Piers Wehner

Crystal Amber, the UK activist fund, is in talks with several large overseas investors about mounting a dramatic share raid on J Sainsbury.

Sir Ian Cheshire, the outgoing boss of retail group Kingfisher, has said that is could take years for supermarkets to turn around their performance.

Rents in central London have risen sharply over the last 12 months as people delay buying expensive properties over fears of a mansion tax.

A coalition plan to get 100,000 people on to the property ladder by helping them to buy new-build properties has helped just 5,000.

Profits made by Scottish royal assets, formerly held as part of the Crown Estate, will be kept by the Scottish government.

A new fashion chain, codenamed Project 50, is hunting for 50 stores across the UK before a planned launch in July.

Homebuyers in prime areas of London and the southeast will have to pay an additional £220m in stamp duty each year following last week’s reforms.

Fresh doubts have been raised over the future of Honda’s British plant after it scraped a profit of £1m on sales of £2bn.

The European Union is spending £3m converting a Calais play centre into a 12 acre centre for migrants.

Canary Wharf owner Songbird has argued that a £2.6bn takeover bid does not recognise the company’s ‘full value’.

Troubled construction company Balfour Beatty is facing renewed pressure from a fund which is attempting to break up its business.

Primark has become the latest retailer to blame recent warm weather for its sales slump, joining the ranks of SuperGroup, Next and Arcadia.