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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Efforts to clear the backlog of asylum applications risk creating another wave of homeless refugees as those granted protection are told to leave government-rented hotels, experts have warned. The Home Office is speeding up the processing of asylum applications, it announced this month, in a bid to reduce the costly reliance on hotels, which have become the target of violent anti-immigration protests. When the previous Conservative government tried to clear the asylum-application backlog in 2023 it led to a surge in people…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Former John Lewis chair Sir Charlie Mayfield has joined the board of the UK Treasury as part of an effort by chancellor Rachel Reeves to beef up her department’s business expertise.Mayfield will be joined on the board of directors by Edward Twiddy, a financial technology entrepreneur and chair of Northstar Ventures, a Newcastle-based venture capital firm.Meanwhile Jenny Scott, a former BBC economics correspondent and ex-director of communications at the Bank of England, has been hired to advise the Treasury on how to…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Jaguar Land Rover’s quarterly profits nearly halved on higher costs triggered by the global trade war, underscoring the challenges confronting its new chief executive. Pre-tax profit for the April to June quarter fell 49 per cent from a year earlier to £351mn, while its operating profit margin fell to 4 per cent from 8.9 per cent due to a £254mn hit from the 27.5 per cent tariff imposed by US President Donald Trump on vehicles imported from the UK.Revenue fell 9.2 per cent…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Sales of Tesla’s electric vehicles plummeted 60 per cent in the UK last month amid a broader slump in European demand, with Chinese rival BYD surging.There were 987 Tesla vehicles registered in July, compared with 2,462 in the same month last year, according to figures from the UK’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. The sharp drop marked a reversal from the 14 per cent year-on-year increase in June.Tesla’s sales have declined in large European markets this year on the back of…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Jaguar Land Rover has appointed the finance boss of Tata Motors as its new chief executive, in a move that increases the Indian owner’s influence over the UK luxury-car maker. JLR said on Monday that P.B. Balaji, who has been on its board since 2017 as a non-executive director, would take the helm of the carmaker following the retirement of Adrian Mardell after three years as chief executive.The change in leadership comes as JLR is engaged in a costly shift to an…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Fashion myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The seaport of Cowes on the Isle of Wight is often described as the cradle of yachting. Its big draw is Cowes Week, one of the oldest and largest sailing regattas in the world, founded in 1826 and held every August on the Solent, the busy stretch of tidal water between the island and the mainland.But even before Cowes Week, there was Ratsey & Lapthorn. The British company has been handmaking sails since 1790. It has furnished some of the most famous vessels…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey intervened to stop a meeting that chancellor Rachel Reeves tried to secure between financial watchdogs and Revolut, according to people familiar with the matter, in a new sign of friction over the way the City is regulated.Reeves, who wants Revolut to be fully authorised as a bank as quickly as possible, had tried to set up a three-way meeting with Treasury officials alongside the fintech and the BoE’s Prudential Regulation Authority, which supervises banks and is…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Retail sector myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Shoplifting in England and Wales has risen to the highest level in more than two decades, according to official statistics released on Thursday. The number of offences jumped 20 per cent to 530,643 in the year to the end of March — the highest figure registered by the Office for National Statistics since current police recording practices began in 2003. Shop theft has been increasing sharply since the Covid-19 pandemic, when rising inflation eroded consumer spending power. Retailers have also been contending…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Artificial intelligence myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The UK has signed a “strategic partnership” with OpenAI, as Sir Keir Starmer’s government seeks to attract more investment in the country’s artificial intelligence sector and use the technology to streamline public services.  The voluntary memorandum of understanding includes a pledge from OpenAI to “explore” investing in AI infrastructure, such as data centres and hire more staff in the UK, without providing details on how much spending is being considered.In return, the UK government has committed to find ways to adopt OpenAI’s AI…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the UK employment myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The UK jobs market weakened further at the start of the summer as employers grappled with a steep rise in taxes, a higher minimum wage and the uncertainty unleashed by the US trade war, official data showed on Thursday. Employers cut the number of payrolled staff by 25,000 between April and May, the Office for National Statistics said, revising a previous estimate of a 109,000 drop. Early estimates for June showed a further 41,000 decline, leaving payrolled employment down by 178,000 or 0.6 per…