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Spire Healthcare considers strategic options amid shareholder pressure. The private hospital group is reviewing potential business strategies, including a sale, with Rothschild & Co advising. Rising demand for private healthcare due to NHS strain has increased interest in Spire.
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Four in ten leaders call for stronger C-Suite alignment. New research finds that CEOs back HR chiefs as equal partners in transformation, but finance and operations leaders remain sceptical of their influence.
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Investec remains on track despite challenging economic conditions. The bank anticipates adjusted operating profit for the first half to align with last year’s figures, maintaining its strategy amidst market volatility and progressing with its £100m share buyback programme.
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Retail sales rose due to good weather and higher incomes. Despite this, the struggling retail sector looks to the festive season for a boost, as sales fell by 0.1% from May to August. Consumer confidence remains cautious.
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Reeves faces £18bn shortfall if public sector gains fail. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned that the government’s budget strategy rests on historically ambitious assumptions for productivity growth, with potential consequences for spending, taxation, and public services if efficiencies do not materialise.
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MPs and the Government respond after cross-party committee labels system “broken”. The Government has pledged to review all parental leave and pay entitlements, confirming scope across the board and promising day-one rights from 2026. Campaigners say that urgent action is still needed to extend and raise paternity leave.
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AI is transforming corporate operations, from efficiency to ESG reporting. But alongside opportunity comes reputational risk. George Coleman, CEO of The PHA Group, examines how businesses can balance AI’s promise with its pitfalls — from fraud and content misuse to the future of jobs.
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Britain sees 84 new companies launched every hour in 2025. More than 363,000 businesses were registered from January to June 2025, despite a 21% decline from the previous year. Reforms and low SME confidence contributed to the decrease.
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Presenteeism is costing UK businesses far more than absenteeism. A growing body of research shows that while sickness absence is tightly monitored and managed, the hidden cost of employees working while unwell is vastly greater. Experts warn that companies may be measuring the wrong thing.
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Nvidia has revealed a major investment of up to £11 billion into the UK’s AI ecosystem. This project aims to create the largest GPU cluster in Europe by 2026, utilising 120,000 of Nvidia’s most recent Blackwell Ultra chips in new data centres.