Month: January 2026

Preply has raised $150 million in a Series D funding round led by WestCap, valuing the global language learning marketplace at $1.2 billion and marking its transition into unicorn territory.
The round, for which Goldman Sachs International acted as sole placement agent, will be used to accelerate product development, expand Preply’s AI and data capabilities and fuel international growth as the company seeks to reshape education through personalised, tutor-led learning supported by artificial intelligence.
Founded as an online language tutoring marketplace, Preply now connects more than 100,000 tutors with learners in 180 countries, offering one-to-one lessons across more than 90 languages. Its model blends human instruction with an AI-powered tutoring co-pilot designed to track progress, surface insights and automate administrative tasks, allowing tutors to focus on teaching and learners to progress faster.
The funding comes amid strong growth in global demand for language learning. According to data from HolonIQ, around 1.8 billion people worldwide are currently working towards proficiency in a second language. The global direct-to-consumer language learning market is forecast to reach $227 billion by 2035, following threefold growth over the past five years.
Since its Series C round, Preply has more than tripled the number of bookable tutors on its platform and expanded its offering by adding more than 40 new languages. Over the past year, the company has continued to improve profitability and has become EBITDA positive.
Alongside WestCap, the round was supported by existing investors including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Horizon Capital. WestCap’s team, which has previously backed and scaled global marketplaces such as Airbnb and StubHub, will work closely with Preply as it enters its next phase of growth.
Kirill Bigai, co-founder and chief executive of Preply, said the investment underlined the company’s belief that the future of education lies at the intersection of human connection and AI.
“We feel extremely fortunate and deeply responsible for shaping how people will learn in the future,” Bigai said. “We connect learners with the world’s best tutors, amplified by AI, bringing learning efficiency to a level that was previously unreachable. This partnership will help us continue to innovate and create opportunities for people everywhere to progress in their lives.”
Preply said it would use the fresh capital to expand its product and engineering teams, deepen its AI-driven personalisation and accelerate global expansion to reach more learners and tutors. The company is positioning itself against fully automated learning platforms by doubling down on human-led instruction, using AI as an enabler rather than a replacement.
Research published in Preply’s 2025 Efficiency Study, conducted with LeanLab Education, found that 96 per cent of learners believe real conversations with human tutors are essential to their progress, while 97 per cent said such interactions were key to building confidence. The study also found learners progressed up to three times faster on Preply compared with average benchmarks, with one in three advancing a full CEFR level within 12 weeks.
Allen Mask, a partner at WestCap and former senior executive at Airbnb, who will join Preply’s board, said the platform was setting a new benchmark for personalised education at scale.
“Learners thrive when real human instruction is supported by technology,” he said. “Preply has the market-leading product, experienced leadership and vision to shape how people communicate globally.”
The Series D brings Preply’s total funding to around $299 million to date, reinforcing investor confidence in its growth trajectory. With a growing global footprint and a focus on measurable learning outcomes, the company says it is well positioned to cement its role as a category leader in human-led, AI-enabled education.
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Preply raises $150m at $1.2bn valuation to scale human-led, AI-enhanced learning

Labour has been urged to stop workers accessing their private pensions from the age of 55 in an effort to curb early retirement and tackle rising unemployment, according to a leading think tank.
The Resolution Foundation, which has close links to senior Labour figures, said current pension and tax rules encourage wealthier workers to leave the labour market years before state pension age, worsening labour shortages and weakening the public finances.
Under existing rules, savers can draw on their private pension from age 55, 11 years before the state pension age, which is due to rise from 66 to 67 this year. Up to a quarter of a private pension, capped at £268,275, can be taken tax-free from that point.
In a new intervention, the think tank said ministers should consider limiting access to private pension wealth before state pension age, either by raising the minimum access age or by reducing the amount that can be withdrawn tax-free.
“To reduce the financial incentives for people to retire early, the Government should consider limiting access to private pension wealth before the state pension age,” the foundation said. “This could be done either by raising the age at which tax-relieved private pension wealth can be accessed or by reducing the amount that is tax-free.”
The call comes amid signs of a weakening labour market. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show the UK unemployment rate has climbed to 5.1 per cent, up from a post-pandemic low of 3.6 per cent in 2022. The Resolution Foundation said the rise has been driven largely by people under 25 and over 50 leaving or failing to enter work.
Employment rates among so-called “prime-age” workers in the UK remain comparable with high-employment European economies such as Denmark, Germany and Norway, but Britain lags behind when it comes to keeping older workers in jobs.
Data cited by the think tank shows that by age 55, around a quarter of people in Britain are not in employment. That figure rises to more than a third by age 60 and over half by 64. At the current state pension age of 66, only 30 per cent remain in work.
Among people aged 50 to 65 who are not working, 41 per cent cite sickness or disability as the main reason, while 31 per cent say they are retired. A further 12 per cent are home-makers and 6 per cent are unemployed and actively seeking work.
The minimum age for accessing private pensions is already scheduled to rise to 57 from April 2028, a change the Resolution Foundation itself recommended in a post-pandemic report in 2023. The think tank now suggests further reform may be needed.
Nye Cominetti, an economist at the Resolution Foundation, said generous tax reliefs were distorting behaviour at the top end of the income scale.
“Our pensions and tax rules currently incentivise very wealthy people to retire early,” he said. “These generous tax breaks should be restricted. By doing so, the Government can boost both employment and the public finances.”
“The UK does reasonably well on its overall employment rate compared with other rich countries,” he added, “but trails the best-performing nations when it comes to the share of people over 50 in work. The Government should offer a mix of carrots and sticks to improve their job prospects.”
The foundation noted that UK unemployment is now close to the European Union average of 6 per cent for the first time since the euro was launched in 2002, suggesting the problem is largely domestic rather than driven by global conditions.
Some countries have already gone further. Denmark, often cited as a high-employment economy, has linked its state pension age to life expectancy, meaning workers must now wait until age 70 to receive payments. The UK state pension age is scheduled to rise to 68 by 2042, fuelling speculation that future governments could adopt a similar approach.
Despite incentives to retire later, the number of pensioners still working has been rising as cost-of-living pressures bite. More than 1.5 million people over the state pension age are now in employment, according to estimates from HM Revenue & Customs, based on the latest Survey of Personal Incomes. Around 1.56 million over-65s are on payrolls, a 12 per cent increase compared with 2020–21, while 562,000 pensioners were self-employed in 2024–25.
A Treasury spokesperson said the government remained focused on retirement security, pointing to its commitment to the triple lock, which it said was worth £470 a year to recipients of the new state pension.
“We have also launched a pensions commission to look at what more is required to ensure the pensions system is strong, fair and sustainable,” the spokesperson added.
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Labour urged to raise private pension access age to curb early retirement

Calling a colleague “old” because they struggle with computer skills does not, on its own, amount to age discrimination, an employment tribunal has ruled.
The decision came in the case of Farah Janjua, 39, who brought claims against her former employer, Harvey Jones Ltd, after a younger manager told her her lack of IT skills was “because you’re old”.
Ms Janjua argued that the comment, made by a colleague in his late 20s, amounted to unlawful age discrimination. She was dismissed from her role as a sales designer following the end of her probation period and subsequently launched legal proceedings.
However, an Employment Tribunal sitting in Reading rejected her claim in full, concluding that the remark did not meet the legal threshold for age discrimination.
The tribunal heard that Ms Janjua began working at a Harvey Jones kitchen showroom in Marlow in July 2022. During one incident, a sales manager, Nawaz Salauddin, intervened while she was working on a document, showing her how to add attachments using a computer mouse.
When Ms Janjua said she did not know the function existed, Mr Salauddin replied: “Cos you’re old.”
Ms Janjua complained about the remark, arguing it was ageist given that she was 39 at the time. She also alleged a separate incident in which a regional sales manager appeared “disgusted” on learning her age.
In dismissing the claim, Judge Naomi Shastri-Hurst said the tribunal accepted that the comment had been made, but found that it was not discriminatory in law.
“We find that a lack of technical knowledge is not infrequently deemed, rightly or wrongly, to be connected to age,” the judge said. “On the balance of probabilities, we accept that this conversation took place as suggested.”
However, she added that the evidence showed Mr Salauddin would have made the same comment to anyone older than him, rather than targeting Ms Janjua specifically because she was 39.
“In light of the evidence we have as to his character and behaviour, in terms of his desire to assert his authority, we find that he would have said this to anyone older than him,” the judge said.
Ms Janjua was dismissed in December 2022 following concerns about her performance. She launched legal action the following month, bringing claims of age discrimination alongside allegations of race and sex discrimination, sexual harassment, harassment related to sex, and victimisation.
All claims were rejected by the tribunal.
“We reject the claim of age discrimination in its entirety,” Judge Shastri-Hurst concluded.
The ruling highlights the distinction tribunals draw between inappropriate or ill-judged workplace comments and conduct that meets the legal definition of discrimination under employment law.
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Calling colleagues ‘old’ over IT skills is not age discrimination, tribunal rules

In London’s business districts, work still unfolds around desks, deadlines, doctors operating rooms and long stretches of sitting broken only by meetings and commutes.
Hybrid working has changed where people work, but not the intensity, or the physical demands, of professional life.
Within this reality, herniated disc injuries are increasingly underestimated in return to work planning, treated as short interruptions rather than complex disruptions.
Employers and employees alike often misjudge back pain recovery windows, assuming readiness returns as soon as pain fades, despite evidence that herniated disc recovery time is frequently longer and less predictable than expected.
This misalignment fuels presenteeism, confidence loss, and reduced workplace back pain productivity.
The issue is not symptoms, but precise assessments and systems, how modern London workplace health frameworks measure recovery, performance, and resilience after back injury.
For many professionals, understanding the true herniated disc recovery time only comes after expectations collide with their back pain reality.
The Cost Of Reduced Spinal Function – And The Value Of Restoring It Properly
Your spine is more than a column of vertebrae and bones; it is one of your body’s central pillars of life – lost spinal function diminishes quality of life and performance.
According to the UK’s NHS guide, herniated disc symptoms include lower back pain, inability to bend or straighten your back, pain in the hips, buttocks, legs or toes, and numbness or tingling in the arms, legs or feet caused by vertebral nerve impingements or sharp sciatica pain.
Every step you trust, every breath you take, every moment of effortless movement depends on your spine’s strength and finely organised structure.
When spinal function is lost, its effects are felt throughout the body – and your business productivity suffers as a result.
Pain appears, confidence falters, and the way you move, think, and live is reshaped.
When spinal function is restored, strength returns, confidence grows, and freedom of movement follows.
Through correct assessments, exercises, customised rehabilitation, movement and rest, your spine rewards you with transformed physical freedom and mental well-being.
Reclaiming your lost spinal function enables you to walk upright, jog and run, lift, pull and push weights, live creatively, actively, and move through life without pain holding you captive – living life truly on your own terms.
Caring for the spine is not merely about avoiding discomfort.
It is about restoring your vitality, independence, business and physical performance, and the freedom to live fully – without back pain quietly dictating your choices.
Why Disc Injuries Are Quietly Changing Return-To-Work Timelines
Medical clearance is often treated as the finish line, yet functional readiness tells a different story.
Mayo Clinic guidance warns that while herniated disc healing may stabilise, functional recovery, spinal load tolerance, sitting demands, and sustained work capacity, can lag for weeks or months.
In desk-based roles, prolonged sitting and cognitive pressure expose this gap quickly.
Professionals may technically return to work, but confidence and their back health and work performance impaired by back pain remain fragile.
Research shows that the incomplete restoration of spinal load tolerance you lost during  back pain or spine injury, directly affects concentration, decision-making, and perceived competence at work (Waddell & Burton, 2004).
As a result, the disc injury recovery timeline extends beyond clinical benchmarks.
This reshapes how organisations experience return to work after back pain and spine injury, not through absence, but through quieter reductions in output and engagement.
Why Lived Recovery Outcomes Matter As Much As Clinical Theory
Clinical literature abundantly explains what happens in a herniated disc injury.
However, lived recovery illustrates how those mechanisms unfold over time in real working lives.
The NHS Hospital Episode Statistics for the period April 2014 – March 2015 shows 4,421 admissions at Barts Health NHS Trust, 2,981 at Royal Free London, 2,922 at University College London Hospitals and 2,811 at Imperial College Healthcare – all within a year in London population.
So, why herniated discs injuries are so prevalent –  what’s happening here?
“A herniated disc is far more than a simple case of spinal degeneration, muscle loss, or mechanical failure. It is a complex, multifactorial event in which annular disruption -the weakening of the disc’s outer layer -nucleus pulposus extrusion, and neuroinflammatory cascades converge and disrupt your  body signalling, motor control, and functional biomechanics. Understanding this interplay is essential for restoring movement, strength, and overall spinal health,” explains Jazz Alessi, founder of Personal Training Master, the creator of The Spine Method and the Herniated Disc Rehabilitation Division in London.
When People Return To Work But Do not Truly Recover
In many London offices, returning to work with back pain is framed as resilience. Professionals log back in early, sit through meetings, and push through discomfort, often driven by unspoken expectations and fear of falling behind.
Yet incomplete recovery back injury rarely stays invisible.
Fear of movement encourages avoidance behaviours: fewer posture changes, reduced breaks, and guarded body postures and controlled movement during long meetings.
Flare-ups become intermittent but disruptive, fragmenting focus rather than triggering absence.
The outcome is not time off, but a significant productivity drop, slower cognitive output, reduced social life and confidence, and diminished engagement in decision-making.
Occupational health research shows these patterns consistently shift cost from sick leave to presenteeism and reduced performance (Burton et al., 2006; Cancelliere et al., 2016).
Why Generic Recovery Advice Is Failing Professionals
Much generic back pain advice assumes flexibility, time to move, varied physical demands, and low cognitive pressure.
That model collapses inside desk-based professional roles.
Long screen hours, prolonged sitting, and constant availability expose a gap between advice and reality.
When recovery relies on unsupervised rehab exercise or generic recovery programmes, movement compensation, asymmetries and muscle weaknesses develops unnoticed, increasing back pain recurrence risk once workloads rise.
This fuels back pain relapse work cycles that frustrate employees, employers and your pay cheque.
The issue is systemic, not personal.
Evidence from occupational rehabilitation research shows that back health transformations occurs only when your back recovery performance reflects your real work demands and a customised exercise rehabilitation approach exposure to real life load, rather than one-size-fits-all rehab (Pransky et al., 2011; Waddell & Burton, 2004) therefore, correct assessments and laser sharp rehab customisations are crucial continues Jazz Alessi.
Slower Recovery After Minor Bumps Or Strains
Across London’s professional workforce, a subtle trend is emerging minor bumps, stiffness, or low-level strains are taking longer to resolve than expected.
This is less about tissue damage and more about predictability and confidence.
After a disc injury or sciatica pain, professionals often lose trust in their body’s signals, becoming cautious with everyday movement and even decision-making.
Without clear reassurance, recovery slows, not dramatically, but enough to affect momentum.
Observationally, organisations experimenting with assessment-led rehab models report better outcomes when evidence based movement assessment and progressive loading are used to rebuild your back functional strength and confidence rather than simply reduce back pain.
Are you living in West Hampstead, greater London, Central London, Kensington or Canary Wharf?
Technology makes it easy to access the right type of expertise wherever you are in the world and when you need.
However, if you live in north London approaches such as assessment based trainer-led rehab, sometimes delivered through partnerships like an expert personal trainer north London and spine health transformation collaboration.
PubMed research shows this assessment based approach is cited not as services, but as implementation examples of confidence first recovery applied to real working lives (Pransky et al., 2011).
So, what are the effects of an evidence based – assessment rehab-led approach?
Jan, a London-based NHS professional returning to desk-based work after 10 years of persistent back pain, described his recovery that it aligned closely both with functional benchmarks and symptom disappearance:
“My body inconsistencies and asymmetries diminished by 85–90 per cent very quickly. Pain also diminished by 85–90 per cent. After I completed my rehab – I could potentially take up a new sport for example. Jazz’s commitment, knowledge and care are surely unsurpassable.”
Hayley’s experience further highlights why long term expertise and specialist knowledge can have such transformational effects:
“When you have an injury, there is no margin for error. You have choose people who really know what they are doing. SAFETY is his top priority. He is very vigilant when it comes to carrying out movements safely in order to prevent further injury, which is such an important factor. Jazz has helped me and many others recover successfully from their injuries. His knowledge about anatomy, physiology, nutrition and how to exercise safely – SAFELY being the key word, I believe, is unparalleled.”
So, why this spine rehabilitation method restores strength, agility, confidence, long term resilience and freedom of movement where other methods fail?
Mostly because this rehabilitation system is not about generic exercises.
It is a precise, assessment evidence-based approach designed to rebuild your spinal stability from scratch, restore movement in the right way, and return injured clients to pain-free living, exercise, and sport.
Each phase targets the true causes of disc pain – not just the symptoms – so your spine becomes strong, agile and resilient for the long term, that is – the results last.
It focuses on the right approach to help you get back on track and enjoy movement without suffering from pain and get back to sport and exercise safely:

Rebuild Your Spinal Shield with Precision Core Activation

Your deep spinal stabilisers are retrained in a customised manner to protect the lumbar spine during everyday movement.
Unlike generic “core” exercises that increase spinal load and risks of injuries, this method restores protective muscle function and reduces reinjury risk.

Restore Fluid, Pain-Free Movement Across the Spine and Hips

Targeted mobility work for your thoracic spine, upper body posture and shoulders, lower back, hips, psoas, flexors, and hamstrings removes the uneven tension that compresses spinal structures and accelerates disc stress.

Re-Engineer How You Move in Daily Life

Everyday actions – lifting, bending, dressing, entering and exiting a car – are retrained using biomechanically safe patterns that strengthen the spine instead of damaging it.

Condition Your Spine Without Irritation

Low-impact aerobics and back-specific conditioning improves circulation and endurance while protecting the disc from overload, allowing recovery without flare-ups.

Correct Imbalances That Trigger Relapse

Repetitive uneven loading is eliminated, reducing strain on vulnerable segments and lowering the risk of disc re-injury.

Reactivate Weak Muscles and Release Overworked Ones

Assessment-led customisation restores balanced muscle function, improves posture, and rebuilds symmetrical movement — essential for long-term spinal health.
7. Stimulate Disc Healing and Slow Degeneration
Targeted spinal conditioning increases blood flow, oxygen delivery, and nutrient transport to affected vertebrae.
This reduces spine and vertebrae inflammation, supports disc repair, and slows the progression of degenerative disc disease.
 
This is not just an exercise rehab programme.
 
It is a new spine method reeingineering your spine functions and strength.
The result is a stronger, more resilient back and a confident return to movement, training, and life.
What this means for London businesses and leadership teams
For leadership teams, disc recovery remains a blind spot in wellbeing strategy.
UK data from bodies such as the Health and Safety Executive consistently show that musculoskeletal issues drive a significant proportion of sick leave costs, yet workplace back pain cost UK discussions often focus only on absence.
The greater impact lies in reduced employee productivity back pain creates through presenteeism and delayed capacity restoration.
Without integrating correct assessments, customised recovery approaches into workforce planning and absence management, London organisations can underestimate long-term output loss.
Framing disc recovery as a performance and predictability issue, rather than a medical one, allows leaders to align wellbeing strategy with measurable business outcomes (HSE, 2023; Burton et al., 2006).
Case insight: when recovery is done differently
Dr Christian H. an NHS senior consultant returned to work after a disc injury with medical clearance however, he struggled maintaining surgeries postures longer than 40 minutes.
Rather than escalating treatment, his focus shifted to take on a personalised back rehab programme built around structured rehab customisations, correct progression and his work-specific demands.
“What changed wasn’t just my back, it was my full body abilities, my strength, flexibility, agility and my confidence and ultimately my mood,” Dr Christian noted.
Through correctly customised exposure and realistic workload alignment, his functional confidence returned before symptoms fully resolved and I could not have done this without using Jazz’s spine method.
Within eight weeks, his surgeries and meeting endurance and decision-making clarity normalised.
Research shows that real-world case studies highlights how return-to-work confidence is restored when recovery is treated as a performance pathway, not a symptom checklist, bridging the gap between clinical recovery and professional readiness (Waddell & Burton, 2004).
Why Return-To-Work Strategies Need Updating
Across greater London organisations, return to work policies are quietly evolving, not because old models failed, but because work itself has changed.
Hybrid schedules, prolonged sitting, and high cognitive demand mean recovery frameworks must now account for confidence, predictability, and sustained output.
A modern return to work strategy recognises that functional recovery, strength, transformed body abilities and sustainable performance extend beyond medical clearance.
Research in occupational health consistently shows that prevention mindset thinking, early rehab customisations, graded exposure, and role-specific rehab demands, reduces disc relapse and supports long-term work capacity (Waddell & Burton, 2004; Pransky et al., 2011).
For leadership teams, this back health transformation approach is strategic: aligning recovery with how work is performed today, less back pain and significant savings in the future.
Conclusion
Herniated disc injuries are reshaping how return to work after back injury truly unfolds in London’s professional landscape.
When recovery is understood as an assessment based and laser sharp customised system, not a symptom confidence returns sooner, productivity stabilises, and performance becomes sustainable.
Smarter assessments, rehab customisations implementations and recovery expectations do not lower standards; they protect them.
People suffering from herniated discs injuries and London organisations that align recovery timelines with real work demands quietly build resilience safer, clarity, and better outcomes for both people and performance.
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From Boardrooms to Desks: How Disc Injuries Are Reshaping Return to Work in London

Next has bought the upmarket shoe and accessories brand Russell & Bromley out of administration in a £2.5 million deal, but the majority of the chain’s shops and hundreds of jobs remain at risk.
The high street fashion group has acquired the Russell & Bromley brand, three of its 36 standalone stores and a tranche of existing stock, for which it is paying a further £1.3 million. The remaining 33 stores, along with nine concession outlets employing around 400 people, are not included in the transaction and are now under review by administrators.
Administrators Interpath said the non-acquired stores would continue trading for now while options are explored, including potential closures or further sales.
Russell & Bromley’s chief executive, Andrew Bromley, described the sale as a “difficult decision” but said it offered the best chance of preserving the brand’s long-term future. Founded around 150 years ago, the business has struggled in recent years amid rising costs and weaker consumer spending.
Next said the acquisition would secure “the future of a much-loved British footwear brand”, adding that it planned to provide the operational stability and expertise needed to support Russell & Bromley’s next chapter. The retailer said the focus would be on returning the brand to its core strength in premium footwear and accessories.
The three stores acquired by Next are in high-end locations in and around London, including Chelsea, Mayfair and Kent.
Russell & Bromley becomes the latest name to face an uncertain future on the UK high street, joining a growing list of retailers that have entered administration in recent months. The Original Factory Shop and Claire’s are currently undergoing restructuring processes, while around 1,000 jobs were lost following the collapse of Bodycare last year. River Island has also announced plans to close stores to avoid a wider failure, following earlier high-profile collapses including Debenhams and Wilko.
Next has fared comparatively well during the turbulent retail period and has a track record of acquiring struggling brands. Last year it bought maternity fashion label Seraphine out of administration, and previously integrated FatFace through its concessions model.
While Next’s move secures the Russell & Bromley name, the fate of most of its physical estate — and the jobs attached to it — will depend on the outcome of the administrators’ review in the coming weeks.
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Next buys Russell & Bromley out of administration as 33 shops face uncertainty

Billions of pounds in potential tariff savings from the UK’s landmark trade deal with India could be put at risk unless the Government rethinks plans to cut export support staff, MPs have warned, raising concerns that British businesses may struggle to turn the agreement into real-world growth.
In a report published on Wednesday, the Business and Trade Committee said deep reductions to trade support roles within government could undermine the effectiveness of the UK–India Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), despite its status as the largest bilateral trade deal struck since Brexit.
The warning comes as ministers place the agreement before Parliament for ratification, triggering the formal scrutiny period. New analysis by the committee estimates that initial tariff savings for UK exporters to India could total around £400 million a year, rising to as much as £3.2 billion annually within a decade as export volumes increase. MPs cautioned, however, that these gains may never materialise if businesses are left without adequate support to navigate India’s complex administrative system and extensive non-tariff barriers.
Under the agreement, the Government expects the deal to lift UK GDP by £4.8 billion a year by 2040 and increase annual bilateral trade with India by £25.5 billion, a significant uplift on the £43 billion recorded in 2024. Automotive exports are forecast to rise sharply, while spirits producers are also expected to benefit from major tariff reductions. The agreement also marks the UK’s first entry into India’s central government procurement market.
Despite the scale of the opportunity, MPs said the practical challenges of operating in India risk blunting the deal’s impact, particularly for small and medium-sized exporters. The committee urged the Department for Business and Trade to take a far more active role in implementation, including supporting firms to use the agreement, monitoring uptake and intervening quickly where barriers emerge.
Concerns are heightened by plans to cut almost 40 per cent of the UK trade staff who would otherwise be tasked with helping businesses expand exports to India. MPs said this created a serious delivery risk at the heart of the Government’s growth strategy.
Rt Hon Liam Byrne, chair of the Business and Trade Committee, said Parliament was being asked to approve a deal promising billions in tariff savings while the resources needed to make it work were being stripped away.
“This is the biggest free trade deal since Brexit, with the potential to deliver billions in tariff savings for UK exporters, boosting growth and creating new jobs,” he said. “But ratification is only the start. Ministers must now set out a clear plan, backed by real resources, to turn access on paper into exports in practice.”
The committee also questioned whether the agreement goes far enough on services trade and access for skilled professionals, saying it remained sceptical about what would be delivered in practice. With no bilateral investment treaty included, MPs called on ministers to develop a more ambitious vision for a future agreement to unlock further UK–India investment.
There were also warnings about potential downsides for sectors such as textiles and ceramics, which already face intense competition from Indian imports. MPs reiterated earlier concerns that, in the absence of binding human rights provisions in the deal, the Government must set clear and enforceable expectations to prevent UK businesses being undercut by labour abuses in overseas supply chains.
Industry figures advising the committee said the agreement could act as a catalyst for deeper collaboration if followed by further action. Pankaj S Kulkarni, head of banking, financial services and insurance at Tech Mahindra, told MPs that a bilateral investment framework would be a necessary next step to unlock additional UK–India investment, particularly in areas such as artificial intelligence.
Mohit Joshi, chief executive and managing director of Tech Mahindra, said the agreement had the potential to accelerate growth across both economies. He said India’s talent pool and engineering strength, combined with the UK’s research and innovation capabilities, created a powerful platform for long-term collaboration and certainty for businesses operating in both markets.
The committee concluded that while the UK–India agreement sets a strong foundation, it should be treated as a starting point rather than a finished product. Without sufficient staff, oversight and accountability, MPs warned, the deal’s promised economic benefits risk remaining theoretical rather than transformative.
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MPs warn UK–India trade deal tariff gains at risk from cuts to export support staff

Uber has abandoned its pledge to operate an all-electric fleet across major UK, US and European cities by 2030, after its chief executive warned that drivers, consumers and governments are turning away from electric vehicles.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said the company’s long-standing commitment to switch to a fully electric fleet by the end of the decade was “just not going to happen”.
It marks the first time Uber has publicly conceded that it will miss the target, which was set in 2020 and closely aligned with Labour’s wider ambitions to accelerate the transition away from petrol and diesel vehicles.
“Our EV target of being all-electric by 2030, that’s just not going to happen based on everything that’s happening in society,” Khosrowshahi said. He added that while Uber would continue to increase the proportion of electric vehicles on its platform, external conditions had made the original pledge unrealistic.
Uber had previously said London would become its first net-zero city by 2025. However, the latest figures show the company remains less than halfway towards achieving that goal, despite London being its most advanced market for EV adoption.
The company has repeatedly warned that the transition would stall without stronger support from policymakers. Last year, Uber said “high upfront EV costs, limited charging access and inconsistent policy support” were continuing to slow adoption among drivers.
Those pressures have intensified as governments have scaled back subsidies and introduced new taxes affecting electric vehicles. In the UK, chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a future pay-per-mile road tax in her Budget, with the government’s fiscal watchdog warning it could significantly dampen demand for EVs.
Rising electricity prices since the pandemic have further eroded the cost advantage of electric cars, while incentives for drivers have been pared back. Uber itself has reduced bonuses for drivers using EVs, weakening financial motivation to switch.
In London, the introduction of the congestion charge for electric vehicles under mayor Sadiq Khan has dealt another blow to Uber’s electrification plans in the capital.
At the end of last year, Uber said 40 per cent of journeys in London were electric, compared with 15 per cent across Europe and just 9 per cent in the United States. In America, the rollback of EV subsidies under president Donald Trump has further slowed uptake.
Despite the shift in tone, Uber’s website continues to state an ambition for 100 per cent of rides in Canada, Europe and the US to be zero-emissions, although no revised deadline has been set.
Khosrowshahi sought to strike a more optimistic note on longer-term technology, suggesting autonomous vehicles could eventually revive Uber’s green ambitions. He said robot-taxis, which are typically electric, could begin operating in London as early as this year.
“One of the benefits of autonomous vehicles is that the vehicles all happen to be electric,” he said. “So the autonomous revolution will also be an electric revolution.”
He added that discussions with UK regulators were progressing, describing London as “leaning in” to both artificial intelligence and autonomous transport, with the UK’s technology talent base “excellent”.
For now, however, Uber’s retreat from its 2030 target underscores the growing gap between political ambition and the realities facing businesses and consumers as the electric vehicle transition loses momentum.
Read more:
Uber drops 2030 all-electric target as chief executive warns EV shift is stalling

Asda is preparing to cut up to 1,200 warehouse jobs as part of an aggressive cost-cutting programme, according to the GMB, marking a second wave of proposed redundancies in little more than a fortnight.
Union officials claim the supermarket is planning to outsource distribution of its George clothing range to DHL, placing hundreds of roles at risk across several of Asda’s clothing depots. The work is expected to be consolidated at a single DHL-operated facility in Derby.
The affected sites are understood to include Lymedale, North East Clothing and Brackmills, although the depots themselves are expected to remain open. The move follows revelations last week that more than 150 jobs were at risk after Asda suffered a sharp slump in Christmas trading.
Nadine Houghton, national officer at the GMB, said the impact on families and communities would be severe.
“In the Lymedale depot alone there are 14 couples with children whose entire household income relies on working there,” she said. “GMB is clear: the private equity buyout of Asda has been a disaster for workers, customers, the supply chain and communities.
“The recent job cuts announcement and now the outsourcing of clothing distribution paves the way for a full carve-up of the company.”
Asda is under intense pressure to rein in costs after its share of the UK grocery market fell to a new low of 11.4 per cent over the festive period. Sales in the 12 weeks to December 28 fell by 4.2 per cent year-on-year, making Asda the only major supermarket to report a decline over Christmas and marking its 22nd consecutive month of falling sales.
The turmoil reflects the scale of the challenge facing Allan Leighton, who returned to the business in November 2024 to oversee a turnaround. Leighton has warned that a full recovery could take up to five years, although he said in May that there were “green shoots” of improvement.
Despite pledging to undercut rivals including Tesco and Sainsbury’s in a renewed price war, Asda’s market share has continued to slide, from 12.6 per cent when Leighton took the helm to 11.4 per cent today. That compares with a 14.4 per cent share in 2021, when the business was acquired by TDR Capital alongside billionaire brothers Mohsin Issa and Zuber Issa in a £6.8 billion deal.
TDR has been exploring ways to restructure the group, including separating out divisions such as George and Asda Express, its convenience store estate. The latest outsourcing move is seen by unions as part of that broader strategy.
Financial markets have also reacted nervously to Asda’s struggles. A €1.3 billion (£1.1 billion) term loan issued by its parent company, Bellis Finco, in 2024 has fallen to a record low of 88 cents on the euro, down from close to par early last year.
Despite the supermarket’s difficulties, filings at Companies House show that TDR’s 17 partners shared profits of £31.3 million in the year to April, a point seized upon by union leaders.
“Hard-working families and working-class communities should not see their livelihoods put at risk due to the business decisions of a handful of private equity executives,” Houghton said. “It is time for TDR Capital to come clean and be honest about their plan for the business, they owe it to every single Asda worker.”
Comment on the DHL proposal, David Lepley, Asda’s Chief Supply Chain Officer, said: “This proposal supports the continued growth of our George.com business as we seek to achieve our ambition for George to become the UK’s largest clothing retailer by volume. The proposed change would begin in January 2027 and be completed later that year. Any colleagues who transfer will do so under TUPE regulations, which protect their existing pay, pension, and length of service.”

In response to the GMB claims that Asda will be broken up, Allan Leighton said: “The suggestion that we are looking to break up the business is categorically untrue and, frankly, insulting to all our colleagues. There is only one agenda in this business – it’s called the Formula for Growth, and we are solely focused on that.”
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Asda puts upto 1,200 warehouse jobs at risk amid cost-cutting drive

UK toy sales rose for the first time in five years last year, offering rare optimism for a sector that has struggled since the pandemic, but industry leaders are now watching closely for any fallout from potential social media bans aimed at under-16s.
The value of UK toy sales increased by 6 per cent in 2025, according to data from Circana, marking the first year of value growth since 2020. The total market was valued at £3.9 billion, as the number of toys sold also edged up by 1 per cent compared with the previous year.
Speaking at the annual Toy Fair on Tuesday, analysts said the rebound has been driven largely by the so-called “kidult” market, older children and adults whose purchasing decisions are often influenced by popular culture and online trends.
Melissa Symonds, executive director of UK toys at Circana, described 2025 as a “clear turning point” for the industry after several years of decline.
“Excluding the unusual pandemic years, this was the first period of organic growth since 2016,” she said. “Spending by older consumers has been critical to that recovery.”
Kidults, defined as buyers over the age of 12, accounted for 30 per cent of the UK toy market last year, up from 17 per cent in 2016. Building sets, particularly those produced by LEGO, have remained popular with adults, while collectibles saw 12 per cent growth across generations.
Circana identified franchises such as Pokémon, K-Pop Demon Hunters and Hello Kitty as “market-moving trends”, many of which have been amplified through social media platforms.
Tie-ins with cinema, streaming and video games also performed strongly, with brands linked to Minecraft and Formula 1 cited as particular successes.
However, the industry is increasingly alert to the potential consequences of restrictions on social media use by younger audiences. Symonds said toy makers were closely monitoring developments following the introduction of a social media ban for under-16s in Australia, amid speculation that similar measures could be considered in the UK.
“If bans were introduced more widely, manufacturers and retailers would need to rethink how some products are marketed,” she said, noting the growing role that online platforms play in shaping trends and demand.
Kerri Atherton, spokesperson for the British Toy and Hobby Association, which hosts the Toy Fair at Olympia London, said it was still too early to judge the long-term impact of any potential restrictions.
She described 2025 as a pivotal year for the sector but warned that financial pressures remained acute for both businesses and consumers heading into 2026.
“Cost-of-living pressures haven’t disappeared, even though spending on children, particularly around Christmas, has remained a priority for many families,” she said.
After a pandemic-era surge, toy sales fell back as households cut discretionary spending. The return to growth last year has given the sector renewed confidence, but industry leaders cautioned that sustaining momentum will depend on how successfully manufacturers adapt to changing consumer behaviour, both online and off.
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Toy sellers watch social media curbs as UK market returns to growth