As much as £20 billion of taxpayer-backed Covid loans may have to be written off because of defaults by struggling borrowers, insolvency practitioners have warned, the London Times reported. The resignation of Lord Agnew of Oulton, the counter-fraud minister, has prompted an increased scrutiny of losses to criminals in the government’s emergency schemes, but Azets, an accountancy firm, has warned that these will be eclipsed by the hit to the public purse from legitimate borrowers going bust.

KPMG has been sued for 1.3 billion pounds ($1.77 billion) by the liquidators of Carillion for missing "red flags" during audits of the construction giant, in one of the largest claims against one of the world's top accountants, Reuters reported. Britain's Official Receiver, part of the Insolvency Service, which is liquidating the former blue-chip group, alleged that negligent failures by KPMG to detect misstatements in the accounts of Carillion - which collapsed in 2018 under 7 billion pounds of debt - cost claimants "extensive loss and damage".

Prices are rising steeply in the United States and across Europe, driven by rising energy costs and supply-chain issues triggered by the easing of pandemic rules. But in Britain, there is a fear that sharply escalating heat and electricity bills, combined with food inflation, will push millions more into poverty, the New York Times reported. The Bank of England lifted interest rates on Thursday for the second time in two months — moving before the Federal Reserve or the European Central Bank.

Bondholders of fertilizer producer CF Industries Holdings Inc. agreed to amend the company’s debt covenants, clearing a path for it to restructure its troubled U.K. operations, Bloomberg News reported. Bondholders agreed to let CF Industries remove its U.K. units from the definition of a “substantial subsidiary” in exchange for a $2 fee per $1,000 of principal on four different outstanding bond issues, the company said in a regulatory filing Tuesday. In a previous filing, the Deerfield, Illinois-based manufacturer said it sought to change the definition so that restructuring its U.K.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a raft of measures as the U.K. government sought to get a grip on a burgeoning cost-of-living crisis, with millions of Britons facing record increases in their energy bills, Bloomberg News reported. “The government is going to step in to directly help people manage those extra costs,” Sunak said in the House of Commons on Thursday, saying his intervention was worth 9 billion pounds ($12 billion).

The Bank of England raised interest rates to 0.5% on Thursday and nearly half of its policymakers wanted a bigger increase to contain rampant price pressures, as the central bank warned inflation will soon top 7%, Reuters reported. In a surprise split decision, four of the nine members of the Monetary Policy Committee wanted to raise interest rates by half a percentage point to 0.75%. This would have been the biggest increase in borrowing costs since the BoE became operationally independent 25 years ago.

Britain should respect post-Brexit trade rules or else face consequences, a German official said on Thursday as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was "crazy" to have checks on goods heading from Britain only to Northern Ireland, Reuters reported. Tensions over the Northern Ireland protocol, signed as part of Britain's exit from the European Union, flared again after Belfast ordered an immediate halt on Wednesday on checks on agri-foods, earning a rebuke from Brussels.

Northern Ireland's Agriculture Minister on Wednesday ordered a halt from midnight to all post-Brexit checks on goods coming into the region from the rest of the United Kingdom, a move Dublin and some of his partners in government said was unlawful, Reuters reported. Edwin Poots, a member of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which opposes the Northern Ireland protocol mandating such checks, cited legal advice that the measures should not have been introduced without approval from the regional government.

Britons will learn the scale of the financial pain they face on Thursday when the energy regulator Ofgem announces an increase to its price cap, with under-pressure households expected to see bills soaring by about 50%, Reuters reported. Ofgem will announce the new cap at 1100 GMT - an hour before the Bank of England is expected to hike interest rates again to tame surging inflation.

A group of U.K. manufacturers said its energy bills are set to soar this year, warning of potential closures, curbs in production and higher costs for consumers, Bloomberg News reported. Net Zero North West -- a consortium of industrial firms in northwest England -- said in a statement that four of its members are facing a collective bill of as much as 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion) this year, about 65% higher than in 2020.