The City’s main regulator is to investigate Britain’s insurance industry amid concerns that “vulnerable” customers are being ripped off when taking out critical illness cover or income protection insurance. The Financial Conduct Authority will launch a market study into how “pure protection insurance products”, which also include term assurance and whole of life insurance, are…

The number of families getting unexpected inheritance tax bills on gifts from loved ones has more than doubled over the past decade. HM Revenue & Customs recovers hundreds of millions of pounds in inheritance tax (IHT) every year on gifts that don’t comply with its seven-year rule — showing how important it is to make…

In the autumn of 2021, rows upon rows of containers sat idle at the port of Felixstowe in Suffolk. A shortage of lorry drivers meant goods could not leave the UK’s largest container port quick enough. The logjam raised concerns in the UK that toys, beauty products and other presents would not arrive in time…

Q: I’m confused about the new duty to proactively prevent discrimination or sexual harassment. I already have all the policies in place setting out expectations for behaviour, making it clear that harassment of any kind will not be tolerated, and processes for reporting unwanted behaviours or whistleblowing. What more can I do? A: As the…

The life of a founder isn’t all glamour, even if you’re in the business of partying. Just ask Simon Wright, the founder of Burnt Faith, a British brandy business, who was helping clear up rubbish from the streets of Notting Hill at the crack of dawn on Tuesday morning. Burnt Faith had been shaking up…

Britain’s wide-ranging overhaul of the listing rules has made it more attractive to join the London stock market, a senior executive at the first company to take advantage of the reforms has said. Andy Hunter, deputy managing director of CK Infrastructure, which is based in Hong Kong and has a market capitalisation of almost £14…

Car production in the UK fell by 14.4 per cent in July compared with a year ago as temporary supply constraints and model changeovers restricted output at British factories. The latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the trade body, show that car production fell to 65,478 units last month, down…

Life sciences is one of Britain’s great success stories. According to Oxford Economics, the sector contributed more than £13 billion to the economy last year, while some of the country’s universities rank among the best in the world for research in the area. It has put the UK in an especially strong position at the…

Melrose, the buyout group turned aerospace giant, has long impressed shareholders with stellar stock market returns. But last week, the FTSE 100 company’s shares dropped by as much as 7 per cent, after analysts at the investment bank UBS suggested its jet-engine business could actually be worth about half of what its management says. It…