UK service sector confidence higher in May than since before autumn budget

Bosses in the UK’s services sector were more optimistic last month than they had been since before Rachel Reeves’ debut budget, according to new data, as they began to see beyond the uncertainty sparked by Donald Trump’s tariff war.A survey of business leaders showed many were looking forward to improved sales and investment over the next six months, despite an increase in US import tariffs to their highest level since the 1930s.The S&P Global purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose from April’s 27-month low of 49.0 to 50.9

Lower-income consumers missing out on pay rises fuels fall in sales at B&M

One of Britain’s biggest discount retailers has blamed a slide in sales and profits on lower-income consumers missing out on wage rises.B&M, which issued a profit warning in February, said consumers had been more cautious about their spending over the past year.It added that its sales had fallen because of “limited real wage growth”, particularly among its “core lower-income consumer groups” who had previously received emergency cost of living support payments, which ended in February 2024.The retailer, which sells everything from cleaning products and pet food to garden furniture and inflatable hot tubs, said comparable sales at its 740-plus UK stores decreased by 3.1% in the 12 months to the end of March

Chalmers says cheaper cigarettes will not solve illegal tobacco boom, dismissing NSW premier

Jim Chalmers says making cigarettes cheaper will not solve the booming trade in illegal tobacco, dismissing the call by the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, to slash taxes on smoking.Minns joined Victoria’s state government in blaming the high tobacco excise for a spike in organised crime that has led to arson attacks on businesses and stretched police resources.The NSW premier said his state will propose a cut to the federal excise to deter illegal tobacco sales at the next health ministers’ meeting later this month, even as he admitted that it was “probably not a popular thing for a premier to say”.“There’s been a tax on cigarettes for decades, and I understand that,” he said.But he said the excise had “radically increased” over the past five years and the high taxes were causing people who would never usually break the law to buy illegal tobacco

Sellafield nuclear clean-up too slow and too costly, say MPs

MPs have warned about the speed and cost of cleaning up the Sellafield nuclear waste dump and raised concerns over a “suboptimal” workplace culture at the site.Members of parliament’s public accounts committee (PAC) urged the government and bosses at the sprawling collection of crumbling buildings in Cumbria to get a grasp on the “intolerable risks” presented by its ageing infrastructure.In a detailed report into the site, the PAC said Sellafield was not moving quickly enough to tackle its biggest hazards; raised the alarm over its culture; and said the government was not ensuring value for money was being achieved from taxpayer funds.In 2023, the Guardian’s Nuclear Leaks investigation revealed a string of safety concerns at the site – including escalating fears over a leak of radioactive liquid from a decaying building known as the Magnox swarf storage silo (MSSS) – as well as cybersecurity failings and allegations of a poor workplace culture.The PAC – which heard evidence in March from Sellafield and its oversight body, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) – found that the state-owned company had missed most of its annual targets to retrieve waste from several buildings, including the MSSS

Train ticket enforcement must be fair and proportionate, watchdog warns

Some train operators have excessively prosecuted alleged fare dodgers, according to the rail regulator, which has called for clearer tickets and a fairer system to avoid penalising mistakes.A report by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said passengers who boarded trains without a valid ticket faced “inconsistent treatment and outcomes” across the network, with “disproportionate action” sometimes taken over small errors.The review, commissioned in November by the then transport secretary, Louise Haigh, said fare evasion cost Britain’s railways hundreds of millions of pounds every year and undermined the sense of fairness among paying passengers.However, the ORR also said it was vital that measures to tackle fare-dodging were “applied appropriately and fairly”.Cases it noted included a passenger who was threatened with prosecution for accidentally selecting a ticket linked to the wrong railcard – even though the discount and fare paid were the same – and another who faced legal action after a water-damaged printout could not be scanned, despite them later providing proof of the valid ticket

Hapless Thames Water is finally drinking in the last chance saloon

Call yourself barbarians at the gate? Actually, KKR hates the decades-old description, but the US private equity firm is still meant to have a fearsome reputation for doing its homework, being a cute judge of political risks and going where others fear to tread. All of which makes its 11th-hour abandonment of its £4bn bid for Thames Water very odd.The suggestion is that the big bosses in New York couldn’t stomach the political and reputational risks of owning the UK’s largest and most crisis-ridden water company. If that’s the reasoning, though, KKR should explain itself. The political risks aren’t obviously worse than six months ago – and arguably are less now that the government’s water commissioner, Sir Jon Cunliffe, is talking aloud about “how to restore the stability and predictability of the regulatory system” in his interim report published co-incidentally on Tuesday