A litigation finance firm that raised more than £300 million to fund legal cases including car finance claims has been accused of operating a Ponzi scheme, The Times reported. Insolvency practitioners from Kroll told investors in Woodville Consultants that they are reviewing “allegations that the company may have used investor funds to pay back” money owed to earlier investors.

Thames Water's lenders have unveiled plans for a new board in a scramble to secure control of the troubled utility and avoid nationalisation by Andy Burnham, The Telegraph reported. Creditors behind a proposed £10bn restructuring of the business have lined up four new directors as part of a potential clearout of its existing leadership. The appointments would form part of a rescue deal for Thames, which is struggling under a £20bn debt pile and risks running out of cash as soon as October.

The British company Welink Energy Portugal 2 UK, which owns Solara4, the largest solar power plant in the country, has entered insolvency proceedings, according to a report published this month by consultancy BDO, EuroNews.com reported. The case concerns a large-scale project in the Algarve region with 219 MW of installed solar capacity. Located in Alcoutim, Solara4 has been in operation for five years, having been inaugurated in 2021, but has been facing a series of setbacks.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the billionaire boss of Ineos, has rescued Britain's last factory producing critical chemicals used in the UK plastics industry, The Telegraph reported. Ineos confirmed on Friday that it had rescued Runcorn MCP, the UK's last producer of ethylene dichloride, which is used to make PVC. The vital plastic is used for making water pipes, electrical cable, medical tubing and window frames, making it crucial for the construction industry.

The number of hospitality businesses filing for insolvency rose by more than 10% in the past quarter, figures show. Insolvencies rose 10.2% in Q2 of 2026 compared to Q1, with 840 companies in trouble over the three-month period, according to the latest Hospitality Index from turnaround and restructuring firm Buchler Phillips. The number of hospitality insolvencies has remained consistently over 260 so far this year, the index also shows. The index does, however, show that the number of hospitality businesses entering insolvency eased slightly over the first half of the year.

Two directors who transferred valuable intellectual property (IP) out of an insolvent software company have been ordered to pay more than £2 million after the High Court of England and Wales found that they acted dishonestly to put the asset beyond creditors’ reach, ICLG.com reported. Handing down judgment on Aug. 18, Mr Justice Fancourt held that Timothy Marsh and Timothy Rowland breached their duties as directors of Serisys Limited when they transferred its rights in financial-services software Adypt to another group company in August 2017.

UK's annual inflation rate jumped to 2.9% in July, up from 2.6% in June, according to official figures from the Office for National Statistics, released on Wednesday. This was mainly due to higher energy bills and was in line with analyst expectations, EuroNews.com reported. The price cap on household energy bills soared 13% last month, driven by the ongoing Middle East conflict. This was labelled as "the largest rise in gas prices for almost four years" by the ONS. July's figure was mainly driven by a hike in services inflation, rather than goods inflation.

Would-be crypto investors are being warned by the U.K. Insolvency Service to check firms are registered after customers lost hundreds of thousands of pounds to a “Ponzi-style” scheme, according to a press release. Key Coin Assets Ltd told investors that it could guarantee returns of 40% to 100%, with one online post claiming “0 Fees, 0 Risks”. However, the Insolvency Service acted swiftly to have the company shut down when it found no evidence that any trading actually took place.