Day: April 9, 2018

    Consumer spending or rather the lack of it, has become more worrying than Brexit for top British executives, Deloitte found. Brexit has fallen into second place as the most significant risk facing company bosses for the first time since the EU referendum, as weak domestic growth saps demand for their goods and services. According to a Deloitte survey of chief financial officers (CFOs) at some of the UK’s biggest businesses, companies are now less pessimistic about Brexit after ministers agreed the terms of a transition period with Brussels to smooth Britain’s exit from the EU. Reflecting the views of 106 companies, including almost a quarter of the FTSE 100, the survey found a fifth of business leaders were more optimistic about their firm’s prospects than they wer...

    Government cuts to the police may have encouraged violent offenders and have likely contributed to a rise in serious violent crime, leaked Home Office documents have revealed. The documents cast doubt on claims by the home secretary, Amber Rudd, on Sunday that cuts to the police were not to blame for rising violence. The Home Office said it would not comment on leaked documents. Rudd will on Monday launch a strategy aimed at tackling serious violent crime, which officials and ministers have been working on for months. The launch comes after a week of shooting and stabbing deaths pushed the homicide rate in London to more than 50 lives lost this year. The home secretary believes the strategy will mark a change in the approach to tackling serious violence,...