The Conservative party leadership race will be whittled down to four today

By Suzanne Evans, Director, Political Insight

The number of competitors in the Conservative party leadership race will be whittled down to four today.
 
Network Rail and Transport for London are warning people only to travel if necessary today and tomorrow because of the heatwave. Both say customers should expect delays, cancellations and short notice changes to services because speed restrictions will be introduced across the country to ensure the safe running of trains, in case tracks buckle in the heat.
 
The GMB Union has called for a legal limit on how hot it can be in a workplace, saying workers should not have to contend with temperatures any higher than 25C. Weather forecasters are predicting highs of 41C in England today and tomorrow. There is currently no UK law which states any given temperature is too hot or cold to work, however the Health and Safety Executive says workplaces should ideally be at least 16C - or 13C if the job is mostly physical.
 
The number of companies going bankrupt in England and Wales soared 40% last month, according to official figures from the Insolvency Service and Companies House. There were 1,691 insolvencies in June, an increase from 1,207 in June 2021, and up 15% from pre-Covid times in 2019. Although June's insolvencies were lower than in May, 1,456 were creditors’ voluntary liquidations (CVLs), when a company makes the decision to be liquidated because it cannot pay its bills. However, there were also 3.6 times as many compulsory liquidations last month as in June 2021, and the number of administrations was 2.3 times higher compared to 2021, Yahoo Finance reports.
 
Three out of four companies are struggling to hire new recruits, according to the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC). A survey of 5,700 business by the BCC showed the construction sector is facing the most severe recruitment challenges, closely followed by production and manufacturing and hospitality. Around 61% of firms were looking for staff in the second quarter, similar to 60% in the first quarter, the BCC said, but 76% are now reporting difficulties.
 
The number of people moving home in the UK fell by a third in the first six months of the year according to the Halifax bank. Figures from the lender show 172,510 people moved in the first half of 2022 compared to 266,270 in the same time period last year, a decline of 35%. Home movers now make up only 47% of all house purchasers, as opposed to 56% in 2021, when movement in the housing market was influenced by the UK government’s stamp duty holiday. That led to a 133% increase in house moves between 2020 and 2021. However, a spokesperson for Halifax said: "While numbers have dropped this year compared to the record highs of 2021, home moves are still above pre-pandemic levels overall". Meanwhile, property website Rightmove says the average UK house price hit a new record high of £369,968 in July, despite the market slowing amid the cost of living squeeze.
 
The average UK saver has lost more than £1,000 over the past five years because of a combination of soaring inflation and low interest rates on saving accounts, according to personal finance comparison site finder.com,and based on the fact the average saver has £7,500 put aside. Easy-access savings rates have lost 13.5% of their value to inflation since 2017, finder.com says, hence the calculation that savers’ money is worth over £1,000 less in real terms than five years ago.
 
Having previously issued a stinging statement saying the request was "unreasonable and unacceptable," Emirates Airlines has now agreed to cap sales of its flights out of Heathrow Airport until mid-August. The Dubai-based airline had previously rejected the airport's request for it to cut flight capacity at short notice to prevent travel chaos over the peak summer period and said it would carry on as normal. In a fresh joint statement, Emirates and Heathrow said they had come to an agreement.
 
Starbucks’ UK business is considering a possible sale, The Times reports, apparently taking on advisers Houlihan Lokey to explore possible options, although no formal sale process is as yet underway. In May, the company said it is "single-mindedly focused on enhancing our core US business" and will continue to "evaluate strategic options" for its company-owned international operations. The coffee chain did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment.
 
Office staff at Mike Ashley's Frasers Group will no longer work from home on Fridays after the retail group's COO David Al-Mudallal said in a memo that some were "not treating Friday as a working day". The Sun newspaper – which has seen the memo - says so-called "Frasers Fridays" was started as a flexible working policy in 2020, but that now Al-Mudallal says there are "too many examples" of people not being contactable when they needed to be and that some of their social media profiles were "demonstrating that they're not treating Friday as a working day". Fridays had subsequently become an "unproductive day of the week," he said.
 
More than 40,000 workers at telecoms giant BT are to take part in two 24-hour strikes in a row over pay, their union, The Communication Workers Union (CWU), has confirmed. The strikes will take place on 29 July and 1 August, after the CWU said company bosses had "stuck two fingers up" to key workers. BT said it had made its best pay offer and would not be re-opening the 2022 pay review. Those expected to strike are largely Openreach engineers and call centre workers.
 
Virgin Media O2 is reportedly in early talks to buy TalkTalk, The Guardian says, citing sources who say bankers at LionTree are working on behalf of Virgin Media O2 and owner Liberty Global since TalkTalk put itself up for sale. A takeover would bring together Britain's third and fourth biggest broadband providers, catapulting Virgin Media O2 above Sky to become the UK's second biggest internet business, the newspaper said. It would also bolster the Liberty Global-owned company's ambitions to take on BT. The telecoms industry is urging regulators to let companies merge in order to make better returns.
 
Derwent London has sold Bush House in WC2, the 103,700 sq ft freehold office building that was famously once home to the BBC World Service, for £85m before costs.
 
FTSE 100 engineer Johnson Matthey is closing in on a deal to build a £80m hydrogen fuel cell gigafactory in the UK to help drive a boom in the gas being used to power cars, buses and trucks, Thet Telegraph reports. The 204-year-old company, best known for making catalytic converters for cars, is expected to announce a deal in the coming days. The hydrogen gigafactory is expected to create hundreds of jobs and will be built at its existing site in Royston, Hertfordshire. Johnson Matthey pulled out of battery development last year in order to focus on hydrogen, making use of its experience as a developer of catalytic converters.
 
Deliveroo has downgraded its full-year revenue guidance this morning, highlighting "consumer headwinds" amid the cost-of-living crisis. In an update for the second quarter, the group said gross transaction value (GTV) growth eased to 4% in the UK and Ireland from 12% in the first quarter, while international slowed to 1% from 11%. This meant that group GTV in Q2 came in at 2%, down from 12% in Q1. The food delivery company now forecasts full-year GTV growth of between 4% and 12%, down from previous guidance of 15% to 25%. However, Sharecast News reports that Deliveroo maintained its adjusted EBITDA margin guidance and said its balance sheet remains strong.
 
Shares in Fevertree tumbled over 30% in early trading on Friday after the posh tonic water maker issued a profit warning over rocketing glass prices. The brand slashed full year earnings forecasts by a third, blaming labour and glass shortages and rising product costs as a result of soaring inflation. Fevertree now expects profits of between £37.5m and £45m, a dramatic reduction on earlier forecasts of between £63m and £66m.
 
Amazon Fresh, Amazon's online grocery shop is launching a Tesco Clubcard Price Match on items such as fruit, vegetables, meat and fish as supermarkets battle for customers amid the soaring cost of living, the BBC says.  
 
Marks & Spencer is taking "best before" dates off more than 300 fruit and vegetable items to tackle food waste. Tesco, Morrisons and the Co-op have already scrapped "use by" dates on some of their products.
 
The CEO of FTSE 250 infrastructure group Hill & Smith, Paul Simmons, has stepped down from the role with immediate effect, leaving his employment with the group following a period of "garden leave," the firm said. Chairman Alan Giddins will take over as interim executive chair until a permanent replacement CEO can be appointed.

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