Businesses such as supermarkets, restaurants and bars have been struggling to cope due to the UK supply chain shortage. Places like McDonald’s have reported a shortage of milkshakes and Iceland have said they are running out of bread.

We would like to hear about the items you are finding it difficult to buy in the UK.

PureGym, the UK’s largest gym chain, is eyeing up a possible a stock market listing as it looks to expand to meet the rebounding demand for fitness since the easing of coronavirus restrictions.

The company, which is owned by US private equity investors, has appointed investment bank advisers as it explores fundraising options to help fund the opening of new gyms and paying back some debt. That could include a listing as soon as this year.

The number of people paying for its gym memberships was 1.6 million on 15 August. That was 94% of the level hit in December 2019, compared with 81% of that level as recently as March.

Gyms were forced to close for large parts of the past 18 months in the UK and elsewhere to minimise public mixing.

However, the removal of most restrictions in the UK had led to a rapid bounce-back, PureGym said, despite the rise of home workouts during the various lockdowns. All 506 of its gyms across the UK, Denmark and...

The new leader of one of the UK’s biggest trade unions is to meet a boss of Uber to take forward a groundbreaking deal on workers’ rights.

Gary Smith, the general secretary of the GMB, said he wanted to end the “exploitation” of more than 200,000 drivers in the industry.

A “dramatic” recovery in the jobs market has led to wage inflation and shortages of qualified workers in some industries, according to the UK recruiter Hays.

Recruiters’ fees are closely correlated to the strength of the jobs market, which was hit hard at the start of the coronavirus pandemic as workers were forced to stay at home and companies paused hiring because of uncertainty over economic prospects.

However, Hays said it had never seen such a strong recovery in the fees it earned over the year to the end of June. Between April and June fees were up 39% on the same period a year earlier, when many of the countries in which Hays operates were locked down for the first time.

The rebound in demand for workers has given jobseekers more confidence in their bargaining power, particularly in sectors that already faced shortages of workers with the requisite skills, the company said in a statement to the stock market on Thursday. Last month the Recruitment...

British car factories produced the fewest cars for any July since 1956 as they struggled with worker absences and the global shortage of computer chips, my colleague Jasper Jolly explains.

UK carmakers made 53,400 vehicles in July, a 37.6% drop when compared with the same month in 2020, according to data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the industry’s lobby group.

Demand for new cars has stayed relatively strong during the coronavirus pandemic, but manufacturers around the world have struggled to keep producing because of problems in their supply chains, most notably in the months-long delays to computer chips, or semiconductors, that are used to control everything from windscreen wipers to electric car batteries within the car.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s television production company has collapsed, leaving behind millions of pounds of debts.

The River Cottage chef co-founded the award-winning KEO Films in 1995, which has made popular programmes such as Hugh’s War on Waste and Easy Ways to Live Well. The company describes itself as having a “strong ethical brand reputation” and has produced a series of programmes campaigning for social change.

This summer the business was sold to a rival in a pre-pack administration deal after declaring itself insolvent. Creditors, many of them owed substantial sums, now face being left substantially out of pocket.

Insolvency documents show that the directors of KEO Films, including Fearnley-Whittingstall, paid themselves £4m over the last seven years, even though the company consistently failed to record a profit and ran up millions of pounds in debts during that period.

When it came to rescuing the business, the company directors...

The Coalition is attempting to shield the activities of the Future Fund from freedom of information laws less than a year after revelations it invested in an Adani company criticised for its dealings with the Myanmar military.

On Wednesday, the Coalition introduced amendments granting the sovereign wealth fund wide-ranging exemptions from freedom of information law.

Any Future Fund document that discusses “past, current or proposed investment strategies” would be kept from public view, as would records that show investing amounts, or mention the fund’s evaluation of potential or current investments and investment managers, according to a document explaining the bill.

British car factories produced the fewest cars for any July since 1956 as they struggled with worker absences and the global shortage of computer chips.

UK carmakers made 53,400 vehicles in July, a 37.6% drop when compared with the same month in 2020, according to data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the industry’s lobby group.

Demand for new cars has stayed relatively strong during the coronavirus pandemic, but manufacturers around the world have struggled to keep producing because of problems in their supply chains, most notably in the months-long delays to computer chips, or semiconductors, that are used to control everything from windscreen wipers to electric car batteries within the car.

Some analysts expect the chip shortages to last until next year, holding back the recovery of the car industry.

UK production over the course of 2021 is up by 18% compared with the first seven months of 2020, when car factories...

The incoming 31-year-old boss of Sports Direct owner Frasers Group could be handed shares worth more than £100m if he more than doubles its share price.

The company, which also owns the House of Fraser department stores and the designer fashion chain Flannels, revealed the bumper potential payout on Wednesday night, weeks after it announced that Michael Murray would be taking over from his future father-in-law, Mike Ashley, next spring.

Murray, who is engaged to Ashley’s daughter, earned more than £9.7m from Frasers in 2019 and 2020 through consultancy work for the business. The payout would be far more than the £150,000 a year paid to Sports Direct’s previous senior executives, such as Dave Forsey.

The Doncaster-born son of a property developer began by helping Ashley with personal property deals a few years after meeting his daughter Anna on holiday in 2011, and rose to become Ashley’s right-hand man. Currently the retailer’s “head of elevation”, he...

There are many campaigners who believe the FCA should simply regulate the sub-prime sector out of existence.

But the regulator’s staff have a difficult task when society abdicates responsibility for those who fall on hard times, often through divorce, illness or unemployment. People facing short-term financial difficulties need access to funds. Without it they cannot afford to keep up rent payments or charges on other loans and their lives can fall apart.

More than 1 million people took out loans with Amigo and it wasn’t for the fun of it. The question of Amigo’s survival is of concern to its directors and shareholders, but also society at large.

Yodel’s delivery drivers are voting on whether to go on strike in a move that could worsen the UK’s supply chain crisis.

The GMB union said it had opened a ballot on industrial action for more than 250 of its members on Wednesday, after failing to reach an agreement with Yodel over pay and working conditions affecting the delivery company’s lorry drivers.

The union said staff were angry over issues including a lack of work-life balance, and the fact that agency workers were paid more than drivers directly employed by the company. Workers are also concerned over a lack of payouts in lieu of annual leave and a failure to honour contractual agreements on pay for holiday and sick leave.

GMB added that workers were upset that Yodel had not offered any substantial pay increases that would keep drivers from leaving for better paying jobs elsewhere, especially at a time when employers across the country are scrambling to hire workers. “Yodel has seen fit to...

Delta Airlines will impose a $200 monthly fee on employees unvaccinated against Covid-19, the airline announced on Wednesday.

In a new memo sent to Delta employees, CEO Ed Bastian announced that unvaccinated employees enrolled in Delta’s account-based healthcare plan will be subject to a $200 monthly surcharge starting 1 November.

“The average hospital stay for Covid-19 has cost Delta $50,000 per person. This surcharge will be necessary to address the financial risk the decision to not vaccinate is creating for our company,” Bastian wrote.

Starting 12 September, any US employee who is not fully vaccinated will be required to take a Covid test each week. Additionally, starting from 30 September, Delta’s Covid pay protection will be provided only to fully vaccinated individuals who experience breakthrough infections.

Currently, 75% of Delta staff are vaccinated. The airline has also partnered with the state of Georgia to operate the state’s largest...

Insurers could face disciplinary action after the City watchdog said UK firms are not ready for stricter rules on price hikes on car and home insurance.

The Financial Conduct Authority said that too many firms were already failing to meet existing regulatory standards, and were “likely to be unprepared” for tougher rules meant to ensure firms offer better value for money policies to existing customers from October this year.

The new rules are part of efforts to tackle the loyalty penalty – when customers who renew their insurance policies are charged higher premiums than new policyholders, who tend to be offered the best deals. The FCA has previously said the future ban on price walking – where insurers increase premiums every year regardless of the level of risk – would save consumers £4.2bn over 10 years.

In May, the FCA found that on average new customers paid £285 a year for motor insurance, while customers who had been with their provider for more...

Private companies that sell Covid-19 tests to holidaymakers have been told to “get on the right side of the law” by the competition regulator, after widespread allegations of poor service triggered a government crackdown.

Days after the health secretary, Sajid Javid, said “cowboy” PCR test firms could be removed from the government’s list of approved providers, the Competition and Markets Authority issued a separate warning.

It said rogue companies could face enforcement action from the CMA itself or from National Trading Standards if they are found to be breaking consumer law by misleading customers or treating them unfairly.

It follows multiple allegations that private providers, who are thought to have made £500m since the return of international leisure travel in mid-May, failed to deliver tests, send results and process refunds.

In an open letter to PCR test firms, many of which sprang up this year, the CMA’s general counsel, Sarah Cardell,...

Amigo’s chief executive has said he hopes a new rescue plan to keep the struggling sub-prime lender from going bust can be successfully completed by the end of the year.

Gary Jennison was speaking after Amigo reported that pre-tax losses grew substantially to £284m in the year to March, according to delayed annual results published late on Tuesday. That is more than seven times the £38m loss logged a year earlier.

Amigo, which grew in popularity following the demise of its sub-prime rival Wonga in 2018, has been deluged by mis-selling claims by customers accusing the business of handing out unaffordable loans.

The sub-prime lender is scrambling to come up with a new rescue plan after the high court rejected Amigo’s initial compensation scheme in May.

That scheme would have handed customers as little as 5% to 10% of any successful claim, and capped the compensation pool at £35m and 15% of any profits over the next four years. The Financial Conduct...

Gatwick airport is to press ahead with plans to convert its emergency runway for routine use, in a sign that the aviation industry expects demand to rebound in full soon after the coronavirus pandemic.

London’s second biggest airport will launch a public consultation next month on a scheme to enlarge capacity to a potential 75.5 million passengers a year – despite still only serving about a quarter of its pre-Covid traffic in August.

Gatwick had put investment on hold during the pandemic but is now reviving plans from 2018 to move the centre line of its emergency runway by 12 metres (39ft), far enough from the main runway to be used in parallel for departures.

In 2019, Gatwick was the busiest single-runway airport in the world, with about 950 takeoffs and landings a day.

The proposals angered campaigners – not least became they came soon after the five-year Airports Commission process had rejected a Gatwick expansion in favour of a runway at...

The takeover targets Morrisons and Meggitt look set for a brief return to the FTSE 100 index of blue-chip UK companies, after their share prices were boosted by bidding wars between rival US suitors.

The index’s manager, FTSE Russell, has placed both companies on its indicative FTSE 100 additions list and said it would make a final announcement on the quarterly stock market reshuffle on 1 September, based on the data collected at the close of share trading on 31 August.

EY has been fined more than £2.2m by the UK accountancy watchdog for failing to properly challenge Stagecoach bosses when auditing their accounts for 2017.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has also sanctioned Mark Harvey, EY’s auditing engagement partner, fining him £100,000 for his role reviewing Stagecoach’s financial statements.

The FRC said it had identified problems in how EY audited Stagecoach’s east coast mainline railway franchise joint venture, its pension scheme and insurance provisions but added that they “were not intentional, dishonest, deliberate or reckless”.

The regulator said: “While it is not alleged that the financial statements were in fact misstated, in several material instances, the respondents failed to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence.”

EY is also under investigation by the FRC over its audits of the failed travel firm Thomas Cook, as well as the former FTSE 100 hospital group NMC Health and the...

The supply chain crisis is also hitting the UK tourism sector, as hoteliers and bar owners try to juggle a surge in holidaymakers and staff shortages.

PA Media’s Rod Minchin reports that hoteliers and bar owners have been hit by staff being taken ill with coronavirus, others isolating after being “pinged”, plus a recruitment crisis due to Brexit --- and too little housing.

It meant some hotels were being forced to close rooms - while restaurants, cafes and bars were operating reduced opening hours and limiting menus -- just as more people choose to holiday in the UK due to the international travel restrictions in place.

Nick Hayman, joint owner of the Fistral Beach Bar in Newquay, said there had been problems with furlough, Covid-19, a decline in EU workers and too little housing.

Hayman warned that staff shortages are acute:

The takeaway company Just Eat is planning to open a customer service site in north-east England, which will employ 1,500 people as it brings jobs back from India and Bulgaria.

The business said that it would invest £100m in the region over the next five years, with staff working partly from home and partly from its new Sunderland-based office.

Its UK managing director, Andrew Kenny, said the company would shoulder the extra cost of bringing staff in-house because it allowed Just Eat to provide better service.

Much of its customer service had been run from Bulgaria and India, but bosses have already seen an increase in customer satisfaction among those who dealt with the 300 people already hired in Sunderland.

“Our experience of operating this model across numerous other geographies around the world shows that the overall service that we provide to both our customers and restaurants increases very meaningfully,” he said.

“We’re already seeing...

Trustees of Morrisons’ pension schemes have broken cover to warn that a £7bn private equity takeover threatens to “materially weaken” their financial position, and demanded additional security over some of the supermarket’s assets.

Last week the Morrisons board agreed a debt-fuelled £7bn takeover by the US private equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, in the latest round in a fierce fight for control of the country’s fourth largest supermarket chain. The 285p-per-share offer trumped that of a rival suitor, Fortress.

Unions and politicians are anxious about the wave of private equity takeovers gripping corporate Britain, fearing companies could be stripped of their property holdings and loaded up with debt, and that worker conditions and benefits could deteriorate.

Trustees who represent the schemes’ 85,500 members are concerned that they will be outranked by lenders who are helping fund the takeover should the supermarket hit trouble – meaning...

Several UK energy suppliers have said they will raise the price of their standard gas and electricity tariffs to the maximum limit set by the energy regulator for the coming winter.

Ofgem’s price cap will climb to its highest level since it was introduced in early 2019 owing to a surge in global gas market prices. The regulator said that for 11 million households who pay by direct debit, energy bills would increase from an average of £1,138 a year to £1,277 from October.

For another 4 million households who use prepayment meters – who are typically more socially vulnerable – the average energy bill will rise from £1,156 to £1,309, a difference of £153.

Eon UK and Scottish Power have raised the price of their standard gas and electricity tariffs by 12% to an average of £1,277 a year. Ovo Energy, the UK’s second largest energy supplier, will raise the price of its standard dual-fuel energy tariff by 12.25% to an average of £1,276.49 a year from 1 October,...

For-profit superannuation funds may be able to escape having to inform members of their historically poor performance after a last-minute change to benchmarks by the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg.

As part of the Morrison government’s Your Future, Your Super package, which passed parliament in June, funds that fail a test based on eight years of performance are required to write to members to tell them.

The test also includes administration fees, but under regulations introduced by Frydenberg and the minister for superannuation, Jane Hume, earlier this month, only administration fees from the most recent year are used.

Ryanair is to stop all flights from both Belfast international airport and Belfast City airport, in a further blow to connectivity between Northern Ireland and the rest of Europe.

The airline blamed government passenger duty and the absence of any Covid recovery incentives for the two airports.

“Due to the UK government’s refusal to suspend or reduce APD [air passenger duty], and the lack of Covid recovery incentives from both Belfast airports, this winter Ryanair will cease operations from Belfast international and Belfast City airport from the end of the summer schedule in October, and these aircraft will be reallocated to lower-cost airports elsewhere in the UK and Europe for the winter schedule, which starts in November,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.

It will stop its flights from Belfast international to six destinations – Alicante, Málaga, Krakow, Gdansk, Warsaw and Milan – by 30 October.

And it will withdraw eight services from City...