The International Monetary Fund urged the Bank of England on Tuesday to avoid an "inaction bias" when it comes to raising interest rates as it forecast British inflation would hit a 30-year high of around 5.5% next year, Reuters reported. The BoE has said rates will need to rise to ensure that consumer price inflation - currently 4.2% - returns to its 2% target in the next couple of years.

Britain will remove all 11 countries from its COVID-19 travel red list on Wednesday, Health Secretary Sajid Javid told parliament, Reuters reported. "Now that there is community transmission of Omicron in the UK and Omicron has spread so widely across the world, the travel red list is now less effective in slowing the incursion of Omicron from abroad," he said.

Virgin Atlantic has received 400 million pounds ($530 million) of new funding from its shareholders to help the airline ride out the coronavirus pandemic, the Associated Press reported. In a statement Monday, the company said its shareholders, Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, will provide the money in line with their stakes. Virgin Group owns 51% of the airline, while Delta owns the rest. “Our story has been well documented during the pandemic,” Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss said.

U.K. households, already bracing for their energy bills to rise by “several hundred pounds,” will see a further jump following the collapse of Bulb Energy Ltd. and other suppliers, the regulator said, Bloomberg News reported. The U.K.’s energy crisis has led to the collapse of more than 24 suppliers and the first forced nationalization since 2008. That will cost the average household an extra 85 pounds ($112) next year. Ofgem said the collapse of Bulb Energy Ltd.

The U.K.’s biggest business lobby cut its forecasts for growth this year and next as it warned rising costs and shortages are hampering the nation’s recovery, Bloomberg News reported. The Confederation of British Industry said Monday it now expects an expansion of 6.9% in 2021 and 5.1% in 2022, down from 8.2% and 6.1% previously. It expects U.K. business investment to lag behind other advanced economies, and sees it remaining 3% below its pre-Covid level by the end of 2023. The emergence of the omicron variant poses a further downside risk, it said.

The U.K. Treasury has appointed David Miles, a former Morgan Stanley economist and Bank of England rate-setter, to the government’s independent budget watchdog, Bloomberg News reported. Miles, who served on the BOE’s monetary policy committee from 2009 to 2015, will take over from Charles Bean, whose five-year term ends on Jan. 1. The OBR draws up the economic forecasts as well as borrowing and debt projections for the budget. The independent body was set up in 2010 to stop the Treasury fiddling the figures for political purpose.

The U.K.’s energy regulator said it may impose stricter capital requirements for gas and power suppliers after almost two dozen companies collapsed since August in the wake of soaring prices, Bloomberg News reported. The surge in wholesale rates to levels almost four times higher than usual for this time of year has wreaked havoc on the energy retail sector. Many of those going out of business were partially or totally unhedged, leaving them vulnerable when prices increased dramatically.

KPMG risks a ban on bidding for public contracts if there is a repeat of recent scandals at one of the UK government’s biggest providers of consulting services, the cabinet office has warned, the Irish Times reported. The threat was made in a letter from the department to the Big Four consultant seeking assurances that there would be no further misconduct at the firm. KPMG’s reputation has suffered in recent years after a series of fines for misconduct. It is also under investigation over other allegations of malpractice.

Scotland’s leader said Monday that she will renew her push for independence from the United Kingdom next year, with the aim of holding a referendum on secession in 2023, the Associated Press reported. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the independence campaign, stalled by the pandemic, “will resume in earnest” in spring 2022, “COVID permitting.” “In the course of next year, I will initiate the process necessary to enable a referendum before the end of 2023,” Sturgeon told a conference of her Scottish National Party.

British subprime lender Amigo said on Monday it expects court proceedings over its new rescue plan to take at least four months once submitted, and laid out plans for an equity raise to support the business, dragging its shares nearly 30% lower, Reuters reported. Amigo had flagged a potential equity raise in August after London's High Court rejected its older rescue plan that would have cut compensation payouts to customers who complained about Amigo mis-selling loans to them.