New company creations in the UK are set to reach a record high this year, according to a report from Beauhurst and Natwest. 468,000 new business incorporations were registered at Companies House in the first half of 2024, up more than 6% from either half of last year, a pace that, if maintained, will surpass last year’s record figure of 879,000, itself was up 10.6% from 2022. The report said growth in the first half of 2024 was mainly driven by the wholesale, retail and professional services sectors – together accounting for around 36% of new firms, with London seeing the most incorporations of any region, with a 7.38% rise on last year to 161,000. Business launches in Northern Ireland soared 90% to 10,400, while the West Midlands and Yorkshire and The Humber recorded the UK’s next highest growth rates at 10.1% and 8.15% respectively. There are now around 5.47m active and dormant companies in the UK.

Just 10 weeks after he was exonerated from criminal fraud charges relating to the $11bn sale of his former FTSE 100 software company Autonomy to Hewlett Packard, entrepreneur Mike Lynch is missing, presumed dead, after the sailboat he was on sank in a violent storm in the early hours of yesterday morning. His 18-year old daughter Hannah is also missing, as are five other people. One man, believed to be the onboard chef, is known to have died in the tragedy.  Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International and Chris Morvillo, a lawyer at Clifford Chance, are also among those missing. The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56-metre-long ‘superyacht,’ was carrying 22 people and was anchored just off shore near the Italian port of Porticello when the storm hit, the Italian coast guard said in a statement. Fifteen people escaped before it went down, including Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, who owned the boat, and a one-year-old girl. Lynch spent five years fighting extradition to the US to face charges, and was confined to house arrest with a tracker attached to his leg for over a year before his trial. In a cruel twist of fate, Stephen Chamberlain, Mike Lynch’s co-defendant in the US fraud trial, died yesterday after being hit by a car while out running in Cambridgeshire.

The first £1 coins featuring King Charles III are entering circulation this week. Almost 3m coins have been issued to post offices and banks across the country.

New Labour MP Jack Abbot, whose Ipswich constituency borders the proposed Sizewell C nuclear power station, has been criticised for accepting a £2,000 donation from EDF Energy, the French developer behind the project. The project, which is expected to cost £20bn, will be part-funded by the taxpayer. Once completed, it will provide energy to around 6m homes, but Sizewell C has faced opposition from campaigners who claim it risks large cost overruns that will fall on household bills and that it will spoil the natural local area. Alison Downes, executive director of the Stop Sizewell C campaign group, claimed in an interview witht The Telegraph that the EDF donation suggested Abbott was “in EDF’s pocket,” not least as he praised the power station In a speech to the House of Commons last month, shortly after his election to Parliament in July. “Over the coming years, thousands of jobs will be created in new nuclear [power] at Sizewell,” he said, adding: “I want kids growing up in Ipswich or people looking to retrain and upskill to get those secure, well-paid jobs. I want local businesses to benefit from the billions of pounds that are going to be growing out of these projects”. Before becoming an MP, Abbott also worked for a Suffolk-based creative agency that supported EDF on its proposals for Sizewell C, according to LinkedIn. A Labour spokesman said: “The donation was to sponsor an event. It has been declared transparently and in line with the rules”. An EDF spokesman said: “Before the election, EDF agreed to support an event with Suffolk businesses hosted by the Labour candidate for Ipswich. The sponsorship money was paid directly to local suppliers and not to the Labour Party or its candidate. EDF, like many organisations, supports business and community events across the UK with politicians of all parties”.

London City Airport has been granted permission to significantly expand capacity from 6.5m to 9m passengers, and to fly three extra flights in the first half hour of operations, after the Government overruled Newham Council, which voted to block the proposals in April last year due to their impact on the local community. However, the airport’s proposals to extend its Saturday afternoon operating hours beyond12.30pm were rejected.

Sky is set to launch its broadband services on the CityFibre network from next year, The Telegraph has learnt, saying the tie-up will come as a blow to BT, which currently hosts all of Sky’s roughly 5.7m broadband customers on its Openreach network. CityFibre is one of a number of so-called “alt net” broadband firms, the newspaper says, adding that it currently reaches 3.8m premises across the country and is aiming to hit 8m by the end of next year.

FTSE 100-listed mining tech group Weir has been awarded a £53m contract on the Reko Diq copper-gold project in Pakistan, one of the largest mines of its kind in the world. Weir will provide fine grinding, separation and tailings solutions, and wet screens.

i3 Energy looks set to leave the London Stock Exchange: peer Gran Tierra Energy has announced a £175m deal to acquire the AIM-listed oil producer.  

Train manufacturer Alstom has been awarded a £60m contract by CrossCountry Trains to refurbish their Voyager fleet. The announcement comes just weeks after the Derby-based firm won a £370m contract from Transport for London for 10 Aventra trains that saved the site from closure.

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