Your commercial news round-up: UK retails fall, hospitality crisis, energy bills, AI takeover

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The UK’s retail prices have taken a further dive and the hospitality industry remains in disarray. Meanwhile, energy bills rise for UK households and AI is slowly taking a leading role in the banking sector. Read this week’s commercial news round-up for more.

• UK retail sales have continued to fall, marking its 11th consecutive month of downturn. According to the most recent Weil European Distress Index, this decline has been caused by high interest rates, cost inflation and low consumer demand. Earlier this month UK retail giants, including John Lewis and Tesco, issued a warning to Chancellor Rachel Reeves arguing that the government’s tax policies were leading to increased prices and, therefore, undermining the government’s promise to raise living standards. Martin Sartorius, CBI principal economist, explained: “The government’s fiscal decisions are continuing to bite, and retailers’ struggles send a clear signal: business cannot be asked to balance the books again at the Autumn Budget.”

• Following last October’s government budget, the UK hospitality industry faces a crisis state, with data showing a total of around 89,000 job losses in hospitality since October. UKHospitality said the industry made up 53% of all job losses in the country. Data also showed that one in 25 hospitality jobs have been lost, which represents 4.1% of all jobs in the sector. Chair of UKHospitality Kate Nicholls stated: "What we're seeing at the moment is a third of businesses cutting its opening hours, one in eight saying that they're closing sites, and 60% saying they are cutting staff numbers." She’d previously reported that half of London hospitality businesses were operating at or below break even.

• Energy bills are expected to rise for millions of British homes, following energy regulator Ofgem’s plans to raise the government’s cap on bills from October 2025 by 2%. The price of electricity will rise from 25.73 pence a kilowatt-hour over the summer to 26.35 pence a kilowatt-hour, while the price of gas will fall to from 6.33 pence to 6.29 pence a kilowatt-hour to reflect the modest drop in wholesale prices. Standing charges are also due to increase, meaning that even households that use less energy in a bid to cut costs will see bill increases. The electricity standing charge is expected to rise from 51.37 pence a day to 53.68 pence and the standing charge for gas from 29.82 pence to 34.03 pence a day. Sarah Pennells, consumer finance specialist at Royal London, said: “The rise comes at a time when wages are still catching up with inflation, food prices remain high, and interest rates continue to squeeze mortgage and rent payments. With many everyday costs having risen earlier this year, it’s worth reviewing other bills to see where savings can be made.”           

• One in 10 banking jobs are at risk of change due to investment in AI. Banks across the country will have invested £1.8 billion in generative AI by 2030, according to research published by Zopa and Juniper Research. The investment is forecast to save 187 million labour hours, with cost savings estimated at £1.8 billion over the next five years. The report also indicated that 27,000 banking roles are at risk of transformation. Earlier this year, Tomasz Noetzel, BI senior analyst, said, “any jobs involving routine, repetitive tasks are at risk” but clarified that “AI will not eliminate them fully, rather it will lead to workforce transformation”. Plus, campaigns like Jobs2030 aim to deliver educational modules in AI disciplines “delivered with industry-aligned training tailored specifically to the banking sector” to equip workers with the skills required to succeed in an AI-driven economy.

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