Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said getting inflation down to the central bank's 2% target will be "hard work" as most of its recent fall was due to the unwinding of the jump in energy costs last year, Reuters reported. "The rest of it has to be done by policy and monetary policy," Bailey said in an interview with website ChronicleLive published on Monday. "And policy is operating in what I call a restrictive way at the moment - it is restricting the economy.

Around a quarter of Helical Plc’s portfolio will sit empty after the loss of a lease with bankrupt WeWork Inc., Bloomberg News reported. The departure of law firm Baker McKenzie from its central London office ahead of a redevelopment will also contribute to the higher vacancy rate, the London property developer said in a statement. Helical said EPRA earnings per share fell to 1.1 pence in the first half through September, down from 4.8 pence a year earlier.“While interest from potential occupiers has been encouraging, lease negotiations are taking longer to conclude,” the company said.

The coming holiday season could be as good as it gets for strongly performing U.K. retail stocks, according to Deutsche Bank AG, Bloomberg News reported. “Christmas trading is likely to be robust, in our view, but there is a risk this represents the last hurrah of post-pandemic spending recovery,” analyst Adam Cochrane wrote in a note. U.K. retailers are headed for their best year since 2019, with an index for the sector up 24%, boosted by the return of shoppers to physical stores following the end of pandemic-era restrictions.

It's only a matter of time before a Welsh council goes bankrupt unless cash pressures ease, bosses have said, the BBC reported. Anthony Hunt, Labour leader of Torfaen council, said "the very fabric of our local public services is under threat". And Mark Pritchard, independent leader of Wrexham council, said that it faced cutting community care help that would have a negative impact on NHS services. The Welsh government said that it would continue to work closely with councils to "meet the shared challenges". "We are struggling," said Mr Pritchard. "A local authority across Wales....

Britain's pharmaceutical industry and the government have agreed terms to renew a medicines access scheme that requires the companies to pay back part of their drug revenue generated from the national health service, they said on Monday, Reuters reported. The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) said in a joint statement that the scheme agreed with the government and National Health Service (NHS) England, will run for five years until end-2028.

Three Bank of England policy makers warned markets to brace for UK interest rates to remain elevated for a lengthy period of time, the latest efforts by officials to dampen bets on a reduction in borrowing costs by mid-2024, Bloomberg News reported. Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden said firms must adapt to a higher rate world after the shift away from the low borrowing costs that marked the post-global financial crisis period.

Inflation in Britain slowed last month, bringing the rate to its lowest level in two years, in a welcome easing of stubborn price pressures, the New York Times reported. Consumer prices rose 4.6 percent in October from a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday, down from 6.7 percent in the previous month. Last year, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine made wholesale energy prices soar, but price caps on bills in Britain meant that households felt these increases with a lag. The same has been true as wholesale prices have dropped this year.

A U.K. city council facing a £23 million in-year budget gap has said that it could declare bankruptcy if it is not feasible to balance its books, the Darlington & Stockton Times reported. Nottingham City Council has said that while it is “not ‘bankrupt’ or insolvent”, it will need to assess whether it can deliver a balanced budget. It comes after concerns that the council will follow the likes of Birmingham and others in issuing a Section 114 notice, meaning a council is effectively bankrupt.

The number of firms going bust in England and Wales has jumped yet again as the higher-for-longer interest rate environment continues to put pressure on businesses and consumers. Monthly data from the Insolvency Service showed there were 2,315 insolvencies among registered companies in October, up 18 percent from last October when there was 1,954, City AM reported. Around 82 percent (1,889) of last month’s insolvencies were creditors’ voluntary liquidations (CVLs), where an insolvent company’s directors choose to wind up.

London boroughs have spent about £300 million ($367 million) since the start of 2017 buying properties outside their local area for homeless people, a sign of the deep-rooted problems that are leaving councils around the country at risk of bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. Cash-strapped local authorities have acquired more than 1,000 of those homes as soaring rents push more Londoners to crisis point, and historic policies erode the supply of housing that councils have to offer. The figures were released to Bloomberg News under the Freedom of Information Act.