BUSINESS LIVE: Capita cuts 900 jobs; Ofcom fines Shell; The work area begins to falter

The CBI chief has called on Jeremy Hunt to freeze business rates and review tourist tax to stimulate the economy.

Rain Newton-Smith also argued that the corporate tax rate should be cut in the long term to boost the UK.

Meanwhile, she insisted the lobby group had recovered after being plunged into crisis over sexual assault allegations.

Workspace posted a first-half loss of almost £150 million as the London-listed flexible office space provider suffered the impact of higher interest rates.

The FTSE 250 company, which mainly serves small and medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurs, posted a pre-tax loss of £147.9 million for the six months to September 30, compared with a profit of £35.8 million a year earlier.

“During the first half of the year, we continued to actively manage our portfolio to meet changing customer needs. We have completed numerous smaller unit renovations and subdivisions and are making good progress on our larger projects.

“As expected, valuations have fallen due to the development of market returns. However, we have maintained conservative leverage levels as continued divestment of non-core properties continues to strengthen our balance sheet and we expect more in the next six months.

“We enter the second half of the year with good momentum.” “Our scalable operating platform gives us a competitive advantage and we have a clear path to unlocking short- and long-term income growth, both through leveraging the yield of our comparable properties and through active asset management opportunities .”

Communications regulator Ofcom has fined Shell Energy £1.4 million for failing to make more than 70,000 phone and broadband customers review their contract or tell them what savings they would make by signing a new contract could.

Ofcom said 7,750 customers received an end-of-contract notice that contained incorrect information about the price they would pay when their minimum term expired.

Of these customers, 6,054 later paid higher fees than initially stated, which together amounted to £398,417.67 – an average of £65.81 per person, Ofcom added.

Shell Energy, Shell’s UK consumer gas, electricity and broadband business, is set to be acquired by Octopus Energy by the end of this year.

Shares of Microsoft hit an all-time high yesterday after the company tapped OpenAI co-founders to lead its artificial intelligence team.

The tech giant, which owns around 49 percent of OpenAI, has signed Sam Altman and Greg Brockman – just days after they left the company behind ChatGPT

San Francisco-based OpenAI ousted Altman before Brockman resigned.

Capita will cut up to 900 jobs as part of a cost-cutting exercise, saving £60 million a year from the first quarter of next year, according to the outsourcer.

Affected employees, who work primarily in indirect support roles and overhead positions, will soon be consulted about the job losses.

According to its latest annual report, Capita employed around 50,000 people in 2022.

NatWest’s fraud prevention boss has quit his job after working part-time at a law firm to file claims from fraud victims against banks such as NatWest. That’s what This is Money can reveal.

Jason Costain was head of fraud prevention at major bank NatWest and was often quoted in the press as a high-profile employee.