All news by author: Lawrence Matheson

The average first-time buyer put down a deposit of £53,414 last year, according to Halifax

Around 450 members of the Unite union will be on strike until Friday

The average UK house price in January was £257,656, according to Nationwide Building Society

A tribunal has heard that a class action claim seeking £1.3 billion in compensation for BT customers is "remarkable" and "unlike any we've seen by regulators exercising their regulatory powers"

The media company says a "significant number" of those facing redundancy will be engineers

The Spanish-owned bank said it is seeing a "modest" increase in customer arrears across mortgages, credit cards, unsecured personal loans and overdrafts in recent quarters.

Frasers Group, which owns Sports Direct and House of Fraser, said it had bought the assets and intellectual property of WIT Fitness, which is a specialist gym and fitness wear group

The watchdog is concerned that some supermarkets are offering cheaper prices only to loyalty card members

Delivery Hero has revealed plans to sell up to 68.2 million shares in Deliveroo, representing a roughly 4.5% stake

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has downgraded its forecast for UK growth in 2023 by 0.4 percentage points, but said the change is largely due to a revision to official data, rather than a worsening economic situation

The number of company insolvencies hit a 30-year high in 2023 as firms suffered amid high interest rates and cost pressures

The "effective" interest rate - the actual interest paid on newly-drawn mortgages - fell from 5.34% in November to 5.28% in December, the first drop since November 2021

The company, which is the world's largest advertising and marketing firm with about 115,000 staff, said it believes AI will "enhance, not replace, human creativity"

A standard breathing space is available to people with problem debt and gives legal protections from creditor action for up to 60 days

The FTSE 100 firm recorded an operating profit of $3.3 billion (£2.6 billion) for the six months to December, down 11.1% against the same period a year earlier

The firm, which runs food outlets at transport sites including airports and railway stations, posted a 17.1% jump in like-for-like sales across its UK and Ireland outlets in the final three months of last year

The company said that it has had "approaches from a number of interested parties," and is reviewing its options, one of which could be a sale

The Business and Trade Secretary said "multiple discussions" are ongoing with Canada, while negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) have been "paused"

Two-fifths of people are finding it difficult to keep up with household bills and credit commitments, research found

The Money and Pensions Service said that in the first week of January, MoneyHelper's Money Troubles pages received 10,187 hits, up from 7,625 the week before Christmas

The company, which runs about 450 retail stores and 440 veterinary practices, said growth in its retail arm was hit by demand slowdown

Grocery prices were 6.8% more expensive than a year ago in January, only a slight easing from December's 6.9% and a significant drop-off in pace compared with the 2.2 percentage point decrease seen between November and December

The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) said HSBC failed "over many years" to properly put in place the requirements to protect saver deposits dating back to 2015

The broadcaster has outlined, under its five-year digital-first strategy, that the Horseferry Road building would be closed and a new office space found in the centre of the city

The company behind Paddy Power and Betfair has started trading in the US