1 Foreign agency workers have been hired by P&O Ferries on as little as £1.82 an hour and some were forced to live in tents, a Labour MP has claimed. It comes as the head of marine and aviation at the trade body which represents Lloyd’s insurers called on the government to rethink the ethics and benefits of foreign ownership of national assets after the “pitiless” treatment of P&O Ferries staff.
2 After the long stint of working from home in crumpled clothes, Britons are smartening up as they return to the office — and taking a packed lunch with them. John Lewis reports that sales of irons were up 47 per cent and sandwich boxes flew of the shelves too.
3 Saudi Arabia’s state oil company, which is under pressure from the West to boost production, says it will increase investment to meet oil and gas demand after more than doubling its profit.
4 The US private equity giant behind Bourne Leisure is mulling a bid for Parkdean Resorts, one of Britain’s biggest holiday park groups.
5 A London flat has is being used as an address for several businesses with names that sound strikingly similar to big businesses. Experts believe the flat is the victim of virtual squatting and that the purpose is a fraud which they say Companies House should do more to stop.
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6 Businesses have made an eleventh-hour plea to Rishi Sunak to help with rising costs and scrap his planned national insurance rise, which economists have warned could wipe out £24 billion of economic growth over the next decade.
7 The post-conflict reconstruction of Ukraine will require an international financial effort not seen since the end of the Second World War, the chief economist of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development says.
8 The head of IWG has confirmed that the owner of Regus is closing its serviced office spaces in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. IWG runs nine offices in Russia but Mark Dixon, chief executive, said he had taken the decision to withdraw from the country.
9 The first food to be made from meat grown in laboratories is expected to reach British shops in 18 months after a joint venture with the institute that created Dolly the cloned sheep and Aim-listed Agronomics. It has signed a deal with Roslin Technologies to create the Good Dog Food business in an effort to address a sustainable approach to pet food, which accounts for 20 per cent of the world’s meat consumption.
10 Small brewers have expressed alarm at the government’s proposed reform of alcohol duty, and want to know why the mooted tax on cider will be only half the rate on beer.