Business

Barclays is turning to artificial intelligence to power the next phase of its turnaround, as the bank targets around £2 billion of cost savings and commits to returning more than £15 billion of surplus capital to shareholders by the end of 2028.

C.S. Venkatakrishnan, the chief executive, widely known as Venkat, said the bank would pursue about £2 billion of gross efficiency savings over the next three years, alongside increased investment in technology, including AI, to improve productivity and customer experience.

“We will invest further to improve customers’ experience and deepen relationships, while harnessing new technology, including AI, to improve efficiency and build segment-leading businesses and drive further growth,” Venkat said.

The commitments form part of a new set of three-year targets unveiled alongside Barclays’ full-year results, marking the next stage of a restructuring that has already delivered a sharp re-rating of the bank’s shares.

Under the plan, Barclays expects to hand back more than £15 billion of excess capital to investors by the end of 2028, reflecting stronger profitability and capital generation across the group.

The announcement comes two years after Venkat launched an overhaul of Barclays aimed at reducing reliance on its volatile investment banking arm and rebalancing the business towards more stable earnings from UK retail, corporate and private banking.

That strategy has faced setbacks on the M&A front. Barclays lost out to Santander UK last summer in the £2.65 billion auction for TSB, and earlier this week was beaten by NatWest in the race to buy wealth manager Evelyn Partners for £2.7 billion.

Despite those frustrations, the turnaround has been well received by investors. Barclays shares have risen by around 240 per cent over the past two years, one of the strongest performances among major UK banks.

The group’s annual results underlined that momentum. Pre-tax profits rose 13 per cent to £9.1 billion last year, comfortably ahead of the £9 billion forecast by City analysts.

Barclays also announced £1.8 billion of capital returns for the year, including an £800 million full-year dividend — equivalent to 5.6p a share — and up to £1 billion through a share buyback.

With its initial restructuring largely complete, Barclays is now betting that tighter cost control and the smarter use of AI can sustain growth, improve returns and cement its recovery as competition across UK and global banking intensifies.

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Barclays to lean on AI as it targets £2bn cost cuts and £15bn capital return

Official Budget forecasts were accessed almost 25,000 times before their formal release after a leak at the Office for Budget Responsibility, according to a new investigation by the UK’s cyber security authorities.

A report by the National Cyber Security Centre found that documents prepared by the Office for Budget Responsibility were downloaded on “at least” 24,701 occasions in the hour before Rachel Reeves delivered her Budget speech on 26 November.

The figure is far higher than the 43 downloads cited in an initial internal review. The NCSC said the first full download of the OBR’s forecasts occurred shortly after 11.35am on Budget day, almost an hour before the Chancellor addressed the Commons, following more than 500 failed access attempts.

According to the report, links to the documents then spread rapidly on social media, leading to tens of thousands of downloads. Within 30 minutes, there were 20,547 successful downloads from more than 10,000 unique IP addresses.

The investigation also revealed that Ms Reeves’s Spring Statement last March had been accessed 16 times before the speech was delivered, contradicting earlier claims that there had been no prior access.

The leak prompted the resignation of Richard Hughes, who stepped down as OBR chairman after the organisation described the incident as the most serious failure in its 15-year history.

The premature release of the forecasts confirmed several Budget measures ahead of the speech, including changes affecting middle-income homeowners and an extension of stealth tax measures. The disclosure is understood to have caused significant disruption in the final moments before the Chancellor delivered her address.

Kenny MacAulay, chief executive of accounting software firm Acting Office, criticised the handling of sensitive information. “It beggars belief that market-sensitive data could fall into the hands of tens of thousands of people due to sloppy document management ahead of such an important event,” he said. “Basic compliance requirements should prevent leaks of this nature.”

Graeme Stewart, head of public sector at Check Point, said the breach exposed serious risks. “With tens of thousands able to access the full economic forecast in advance, the opportunity for market manipulation by hackers or fraudsters was immense,” he said, calling for a fundamental rethink of publication processes.

Mr Hughes’s departure followed weeks of tension between the Treasury and the OBR, after the watchdog downgraded its long-term growth outlook for the UK economy. Ms Reeves was later accused by critics of having misled the public over the state of the public finances, after government briefings painted a bleaker picture than subsequent data suggested.

The Treasury said it was taking steps to strengthen security and safeguard the integrity of economic forecasts. Future OBR documents will now be published exclusively via the government’s official website, in an effort to prevent a repeat of the breach.

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NCSC reveals Budget forecasts accessed almost 25,000 times before publication

The UK Government has confirmed a new wave of onshore renewable energy projects under the Contracts for Difference scheme, following last month’s record-breaking offshore wind auction.

Results from Allocation Round 7 (AR7) show 4.9GW of solar and 1.3GW of onshore wind capacity secured across Britain, reinforcing the pace at which clean power is being rolled out across the country.

Solar projects were awarded contracts at a strike price of £65.23 per megawatt hour (in 2024 prices), below the £70/MWh achieved in Allocation Round 6 and representing the largest volume of solar capacity ever secured in a single CfD auction.

Onshore wind projects were secured at a strike price of £72/MWh, slightly above the AR6 average of £71/MWh but still below the £73/MWh seen in Allocation Round 5, reflecting continued cost stability in the sector.

Once built, the projects announced today will lift the UK’s total CfD-supported wind and solar capacity to 50.6GW, including schemes already operational or under construction. The UK currently has 16.3GW of installed onshore wind capacity and more than 21GW of solar capacity, based on figures up to September 2025.

In total, AR7 has secured 14.7GW of renewable energy projects across all technologies, marking another significant step towards decarbonising the power system and strengthening domestic energy supply.

Frankie Mayo, senior analyst at Ember, said the results underlined the momentum behind clean power deployment across Britain.

“This is a great clean power achievement,” Mayo said. “Wind and solar are unstoppable across Britain, with new projects announced today unlocking access to reliable, homegrown energy and cutting our reliance on volatile fossil fuels for decades to come.”

The latest CfD results come as ministers continue to position renewable energy as central to the UK’s long-term energy security and net zero strategy, with onshore wind and solar increasingly seen as among the fastest and most cost-effective technologies to deploy at scale.

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UK secures 6.2GW of onshore wind and solar in latest clean power auction

Innovate UK has awarded more than £300,000 in funding to a collaboration between the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Sustainable Innovation and UK healthtech company Sanome, to accelerate the development of an AI-enabled system for the early detection of hospital-acquired infections.

The 18-month SMART grant will support the co-design and roll-out of MEMORI, a Class IIb CE-certified software-as-a-medical-device (SaMD) platform that analyses real-time clinical data to predict infection risk up to seven days before symptoms appear.

Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) account for more than 20 per cent of NHS bed days each year, with research suggesting that between 35 and 55 per cent are preventable through earlier detection and intervention. Conditions such as pneumonia, MRSA and Clostridium difficile contribute an estimated 7.1 million excess bed days annually, at a cost of around £2.7 billion to the NHS.

Preliminary studies using MEMORI’s first certified version have already shown it outperforming the NHS-standard National Early Warning Score (NEWS2) in detecting patient deterioration. The new funding will support the development of enhanced capabilities, including:
• Integration of additional multimodal data sources such as laboratory results, prescriptions and clinical notes, alongside existing inputs including vital signs and medications
• Deeper integration with Electronic Patient Record (EPR) systems to embed insights into clinicians’ existing workflows
• A targeted 20 per cent improvement in predictive accuracy, extending the window for early intervention
• Improved explainability and machine-learning performance to increase transparency and clinical confidence

The upgraded MEMORI v2 platform will be validated through a large-scale live deployment across multiple wards at Royal Devon University NHS Foundation Trust, addressing what remains one of the NHS’s most persistent clinical and financial challenges.

The collaboration is supported by the NIHR Exeter Biomedical Research Centre and is intended to pave the way for broader adoption across the NHS. It also lays the foundations for a long-term partnership between Sanome and the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre, hosted by the Royal Devon in partnership with the University of Exeter.

Together, the partners aim to build a longitudinal, real-time view of patient health, initially focused on infection risk but designed to expand into wider preventative and personalised care pathways.

Benedikt von Thüngen, chief executive and founder of Sanome, said: “Our mission is to prevent deterioration before it becomes life-threatening. MEMORI shows how real-world NHS data, when safely unlocked, can be transformed into actionable bedside insights using multimodal AI. Working with the Exeter HealthTech Research Centre, with support from Innovate UK, allows us to demonstrate both the clinical and system-wide benefits of AI in one of the UK’s leading NHS trusts.”

Dr Nick Kennedy, digital innovation and AI theme lead at the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Sustainable Innovation and a consultant gastroenterologist at the Royal Devon, said early intervention was critical. “Hospital-acquired infections remain one of the biggest threats to patient safety, particularly for vulnerable patients. By co-designing MEMORI, we can show how AI can support clinicians, transform care and ultimately save lives.”

Chris Sawyer, innovation lead for digital health at Innovate UK, added: “Supporting the safe introduction of AI into frontline NHS care is essential for building a more resilient, patient-centred health service. This partnership is a strong example of how innovation and clinical expertise can combine to tackle long-standing challenges.”

Initial impact data from the live deployment is expected throughout 2026, alongside plans for further rollout across NHS trusts and healthcare organisations nationwide.

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Innovate UK awards £300k grant to boost AI-led early detection of hospital infections

A High Court judge has ruled that thousands of people affected by a major data breach at Capita can continue with their legal action against the outsourcing group, in a decision being described as a landmark for large-scale data privacy claims in the UK.

In a judgment handed down on 9 February, Master Dagnall rejected arguments from Capita’s legal team that solicitors acting for more than 8,000 claimants had abused the court process. Capita had claimed that the use of repetitive or generic descriptions of mental distress following the 2023 cyber attack undermined the validity of the claims.

The ruling allows the case, brought by Barings Law, to proceed and is likely to be closely watched by companies, regulators and claimant law firms involved in data protection litigation.

Barings launched the action in 2023 after a cyber attack exposed the personal data of around 6.6 million individuals, including Capita employees. The compromised information is understood to include sensitive financial and pension details.

Capita’s lawyers had applied to have the claims struck out, alleging that Barings improperly influenced evidence relating to claimants’ anxiety and psychological distress following the breach. However, Master Dagnall concluded that Capita had failed to demonstrate that any abuse of process had occurred.

In his judgment, the judge said solicitors had a “real basis” and were entitled to a “wide latitude” when preparing evidence in cases involving large numbers of claimants. He also noted that clients had given informed consent to Barings to act on their behalf. Striking out the claims, he added, would have been a “draconian step”.

Adnan Malik, head of data protection at Barings Law, said the decision was a significant victory for those affected. “From day one this case has centred on the rights of ordinary individuals against a major corporation which catastrophically failed to protect their privacy,” he said.

“For Capita to attempt to play down the seriousness of the impact was wrong, and today’s judgment affirms that the welfare of data breach victims is being taken seriously by the courts.”

Robert Whitehead, chairman of Barings Law, said the ruling reinforced the firm’s commitment to pursuing accountability in large-scale privacy cases. “Capita has played fast and loose with its customers’ data, and that has had an inevitable impact on the health and wellbeing of those affected,” he said. “We see today’s decision as a vindication of our claimants’ rights and an important signal for future data breach cases.”

While the ruling does not determine whether claimants will ultimately succeed, it clears a major procedural hurdle. The court said substantive questions around the extent of harm suffered by victims will be examined at a later trial, as the case against Capita now moves to its next phase.

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High Court clears way for thousands to pursue Capita data breach claims

Royal Mail has urged small and medium-sized businesses to apply for its £1 million apprenticeship levy fund during National Apprenticeship Week (9–15 February), as it steps up efforts to help address skills shortages across the SME sector.

Applications are open for the second round of the fund, which is available to businesses with up to 250 employees that sell products online. The funding can be used for any government-accredited apprenticeship, spanning areas from industry-specific roles to digital marketing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence and finance.

The initiative forms part of Royal Mail Means Business, a wider campaign designed to champion SMEs and support their growth. The second £1 million funding round was launched in September following the success of the first, which was introduced after joint research by Royal Mail and the British Chambers of Commerce identified skills gaps as one of the biggest barriers facing growing businesses.

To date, Royal Mail has supported apprenticeships across a wide range of disciplines, including marketing, HR, software development and data analytics.

Under current rules, companies with an annual wage bill of £3 million or more are required to pay the apprenticeship levy. As one of the UK’s largest levy-paying employers, Royal Mail has chosen to gift a portion of its levy to smaller firms, reflecting what it describes as its unique role in supporting businesses nationwide. As the UK’s universal service provider, Royal Mail delivers to all 32 million addresses across the country.

Applications for the latest funding round are now open via the Royal Mail Small Business Hub.

Kieran Judd, interim chief people officer at Royal Mail, said National Apprenticeship Week was an ideal moment to remind SMEs of the support available. “Apprenticeships don’t just train individuals; they strengthen entire businesses by developing talent from within,” he said.

“We know many smaller businesses want to invest in new skills but lack the resources to do so. By gifting part of our levy, we’re helping to close that gap and give SMEs access to the same high-quality training opportunities as larger organisations. We’re proud to support the growth of the UK’s SME community.”

One company already benefiting from the scheme is Withnell Sensors, a Lancashire-based specialist in temperature and humidity solutions, including vaccine fridges and ultra-low freezers. The business has received funding for a Level 3 laboratory technician apprenticeship.

Samantha Smith, managing director at Withnell Sensors, said apprenticeships provided a vital route into the business. “It’s rare that we can recruit employees with directly relevant experience, so the apprenticeship scheme allows us to combine in-house training with formally recognised qualifications,” she said.

“This has added capacity to our team, helping us maintain turnaround times for customers while enabling senior staff to focus on expanding our accreditation and serving customers in new international markets.”

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Royal Mail urges SMEs to tap £1m apprenticeship fund during National Apprenticeship Week

The business secretary, Peter Kyle, has urged small businesses to rediscover Britain’s exporting spirit, calling on entrepreneurs to take a “leap of faith” and start selling overseas with the backing of government finance and advice.

Speaking to an audience of small business owners at the UK Trade and Export Finance Forum in London last week, Kyle warned that the UK was losing momentum as an exporting nation. Official figures show that the proportion of UK companies that have ever exported has fallen from 45 per cent to 38 per cent in recent years.

Kyle said reversing that trend was a priority for the government, arguing that international demand for British goods and services remains strong. Drawing on recent visits to China, Japan and the World Economic Forum in Davos, he told delegates there was a “great thirst for Britain”.

“I accept that exporting for the first time is different, it’s difficult and it’s novel,” he said. “Anything that’s novel takes a bit of getting used to and a bit of confidence and enthusiasm to jump into. Sometimes it takes a leap of faith.”

Kyle suggested many SMEs underestimate both the level of overseas demand and the support available to help them expand internationally. He pointed to the £11 billion trade finance lending package announced at the end of January, funded through the balance sheets of five major high street banks.

Under the scheme, UK Export Finance will guarantee up to 80 per cent of loans, while also providing advisory support to help businesses navigate international markets.

“I understand that the world looks intimidating at the moment,” Kyle said. “I’m not sitting here saying everything’s perfect. But what investors are seeing is the right direction of travel.”

However, business groups warned that encouragement alone would not be enough. Tina McKenzie, policy chair at the Federation of Small Businesses, said many small firms were willing to take the risk of exporting — but only if the government improved its offer.

“Small businesses need clear, practical help to navigate trade rules, paperwork and market access, particularly when trading with the EU and beyond,” she said. “If we want more firms to export, policy needs to make it simpler, cheaper and more predictable, so businesses can take that step with confidence rather than crossing their fingers.”

On stage, Kyle highlighted four trade agreements signed since the government took office, with India, China, the US and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, arguing they provided a foundation of stability. But he acknowledged that signing deals was only the beginning.

“It takes time to get goods flowing and services delivered,” he said. “And it takes a while to get the legal aspects nailed down so the agreements can be fully enforced.”

Some business leaders questioned how much smaller firms would really benefit. Simon Holloway, commercial director at Dynisma, a Bristol-based developer of simulators for Formula 1 drivers, said the complexity of trade deals often left SMEs struggling to engage.

“We don’t have time to figure out what is going on,” he said. “We’re running 100 miles an hour trying to scale our businesses and secure jobs.”

Tim Reid, chief executive of UK Export Finance, accepted that awareness remained a challenge. “Small businesses are good with ideas, but short on time,” he said. “We need to make it as easy as possible for them.”

Despite the obstacles, Kyle argued that periods of uncertainty could also create opportunity. “Be bold and confident in yourself, your skills and fundamentally the products and services your business offers,” he said.

Some companies are already doing just that. Urban Apothecary, a Leicester-based home fragrance brand, now sells into 35 countries. Liz Ripley, its head of global partnerships, said using distributors had helped the business manage risk, with support from the Department for Business and Trade helping it enter new markets such as South Korea.

Paul Sopher, director at Joe & Seph’s, which exports its artisan popcorn from north London to 19 countries, said the department had also been a useful sounding board when assessing new overseas customers.

Kyle ended with a clear message for hesitant entrepreneurs: “I want to see more start-ups and scale-ups taking risks, building up, branching out and breaking into new markets, backed up by government action.”

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‘Thirst for Britain’: Peter Kyle urges SMEs to take leap into exporting

Ocado is preparing plans that could see up to 1,000 jobs cut as part of a renewed effort to rein in costs, following a difficult year for its automated warehouse technology business.

Up to 5 per cent of the group’s global workforce could be affected, according to people familiar with the discussions, although talks remain at an early stage and no final decision has been taken. An announcement could come as soon as this month.

The majority of redundancies are expected to fall at Ocado’s UK head office, with technology roles likely to be among those affected alongside back-office functions such as legal, finance and human resources.

The proposed cuts come ahead of Ocado’s full-year results on 26 February, after the group reiterated last month that it was targeting positive cashflow in the next financial year, “underpinned by rigorous cost and capital discipline”.

Last year, Ocado said it would cut around 500 roles in technology and finance as it scaled back research and development spending. That followed around 1,000 redundancies across the group in 2023 and 2024.

Founded in 2000 by three former Goldman Sachs bankers, Ocado has built its business around selling robot-operated warehouse systems to global grocery chains, alongside its online grocery joint venture with Marks & Spencer.

However, investor confidence has been shaken after two major North American partners announced plans to close a number of Ocado’s automated warehouses, known as customer fulfilment centres (CFCs), citing concerns over costs and efficiency.

Shares in the FTSE 250 group have fallen by almost a third over the past year. In November, US supermarket giant Kroger said it would close three CFCs, a move that briefly pushed Ocado’s share price back towards the 180p level at which it floated in 2010.

That was followed late last month by Sobeys, which announced plans to shut a CFC in Calgary, Alberta, pointing to slower-than-expected growth in online grocery shopping and the limited size of the regional market.

Although Ocado is set to receive hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation linked to the closures, analysts have warned that the setbacks could undermine its ability to secure new international partnerships. Mutual exclusivity agreements with most retail partners expired in December, raising questions about the long-term pipeline for its technology.

Tim Steiner, Ocado’s founder and chief executive, has previously described the company as the “Tesla of grocery”. Despite its technological ambitions, the group has yet to turn a profit. Pre-tax losses narrowed slightly last year to £374.5 million, from £393.6 million in 2024.

In a statement, Ocado said: “We regularly review our operations to ensure we’re set up for long-term success. If and when decisions are made that affect our people, we are committed to communicating with them directly and ensuring they are supported throughout.”

The coming weeks are likely to be closely watched by investors and staff alike as Ocado seeks to stabilise its business and prove it can translate cutting-edge automation into sustainable financial returns.

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Ocado considers up to 1,000 job cuts in renewed cost-cutting drive

Training workers to use artificial intelligence will be “critical” to managing disruption in the UK labour market, according to Andrew Bailey, who said there were already signs that AI was reshaping careers and hiring patterns.

Speaking at a conference in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, Bailey said the long-term impact of AI on employment remained “highly uncertain”, but warned that early indicators pointed to meaningful change.

“In the UK, in the last three years, new online vacancies in the most AI-exposed roles have decreased by more than twice as much as in the least exposed group,” he said.

“On the positive side, however, there has been a significant increase in new tasks, such as integrating AI tools into firms’ workflow processes.”

Bailey cautioned against drawing simplistic conclusions about the effect of AI on jobs, stressing that education and reskilling would be central to ensuring workers were not left behind. “Education and training in AI skills will be critical,” he said. “We shouldn’t resort to oversimplified conclusions on the employment effects.”

His comments came at the end of a volatile week for global markets, during which renewed anxiety over artificial intelligence wiped more than $1 trillion off the combined value of the world’s largest technology and software companies.

Investor nerves were rattled in part by new product launches from Anthropic, one of the world’s leading AI developers. The company unveiled tools aimed at automating legal work such as contract review, alongside its latest Claude Opus 4.6 model, which is capable of analysing complex information and producing presentations and spreadsheets.

The developments fuelled fears about job displacement and business model disruption, triggering sharp share price falls among UK-listed companies seen as highly exposed to AI. These included RELX, London Stock Exchange Group, and Sage.

At the same time, concerns grew that enthusiasm for AI may have run ahead of reality in the US technology sector. Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft have collectively committed to spending around $660 billion this year on data centres and advanced computer chips to support AI development.

Fears that such vast capital investment may not deliver sufficient returns have weighed on share prices, adding to wider market turbulence. The pullback follows years of strong gains in US technology stocks, driven by investor optimism about AI-led productivity gains, optimism that has also raised concerns about a potential bubble.

Bailey said there were signs of “fear of missing out” in markets, reinforced by claims that AI represents a structural break from previous technology cycles. “We have seen arguments along the lines of ‘this time is different’, for instance because of the expected productivity benefits of AI,” he said.

He warned that this narrative risked complacency among investors and policymakers alike. “Expectations of AI-driven productivity gains could be disappointed,” he said.

Despite the caution, Bailey struck a broadly optimistic note on the long-term economic potential of AI and robotics. He said he believed the technologies could boost productivity and growth by automating repetitive tasks and creating entirely new types of work.

However, he added that the transition would not be painless. “Some industries might shrink, others grow, and affected workers will need to retrain to adapt their skills,” he said, underlining once again that investment in training would be decisive in shaping the future of the UK jobs market.

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Andrew Bailey warns AI training is critical to future of UK jobs

Tesco is pressing ahead with a major expansion of its convenience estate after buying a number of former Amazon Fresh stores in London.

Britain’s largest supermarket group plans to open more than 70 new Tesco Express outlets by March 2027, building on the 60 convenience stores it opened last year. The retailer already operates just over 2,000 convenience shops across the UK and Ireland as it seeks to capture a greater share of everyday, top-up spending.

Tesco has acquired five ex-Amazon Fresh locations in London, on Kensington High Street, in Hounslow, Moorgate, Aldgate East and Wembley, following the US technology group’s decision to retreat from its short-lived bricks-and-mortar grocery experiment in the UK. The sites are expected to reopen as Tesco Express stores before the summer.

Further Express openings are planned across a wide geographic spread, from Bickington in Devon and Pontrhydyrun in Torfaen to Strabane in Co Tyrone and Wallyford in East Lothian, underlining the retailer’s ambition to deepen its presence in both urban and regional communities.

Alongside its convenience push, Tesco is continuing to invest in larger-format stores. After opening new superstores in Ripon and Harrogate late last year, it plans to launch two more in Scotland in 2026, in Pitlochry, Perth and Kinross, and the Heartlands development in West Lothian.

Nick Johnson, Tesco’s group property director, said the expansion would allow the grocer to serve “even more people, in even more communities”. Tesco operates more than 7,000 stores worldwide.

The move reflects an intensifying land grab across the grocery sector, with convenience retail, estimated to be worth £48.8 billion in the UK, emerging as one of the few consistent growth areas. Time-poor shoppers are increasingly favouring smaller, more frequent local trips over traditional weekly supermarket shops.

Tesco’s rivals are moving aggressively. Asda is accelerating its convenience rollout and is targeting 300 Express-format stores by the end of this year. Waitrose has committed £1 billion to open around 100 convenience outlets over the next five years.

Morrisons plans to add a further 250 Morrisons Daily stores this year, focusing on the south of England and the Midlands, while Sainsbury’s continues to open around 20 to 25 Local stores annually under its “next level” strategy.

The rapid expansion by supermarket giants is putting increasing pressure on independent retailers. Convenience store owners warn that the scale, buying power and promotional strength of supermarket-owned chains are driving up rents and intensifying competition, accelerating the decline of traditional corner shops on Britain’s high streets.

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Tesco snaps up former Amazon Fresh sites as convenience push gathers pace