Business

Peter Mandelson was arrested at his Regent’s Park home amid concerns he posed a potential flight risk, according to his legal team.

The former cabinet minister and peer was detained on Monday afternoon on suspicion of misconduct in public office, following allegations that sensitive government documents were leaked while he was serving as business secretary under Gordon Brown.

Police questioned Mandelson for several hours before releasing him on bail in the early hours of Tuesday morning. As part of his bail conditions, he was required to surrender his passport.

His lawyers said officers had previously agreed to interview him on a voluntary basis next month but moved to arrest him following what they described as a “baseless suggestion” that he was planning to relocate abroad.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Mandelson said: “There is absolutely no truth whatsoever in any suggestion that he was intending to leave the country permanently. His overriding priority is to cooperate fully with the police investigation and to clear his name.”

Sources indicated that detectives from the Metropolitan Police Service acted after receiving new information over the weekend. Earlier this month, officers from the force’s Central Specialist Crime team executed search warrants at two properties linked to Mandelson and seized computers and documents for examination.

A source close to the investigation said the decision to arrest was taken for “clear operational reasons” after fresh intelligence came to light.

Mandelson has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing. The investigation remains ongoing.

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Lord Mandelson arrested amid concerns he was ‘flight risk’

A senior adviser to Rachel Reeves has drawn sharp criticism from the hospitality sector after saying Britain does not “need any more restaurants”.

Alex Depledge, appointed last year as the Government’s entrepreneurship adviser, argued that ministers should prioritise high-growth industries such as technology and advanced manufacturing rather than hospitality and retail.

Speaking to Insider Media, Depledge said: “We don’t need any more restaurants. I’m not anti-hospitality, but that’s not where my efforts are.” She added that the UK should focus on scaling sectors such as clean tech and creative industries to drive long-term economic growth.

Her remarks prompted an immediate backlash from publicans and restaurateurs already grappling with higher national insurance contributions and business rate reforms.

Sacha Lord, chairman of the Nighttime Industry Association and a former adviser to Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, said the comments deepened confusion about Labour’s stance towards hospitality. “Small and medium-sized businesses are the largest employers in the private sector,” he said, adding that the sector had been “blindsided” by recent tax changes.

TV chef Michel Roux Jr also criticised the remarks on social media, while pub campaigner Andy Lennox urged Depledge to reconsider what he described as “unwise words”.

Hospitality accounts for around 7 per cent of UK employment, with roughly 2.6 million people working in the sector, according to the Office for National Statistics. The number of restaurants fell 1.3 per cent in 2025 to 89,600, as operators faced rising costs and squeezed consumer spending.

Depledge, who founded property and software businesses including Resi UK and Good Lord, defended her focus on sectors capable of generating higher productivity and wages. She suggested that while small businesses remain vital, their overall contribution to the economy has remained broadly stable over decades.

The Chancellor has introduced targeted relief for pubs, including a temporary 15 per cent business rates discount, but restaurants and hotels have continued to press for broader support.

The episode underscores growing tension between Labour’s push to champion “future-facing” industries and the concerns of traditional sectors that remain major employers across the country.

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Reeves adviser sparks backlash after saying UK doesn’t ‘need any more restaurants’

In many organisations, portfolio is still viewed as a list of products and services – something to be expanded in the hope that more choice will unlock more opportunity. In reality, sustainable growth rarely comes from volume alone.

For high-performing businesses, a strategic portfolio is one that is deliberately designed around customer outcomes. It supports acquisition, strengthens retention and creates long-term value through clarity, consistency and service excellence.

In this blog I will be exploring how a focused, service-led portfolio can drive sustainable growth. Drawing on Chubb’s approach to connected services, cross-selling and long-term customer relationships, he explains why portfolio discipline is a critical leadership lever in today’s complex and regulated markets.

Portfolio as a Growth Strategy, Not a Catalogue

Across many sectors, portfolios grow reactively – shaped by short-term sales opportunities or competitor activity. Over time, this can create fragmented offerings that are difficult for customers to navigate and challenging for teams to deliver consistently.

In fire safety and security, where trust, reliability and compliance are paramount, this approach simply doesn’t work. Customers aren’t looking for disconnected products; they’re looking for partners who can manage risk holistically.

A strategic portfolio is therefore not about selling more things. It’s about offering the right combination of services, delivered in a way that supports both immediate needs and long-term resilience.

Portfolio as One of Chubb’s Three Ps

At Chubb, Portfolio sits alongside People and Process as one of our three strategic pillars, and it plays a central role in driving top-line growth.

Our portfolio strategy is built around:

Service and monitoring-led propositions
Multi-discipline contracts that simplify supplier management for customers
Connected services that provide insight, responsiveness and peace of mind

By leading with service, we create opportunities to capture greater share of customer spend while delivering more integrated, value-driven solutions. This approach supports both customer acquisition and retention – helping us build long-term relationships rather than transactional engagements.

However, implementing portfolio discipline is not without challenges. Internal resistance to change, legacy systems and market pressures can all pose obstacles. At Chubb, we address these by fostering a culture of continuous improvement, investing in staff training, and modernising our technology to support agile decision-making.

Connected Services and Cross-Selling with Purpose

Cross-selling is often misunderstood as simply adding more products to an account. At Chubb, it’s about identifying where additional services genuinely enhance protection, performance and compliance.

Connected services play a critical role here. By leveraging data, monitoring and integrated technologies, we’re able to:

Anticipate customer needs
Improve response and reliability
Strengthen ongoing engagement through service excellence

This creates natural opportunities to expand relationships in a way that feels relevant and valuable to customers – not forced or opportunistic. For example, one of our long-term customers faced evolving compliance requirements. By proactively offering a bundled solution that combined fire safety audits with ongoing monitoring, we not only met their immediate needs but also deepened our relationship and opened the door to additional services.

Retention Is Where Sustainable Growth Lives

While acquisition is important, long-term growth depends on retention. A well-curated portfolio makes it easier to retain customers by delivering consistent service, reducing complexity and reinforcing trust over time.

Multi-discipline contracts supported by connected services help customers see Chubb as a long-term partner, not a collection of suppliers. That loyalty is built through reliability, insight and the confidence that we’re continuously investing in their safety and resilience.

Lessons for Business Leaders

Business leaders should regularly review their portfolios, ensuring that each service or product contributes to sustainable growth. This means being willing to make tough decisions – retiring offerings that no longer serve the company or its customers and investing in those that do.

For leaders looking to refine their portfolios, consider these actionable steps:

Conduct regular portfolio reviews with cross-functional teams
Use customer feedback and data analytics to guide decisions
Develop a checklist to assess each offering’s alignment with strategic goals.

Portfolio with Purpose

At Chubb, we see portfolio as a growth engine – one powered by service excellence, commercial discipline and customer insight.

By focusing on connected services, cross-selling with intent and long-term retention, we’re building sustainable growth that benefits our customers, our people and our business.

Because when your portfolio is designed around customer outcomes, sustainable growth follows naturally – built on trust, clarity and long-term value.

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Building Sustainable Growth Through a Strategic Portfolio

The UK’s data protection watchdog has fined Reddit £14.47m after finding serious failings in how the platform handled children’s personal information.

The penalty, issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), follows an investigation that concluded Reddit had failed to implement robust age assurance mechanisms and did not have a lawful basis for processing the data of children under 13.

Under UK data protection law, children’s information must be given special protection. The ICO said Reddit did not have effective systems in place to verify users’ ages until July 2025, despite its terms of service prohibiting under-13s from accessing the platform.

The regulator also found that Reddit failed to carry out a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) addressing risks to children until January 2025, even though users aged 13 to 18 were permitted to join.

John Edwards, the UK Information Commissioner, described the failings as unacceptable. “Children under 13 had their personal information collected and used in ways they could not understand, consent to or control,” he said. “Relying on users to declare their age themselves is not enough when children may be at risk.”

In July 2025, Reddit introduced new measures including age verification for access to mature content and requiring users to declare their age at account creation. However, the ICO has warned that self-declaration alone presents risks, as it can be easily bypassed.

The regulator said it would continue monitoring Reddit’s approach as part of wider enforcement activity focused on online platforms that rely primarily on self-declared ages.

The fine takes into account the number of children potentially affected, the duration of the failings and Reddit’s global turnover.

The ICO’s action follows its ongoing supervision of platforms under the UK’s Age Appropriate Design Code, also known as the Children’s Code, which sets out standards for services likely to be accessed by under-18s.

The regulator has said safeguarding children’s privacy online remains a priority and confirmed it will continue working closely with Ofcom, which enforces the Online Safety Act, to ensure coordinated oversight of digital platforms.

The decision underscores intensifying scrutiny of tech companies operating in the UK, particularly around age verification and the lawful processing of children’s data.

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ICO fines Reddit £14.47m over children’s data protection failures

Violence and abuse against shop workers declined by a fifth last year, but retail leaders say crime levels remain far higher than before the pandemic and continue to pose a serious threat to staff safety.

New figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Sensormatic Solutions show there were 1,600 incidents of violence and abuse against retail workers every day in 2024/25, down from 2,000 daily incidents the previous year. That equates to around 590,000 incidents over the year.

Despite the improvement, the BRC warned that the rate remains the second highest on record and well above the pre-pandemic average of 455 incidents per day.

Physical violence showed little change, remaining at 118 incidents a day, including 36 daily cases involving a weapon.

The data also reveal 5.5 million incidents of shop theft last year, costing retailers close to £400m. The true total is likely to be significantly higher, given many thefts go undetected.

For the first time, the report included parcel delivery theft, which cost retailers more than £100m in 2024/25.

Industry leaders say organised criminal gangs are increasingly targeting high-value goods that can be easily resold, carrying out systematic thefts across multiple stores.

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said the reduction in violence was “hard won” but warned that theft and abuse remain endemic. “No one should go to work fearing for their safety,” she said.

The government’s forthcoming Crime and Policing Bill will introduce a specific offence for assaulting a retail worker, alongside scrapping the £200 threshold that previously limited police response to low-value shoplifting.

Sarah Jones said the government was determined to tackle retail crime and highlighted a 21 per cent rise in shop theft charges.

The legislation comes amid broader concerns about high street viability. Retailers are also contending with rising employment costs, including higher national insurance contributions and increases to the national living wage.

Usdaw general secretary Joanne Thomas said that while the fall in incidents was welcome, retail workers still face unacceptable risks. Two-thirds of attacks on staff are triggered by theft or armed robbery, union data suggest.

Retailers have spent more than £5bn over the past five years on security measures including CCTV systems and additional personnel, according to the BRC.

Despite the slight improvement, campaigners and unions argue that violence and theft remain at crisis levels, with many shop workers reporting heightened stress and anxiety about going to work.

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Violent attacks on shop staff fall by a fifth but remain ‘unacceptably high’

More than half of young Britons are unable to name a single entrepreneur, according to new research that campaigners say highlights a worrying disconnect between the UK’s startup culture and the next generation.

A YouGov survey conducted for Enterprise Britain found that 56 per cent of 18 to 25-year-olds could not name an entrepreneur, founder or chief executive. Among those who could, Richard Branson was the most frequently cited, named by 16 per cent of respondents in that age group.

Lord Sugar was identified by 6 per cent, while just 2 per cent mentioned Steven Bartlett, the Dragons’ Den investor and host of The Diary of a CEO podcast. Across all age groups, 33 per cent of UK adults named Branson, while 32 per cent could not name any entrepreneur at all.

The findings come as youth unemployment has climbed to its highest level in more than a decade and as the Treasury finalises a consultation on how entrepreneurs are taxed.

Enterprise Britain, a lobby group founded by business leaders including Stephen Fitzpatrick, founder of Ovo Energy, and Brent Hoberman, co-founder of Lastminute.com, has launched a campaign titled “Time to Act” urging stronger government support for entrepreneurship.

Baroness Lane Fox, co-founder of Lastminute.com and a member of the group, said the term “entrepreneur” may feel remote to many people. “It has taken on a grandeur,” she said. “People think you have to build a global giant to count. Entrepreneurship can take many forms and can be economically rewarding for individuals and communities.”

The survey also found that 74 per cent of respondents believe the UK’s position in the global economy is in decline, underscoring broader concerns about growth and competitiveness.

Enterprise Britain is calling for the creation of a dedicated minister for entrepreneurship and for policies to broaden access to capital, including expanded employee share ownership schemes and greater pension fund investment in high-growth UK companies.

Fitzpatrick said: “Britain has a great economic engine. But while we have one foot on the accelerator, the other is on the brake. We need to take the brakes off so ambitious businesses can drive the country forward.”

The campaign reflects growing debate over how to foster entrepreneurial ambition at a time when economic uncertainty and rising employment costs are reshaping the labour market for younger Britons.

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Most young Britons cannot name a single entrepreneur, survey finds

Britain’s human resources sector has grown disproportionately large and is costing businesses billions of pounds a year, according to a new report from the think tank Policy Exchange.

The centre-right research body claims that the UK’s HR industry is almost twice as large, proportionally, as that of the European Union and around 60 per cent bigger than in the United States. It estimates that this “misallocation of labour” is costing the economy roughly £10bn annually compared with a scenario in which the sector matched US proportions.

Between 2011 and 2023, the number of people working in HR roles in the UK rose by 83 per cent, far outpacing the 13.5 per cent growth in the overall workforce during the same period. Policy Exchange calculates that 1.6 per cent of UK workers are now employed in HR functions, compared with 1 per cent in the US and 0.8 per cent across the EU.

The report argues that the expansion has been driven in part by equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) requirements, which it says have created a “shadow regulatory” environment. While acknowledging that such policies are often well intentioned, the authors contend that they impose significant compliance costs and may reduce productivity.

Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, said the findings pointed to a need to rebalance regulation and corporate autonomy. He argued that excessive bureaucracy made firms more risk-averse and diverted focus away from core commercial priorities.

Policy Exchange recommends repealing certain “positive action” provisions within the Equality Act 2010 that allow employers to take targeted measures to address underrepresentation. It also suggests government departments should not consider EDI policies when awarding contracts and should refrain from promoting diversity initiatives in the private sector.

Among other proposals, the think tank calls for a revision of the legal definition of “equal work” to limit equivalence claims across different roles. It cites ongoing litigation involving Asda, where shop floor workers are seeking parity with warehouse staff in a case potentially worth more than £1bn.

Baroness Cash, a former commissioner at the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said reform was needed to reduce burdens on business.

The government rejected the report’s conclusions. A spokesperson said it did not recognise the figures cited and insisted that equality and economic growth were complementary. Ministers remain committed to introducing mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting and requiring employers to publish action plans alongside gender pay gap data under the Employment Rights Act.

The debate reflects broader tensions between calls for deregulation to spur growth and arguments that inclusive workplace policies strengthen long-term economic performance.

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‘Bloated’ HR sector costing UK economy £10bn a year, claims Policy Exchange

Rachel Reeves will deliver her Spring Statement on March 3, just over three months after her November Budget, in what is expected to be a lower-key fiscal event focused more on forecasts than fresh policy announcements.

Unlike the autumn Budget, the Spring Statement is not expected to contain tax rises or major spending cuts. Reeves has pledged to limit significant fiscal changes to a single annual event, giving herself £21.7bn of headroom in November to avoid returning with further measures before the autumn.

Nevertheless, the update will be closely watched as the Office for Budget Responsibility publishes revised forecasts for growth, borrowing and the public finances.

Although the OBR will no longer formally assess performance against fiscal rules twice a year, economists will scrutinise its projections to determine whether the government remains on track.

Some analysts expect a modest increase in Reeves’s fiscal headroom to around £24bn. A fall in that buffer could reignite speculation about future tax rises, particularly if weaker growth or higher borrowing narrows the margin. Conversely, a significant rise in headroom could intensify pressure from within Labour to loosen spending plans.

Ruth Gregory of Capital Economics has warned the statement could become “another flashpoint” if fiscal space tightens. James Smith of the Resolution Foundation said the government should not allow economic policy to stall until the autumn, arguing that more should be done to address sluggish growth and rising unemployment.

No tax rises – for now

Fresh tax measures are not expected in March, but debate over fiscal strategy is likely to intensify. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has argued that frequent adjustments driven by narrow headroom targets create instability and undermine long-term policymaking.

The IFS has proposed a shift towards a broader “fiscal traffic lights” framework to reduce the need for rushed policy changes when forecasts fluctuate.

The statement also comes after controversy at the OBR, which accidentally published market-sensitive material ahead of the November Budget. Former chair Richard Hughes stepped down following the incident, and the watchdog will release its new forecasts without a permanent successor in place.

With the government prioritising economic expansion, Reeves is expected to reiterate commitments to boost investment, support employment and stabilise public finances.

While the Spring Statement may lack the drama of a Budget, it will provide an important snapshot of the UK’s economic trajectory, and a signal of whether the chancellor’s fiscal strategy remains intact ahead of what could be a more consequential autumn showdown.

Read more:
Spring Statement 2026: what could Rachel Reeves announce?

A new purpose-built workspace aimed at supporting Jersey’s growing community of founders and independent professionals will open its doors in Charing Cross this spring.

House of Champions, located in a private courtyard in the centre of St Helier, has been designed as a flexible entrepreneurial hub with capacity for 40 members. The three-storey space blends traditional Jersey architecture with contemporary interiors, featuring exposed wooden beams, floor-to-ceiling windows and curated artwork intended to create a calm yet collaborative environment.

The facility will offer hot desks, dedicated desks, bookable meeting rooms and a fully equipped podcast studio, alongside flexible membership packages tailored to freelancers, startups and small teams.

The project is led by Fiona Wylie, chief executive of Jersey-based marketing agency Brand Champions. Wylie said the decision to invest in a permanent workspace reflected both confidence in the island’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and her own experience building a business while balancing family life after relocating to Jersey.

“House of Champions is community-driven and flexible by design,” she said. “Real ambition doesn’t thrive in isolation. It thrives when people feel supported, inspired and genuinely connected.”

The launch comes amid continued growth in self-employment and freelance work. According to IPSE, the number of highly skilled female freelancers in the UK has risen by 69 per cent since 2008, highlighting demand for professional spaces that support flexible careers.

Wylie said the hub aims to serve that expanding demographic, particularly professionals seeking autonomy without sacrificing collaboration. “This is a place to build businesses, yes, but also confidence, momentum and possibility,” she said.

House of Champions will officially open with a programme of workshops, networking events and community initiatives designed to encourage collaboration and wellbeing alongside commercial growth.

For Jersey’s startup and freelance community, the opening signals a further step in positioning the island as a base not only for finance but for a broader generation of creative and entrepreneurial talent.

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House of Champions to open in Jersey as new hub for founders and freelancers

UK-based AI startup Enginuity has raised £500,000 in fresh funding to accelerate its mission of unlocking the estimated $1.58 trillion in underused global intellectual property.

The round was led by Fuel Ventures, with participation from Symvan Capital and a group of angel investors.

Founded by innovation specialist Richard Heggie, Enginuity uses multi-agent artificial intelligence to map patents and research assets against real-time market demand signals. The platform aims to help corporates, universities, R&D teams and startups identify existing technologies that could solve current challenges but remain commercially dormant.

Global R&D spending exceeds $2.5 trillion annually, yet around 95 per cent of patents are never exploited, according to industry estimates. Enginuity argues that much of today’s innovation bottleneck stems not from a lack of ideas, but from difficulty in matching them with commercial opportunity.

The platform enables users to search intellectual property by function and feature, uncover related technologies and innovation pathways, and connect ideas directly to buyers, partners and funding sources.

Heggie said the company’s goal is to transform IP from a static legal asset into an active commercial resource. “The majority of the world’s ideas sit unused on the shelf,” he said. “By making IP searchable and commercially relevant, we help innovators save time and unlock value from what already exists.”

The funding will support product development, expansion of engineering and business development teams, and growth of partnerships across the UK, US and Europe.

Enginuity is already collaborating with innovation ecosystems linked to Cambridge, MIT/Harvard and the Technical University of Munich, and has piloted projects with venture studios including C10 Labs.

Mark Pearson, founder of Fuel Ventures, said the startup addresses a critical inefficiency in global innovation. “The waste of untapped IP is one of the biggest missed opportunities in technology,” he said. “Enginuity has the potential to transform how ideas are discovered and applied.”

With AI increasingly embedded in enterprise decision-making, Enginuity is positioning itself at the intersection of intellectual property analytics and commercialisation — aiming to turn dormant inventions into active economic drivers.

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Enginuity raises £500,000 to unlock $1.58tn in unused global innovation