Britain has been named the most attractive place to do business in Europe, overtaking Germany, and the second most attractive place to do business in the world, second only to the US and beating China, despite Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ record Budget tax grab where the weight of new levies fell on businesses. The data comes from PwC’s annual survey of global CEOs, however PWC’s Marco Amitrano said business leaders were still reeling from Reeves’ Budget and any further tax hikes would not be welcomed. “Business clearly feels a little bit rocked, but personally I don’t believe that the relationship between business and Government is fractured,” he said, “more a fault line”. He added: “The UK’s relative stability at a time of instability should not be underestimated, nor should its strength in key sectors including technology. However, there is no room for complacency. Reasserting Britain’s place on the global stage requires a tangible path to growth and a consistent government approach to business and investment. Business is playing its part – with two thirds of UK CEOs developing new business capabilities or operating models in the pursuit of growth.” Commenting on the survey, Reeves said: “We were clear that growing the economy is the number one mission of the Government. These latest results show global CEOs are backing Britain and the UK is one of the most attractive destinations for international investment. And it’s this investment that will help drive economic growth and improve living standards across the UK.” The UK has not held second position in the world since PwC started running the survey almost three decades ago.

Employment fell in December, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said this morning, dropping by 47,000 last month to 30.3m, the steepest fall since Covid lockdowns. December’s decline follows a drop in the number of people employed on a Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system of more than 32,000 in November. Vacancies have also fallen from 858,000 in October, just before the Chancellor’s Budget, to more than 100,000 fewer - 740,000 - in December. Unemployment rose to 4.4% in the three months to November. Pay growth year-on-year also rose again, to 5.6% mostly as a consequence of 6% pay rises in the private sector.

UK Hospitality says more than three quarters of a million low-paid hotel and restaurant workers will be dragged into the National Insurance system because the Chancellor made “one of the most regressive tax changes ever” when she decided to lower the threshold for employer National Insurance contributions (NICs). Her policy will cost the hospitality sector £1bn, the trade body said. In her October Budget, the threshold at which businesses must start paying NICs on their employees’ salaries was reduced from £9,100 a year to £5,000. She also increased the rate of employers’ National Insurance from 13.8% to 15% from April 1^st this year, costing all businesses an estimated £25bn a year extra in tax. UKHospitality CEO Kate Nicholls said the changes were “devastating” for businesses and especially so for her industry as 1.2m hospitality workers currently escape employer NICs because their earnings are below the threshold, a number will plummet to just 450,000 come April. “At a time when we saw hospitality as the biggest driver of economic growth in November, it’s completely misguided to be punishing a sector that has such growth potential,” Nicholls said. She called for a lower rate of tax for earnings between £9,100 and £5,000, set at 5%, and suggested introducing a reduced rate for low earners who work part-time.

The Chancellor has also been told by The Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), to liberate it from burdensome net zero rules to help grow the economy. In a letter to her and the Prime Minister, Sam Woods, Deputy Governor of the PRA, said the fact the Bank is required to “have regard” for dozens of different “climate and the environment” issues made it risk-averse. “The number of principles that the PRA is required to ‘have regard’ to has substantially increased in recent years, increasing the complexity of the analysis required when making or amending regulation. Depending on how they are counted, the PRA currently has around 25 such ‘have regards,’ he wrote, adding: “There is scope to rationalise some of these ‘have regards’ where they form a cluster, for instance in the set of ‘have regards’ which relate to climate and the environment.” Woods was responding to calls from the Government to propose measures to fuel economic growth.

Minsters will back major expansion plans at London Heathrow and Luton airports, according to reports by Bloomberg, with Rachel Reeves tipped to make the announcement in a speech later this month. The Financial Times says Ministers will also give the green light to Gatwick’s £2.2bn plans for a second runway, and Bloomberg that they will back a £9bn project to build a major road tunnel to the east of London, known as the Lower Thames Crossing. The Labour Government has already overruled a local Council planning refusal to allow expansion at London City airport, and welcomed new development costing £1.1bn at Stansted.

The first court case between the UK and EU since Brexit begins yesterday. At dispute is the UK’s ban on European vessels catching sandeels in the North Sea to protect marine wildlife that depends on it for food. The EU is challenging the move, arguing it discriminates against Danish vessels that fish sandeel commercially, breaching the post-Brexit trade deal. The case, which will be heard at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague by a panel of three mutually-agreed international trade judges, is expected to last three days, with a decision announced in April.

The Court of Appeal has ruled that Aldi did infringe British cider brand Thatchers’ trademark with its cloudy lemon cider product, Taurus, which featured the distinctive yellow and green colours of Thatchers’ original packaging. Thatchers was appealing a High Court ruling in favour of Aldi. Martin Thatcher, Thatchers’ managing director, said: “We couldn’t be happier with this decision, which vindicates our position that Aldi had taken unfair advantage of the hard work we put in to our cider and brands.”

Online travel platform Secret Escapes has reportedly appointed investment bank Arma Partners to oversee an auction of the company, nearly 15 years after its launch. Sky News says it was told by a number of potential bidders about their interest. The member-only firm has been backed by a string of prominent investors, including the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek and London-listed technology investor Chrysalis.

The launch of a Donald Trump digital token means the new US President is theoretically one of the world’s richest men, with a paper wealth of $43bn (£35bn) from sales of his $Trump coin, which has instantly become one of the world’s most valuable cryptocurrencies. The 200m in circulation are worth a combined $10.7bn (£8.6bn), but the coin’s website said that 1bn tokens will be released in total over the next three years. Trump’s wife Melania also released her own meme coin on Sunday and that too shot up in value - the 192m Melania coins in circulation now have a value of $2.2bn. The price of Bitcoin also hit an all-time high on Monday, rising above $109,000, on the back of positive comments from Trump during his election campaign.

One of Trump’s first acts yesterday was to sign an executive order granting Chinese social media platform TikTok a 75-day extension to comply with a law finalised by former President Joe Biden last year requiring it to either be sold by owners ByteDance, or be banned in the US. On Saturday evening, the app stopped working for American users, after a law banning it on national security grounds came into effect, but resumed services to its 170m US users after Trump’s announcement. The Biden administration had argued that TikTok could be used by China as a tool for spying and political manipulation. TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew attended Trump's inauguration on Monday along with other big technology bosses, including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos. Trump had backed a ban of the platform during his first term in office.