The UK economy lost jobs again in the quarter though August, marking the longest drop in employment since the depths of the coronavirus pandemic and a sign that inflationary pressures may be abating, Bloomberg News reported. Employment fell 82,000 in June to August after a 133,000 drop in the period from May through July, the Office for National Statistics said Tuesday. It was third consecutive three-month period in which employment has fallen compared to the previous three months, the worst stretch since early 2021.

English councils are grappling with £4 billion ($4.9 billion) gap in their finances over the next two years, threatening to further fuel a wave of bankruptcies that’s crippling local authorities, Bloomberg News reported. The Local Government Association said the funding shortfall has increased by £1 billion since its previous calculations in July after an soaring inflation worsened long-running pressures on council budgets. The squeeze on council budgets is likely to tip more authorities into financial trouble.

The management of bankrupt electric truck maker Volta Trucks is urgently seeking a buyer to take the company out of administration and help it complete the ramp-up to mass production, a source familiar with the issue told Reuters. Volta, which is headquartered in Sweden and has operations in the United Kingdom, filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday citing the bankruptcy in August of its supplier Proterra and uncertainty over its battery supplier, which had made it hard to raise sufficient capital.

A judge has dismissed a winding up petition lodged by tax officials against a company linked to rugby union star Lawrence Dallaglio, YahooFinance.com reported. Judge Sally Barber considered the case at a hearing in the specialist Insolvency and Companies Court in London on Wednesday. Barrister Tom Cockburn, who represented HM Revenue & Customs, told the judge that Lawrence Dallaglio Limited had entered a voluntary liquidation. The former England forward, who was not at the hearing, is listed as a company director on a Companies House website.

A Scottish bakery firm has gone bust, leaving the business with a six-figure debt trail, The National reported. Brawsome Bagels entered financial trouble earlier this year, leading to the closure of its takeaway in Glasgow’s west end. Owner Ian Brooke blamed rising costs, technical issues and change in consumer spending. It isn’t clear how many jobs were affected by the closure. But Brooke's firm, Southside Bagels, now has huge debts and owes money to a range of investors, banks and the HMRC.

The inflation rate in Britain held steady in September, defying expectations of a small decline, after as rise in fuel prices offset a slowdown in food inflation, the New York Times reported. Consumer prices overall rose 6.7 percent last month from a year earlier, the same pace as the previous month, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. For the first time in four months, the cost of transportation added to the rate of inflation, because of an increase in gasoline and diesel prices.

The government dropped its pursuit of five former Carillion non-executive directors late last week, hours before a High Court “test case” was due to begin. The Insolvency Service had been seeking disqualification orders that would have prevented five former board members of the construction group, including Philip Green, the long-serving chairman, from acting as directors, but it dropped the civil action on Friday afternoon. A 13-week trial had been due to begin yesterday.

The Bank of England is reviewing its rules that determine when international banks are required to set up a formal subsidiary after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank showed it was easier to seize control of such operations in the event a bank fails, Bloomberg News reported. Silicon Valley Bank operated as a branch in the UK for a decade before regulators finally required it to subsidiarise, Sam Woods, chief executive officer of the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority, said in prepared remarks during the City Banquet at Mansion House.

Britain and South Korea have agreed to extend a period of low or zero tariffs on bilateral trade of products with parts from the European Union, the British government said on Monday, in a boost for the car industry, Reuters reported. Without the two-year extension, British businesses would have faced high tariffs from Jan. 1 on exports of products made using EU components, under so-called rules of origin, and on products shipped via the EU.

A key unit of collapsed UK caravan giant RoyaleLife was placed into administration this week, as a fight heats up among debtors owed hundreds of millions of pounds, Bloomberg News reported. Time GB Group Limited is one of around 200 companies that make up RoyaleLife, a group that was owned and founded by self-proclaimed billionaire Robert Bull, but has now mostly collapsed into insolvency. The firm acted as a treasury company for RoyaleLife, undertaking money transfers across the group, and is the closest thing the caravan giant had to a corporate center.