New retail sales from the Office for National Statistics this morning provide some cause for optimism following headlines yesterday of plunging consumer confidence.
Shops were given a surprisingly big boost in January as sales rose by 1.7%, says Sky News on the new ONS numbers. Only a 0.3% rise had been forecast by economists polled by Reuters. It’s the first growth after four consecutive months of contraction and follows a fall of 0.6% in the key shopping month of December.
Environmental experts have accused the government of failing to “get to grips” with two decades of evidence detailing how hundreds of farm animals in England suffered lead poisoning after being reared near abandoned metal mines, says The Financial Times. The newspaper’s analysis of official reports dating back to 2004 found 78 investigations identifying 378 animals that had died from lead poisoning or were displaying signs of it, including “blindness”, “seizures”, “twitching” and “frothing at the mouth”.
The number of independent breweries in Britain declined at its fastest rate in 2024, says The Guardian, reporting figures from the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates. The UK had 1,715 breweries at the end of 2024, 100 fewer than at the start of the year, while the overall fall the previous year was just eight.
Britain is to offer European countries an “Australian-style” youth mobility scheme as part of Sir Keir Starmer’s reset with Brussels, according to The Times. Under a plan to be tabled by British negotiators, tens of thousands of young EU workers and students would be able to come to the UK to live and work for two years, with the possibility of a one-year extension.
Plans by Westminster to certify English single malt whisky have been branded “sabotage” by Scottish politicians who fear it will undermine one of their core export industries, says The Financial Times. A consultation was launched this week on the proposals that would allow whisky distilled in England to be classed as “single malt”, and afforded the same geographical branding as its Scottish rival.
Plans to triple the number of international passengers at St Pancras station could open up new cross-Channel routes to France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, reports The Times, in news that should be welcome to London’s retailers. London St Pancras Highspeed, the company responsible for the station and the high-speed track to Folkestone, formerly known as HS1, hopes that the redesigned terminal will attract new railway operators to compete with Eurostar.
Finally, top London restaurants are trying to deter “reservation-squatting” and freeloading social-media influencers by imposing deposits and minimum spends as the industry grapples with booking bots and rising costs, reports The Financial Times. Gymkhana, the two-Michelin-starred Indian restaurant in Mayfair, has introduced a £100 minimum spend for dinner, payable on booking, while Hutong in the Shard skyscraper has set it at £80 per adult for dinner reservations on Fridays and Saturdays.
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