Vodafone Group has reported higher sales and profits amid a drive to cut costs, which has led to the shedding of 1,200 jobs in Europe over recent months. The telecoms giant said its cost-saving initiatives had helped deliver the reduction in roles across Europe and in its shared operations in the three months to the end of June.

Vodafone did not specify how many UK jobs have been affected. It is understood that some of the reduction was due to natural attrition, as people were not replaced after they left the business. It is aiming to shave about £700million a year from its total costs and capital spending by the 2030 financial year.

This is partly coming from Vodafone’s merger with Three in the UK, which completed last year and formed the nation’s largest mobile operator.

The company has since been working to integrate the two brands, including sharing their 5G networks.

Vodafone has been pushing ahead with a major transformation under chief executive Margherita Della Valle, including a focus on its biggest markets in Germany and the UK, as well as Africa, while pulling out of countries where it has a smaller presence.

In the latest update to investors, the business said that its service revenues totalled 8.6billion euro (£7.4billion) for its first quarter, up by a 10th compared with the previous year.

On an organic basis, service revenues increased by 5.2%, while earnings on an adjusted basis were up by by 6.7% year-on-year.

Vodafone said it now expects adjusted earnings to be between 13 billion euros (£11.1billion) and 13.3billion euros (£11.4billion) for the year, after taking control of Kenya-based Safaricom last month.

In the UK, mobile service revenues declined organically by 0.7% in the three months to the end of June, compared with the year before.

Vodafone said this was partly because of the phasing out of mid-contract price rises, bringing down revenue growth per customer, after a crackdown by regulator Ofcom.

The number of UK customers with mobile contracts dropped by 48,000 during the quarter, including business SIMs, but it gained about 34,000 broadband customers.

Mark Crouch, market analyst for Etoro, says: “For years, Vodafone has promised that its turnaround would eventually show through in the numbers. This latest update suggests that promise is finally starting to become reality.

“While the headline revenue boost was helped by the consolidation of Three UK and Safaricom, the stronger message is that the underlying business is beginning to build momentum.”

Britain’s tax system is crushing entrepreneurs and needs to be changed if the government wants more people to start, scale and sell a business, a tax expert has warned. Praveen Gupta, UK Head of Tax at international accountancy and business advisory group Azets, said the current system needed changing to encourage entrepreneurs to start businesses, hire staff and help the UK economy grow.

He said: “There is no incentive to set up, scale and sell a business in the UK. It costs more than ever to recruit staff and if you are able to sell your company, the Treasury takes a bigger slice of the proceeds than it has in decades.

“We understand the government needs to balance the books, but right now the tax system is preventing entrepreneurs from doing what they do best and the economy is suffering as a result. There’s a real risk the UK will lose the next generation of Bransons, Dysons and Bartletts unless something changes – either because they’ll go abroad or because they won’t take the leap and start their own businesses.”

Praveen proposes a four-part solution to take the shackles off would-be UK entrepreneurs:

• Raise the Employment Allowance rate to £50,000
• Slash the rate of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) to 10% for people selling a business
• Restore the Business Asset Disposal Relief (BADR) lifetime limit to £5m
• Introduce a two-year Employment Tax Roadmap

He said: “This approach would make it easier for businesses to hire, reward founders who have successfully exited a company – especially an SME – and provide stability for the UK business community about the government’s plans for Employment Tax policy. Any impact this would have on Treasury income would be offset by the fact that there would be more money going into the economy as a result of these changes, and more jobs created across the UK.”

Praveen explained that raising the employment allowance to £50,000 would give employers more confidence in managing their costs and improve their willingness to hire new staff.

He said: “A £50,000 employment allowance threshold would cut the National Insurance costs of the SMEs in the UK, as an employer wouldn’t have to pay anything unless their wage bill was more than £333,333 – currently NIC is due when a wage bill reaches circa £70,000. This small change would make a significant difference to SMEs – and to the UK’s employment figures – as firms would be more willing to hire people as they would know the NI costs could be managed and they’d have the funds to do it.”

When it came to changing CGT and BADR, Praveen argued that a new CGT threshold and a restored £5m BADR limit would enable successful entrepreneurs to benefit more from business sales – and potentially make them more willing to invest their earnings back into UK businesses.

He said: “Entrepreneurs typically don’t retire – many of them invest some of their hard-earned money from selling their businesses into start-ups or new companies looking to scale. Taking less of the money they make from selling a company would give them a larger amount to invest in new businesses, effectively creating an army of business angels who could help the entrepreneurs of the future grow.”

Praveen also called for a rolling two-year Employment Tax Roadmap, which he said would allow business owners time to plan ahead of any new changes being introduced.

He added: “The last two Budgets have had a significant impact on businesses and both have given them little time to get ready for any changes the new tax year brings. An Employment Tax Roadmap would enable business leaders to plan more effectively and budget more accurately, which creates more stability for businesses and the economy – in terms of growth, tax revenues and recruitment.”

Praveen concluded: “If the UK wants to avoid its entrepreneurs becoming an endangered species and really fuel economic growth, the government needs to take action now and evolve the tax system into something that encourages rather than stifles entrepreneurs and which gives them the stability they need to start and scale businesses.

“If it can achieve that, the economy and the country will be much better off.”

Figures from Companies House analysed by Azets show that there were nearly 13,700 fewer company incorporations in the 2025 calendar year compared to 2024. Data from the ONS shows there were an estimated 104,000 fewer payrolled employees between March 2025 and March 2026.

Based on data from the ONS, there were an estimated 29,000 fewer vacancies in the UK between January and March 2026 compared to October to December 2025 and there were an estimated 65,000 fewer vacancies during January to March 2026 compared to a year ago. Figures from the ONS show that around 75,000 more people aged 16 to 34 left Britain than arrived in 2025. This gap has grown every year since 2022.

Hardworking Brits are struggling to cope with workplace pressures and are even checking their work emails as soon as they wake up on holiday, research reveals today. More than two in five (42%) UK workers admit checking work messages in the middle of conversations, while 41% do so in the bathroom and 29% while on a date. Almost half (47%) say there is no longer a clear quiet period at work, while over half (51%) say they now have less time to recover between busy periods than they used to.

This devastating insight into the state of the UK’s workforce is revealed in a study by the human resources platform HiBob. It states that 58% of employees say the pressure in their roles has increased compared to two years ago.

Almost half (49%) said they feel expected to always be available for work, and 47% feel mentally exhausted at the end of most working days. July and August used to traditionally be slower months for office-based employees and they could look forward to some relaxing time away in the sunshine.

But Censuswise, which carried out the research for HiBob, found that UK workers no longer think this is the case.

More than a third (42%) of the 2,000 workers surveyed said they were considering leaving their jobs.

The “always-on” culture extends to holidays, with 55% of workers checking their emails within minutes of waking up. And more than a quarter (27%) say failing to respond to messages outside working hours would harm their career.

Toby Hough, HiBob’s vice-president of people and culture for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, said: “We’re seeing a structural shift in how work happens – potentially the biggest since the pandemic.

“Many workers no longer feel there is a natural point where pressure eases or where they can properly switch off, while managers increasingly find themselves balancing rising performance expectations with protecting employee wellbeing. Left unaddressed, this shift poses a significant long-term risk to businesses.

“Companies therefore need to recognise that people-first cultures are performance-first cultures.

“Sustainable high performance cannot exist without the right support, recovery and trust within teams.

“Businesses now need to equip managers with the training, guidance and tools needed to lead through this new era of constant pressure and help teams perform consistently over time.”

HiBob suggests that managers are doing their best to absorb pressure. But, out of the 501 UK managers surveyed, the majority (51%) said they felt underprepared and out of their depth dealing with the scale of these challenges.

More than two-thirds (68%) said they would benefit from clearer guidance on managing high-performing teams in today’s working environment.

It has also emerged that Gen Z employees entering the workforce are experiencing what is being called AI guilt: they see AI literacy as essential to their careers but don’t feel they have clear permission to use it openly at work.

Research by Employment Hero, an AI-powered employment platform, reveals that 50% of Gen Z workers feel guilty using AI to produce work, while 52% say using AI to do parts of their job feels like cheating.

Speaking about her experience of AI guilt, university student and jobseeker Ria Kaur said: “As a Gen Z student experiencing the world of work through internships and placements, I see AI everywhere. But I also find that, in workplace situations, AI can feel like my dirty little secret.

“I think this comes from the stigma around younger generations using AI, which becomes stronger in the workplace because of the frustrating idea that Gen Z are lazy, or that we do not know what real work is. If a young person uses AI at work, it can feel like people assume they are offloading the task or taking the easy way out.

“In reality, a lot of us are using it responsibly to understand a task, prepare for a conversation or make sense of something new – but I still feel like it has to be kept hidden.”

A major UK retailer has closed all of its remaining stores after collapsing into administration with debts of more than £59 million, bringing an end to 146 years of trading on the British high street.

Luxury footwear and handbag retailer Russell & Bromley, founded in 1880 by George Bromley and Elizabeth Russell, has now shut all branches that were not included in a rescue deal with fashion giant Next. The closures follow a phased wind-down of the business, leaving just three stores operating under the new ownership.

Administrators from Interpath Advisory confirmed that the remaining 33 stores have now closed their doors permanently, resulting in around 400 redundancies. The majority of the retailer’s workforce employed at the non-transferring stores has now lost their jobs.

A spokesperson for the joint administrators said: “Following the announcement regarding the sale of the Russell & Bromley brand and certain assets to Next plc, the joint administrators can confirm that a phased closure programme for the remaining Russell & Bromley stores is now complete.

“All stores that did not transfer to Next as part of that transaction closed. Regrettably, these closures mean that the majority of employees working in the non-transferring stores have been made redundant.

“The administrators and their teams are engaging closely with all affected staff and will be providing support throughout the process, including assisting individuals in submitting claims to the Redundancy Payments Service.”

The family-owned retailer entered administration earlier this year after years of mounting financial pressure.

Next acquired the Russell & Bromley brand, selected assets and three stores located in Chelsea, Mayfair and Bluewater shopping centre in Kent through a pre-pack administration deal. However, the remaining 33 stores and nine concessions were not included in the transaction and have now permanently closed.

Court documents show the company owed approximately £59.3 million when administrators Will Wright and Chris Pole of Interpath Advisory were appointed.

The business is understood to have accumulated losses of around £20 million over the past two years as falling sales, rising operating costs and weak consumer demand took their toll.

Administrators said the company had historically relied on existing cash reserves to fund operations, but in recent years was forced to sell a number of freehold properties to support its loss-making business.

They said: “The group was relatively highly loss-making, with these losses due to a combination of falling sales, increasing operational costs, and a relatively high fixed cost base.

“Further to this, the wider UK market has been difficult for retail businesses with challenging trading conditions characterised by high inflation and suppressed consumer demand.”

The retailer’s statement of affairs, released three months after the collapse, estimated a total deficiency of £35.7 million.

Administrators also revealed that around £2.1 million had been drawn under the company’s trade finance facility before NatWest exercised its right of set-off immediately after the administration began, using cash held by the business to clear the outstanding balance.

Russell & Bromley also owed HM Revenue & Customs around £3.2 million. Administrators said HMRC may receive distributions from other group insolvencies related to the same VAT claim, while unsecured creditors may eventually receive a dividend once assets have been realised and costs paid, although the final amount has yet to be determined.

Known for its premium leather footwear and handbags, Russell & Bromley became a favourite among high-profile figures, including the Princess of Wales, Katie Holmes and Billie Piper. Despite its long-standing reputation for quality and craftsmanship, the retailer struggled to recover following the pandemic and had remained unprofitable since 2019.

A holiday park operator that collapsed into administration owing more than £100 million has increased staffing levels by 158 workers as it continues efforts to secure the future of its parks.

New documents reveal that administrators overseeing Argyll Holidays have expanded the workforce at the company’s Scottish sites from 97 to 255 employees to keep operations running while a buyer is sought. The business, operated by Cove Communities Venture 2 Argyle OpCo Limited, entered administration in November after struggling with mounting debts, rising costs and weakening consumer demand.

Despite the financial collapse, the group’s eight holiday parks in Scotland remain open, and administrators have confirmed plans to launch a sale process in the coming months.

Among the parks continuing to operate are the flagship Drimsynie Estate Holiday Village, Hunters Quay Holiday Village in Dunoon, Loch Awe Holiday Park and Loch Eck Caravan Park.

Joint administrators Adam Paxton, Rob Croxen and Ben Cairns of Alvarez & Marsal said the increase in staffing was necessary to support ongoing trading while the business remains in administration.

“There were 97 employees at the date of appointment, and this was increased to 255 employees to ensure we have sufficient staff to support ongoing trading,” they said.

The administrators added that preparations are under way for a sale of the business, although they cautioned that the timing of any deal remains uncertain.

The latest report also reveals the scale of the company’s financial difficulties for the first time.

Total debts exceed £103 million, including around £40 million owed to unsecured creditors. The secured lender is owed approximately £69.8 million.

Argyll Holidays was founded in 1967 and grew into one of Scotland’s best-known holiday park operators. In 2022, the business was acquired by Cove Communities in a deal reportedly worth around £100 million.

At the time, Argyll Holidays director Keith Campbell described Cove as the “ideal custodian” for the family business, praising its commitment to investing in tourism destinations.

Administrators said a combination of factors contributed to the collapse, including high interest rates, falling consumer spending, rising operating costs and wider pressures affecting the holiday park sector.

Additional companies within the wider group, including sites in the Scottish Borders, Cornwall and Cumbria, have also entered administration.

For now, however, the Scottish parks continue to welcome guests as administrators work to secure a buyer and safeguard the business’s future.