Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s hometown is among a fresh wave of UK town halls seeking government approval for emergency financial support in a last-ditch bid to avoid bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. Southampton City Council applied to the government for “exceptional financial support” last week, a move that could buy it more time to avert the bankruptcies that caused crises at Birmingham, Nottingham and Woking. It is seeking a capitalization direction that allows councils to fund day-to-day spending from their capital resources, including borrowing and asset sales.

Inflation in Britain rose slightly in December, picking up for the first time in almost a year, after a change in tobacco taxes pushed up prices, the New York Times reported. Consumer prices rose 4 percent in December from a year earlier, up from 3.9 percent the previous month, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. Despite the unexpected uptick, inflation is still near its slowest pace in two years and well below where the nation’s central bank thought it would end 2023.

The number of UK companies going bust jumped 14% in 2023 as firms collapsed under the weight of higher borrowing costs and weaker economic growth, Bloomberg News reported. Retail, construction and hospitality firms helped to drive total company insolvencies up to 25,159 in 2023, according to the government’s Insolvency Service. There was a 2% year-on-year increase in December, which is typically a low month for insolvencies. The figures show growing strains on companies after a lull in the pandemic period, reflecting higher borrowing costs and a stagnating economy.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said the integration of cryptocurrencies into the global financial system has stalled as the coins struggle to win over regulators and the public, Bloomberg News reported. “My own sense is that it’s not taking off as what I might call a core financial service,” Bailey told the UK Parliament’s Treasury Committee on Wednesday.

The U.K. government is pressuring councils to run down their reserves to help stave off a financial crisis beginning to rip through the country’s town halls, Bloomberg News reported. Simon Hoare, minister for local government, urged local authorities to tap into cash they set aside for emergencies to cover day-to-day services, noting many of them increased their rainy-day funds during the pandemic. However, the call was dubbed “ridiculous” by the Labour opposition and met with skepticism by councils.

Britain’s top smartphone maker, which has made JCB and Land Rover-branded handsets, is on the brink of insolvency as it struggles to compete with Apple and Samsung, The Telegraph reported. Bullitt, which specialises in toughened smartphones and had peak sales of more than £140m, has told the High Court it intends to appoint administrators, filings said. The company said that its satellite connectivity business and all its 100 employees would be transferred to a new company owned by its creditors.

Company insolvencies soared last year as businesses struggled with the inflation crisis and the long-term impact of the Covid pandemic, new figures show, The Guardian reported. A total of 30,199 UK businesses were involved in some kind of insolvency action in 2023 – 52% higher than in 2021, according to Creditsafe, a credit checking agency which tracks 430m businesses around the world.

A Glasgow rage and escape room has 'closed' as confused customers have fumed they lost money booking vouchers just days before it went under, GlasgowLive.com reported. Rage Room Glasgow, which was the first of its kind in Scotland, is believed to have closed after its parent company Escape Rooms Scotland LTD quietly entered administration on August 25 last year with the company applying for insolvency days later. Accountancy firm Wylie & Bisset have been appointed to wind the Hydepark Street business up.

A UK Treasury minister cautioned councils against selling assets even as the government proposes to loosen budget rules to help boost the finances of struggling town halls, Bloomberg News reported. “I wouldn’t support any selling off of community assets,” Laura Trott, chief secretary to the Treasury, said in an interview with Times Radio on Sunday. Her remarks contrast with government proposals that would give councils more flexibility to sell assets to help fund front-line services and ward off a wave of bankruptcies, as revealed by Bloomberg on Saturday.

WeWork’s top UK subsidiary posted a loss of £110 million in 2022 and said it owed nearly three quarters of a billion pounds to its US parent in signs the London office market’s sluggish recovery from the coronavirus pandemic has crippled its finances, the Evening Standard reported.