Lindsey oil refinery owner Prax falls into administration as ministers urged to intervene

The government has called for an investigation into the conduct of bosses at one of the UK’s largest oil refineries after it collapsed into administration on Monday, prompting concern about job losses and disruption to fuel supplies.Sources familiar with the situation said that government officials had been growing increasingly fearful about the finances of State Oil, which owns the Prax Lindsey refinery in north Lincolnshire, since April.The heavily lossmaking company assured ministers it was in good health during a meeting at the Prax site in May but is understood to have suddenly admitted in the past week that it was on the verge of insolvency.The company, the only British business to own one of the UK’s five key refineries, is understood to have failed to comply with multiple requests from Westminster to open its books as it plunged towards failure.The government said workers had been “badly let down”

Speed restrictions imposed on two main train lines amid UK heatwave

Trains have been forced to run slower in southern Britain because of the heatwave, with speed restrictions imposed on two main lines out of London as temperatures on the track neared 60C.Passengers have been urged to check before travelling and warned to expect longer journeys and possible cancellations on routes west from London Paddington and south of the capital on the Brighton mainline.Restrictions were put in place at the weekend for the Brighton mainline through Monday and Tuesday, affecting Southern, Thameslink and Gatwick Express services.Network Rail and train operators decided at midday on Monday to extend the speed restrictions to the western mainline, affecting primarily Great Western trains running to the south-west and south Wales.As temperatures in the south exceeded 30C, steel rails were heating up to about 60C in the hottest parts of the tracks such as deep cuttings and suntraps, according to Network Rail

WH Smith cuts sale price of high street business by £12m

WH Smith has cut the sale price of its high street business by £12m, after trading at the chain deteriorated in recent weeks.The 230-year-old British business closed the sale to the investment company Modella Capital on Monday, and revealed that the sale value terms had been revised down.WH Smith will now receive gross cash proceeds of up to £40m, not the £52m expected in March when it agreed to sell its 480 high street stores to Modella, which also owns Hobbycraft.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionShares in WH Smith were down 2% on Monday, after the news of the revised deal terms.WH Smith told the City that the original agreement was “no longer deliverable”

UK households hit by squeeze on living standards despite fastest growth in G7

UK households faced a renewed cost of living squeeze in the first three months of 2025 amid increases in taxes and inflation, official figures show, despite the economy growing at the fastest rate in the G7.The Office for National Statistics said an important measure of living standards – real household disposable income per head – fell by 1% in the first quarter after growth of 1.8% in the final three months of 2024, in the first quarterly decline for almost two years.The households’ saving ratio – which estimates the percentage of disposable income Britons save rather than spend – slumped by 1.1 percentage points to 10

Number of new UK entry-level jobs has dived since ChatGPT launch – research

The number of new entry-level UK jobs has dropped by almost a third since the launch of ChatGPT, figures suggest, as companies use artificial intelligence to cut back the size of their workforces.Vacancies for graduate jobs, apprenticeships, internships and junior jobs with no degree requirement have dropped 32% since the launch of the AI chatbot in November 2022, research by the job search site Adzuna released on Monday has found. These entry-level jobs now account for 25% of the market in the UK, down from 28.9% in 2022.Businesses are increasingly using AI as a route to improve efficiency and reduce staff numbers

What would happen if Thames Water is temporarily renationalised?

When the environment secretary, Steve Reed, stood up in parliament earlier this month his message for the owners of the struggling Thames Water appeared clear: there would be no leniency on fines for breaching environmental standards – despite the requests of creditors who control the company.Amid the standoff, Reed said the government had “stepped up our preparations” for the next stage: putting the company, a provider of water and sewage services to 16 million customers in London and south-east England, into temporary nationlisation, known as a special administration regime (SAR).Thames Water’s perilous position stems from years of mismanagement, during which it built up unsustainable debts of about £20bn. Over the past year its problems have come to a head, with the company scrambling through a court battle in February to secure emergency funding, and now finding new owners.Things have not gone smoothly