BUSINESS LIVE: Capita cuts 900 jobs; Ofcom fines Shell; Workspace swings to a loss

The CBI’s boss has urged Jeremy Hunt to freeze business rates and review the tourist tax to kick-start the economy.

Rain Newton-Smith also argued that the headline rate of corporation tax should come down in the long term, to boost Britain.

Meanwhile, she insisted the lobby group has recovered after having plunging into crisis over sexual assault claims.

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

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

‘Throughout the first half of the year, we have continued to actively manage our portfolio to meet changing customer needs. We have completed a wide range of smaller unit refurbishments and subdivisions, as well as making good progress on our larger projects.

‘As expected, valuations are down as a result of movement in market yields. However, we have maintained a conservative level of gearing, with the continuing disposal of non-core properties further strengthening our balance sheet and we expect more over the next six months.

‘We go into the second half of the year with good momentum. Our scalable operating platform gives us a competitive advantage and we have a clear pathway to unlock near and long-term income growth, both through capturing reversion on our like-for-like properties and active asset management opportunities.’

Communications regulator Ofcom has fined Shell Energy £1.4million for failing to prompt more than 70,000 phone and broadband customers to review their contract, or let them know what they could save by signing up to a new deal.

Ofcom said 7,750 customers received an end-of-contract notification that contained incorrect information about the price they would pay once their minimum term period came to an end.

Of these customers, 6,054 went on to pay higher charges than they were originally quoted, collectively amounting to £398,417.67 – an average of £65.81 each, Ofcom added.

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

Microsoft shares hit an all-time high yesterday after it hired OpenAI’s co-founders to lead its artificial intelligence team.

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

San Francisco-based OpenAI ousted Altman before Brockman stood down.

Capita will make up to 900 roles redundant as part of a cost-cutting drive the outsourcers says will save it £60million a year from the first quarter of next year.

Affected staff, whom are primarily within indirect support functions and overhead roles, will be consulted on the job losses soon.

Capita employed about 50,000 people in 2022, according to its latest annual report.

NatWest’s fraud prevention boss left his job after moonlighting at a law firm bringing scam victim claims against banks like NatWest, This is Money can reveal.

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