BUSINESS LIVE: Pearson profits jump; ITV sells Britbox stake; Rightmove hails another strong year

Deciding on where to put your money at the moment isn’t easy.

The stock market is erratic, property prices have fallen in many areas and inflation has decimated people’s savings for more than two years.

The cost of insuring a property that has previously been flooded has risen by £99 in just one year as the number of flood warnings issued continues to rise, research claims.

You can expect to pay an average home insurance premium of £451 per year on a property that has previously been flooded as of January this year, data from Compare the Market shows, rising 28 per cent from £352 in January 2023.

Two-thirds of international visitors would spend more in Britain if the Chancellor scrapped the tourist tax, according to a global survey.

Heaping fresh pressure on Jeremy Hunt ahead of next week’s Budget, 63 per cent said they would be more likely to make large purchases in the UK if they could shop tax-free.

(PA) – The Red Sea crisis has troubled the waters for UK manufacturers as factory production fell for the 12th month in a row, according to a new survey.

The S&P Global/CIPS UK manufacturing PMI survey, watched closely by the industry, increased to 47.5 in February from a reading of 47 in January.

The score is slightly ahead of previous estimates but remains below the 50 threshold, which indicates that activity is contracting.

Britain’s under-pressure factories felt the impact of disruption in the Red Sea in February, which slowed production and deliveries.

Since November, Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been repeatedly attacking international container ships going through one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.

The attacks have led many vessels to reroute over safety concerns, lengthening delivery times and pushing up shipping costs.

Manufacturers reported having to find alternative suppliers from more expensive markets closer to home or face delays to deliveries of raw materials, according to the PMI survey.

“Several manufacturers noted that they faced the difficult choice between accepting delays from rerouted shipping or facing the prospect of paying higher prices to source from closer to home,” said Rob Dobson, director at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Families are facing holiday chaos as as Ryanair announced it will cancel flights during the summer break due to delays in aircraft deliveries from Boeing.

The Dublin-based airline said it will be forced to make ‘minor schedule changes’ as it will only receive 40 of the 57 planned Boeing 737 MAX 8200 planes before the end of June.

Elon Musk is suing OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman over what he says is a betrayal of the ChatGPT maker’s founding aims of benefiting humanity rather than pursuing profits.

Open AI is the leader but a lawsuit could last for years and tie it up in legal wrangling – meaning rivals like Google or Apple could catch up.

Nissan has ceased production of its Leaf electric car in Sunderland, which in recent months had been the only mass-market EV built in Britain.

It ends a 13-year spell spanning two generations for Leaf, which is one of the most affordable family-size electric cars on the market today starting from £28,495.

Educational publishing firm Pearson has placed its bets on the growth of AI, according to its new chief executive, after its profits almost doubled in 2023.

In its full year results, the FTSE 100-listed educational publishing company reported a strong performance in 2023, having seen sales of its English language courses rising 30 per cent, and assessment and qualification sales rise seven per cent.

Rightmove scored larger profits and turnover last year despite a major slowdown affecting the UK housing market.

Britain’s biggest property listings website reported its revenue grew by 10 per cent to £364.3million in 2023 thanks to price hikes and higher demand for its packages and digital products.

Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt are said to be at loggerheads over tax cuts in the looming Budget.

Fresh claims about Tory infighting suggest the PM has been pushing the Chancellor to curb income tax in the fiscal package on Wednesday – potentially the last before a general election.

ITV has sold its holding in BritBox International in order to concentrate on expanding its streaming service and global studios operations.

The broadcasting giant has offloaded its 50 per cent stake in the digital subscription platform, which has around 3.75 million subscribers, to its joint venture partner BBC Studios for £255million.

When it comes to adding green technology upgrades to their properties, more often than not the first port of call for homeowners is solar panels.

Homes across the country have been fitted with photovoltaic cells, and there is little sign that uptake will stop.

Property prices rose in February due to lower mortgage rates, according to the latest Nationwide house price index.

Britain’s biggest building society recorded a 0.7 per cent increase in the average house price after taking account of seasonal effects.

A row between two of Britain’s poshest supermarkets escalated yesterday after Ocado threatened to take court action against Marks & Spencer.

Ocado said it could sue rival upmarket grocer M&S, claiming that it is owed millions of pounds in payments that were linked to performance.

As chief economist at the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Clare Lombardelli is one of the few Brits to hold one of the high offices at a global policy institution.

So it is slightly curious that after just a year handing out advice to the OECD’s 38 members, generally considered the elite of Western capitalism, she has agreed to return to the UK as deputy governor of the Bank of England.

Sainsbury’s plans to axe 1,500 jobs in a mammoth £1billion cost-cutting drive.

The country’s second-largest supermarket is simplifying operations as it woos shoppers back from discount rivals.

AB InBev said that its growth had been ‘constrained’ after a huge boycott of its beers following a controversy with a transgender model.

The world’s largest brewer said the number of its drinks sold fell 1.7 per cent in 2023 after American shoppers turned their backs on its Bud Light beer.

First it was Wincanton, then Currys and now Direct Line. Companies at the heart of the UK economy are being preyed on by foreign suitors – and it could be just the start.

As global dealmaking comes back with a bang after a long hiatus, private equity barons and cash-rich corporations see listed British businesses as a bargain.

Women will be in the majority on the powerful Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at the Bank of England for the first time in its 329-year history after the appointment of a new deputy governor.

Threadneedle Street yesterday said Clare Lombardelli (pictured), chief economist at international thinktank the OECD, will sit on the interest rate-setting panel from July.