Business

British tradespeople and small business owners are turning to the internet in record numbers to investigate a switch out of diesel, with Google searches for “electric vans” leaping by 143% in March, new figures show.

The analysis, compiled by online comparison site The Van Insurer, part of the Howden group, found that enquiries peaked in the days immediately before the Easter weekend, a period that traditionally sees sole traders, couriers and last‑mile delivery operators reviewing the running costs of their fleets ahead of the busier spring and summer trading months.

With diesel still powering the overwhelming majority of the 4.6 million vans on Britain’s roads, the scale of the surge points to a marked shift in sentiment among operators who have spent the past two years absorbing successive increases at the forecourt. Industry observers say the combination of stubbornly high pump prices, tightening clean‑air zone restrictions in London, Birmingham, Bristol and beyond, and the narrowing premium on new battery‑electric models is nudging even the most reluctant drivers to crunch the numbers on an EV switch.

Ed Bevis, commercial director at The Van Insurer, said diesel operators were bearing the brunt of the current squeeze. “Diesel van drivers are being hit hardest by the current fuel crisis, so it’s hardly surprising we’re seeing a sharp rise in interest around electric vans,” he said.

“Many owners are starting to look towards a future that’s less dependent on fossil fuels and less exposed to volatile fuel prices and running‑cost uncertainty. As a result, we expect demand for battery and hybrid‑electric van insurance to accelerate over the coming months.”

For Britain’s army of self‑employed traders, the plumbers, sparks, florists, parcel drivers and mobile mechanics for whom the van is not a vehicle but a livelihood, the economics are increasingly difficult to ignore. Even modest fluctuations at the pump translate directly into thinner margins on already pressured jobs, while the residual values on late‑plate diesel models have softened as buyers weigh the risk of further regulatory tightening.

Mr Bevis acknowledged the financial strain on the sector and said the comparison site was attempting to take some of the sting out of premiums. “At a time when many consumers and business owners are having to count every penny, we believe it’s important to offer meaningful support, particularly for those whose vans are integral to earning a living,” he said, pointing to £500 of free excess protection now being offered on qualifying policies.

Whether the March spike marks the beginning of a decisive migration away from diesel or simply another bout of curiosity from hard‑pressed operators will depend heavily on the direction of wholesale fuel prices, the pace of the public charging rollout and the Treasury’s next move on vehicle taxation. For now, however, the direction of travel in the search data is unmistakable, and insurers, dealers and manufacturers will all be watching the next set of figures closely.

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Diesel drivers drive electric van searches up 143% as fuel costs bite

Britain’s economy was firing on more cylinders than the City had dared hope in the weeks before Israel and Iran went to war, but small and mid-sized businesses should brace themselves for a sharp turning of the tide.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics released this morning show gross domestic product expanded by 0.5 per cent in February, trouncing the consensus forecast of 0.1 per cent pencilled in by economists polled ahead of the release. January’s reading was also nudged higher, from flat to 0.1 per cent growth, lending weight to the argument that the economy had genuine momentum heading into the spring.

Taken together, the three months to February produced growth of 0.5 per cent, up from 0.3 per cent in the preceding quarter — a respectable clip by the standards of a British economy that has spent much of the past two years trudging along the margins of recession.

Grant Fitzner, chief economist at the ONS, pointed to a broad-based services recovery as the principal driver, noting that car production had also bounced back after last autumn’s cyber attack knocked output sideways. The construction sector, long the weak link in the chain, managed a 1.0 per cent rebound.

For owner-managed firms across retail, hospitality and professional services, the ecosystem that accounts for the lion’s share of the 80 per cent of GDP represented by services, the February numbers will feel like vindication after a bruising winter of weak consumer demand and punishing borrowing costs.

The trouble is that the figures are already yesterday’s news. The Iranian conflict, which erupted on 28 February, has rewritten the economic script in a matter of weeks.

Brent crude has climbed 30 per cent since hostilities began, feeding straight through to forecourts and utility bills. The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of global seaborne oil and liquefied natural gas passes, has rattled supply chains from Felixstowe to Southampton and left importers scrambling to renegotiate contracts.

Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG, warned that February’s bounce would prove “short lived”, with elevated energy costs and shipping disruption likely to act as a drag on output for much of the second quarter. Even as hopes grow of a diplomatic off-ramp, she cautioned that normalising freight flows and energy production takes time, time that cash-strapped SMEs working on thin margins can ill afford.

The inflation picture has deteriorated accordingly. With the headline rate already sitting at 3 per cent, the Bank of England now expects CPI to climb as high as 3.5 per cent over the coming six months; the International Monetary Fund has gone further, pencilling in a peak of 4 per cent. Only weeks ago, Threadneedle Street had been guiding towards a return to the 2 per cent target from April.

Against that backdrop, the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee voted in March to hold Bank Rate at 3.75 per cent, pausing the easing cycle to see how the oil shock feeds through. For smaller businesses hoping for cheaper debt to refinance Covid-era loans or invest in growth, the reprieve they had been banking on is now firmly on ice.

Most City economists expect the March GDP print to come in flat or negative, marking the beginning of what some are already calling a period of heightened fragility — or, in the worst case, outright stagflation, that toxic combination of stagnant output and rising prices that policymakers spend their careers trying to avoid.

“The February GDP print marks the calm before the storm,” said Sanjay Raja, chief UK economist at Deutsche Bank.

The IMF has confirmed as much. This week the fund downgraded its UK growth forecast for the year to 0.8 per cent, down from the 1.3 per cent it projected in January, and warned that Britain faces the biggest hit of any G7 economy from the Middle East conflict, a function of the country’s heavy reliance on imported energy and its exposure to global services demand.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has already conceded that the war will “come at a cost” to households and businesses, language that suggests the Treasury is laying the ground for a difficult summer.

James Murray, chief secretary to the Treasury, struck a more defiant tone, insisting that “growth only happens when the economy is on solid ground” and that the government’s plan to “restore stability, boost investment and deliver reform” was the right course for a “stronger, more resilient Britain”.

For the millions of SME owners who drive the bulk of private sector employment, the message from the data is uncomfortably clear. The foundations laid in February were encouraging, but the storm that followed has changed the weather entirely, and the businesses best placed to weather it will be those that move quickly to hedge energy exposure, shore up working capital and pressure-test their supply chains before the second-quarter numbers lay bare just how much damage has been done.

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UK economy surged before Iran conflict but stagflation now looms for Britain’s SMEs

Britain’s steel producers are sounding the alarm over a widening electricity price chasm with European rivals, warning that the escalating Middle East war has pushed UK power costs to levels that threaten the industry’s survival and could derail the Government’s flagship Steel Strategy.

In its response to the Government’s publication today of findings from the consultation on the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS), trade body UK Steel has offered cautious praise tempered with a stark warning: while the new scheme will deliver meaningful relief to parts of the steel supply chain, it does nothing to tackle the crippling wholesale electricity costs squeezing steelmakers themselves.

The numbers make sobering reading for anyone invested in the fortunes of British heavy industry. UK steelmakers are now paying up to 77% more for electricity than their counterparts in France and Germany, a yawning gap that has ballooned from roughly 25% in a matter of months. Indicative industrial prices for 2026 place UK costs at around £84 per megawatt hour, against approximately £48 in France and £65 in Germany.

The fallout is measured in tens of millions. Without intervention, UK Steel calculates the industry will shoulder an additional £82 million in annual electricity costs compared with operating in France, a burden that risks stalling decarbonisation projects, bleeding order books to continental rivals and undermining the credibility of the Government’s Steel Strategy.

The BICS itself has been broadly welcomed for what it does offer. The scheme will materially reduce electricity bills for parts of the steel supply chain and energy-intensive assets that have until now fallen outside existing support frameworks. For companies previously ineligible for any relief, it represents a significant and overdue lifeline.

The sticking point is that steelmakers themselves already benefit from similar support via the British Industry Supercharger, leaving the core competitiveness challenge untouched. That challenge has been brought into painful relief by the Middle East war, which has sent wholesale gas and electricity prices surging and exposed once again the UK’s structural dependence on gas-driven power pricing.

Frank Aaskov, Director of Energy and Climate Change Policy at UK Steel, said the scheme was a helpful step but fell short of addressing the fundamental problem.

“The BICS will bring welcome relief for parts of the steel supply chain and manufacturers not currently covered by existing schemes and materially lower their energy bills,” he said. “But it will not lower electricity prices for steel producers themselves, who remain exposed to exceptionally high wholesale power costs.”

Aaskov added that the deterioration had been rapid and severe. “That problem has intensified sharply in recent months. As a result of the Middle East war, UK steelmakers are now paying nearly 80% more for electricity than competitors in France and Germany, up from around 25% previously. This is happening despite the support already in place and reflects the UK’s continued exposure to gas-driven electricity prices.”

The industry body is pressing ministers to go further, advocating for a wholesale price rebalancing mechanism along the lines proposed by consultancy Baringa. Such a measure, UK Steel argues, would realign Britain’s industrial power costs with those of continental competitors and restore the investment confidence the sector urgently needs.

“To make the Steel Strategy a success and deliver the Government’s industrial and decarbonisation ambitions, additional measures are now essential,” Aaskov said. “That means targeted action to bring wholesale electricity prices into line with our European competitors that gives industry the confidence to invest.”

For SME suppliers woven through the steel value chain, from specialist fabricators to downstream manufacturers, the stakes are considerable. A weakened domestic steel industry would reverberate through thousands of smaller firms whose order books depend on healthy demand from the big producers. The question now facing Westminster is whether a partial fix is enough, or whether bolder intervention on wholesale pricing is the only credible route to keeping British steel in the game.

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UK steelmakers face 77% electricity price gap as Middle East war deepens competitiveness crisis

Britain’s drive to establish itself as a global artificial intelligence powerhouse is heading for a direct confrontation with its legally binding climate commitments, after planning documents revealed that the country’s first “nationally significant” data centre would be fired by gas rather than clean energy.

The £2 billion Wapseys Wood development in Buckinghamshire, backed by SDC Capital Partners, would consist of up to three hyperscale data centre buildings, each drawing as much as 100 megawatts of power. Crucially, it would also feature an on-site gas turbine energy generation centre capable of producing between 270 and 350 megawatts, which developers describe in submitted documents as necessary to deliver a “resilient and reliable power supply”.

The scheme is the first data centre proposal to be accepted for consideration under the government’s nationally significant infrastructure regime, a designation that hands the final decision to the communities secretary, Steve Reed, rather than the local authority. If waved through, it would rank among the ten largest sites of its kind in the UK, with its promoters claiming the development would create 400 jobs and deliver roughly 5 per cent of domestic computing demand over the next five years.

The row over Wapseys Wood reflects a wider bottleneck that is reshaping the economics of Britain’s digital infrastructure. With grid connection queues stretching for years, developers are increasingly bypassing the electricity network altogether and turning instead to on-site generation, or to the gas grid.

Figures from Future Energy Networks, the trade body representing pipeline operators, show that 113 applications have been lodged by data centre developers over the past two years, with enquiries in 2025 running at roughly three times the level of the previous year. Seven of those applications have already secured agreements to connect. Should every one of them proceed, they would collectively consume enough gas to heat 1.3 million homes.

Toby Perkins, the Labour MP who chairs the environmental audit committee, warned that the scale of the demand merits serious political attention. “That a small number of centres could demand the same energy as millions of homes should give us pause for thought,” he said. “Data centres may well play an important role in growing our economy, but we should be careful about approving projects that put the net zero transition at risk.”

Critics argue that Wapseys Wood is merely the most visible example of an emerging trend. Donald Campbell, director of advocacy at Foxglove, a non-profit campaigning for more accountable technology policy, said the developers had made no effort to dress the project up as environmentally friendly. He cautioned that if the bulk of the pending gas grid applications were approved, “climate pollution from big tech will go through the roof”.

The shift mirrors developments in the United States, where hyperscalers have moved aggressively to secure their own generation. Meta is building seven new natural gas plants to feed its Hyperion campus in Louisiana, a site that could eventually draw up to 5 gigawatts. Microsoft, meanwhile, is working on plans for a gas-fired plant in West Texas of similar scale.

The carbon implications for Britain are material. Oliver Hayes, head of policy and campaigns at Global Action Plan, estimated that the Wapseys Wood turbine alone could emit around half a million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, set against total UK emissions of 367 million tonnes. “Tech bosses claim the lack of grid connections threatens their AI goldrush,” he said. “But ministers must not allow them to dash for gas instead.”

Under current planning rules, any proposed new gas plant must set out a credible path to decarbonisation. The Wapseys Wood developers have pointed to a future switch to clean-burning hydrogen. Yet industry specialists are sceptical that the technology will be commercially deployable on the timescales required. Marten Ford, advisory project leader at Aurora Energy Research, said that although the current test focuses on technical readiness, it does not address cost competitiveness. “Given current market conditions, near-term conversion to hydrogen is unlikely, with feasibility more plausible later in the 2030s,” he said.

A spokesman for the Wapseys Wood project defended the proposal, saying it responded to “an urgent need for new data centres in the UK” and would bring significant economic, employment and environmental benefits. He stressed that the scheme remains at pre-application stage and that SDC Capital Partners would continue engaging with the local community, including through a second round of public consultation later this year.

The government, for its part, insisted that the AI build-out and climate targets can be reconciled. “Data centres are vital to driving growth and AI is increasingly part of the high-tech solutions that will help us solve environmental challenges,” a spokesman said, adding that the AI Energy Council is actively seeking investment in new clean power sources and that ministers are working to accelerate grid connections and curb energy costs for eligible projects.

For Britain’s small and mid-sized technology businesses, the stakes of the debate are significant. Cheap, abundant computing capacity is increasingly the raw material of enterprise innovation, and delays to new infrastructure risk pushing AI workloads offshore. But a dash for gas, if replicated across the pipeline of pending projects, could saddle the UK with a new generation of carbon-emitting assets just as other sectors are being asked to decarbonise at pace. The Wapseys Wood decision, when it lands on Steve Reed’s desk, will offer an early indication of how Whitehall intends to balance those competing imperatives.

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Britain’s first major AI data centre sparks net zero clash as gas power plans revealed

Britain’s supermarkets could be staring down the barrel of patchy shelves by midsummer, with ministers quietly war-gaming a scenario in which the continuing conflict with Iran chokes off carbon dioxide supplies to the country’s food and drink industry.

Whitehall officials have been rehearsing what they describe internally as a “reasonable worst-case scenario” should the strait of Hormuz remain closed into June, shipping routes stay jammed, and a mechanical hiccup at one of Britain’s critical CO2 plants compound the pressure. The exercise, codenamed Turnstone and convened under the Cobra emergency framework, has drawn in officials from Downing Street, the Treasury and the Ministry of Defence.

News of the drill, first surfaced by The Times, has prompted a rapid-fire reassurance campaign from ministers, who insist the planning is prudent rather than panicked. Business Secretary Peter Kyle told Times Radio on Thursday that the leak was “unhelpful” but argued the public “need to be reassured that we are doing this kind of planning”. CO2 supplies, he added, were “not a concern” for the UK economy.

For small and medium-sized food producers, brewers and hospitality operators, however, the contingency talk lands at an awkward moment. The summer trading window, already inflated by the World Cup kicking off on 11 June, is make-or-break territory for independent breweries and wholesalers. A squeeze on carbon dioxide would ripple rapidly through their supply chains, hitting everything from pint pulls to packaged meats.

Carbon dioxide, though a by-product of other industrial processes, is the quiet workhorse of British food and drink. The gas is used to stun pigs and poultry at abattoirs, to pack fresh meat and salad leaves in modified-atmosphere packaging that keeps bacteria at bay, and to put the fizz in beer and soft drinks. It also underpins refrigeration, MRI scanning, surgical procedures and the cooling of nuclear reactors.

The UK ranks among Europe’s heaviest consumers of the gas, a dependency that has already prompted pre-emptive action. In March, Mr Kyle earmarked £100m to restart the mothballed Ensus bioethanol plant on Teesside for a three-month run, specifically to hedge against wartime shortages. On Thursday he argued the Teesside decision showed “we are doing this kind of action behind the scenes to keep resilience in our economy”.

Britain’s largest grocer, for its part, appears sanguine. Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy said the government was “doing the right thing” in preparing for the worst, calling the analysis a reasonable one and welcoming the Ensus reopening. But he stressed Tesco had “seen nothing at this point” in its own supply chain and that none of its suppliers had flagged problems with CO2 availability.

Mr Murphy, whose business has absorbed six years of rolling disruption, Covid, Brexit, energy shocks, inflation, said Tesco was “constantly working on various scenarios internally” and confident it could head off issues before they reached the shop floor. The bigger near-term headache, he suggested, has actually been the punishing weather across southern Spain and north Africa, though shoppers would be hard-pressed to spot the fallout because the grocer had been able to “flex” its sourcing.

A government spokesperson underlined the caveat that “reasonable worst-case scenarios are a planning tool used by experts and are not a prediction of future events”, adding that ministers were “continuing to work closely with business groups to tackle the impacts of events in the Middle East”.

For SME owners watching the tea leaves, the message from Whitehall is calibrated: keep calm, carry on, but don’t mistake the silence on the shelves for complacency in the corridors of power. With Hormuz still contested and the diplomatic track with Tehran far from delivering a durable settlement, the summer trading season is shaping up as a stress test for a supply chain that, as 2021’s last major CO2 crunch demonstrated, can turn from background utility to front-page crisis within days.

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Supermarket shelves face summer gaps as Iran war threatens UK’s CO2 lifeline

Bitcoin has no headquarters, no board of directors, and no founder willing to take credit. In the eighteen years since the white paper appeared under the name Satoshi Nakamoto, the question of who actually wrote it has attracted reporters, cryptographers, amateur sleuths, and seasoned investigators, all of whom have come up empty or close enough to it. That streak may be over.

Finding Satoshi is a feature documentary built around a four-year forensic investigation into Bitcoin’s origins and the identity of its creator. The documentary is directed by Matthew Miele and Tucker Tooley while the investigative reporting is led by William D. Cohan and Tyler Maroney. Cohan is a New York Times bestselling author and longtime Wall Street Journal contributor and Maroney is a private investigator at Quest Research & Investigations whose background spans some of the most complex cases in recent American legal history.

The film draws on original reporting, forensic analysis, and previously unseen evidence. More than twenty subjects spoke on record. The biggest differentiator, the investigation reaches a conclusion and the film confidently presents it.

Prior investigations into Satoshi’s identity have simply missed the mark. Finding Satoshi operates on different terms, framing the question not as lore or legend, but as a serious unanswered question with global cultural and financial consequences. As such, it demands a rigorous, evidence-based approach, which the film delivers on.

The stakes underlying that question are worth understanding. Bitcoin’s market capitalization has, at times, surpassed a trillion dollars, reshaping global conversations about money, power, and trust. The wallets widely attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto are estimated to hold over a million Bitcoin, placing whoever controls them among the wealthiest individuals in the world. Those early holdings have remained inactive, and Satoshi has not communicated publicly since 2011. The person behind it built something that transformed the financial landscape, then disappeared.

Understanding that person requires understanding what they built and why. Finding Satoshi traces Bitcoin not as a technology event, but as an intellectual and philosophical one. The film follows the full lineage of ideas that produced the Bitcoin white paper: the cypherpunk movement, the early development of digital privacy cryptography, the work of Phil Zimmermann on PGP encryption, and the predecessor technologies, including Hashcash and Bit Gold, that laid the conceptual groundwork. Bitcoin emerged from this specific tradition of belief, holding that individuals should be able to transact without interference, without surveillance, without an institution standing between them. That belief guided every choice Satoshi ever made, even the choice to vanish.

Through rare access to early builders, architects, and influential voices across the crypto ecosystem, Finding Satoshi emphasizes the human ideals behind the code as much as the history and science of it all. Simply put, Bitcoin is, rightfully, presented as an expression of philosophy and conviction rather than merely a technical artifact.

The range of voices interviewed reflects the film’s ambition and scope. Interviewees include Michael Saylor, chairman and co-founder of MicroStrategy, Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase, Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum, Bill Gates, Gary Gensler, former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Kara Swisher, Gillian Tett of the Financial Times, Kathleen Puckett, the former FBI behavioral analyst who helped identify the Unabomber, and Bjarne Stroustrup, creator of C++.

Finding Satoshi does not leave the question open. At the end of the investigation, the film answers the question, identifying the person behind Bitcoin while respecting the gravity and implications of that claim. The resolution is treated as the culmination of evidence, earned through four years of sustained work rather than provocation or spectacle. Watch the film to find out.

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, called it the most thoughtful treatment of the subject he had encountered and said he believed the film had reached the right answer. Jameson Lopp, a professional cypherpunk and Bitcoin security engineer, described it as the most expertly produced Bitcoin documentary to date. Nic Carter said most investigations into Satoshi’s identity had been careless or dismissive of the subject matter. This one, he said, is not.

The film is not only told by real investigative journalists, it is produced by real filmmakers: Tucker Tooley for Tucker Tooley Entertainment and Jordan Fried for Fried Films and Happy Walters. Tucker Tooley Entertainment’s projects have collectively earned more than $2.61 billion at the worldwide box office, spanning prestige dramas, major studio franchises, and global streaming hits. Recent productions include Lee Daniels’ The Deliverance, which debuted at number one on Netflix, and Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, which opened at number one at the U.S. box office in January 2025.

Finding Satoshi releases exclusively at FindingSatoshi.com. Coinbase users receive 24-hour early access beginning April 21, 2026. General release follows on April 22. There is no streaming platform, no theatrical window, and no alternative distribution point. The release model mirrors Bitcoin’s own architecture: direct from creator to audience, with no intermediaries standing between them.

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Finding Satoshi: The Code, the Mystery, and the People Who Spent Four Years Unraveling Both

For a long time, procurement software was sold as a productivity story. It promised fewer email chains, quicker approvals, cleaner supplier records and less paperwork for finance.

That pitch still exists, but it no longer captures the most interesting change in the category. The real shift is that procurement platforms are increasingly being used not just to digitize transactions, but to turn management rules into something people have to follow. Deloitte’s 2025 Global Chief Procurement Officer Survey describes procurement as being at a turning point, while a 2025 Harvard Business Review article, based on research with Digital Procurement World, says companies have ambitious plans to digitize procurement rapidly, especially through AI. Put simply, procurement software is being asked to do more than speed up routine tasks. It is being asked to support management discipline.

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Why Procurement Automation Is Really About Rules

Rachel Reeves has pledged to slash electricity bills by up to a quarter for more than 10,000 British manufacturers, in a move Whitehall hopes will shore up the country’s battered industrial base and blunt criticism that ministers have been slow to tackle the highest energy costs in the developed world.

Speaking from Washington, where she is attending the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund, the Chancellor confirmed on Thursday that the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) will be widened by 40 per cent, bringing an additional 3,000 firms under its umbrella. The scheme, first trailed in last year’s Modern Industrial Strategy, will exempt qualifying businesses from the indirect costs of three legacy green levies: the Renewables Obligation, Feed-in Tariffs and the Capacity Market.

Treasury officials put the value of the relief at roughly £35 to £40 per megawatt hour, or up to £600 million a year once the scheme takes effect in April 2027. Crucially, ministers insist that neither households nor businesses outside the scheme will see their bills rise as a consequence, with the cost being met through a mixture of changes within the energy system and Exchequer funding. Full details are to be set out in next year’s Budget.

In a concession to firms that have been lobbying hard for immediate relief, the Chancellor has also agreed to a one-off backdated payment in 2027, replicating the support manufacturers would have received had BICS been operational from April 2026. Exemptions on the Renewables Obligation and Feed-in Tariff levies will kick in from April 2027, with Capacity Market exemptions following that October.

Eligibility will run the length of the industrial spectrum, from sprawling steelworks and automotive plants to smaller recyclers, plastics producers, metal fabricators and pharmaceutical manufacturers. Aerospace companies, nuclear fuel processors and makers of cooling and ventilation equipment are also expected to qualify. Relief will be calculated site by site, based on the proportion of electricity used to manufacture eligible goods. Sites where less than 25 per cent of power is used for qualifying production will receive nothing; those between 25 and 50 per cent will get a half exemption, and any site above 50 per cent will benefit in full. Notably, the scheme draws no distinction between large corporates and SMEs, a point likely to be welcomed by smaller firms in the supply chain who have often found themselves shut out of previous industrial aid programmes.

Ms Reeves said the measure was part of the Government’s broader push to deliver “stability, keeping costs down, and boosting competitiveness” at a time when the Middle East crisis is once again rattling global energy markets. “This Government has the right plan for the economy: backing British industry, cutting electricity costs, and building a stronger, more resilient future,” she said, adding that the announcement would help manufacturers “compete, win and create good jobs across the country”.

The Business Secretary, Peter Kyle, framed the move as a response to the number one complaint he hears on factory visits. “When global instability puts businesses under pressure we’ll always do what’s needed to support them,” he said. “By extending the reach of BICS by 40 per cent, we’re acting decisively to tackle the number one issue that businesses face head-on.”

Business lobbies offered a qualified welcome. Rain Newton-Smith, chief executive of the CBI, said the Chancellor had shown she was “listening to firms grappling with volatility in global energy markets”, though she stressed that BICS should be viewed as “an important step” rather than “job done”. Lasting reform, she argued, would require stripping policy costs from electricity bills altogether, scaling up energy efficiency support and accelerating the rollout of renewables.

Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, described the final design of BICS as “a major win” for the car industry, saying it sent “a clear and immediate signal that we are open for business and a prime destination for investment”. Shevaun Haviland, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, welcomed the backdating in particular, which the BCC had lobbied for.

Not everyone was satisfied, however. Stephen Phipson, chief executive of Make UK, delivered the sharpest riposte, warning that relief coming in 2027 was cold comfort to manufacturers renegotiating their contracts now. “Manufacturers are staring down the barrel of huge increases in their energy bills this month,” he said. “Many simply can’t wait until 2027 for relief.” The UK still labours under the highest industrial electricity costs in the developed world, he noted, and failing to act immediately risked “substantial job losses and further deindustrialisation of a sector vital for our national security and resilience”, a sector that supports 2.6 million skilled jobs.

Thursday’s announcement follows the £420 million boost delivered on 1 April through the British Industry Supercharger, which lifted the discount on electricity network charges for around 500 of the most energy-intensive firms from 60 to 90 per cent. Together with BICS, ministers argue the two schemes represent the most significant intervention in industrial energy pricing in a generation.

A second consultation on the regulatory changes needed to bring the scheme to life closes on 14 May, with legislation expected on the statute book by the autumn. A full review of BICS is pencilled in for 2030. The full list of eligible SIC and HS codes is due to be published on gov.uk later today.

Whether the package is enough to arrest the slow erosion of Britain’s industrial base, or whether, as Make UK fears, it simply arrives too late for firms already on the brink, will now become the defining question of the Chancellor’s industrial policy in the run-up to the Budget.

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Reeves unveils 25% electricity bill cut for 10,000 manufacturers as energy costs bite

British SMEs with transatlantic trade links have been warned they face a prolonged and uncertain wait before recovering tariffs wrongly collected by the United States, after Washington confirmed that its long-awaited online refund portal will handle only a fraction of outstanding claims when it goes live next week.

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is due to switch on its Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries system, known as CAPE, on 20 April. The first phase of the portal is expected to cope with roughly 63 per cent of refund requests. The remaining 37 per cent, however, have been left without so much as a provisional timetable, raising fresh concerns for cash-strapped importers that have been out of pocket for the best part of two years.

John Havard, a consultant at audit, tax and business advisory firm Blick Rothenberg, said the scale of the backlog was “extraordinary” and that the uncertainty surrounding the more complex tranche of claims would do little to reassure small and mid-sized businesses that had counted on a swift resolution once the US Supreme Court struck down the tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

“Many of these remaining cases are classed as final tariffs because the goods concerned will have entered the US more than a year before the refund claim is filed,” Havard said. “In such instances the claims procedure is going to be considerably more involved. We are unlikely to hear anything further until government officials next appear before the Court of International Trade to deliver their next mandated progress report.”

The numbers involved are eye-watering. Blick Rothenberg estimates that around 53 million unlawful tariff collection transactions were processed during the period in question, with the total refund bill potentially reaching $166 billion (£132 billion). More than 26,000 importers, collectively responsible for some $120 billion of IEEPA tariffs, have already registered with CBP to receive their money back electronically, following a White House directive requiring all federal payments to be made by electronic transfer.

The rules governing who can actually lodge a claim are tightly drawn. Only the official importer-of-record, or that party’s nominated US customs broker, will be entitled to submit a refund request. Businesses must also hold an active account with CBP’s Automated Commercial Environment before they can receive any money. Havard said there had been “considerable activity” in new account registrations since the Supreme Court’s ruling, suggesting that many firms had been caught flat-footed by the decision.

For those still waiting, there is at least one sliver of good news. In a previous statement to the US trade court, a government official confirmed that interest would be paid on all refunded amounts, offering modest compensation for what is shaping up to be a lengthy delay before cheques actually land.

For British exporters and importers with exposure to the US market, the practical advice is straightforward: ensure ACE registration is in order, confirm which party holds importer-of-record status on historic shipments, and brace for a drawn-out administrative process. The fundamentals of the refund entitlement are no longer in doubt; the mechanics of getting the money back, it seems, very much are.

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US tariff refund backlog leaves UK exporters in limbo as Washington scrambles to process billions in claims

Walt Disney is preparing to shed roughly 1,000 jobs in the first significant cost-cutting exercise under its new chief executive Josh D’Amaro, as the entertainment giant grapples with the shifting economics of Hollywood.

In an email to staff on Tuesday, seen by Reuters, D’Amaro told employees the company would be eliminating roles across several divisions, citing the need for a more nimble operation. “Given the fast-moving pace of our industries, this requires us to constantly assess how to foster a more agile and technologically-enabled workforce to meet tomorrow’s needs,” he wrote.

According to a person familiar with the matter, the redundancies will land across the recently reorganised marketing group, the studio and television businesses, sports network ESPN, products and technology, and a handful of corporate functions. Affected staff began receiving notifications earlier this week.

The cull marks D’Amaro’s first major structural intervention since succeeding Bob Iger in the corner office, and signals that the new chief is wasting little time in putting his own stamp on the House of Mouse. It also places Disney firmly alongside its peers: Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount Skydance have both taken the axe to headcount in recent months as the legacy Hollywood majors confront the same unforgiving combination of a softening linear television market, sluggish box office receipts and intensifying competition for viewers’ attention and wallets.

For Disney, it is the largest round of cuts since 2023, when the group announced some 7,000 redundancies as part of a sweeping $5.5bn (£4.2bn) cost-saving drive. That earlier exercise was launched under pressure from activist investor Nelson Peltz, who had been agitating for sharper financial discipline and a credible route to profitability for the group’s loss-making streaming arm.

With a global workforce of around 231,000 at the close of its last fiscal year in September, the latest reduction is proportionately modest, affecting well under half of one per cent of total headcount. But the symbolism is hard to miss. By targeting marketing, studio, television and ESPN in a single sweep, D’Amaro is effectively telling Wall Street that no corner of the empire is beyond scrutiny as management hunts for leaner operating structures and faster decision-making.

The job losses were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

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Disney to axe 1,000 jobs as new chief D’Amaro moves to streamline empire