomberg News reported. The Financial Conduct Authority, responsible for supervising some 42,000 firms, is trying to cut back on excessive form-filling and other hurdles that the industry says makes the UK a less attractive market.

More than 8,300 bounce back loans issued to the construction sector during the pandemic are suspected to have been fraudulent, according to a Construction News report. The loans, issued from May 2020 as emergency relief of up to £50,000 for small companies, were backed by 100 per cent government guarantees. Data obtained by Construction News under the Freedom of Information Act from the British Business Bank, which facilitated the scheme, showed that 8,356 bounce back loans to the industry were flagged as suspected frauds by lenders at the end of January.

The Bank of England has left itself the option to “skip” an interest rate cut later this year, economists have said, after policymakers voted to leave borrowing costs unchanged at 4.5 percent, The Telegraph reported. Andrew Bailey, the Governor, was among the eight members of the nine-strong Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to vote to keep rates on hold, with only one member - Swati Dhingra - voting to cut to 4.25pc.

A senior Dundee University figure has told MSPs that insolvency is a "real possibility" as the institution attempts to tackle a £35m funding black hole, BBC.com reported. Acting chair of court Tricia Bey said without forthcoming financial support from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) the university will run out of money by the end of June. Interim principal Prof Shane O'Neill told the Scottish Parliament's education committee he was given the "false assumption" last year that the university was close to breaking even despite having a £12.3m operating deficit at the time.

The Bank of England kept its main interest rate unchanged at 4.5% on Thursday, despite the fact that the economy is barely growing, EuroNews.com reported. Policymakers are also contending with increased uncertainty, particularly in light of tariff policies enacted by the Trump administration in the US. The decision by the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee was widely expected and comes a day after the US Federal Reserve also held interest rates. Minutes from the meeting showed that eight members voted to keep policy unchanged, with one backing a quarter-point reduction.

Yorkshire and the Humber saw a significant rise in insolvency activity in February, UK.News.Yahoo.com reported. Research from the UK's insolvency trade body, R3, indicates a 39 per cent increase. Despite this, new business start-ups in the region rose by 0.2 per cent, the only increase in England.