Former Co-op boss was paid almost £2m before leaving after group’s difficult year

The former boss of the Co-op collected almost £2m before her sudden departure last month despite a difficult year when the retailer was pushed into the red by a damaging cyber hack.Shirine Khoury-Haq’s total annual pay package amounted to £1.9m in 2025, including a £165,000 “rewarding growth” bonus that was approved by the mutual’s board despite falling sales and the slide to an underlying loss of £125m.Khoury-Haq and other executives did not receive their regular annual bonus as the board said the company had not met an “affordability underpin” to make the payout. However, Khoury-Haq’s total pay did include a long-term performance bonus linked to earlier years

Fair Work Agency’s priorities criticised days before its launch

The government has asked its new employment rights watchdog to reduce the regulatory burden on business, it has emerged, a request that worker advocates said risks turning the agency into “a dead duck”.The Fair Work Agency (FWA), which is being launched on Tuesday, is a cornerstone of Labour’s Employment Rights Act. It will bring together several existing labour enforcement bodies and its responsibilities will include policing the minimum wage, holiday pay and modern slavery.At a recent meeting with civil society groups, Matthew Taylor, its incoming chair, listed the five priorities the Department of Business and Trade had laid out for the FWA in its first year. These included “thought leadership” and “reducing regulatory burdens”

‘It’s all fear and headlines’: energy traders race to keep pace with volatile oil markets

On the weekend that US-Israeli drones first began to rain down on Tehran, energy traders across the world’s major financial centres began to redraw their strategies.When they returned to their trading desks on that March Monday morning, they found oil and gas prices spiking amid a market nightmare made real: the unprecedented shutdown of the vital trade route through the strait of Hormuz.“I had been telling our oil trader for weeks to be ready for a war with Iran,” said one trading analyst at a major European energy company.“But he didn’t see it. The market was oversupplied, and prices were already looking higher than they should, so he shorted the market

Trussonomics still haunts parties’ economic promises in run-up to UK local elections | Phillip Inman

As local and regional elections across the UK loom into view, it is clear the spectre of Trussonomics lives on. The Greens, Reform UK, Your Party, Restore Britain, the Conservatives and even the Liberal Democrats cannot help making extravagant spending promises, often paid for by cutting something or borrowing more that, they argue, will have no negative economic consequences.Or if they do, the costs will be borne by people and businesses they do not care about.Only Keir Starmer and his cabinet colleagues seem to be immune to the hysterical demands for the UK government to somehow reconfigure the way the economy operates without any spillovers, unintended consequences or extra costs that nullify the supposed gains derived from the original policy.Liz Truss promised huge tax cuts worth £45bn paid for with extra borrowing and welfare “efficiencies”

House swaps: why exchanging home could be a ticket to a dream holiday

About six miles from Reims, beside a golf course, is a house with a heated pool and space to sleep 10 people that would probably be perfect for many of those planning to book a family holiday in France.An hour’s drive from Disneyland Paris, the four-bedroom property is quiet, located near a village with a bakery, has an electric gate that provides security, and is on almost half an hectare (one acre) of land.The cost? Nothing, if you are prepared to sign up to a “house swap holiday”, whereby you exchange your home with that of another person.Some regular home swappers claim they saved tens of thousands of pounds over the years.There are many websites where you can search for the perfect swap with (see end of story)

UK food halls buck downbeat hospitality trend: ‘In this impossible climate, they shine hope’

Beeps chirp through the cavernous Cambridge Street Collective on a busy weekday, as buzzers alert the lunch crowd to collect their sushi tacos, rendang curries or Palestinian chicken musakhan.The Sheffield food hall is Europe’s largest purpose-built venue of its kind, at 20,000 sq ft, and arrived in 2024 as part of a major redevelopment of the city, which has brought in businesses including HSBC.Food halls are on the rise as restaurateurs face a challenging economic climate in which rising energy costs have been exacerbated by US-Israeli attacks on Iran ,and labour costs have spiralled as a result of increases to the minimum wage and national insurance contributions for employers. Many diners are also opting to stay at home as the cost of living bites. But while brick-and-mortar restaurants across the UK are closing, food halls are making money; in major UK cities they average £5