House builders slammed the brakes on construction at the start of 2023 as a surge in mortgage interest rates causes activity in the property market to freeze over, Bloomberg News reported. The industry suffered its biggest contraction in almost three years in January after a slump in property prices and home loans gathered pace, S&P Global’s construction purchasing managers’ index showed Monday. Britain’s biggest house builders are scaling back new developments amid warnings of large house price falls in 2023.

Britishvolt Ltd’s administrator selected Australian startup Recharge Industries as the preferred bidder to acquire the majority of the insolvent UK battery firm’s business and assets, Bloomberg News reported. The acquisition is expected to take place within the next seven days, according to a statement Monday by EY, Britishvolt’s administrator. Recharge Industries is a subsidiary of Scale Facilitation Partners LLC. Once considered the UK’s best shot for a homegrown electric-vehicle battery supplier, Britishvolt went into bankruptcy last month after failing to identify any potential rescuers.

For more than a decade, the British government has run its National Health Service, the world’s largest government-run healthcare system, on a tight budget. The NHS prided itself on being one of the leanest healthcare systems in the developed world, spending less per head on average than its large European neighbors—and far less than the U.S. Now the state-funded service is falling apart, the Wall Street Journal reported. People who suffer heart attacks or strokes wait more than 1½ hours on average for an ambulance. Hospitals are so full they are turning patients away.

Britishvolt Ltd.’s administrators received two bids for the insolvent UK battery startup when the deadline for proposals ended on Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported. A consortium of former Britishvolt investors and Australian battery startup Recharge Industries submitted bids, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the process is confidential. Once considered the UK’s best shot for a homegrown electric-vehicle battery supplier, Britishvolt went into bankruptcy last month after failing to identify any potential rescuers.

In the space of just five years, a little-known company on the outskirts of London has grown into a payments-industry powerhouse, processing more than 1 billion euros ($1 billion) in transactions every month. Backed by licenses from regulators in the UK and Lithuania, Transactive Systems Ltd. touted itself as “one of the fastest-growing fintech companies in Europe,” with an ability to service clients from “compliance-intense industries” including cryptocurrencies, gambling and foreign-exchange trading, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg.

The Bank of England raised interest rates for a 10th consecutive time on Thursday, by half a percentage point, as policymakers kept up their vigilant stance against inflationary pressures, the New York Times reported. The bank’s policymakers lifted the key rate to 4 percent, the highest since 2008. But after more than a year of rising interest rates, inflation in Britain and several other major economies appears to have peaked, and the bank’s officials softened their tone on the future path of rate increases as the economy enters a contraction.

The UK government hopes to embrace the technological innovations emanating from the blockchain industry with a new set of plans to regulate digital assets, protect consumers, and make Britain "a global hub for crypto-asset technology," YahooFinance.com reported. The Treasury has released proposals for regulating crypto-exchanges, lending activities, and how digital assets are stored, describing crypto assets as having "a range of potential benefits, as well as posing risks to the consumer".

Britain was hit by the largest strikes in a decade on Wednesday as workers from train drivers to teachers to civil servants walked off the job for the day, forcing millions of children to miss school and commuters to stay home, the Wall Street Journal reported. The strikes reflect a growing challenge to the U.K. and some European countries of how to address falling real wages for many public-sector workers without further stoking inflation or damaging public finances after years of high spending.

More companies suffered insolvency last year in England and Wales than any time since 2009, government figures showed on Tuesday, reflecting the end of coronavirus pandemic support that helped many smaller businesses stay afloat, Reuters reported. Total insolvencies rose to 22,109 in 2022, their highest since the global financial crisis and up by 57% from a year earlier, according to data released by the British government's Insolvency Service agency. Part of the increase in the number of companies falling into difficulty reflects the higher number of companies overall.

Paperchase, the high street stationery retailer, is close to collapsing into administration as hopes of a solvent rescue deal fade. Sky News understands the chain's parent company could appoint insolvency practitioners from Begbies Traynor as soon as Tuesday. Paperchase's shareholders remain in discussions with more than one potential buyer, although insiders said that a sale of the business was now focused on a pre-pack deal, which involves a company's assets being sold immediately after it has fallen into administration.