Tory council leader dismisses suggestions years of cuts have played role, but others beg to differ“I don’t need to come here often but I need it now,” Phill, a former fish filleter, tells the volunteers at the Rock Foundation foodbank in Grimsby, as he gathers three carrier bags to last him the week. “I don’t like it – I call it scrounging, even though I need it. But I don’t come willy nilly.”Outside the queue is showing no sign of slowing. Two hours after opening, on a cold, grey day in the town once famous for its fishing fleet, men, women and whole families are still turning...

Also under fire for sewage discharges and executive pay, company makes first-half profits of almost £500mThames Water has reported a boom in first-half profits to almost £500m, despite a surge in the number of burst pipes during the drought across the UK over the summer.The company, which instituted a hosepipe ban from August to September amid the summer heatwave, said the rise in leakage and supply interruptions due to mains bursting was the result of “hot weather and dry ground”. Continue reading...

Nick Read will be replaced as CEO by finance chief Margherita Della Valle during search for successorThe Vodafone chief executive, Nick Read, is to step down after failing to reverse a sharp fall in the company’s share price, as the telecoms company launches steep cost cuts and potential job losses.Read, a two-decade Vodafone veteran who has run the company since 2018, has been ousted after failing to get to grips with a more than 40% fall in the company’s share price during his four-year tenure. Continue reading...

When comparing to last year’s spending habits, over half of consumers are more likely to or are already using Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services, according to new research.Read more: Consumers more likely to use Buy Now Pay Later for Christmas as the cost-of-living crisis hits

December has been described as the most stressful month of 2022 by half of Brits.Read more: December the most stressful for over half of UK workforce

Flexible office space provider, Canvas, has secured £2.5 million in debt finance from leading alternative finance provider, ThinCats, to accelerate growth and expand its property portfolio in strategic locations across London.Read more: Flexible office space provider secures £2.5m investment to accelerate growth

Disruption will be inevitable even if strikes are called off passengers are warned

UK technology businesses continued to overshadow their European counterparts this year when it came to value and investment levels, although both have fallen in the face of economic headwinds as the pandemic-fuelled boom has ground to a halt.Read more: UK tech sector investment strength overshadows European rivals

Ministers are considering toughening up anti-strike laws designed to curb walkouts on the railways with passengers facing the prospect of industrial action over Christmas.Read more: Government set to return to Truss’s tough strike laws as unions threaten Christmas chaos

Up to 40 per cent of Christmas parties and bookings are set to be cancelled as a result of new rail strikes, a hospitality trade body has predicted.Read more: Christmas parties cancelled because of rail strikes

Retailers may have put prices up quickly when wholesales costs rose but dropped them slowly in 2022.

Rishi Sunak will speak to his cabinet about rail strikes today after a union announced days of extra strikes over Christmas in the long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.Read more: PM to hold cabinet crisis talks after rail union adds more Christmas strikes

Tory peer Baroness Michelle Mone will take a leave of absence from the House of Lords with immediate effect.Read more: Baroness Mone to take leave of absence from House of Lords amid PPE contracts controversy

TikTok is expected to ride out the advertising slowdown, as the Chinese-owned social media titan becomes an outlier to the wider industry slowdown.Read more: TikTok rides out wider advertising slowdown

The average start-up loan has fallen over 138 percent in the past year to just over £142k, from £339k in 2021.Read more: Average start-up loan shrinks to just £142,000 while volumes drop by half

The government risks “sleepwalking” into a food supply crisis unless it provides crucial support for British farmers struggling with the soaring cost of fuel, fertiliser and feed, the National Farmers’ Union has warned.Read more: UK risks sleepwalking into food supply crisis, says farmers’ union

The biggest sector of the economy remained in a downturn last month as new orders continued to fall owing to the cost of living crisis, a closely watched survey shows.Read more: Recession fears rise as services contract, purchasing managers’ index shows

Coventry City have been issued with an eviction notice by the new owners of the Coventry Building Society Arena.Read more: Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group serve stadium eviction notice to Coventry City football Club

Staff at the accountancy firm won't be able to work from its main London office over the festive period.

Two thirds of FTSE 350 companies have at least one board member from an ethnically diverse background, new data has found, with more representation among the biggest companies.Read more: More minorities and women get seats on boards

The European Union should relax its state aid rules to compete with mass US subsidies for green technology, the head of the European Commission has said.Read more: EU set to relax state aid rules to compete with US

Older women workers face the highest gender pay gap in the country with those aged more than 50 paid on average £7,000 less than their male counterparts.Read more: Women in their fifties face £7,000 pay gap

Employees are to get the right to request flexible working from the moment they start a job under new government legislation, in a move welcomed by unions, who urged ministers to go further in terms of making such arrangements the norm.Read more: UK staff to have legal right to ask for flexible working from day one in job

UK hopes that controversial Brexit checks on goods crossing the Irish sea can be eliminated have risen after early analysis of government data showed that at least 85% of goods arriving in Northern Ireland from Great Britain stay in factories or shops in the region.Read more: New HMRC data raises UK hopes of end to Northern Ireland Brexit trade checks

The RMT has rejected an offer from rail employers aimed at heading off more strikes.Read more: RMT rejects new offer from rail employers in pay and jobs dispute