Retailers suffer ‘disappointing’ August as household bill increases loom

Retailers suffered a disappointing August as looming household bill increases saw consumers reining in their spending, figures show.

Total UK retail sales increased by just 0.7% year on year, plunging from last August’s 3.1% and below the 12-month average growth of 1.6%, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG.

Food sales were up 2.6% on the year, but even this was below last August’s growth of 4.7% and below the 12-month average of 3.2%. Non-food sales were down 0.8% on a year ago, against growth of 1.8% last August and below the 12-month average growth of 0.2%.

Bank has no ‘secret plan’ for unconditional interest rate hikes, says Bailey

The Bank of England has no ‘secret plan’ to unconditionally increase interest rates, the governor of the central bank has said.

Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, told MPs at Parliament’s Treasury Committee there are still ‘upside’ risks to inflation, meaning it is more likely to overshoot forecasts than undershoot.

But he stressed that expectations from the financial markets that interest rates will increase do not mean that this will definitely take place.

BMW’s new 3 Series enters final testing stages as performance M350 model confirmed

BMW’s new 3 Series is nearing production readiness as it enters the final stages of testing.

The new 3 Series will sit alongside the already-released electric i3 as part of the German brand’s multi-energy approach, which sees it produce a variety of powertrains to suit different buyers.

The 3 Series will continue to offer a series of combustion engines, with a new M350 now confirmed as the range-topper.

The markets

Stock prices in London have closed lower as Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey warned of upside inflation risks amid elevated energy prices, while Computacenter reversed an early rally to finish at the bottom of the FTSE 100.

The FTSE 100 index closed down 10.47 points, 0.1%, at 10,811.66. The FTSE 250 ended down 157.83 points, 0.6%, at 24,348.85, and the AIM all-share closed down 2.38 points, 0.3%, at 796.75.

In European equities on Tuesday, the CAC 40 in Paris closed 0.1% higher, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt ended down 0.1%.

Tuesday on Car Dealer

Tesla Model 3 leads used car price risers as EV values continue recovery

Used EV values continued their recovery in August, with three-year-old Tesla Model 3 and Renault Zoe prices rising 5.85%. Overall used EV prices increased 0.6%, though models including the Audi Q4 e-tron, BMW iX and Polestar 2 fell.

Car Dealer trust survey closes today – win an iPhone 17 by having your say

Voting closed yesterday in our special Dealer Trust Survey. One lucky entrant will be picked at random to win an iPhone 17 worth almost £800.

Lindop profits surge following major refurbishment despite fall in used car sales

Toyota dealer group Lindop saw pre-tax profits soar 527% to £546,358 in 2025 despite turnover falling 11.2% to £50.8m and used car sales declining. Higher margins and a 17.7% rise in service revenue drove the improved performance.

JLR’s financial troubles: What went wrong and what happens next?

We look at what went wrong at JLR and why it has decided to cut 4,000 jobs

Family-run car SG Petch opens fourth Mazda dealership with new York site

Family-run dealer SG Petch has opened a fourth Mazda dealership in York, expanding its network to four sites. The 49,000sq ft Monks Cross facility offers new and used sales, servicing and parts as Mazda expands its UK network.

Car dealer Lookers opens flagship Omoda and Jaecoo dealership in Battersea

Lookers has opened a new 24,000sq ft Omoda and Jaecoo dealership in Battersea, giving the rapidly expanding Chinese brands a major presence in south-west London. The site will sell the full range of models, with 62,000 combined registrations recorded in 2026 so far.

Miliband risks backlash from US and Israel as UK announces West Bank sanctions

The UK accused the Israeli government of turning a blind eye to the ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Palestinians as Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband risked an international backlash by announcing sanctions on illegal West Bank settlements.

Both Israel and the US have criticised the UK’s stance, which will see a ban on imports from illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and sanctions on individuals and firms providing services to settlers.

Mr Miliband said the British Government believed the occupation as a whole was unlawful, going beyond the previous position that only described the settlements themselves as illegal.

Tens of thousands of passengers impacted after air traffic control issue

More than 400 flights have been cancelled, with tens of thousands of passengers facing disruption after an air traffic control issue.

Nats, which provides air traffic control services to 15 UK airports, said in a statement that recovery had ‘taken longer than we had hoped’ after a technical issue in its ‘flight processing system’ which was causing the disruption on Tuesday.

Some 425 flights were cancelled to and from UK airports as of 5pm following the problem, according to flight monitoring website Flightradar24, as airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Edinburgh and Stansted confirmed they had been impacted. At about 7.30pm, Nats announced the ‘system issue’ had been resolved.

Weather outlook