It’s only four months since the UK and Ireland operations of Claire’s was bought out of administration but the business was back there as of Monday, FashionNetwork.com reported. First reported by Sky News, it seems insolvency practitioners from Kroll are handling the process with over a thousand high street jobs at risk. That comes after a significant number of jobs had previously been cut on its insolvency filing last autumn.

U.K. government borrowing costs have fallen after Sir Keir Starmer blocked leadership rival Andy Burnham from standing as an MP, The Telegraph reported. The yield on benchmark 10-year gilts, as U.K. government bonds are known, fell as low as 4.47pc early on Monday, compared to a high of 4.51pc on Friday in the wake of the Gorton and Denton by-election announcement. Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) blocked Mr Burnham from standing in the by-election by eight votes to one on Sunday, quashing an imminent threat to the Prime Minister’s leadership.

A council has approved a decision to write off more than £100,000 of "unrecoverable" debt, BBC.com reported. Members of South Holland District Council's cabinet heard at a meeting on Tuesday there was a total of £114,957.44 uncollectable debt, made up of both council tax and business rates. Councillor Paul Regdate, the portfolio holder for finance, said there was "no realistic prospect of recovery" and the council had "exhausted" enforcement options. The councillor said over half of the debt related to insolvency cases.

The operators of a suspected £200 million Ponzi scheme that put people’s “life savings” at risk have been bankrupted as part of U.K. efforts to track down investors’ money, The Times reported. Individuals behind 79th Group were adjudged bankrupt by Liverpool county court last week over debts linked to an alleged investment scam that owes money to thousands of people in the UK and overseas. The scheme’s operators, who The Times has chosen not to name for legal reasons, were pursued by certain investors.

Risky hedge funds are propping up Britain’s government debt markets and creating fresh dangers to financial stability, Andrew Bailey has warned, The Telegraph reported. The Bank of England Governor said on Tuesday that traders now “dominated” the ownership of the UK’s £3tn market for bonds – known as gilts – increasing the risk of rapid sales if they seek quick profits. Mr Bailey told MPs on the Treasury select committee: “There has been a huge change in, frankly, the structure and nature of intermediation of Government bond markets in the past five [to] 10 years.

Inflation in the United Kingdom rose in December for the first time in five months, pushing further above the Bank of England's target, according to official figures released on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. The Office for National Statistics said the consumer prices index rose by an annual rate of 3.4% in December, up from 3.2% the month before. It said increases in taxes on tobacco products and trips abroad over Christmas contributed to the increase. The increase was slightly lower than anticipated, with most economists predicting a rise to 3.5%.

A health club in Derbyshire where a sauna fire broke out at the weekend has struck a deal with its creditors, including HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), BBC.com reported. Mark Clifford PT Ltd, which operates The Clifford Health Club and Spa in Long Eaton, has entered a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), which allows insolvent limited companies to continue trading if they agree to pay creditors over a fixed period. Documents show HMRC is owed more than £1m and British Gas owed £166,999.

Britain’s financial watchdogs are not doing enough to stop AI from harming consumers or destabilising markets, a group of lawmakers said on Tuesday, urging regulators to move away from a "wait and see" approach as the technology is deployed widely, Reuters reported. The Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England should start running AI‑specific stress tests to help firms prepare for market shocks triggered by automated systems, the Treasury Committee said in a report on AI in financial services.