Freelance contractors caught in a controversial tax avoidance row with HM Revenue & Customs could be granted up to seven years to repay debts, MPs were told, as the campaign to scrap the charges gathers momentum, the Financial Times reported. People earning less than £30,000 a year who face difficulty paying the loan charge — a new tax due to come in on April 5 that could affect between 50,000 to 100,000 people — will automatically be given seven years to pay, the authority told MPs at a Treasury select committee on Wednesday.

The number of British restaurant insolvencies hit a record high in 2018 and have doubled since 2010, a study by accountants Price Bailey showed on Wednesday as the sector struggles with market saturation and competition from delivery apps, Reuters reported. There were 1,442 restaurant insolvencies in 2018, up 40 percent compared to 2017, Insolvency Service data obtained by Price Bailey showed. Four restaurant businesses a day are going bust, up from under two a day in 2010.

U.K. consumer confidence continued to decline in January due to Brexit uncertainty, sinking to the lowest since May 2013, YouGov said Tuesday. The polling company’s index of optimism dropped by 0.1 points to 104.3, well below where it was before Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, Bloomberg News reported. Expectations for job security slumped and predictions of business activity fell to the lowest since records began in 2011.

The number of Britons falling into insolvency soared in late 2018, according to official data that will likely add to unease over the health of Britain’s consumer-led economy ahead of Brexit, Reuters reported. There were 34,108 individual insolvencies in England and Wales during the fourth quarter, the most since the second quarter of 2010 and up 35 percent on a year ago, the government’s Insolvency Service said on Tuesday. The increase was driven by a record number of Individual Voluntary Arrangements — agreements to repay creditors that are short of declaring bankruptcy.

Europe’s retail crisis deepened as companies in the U.K. and Germany are set to cut thousands of jobs as online shopping accelerates the erosion of sales from traditional bricks-and-mortar stores, Bloomberg News reported. Tesco, the biggest U.K. grocer, will eliminate about 15,000 positions and close meat, fish and delicatessen counters, the Mail on Sunday reported, citing unidentified industry sources.

Metro Bank has disclosed that it failed to have enough capital backing some commercial loans because of an accounting error, sending shares in the upstart challenger to Britain’s big high-street lenders to their worst one-day loss, The Irish Times reported. The bank, which has expanded rapidly to 66 UK branches since launching in 2010, also issued a profit warning, saying its full-year profits and capital levels would be weaker than expected after a “soft” end to the year. Metro Bank’s shares were down nearly 40 per cent in late trading.

It’s said that British politicians care only about one subject right now, but besides Brexit there’s at least one other mess that needs sorting out quickly: The poor quality of company audits. While this may sound like a dry topic, it has ugly real-world implications, a Bloomberg View reported. Just look at the collapse this week of cake chain Patisserie Valerie’s owner after an accounting scandal, an event that puts as many as 2,800 jobs at risk.

British Airways parent IAG SA abandoned an eight-month pursuit of Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, leaving the indebted discount airline reeling as it faces a cash crunch during the slow winter season, Bloomberg News reported. IAG “does not intend” to make a further bid and will be selling a 3.9 percent stake in due course, it said Thursday. Norwegian slumped as much as 26 percent, the most ever, while IAG reversed earlier declines to trade higher. Bjorn Kjos, the Scandinavian carrier’s chief executive officer, previously rejected two offers from London-based IAG as undervaluing the business.

Bank of England Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent said on Wednesday he was puzzled by widespread warnings that household debt in Britain had reached unsustainable levels, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Growth in household debt, rather than levels, had proven to be a better indicator of financial distress across different countries, Broadbent said in a speech to the London Business School. Excluding car and student loans, unsecured household debt in Britain is no higher than it was 25 years ago, relative to income, Broadbent said.

Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways on Wednesday said it has begun legal proceedings in London, disputing a claim by the administrators of Air Berlin for damages of up to 2 billion euros ($2.26 billion), Reuters reported. State-owned Etihad filed its case in the High Court in London on Wednesday, a company spokesman told Reuters, and believes that the case initiated in December by the German airline in Berlin should be determined by the English court. The insolvency administrator’s lawsuit said that Etihad had not complied with its financial obligations to Air Berlin.