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Business live
BMW to build next-generation electric Mini in Oxford; John Lewis chief calls for royal commission to save high streets
Live  
BMW to build next-generation electric Mini in Oxford; John Lewis chief calls for royal commission to save high streets
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as BMW prepares to announce it will build its next-generation electric Mini in the UK
Headlines
Automotive industry  
BMW to make electric Mini in UK after securing millions in government funding
BMW to make electric Mini in UK after securing millions in government funding
Rising borrowing costs  
UK firms ‘slow output and rein in hiring’
Energy  
Former rubbish dump in Essex becomes UK’s third largest solar farm
Politics  
Sunak refuses to make pensions triple lock election commitment
Have we reached peak China?  
How the booming middle class hit a brick wall
Rocco Forte  
Hotels tycoon who stopped donating to Tories gives party £10,000
Barclays  
Bank seeks climate director after protests over fossil fuel finance
Unions  
TUC complains to UN watchdog over ‘undemocratic’ UK anti-strike law
Exclusive  
‘Tame’ wide British roads and replace them with boulevards of homes, says thinktank
Pensioner poverty  
Fear of UK rise over decades as under-40s wealth falls
Environment  
UK’s net zero ambitions at risk after ‘disastrous’ offshore wind auction
Politics  
UK bosses flocking to Labour conference as business walks away from Tories
NatWest  
New boss worked for oil firm under investigation in ‘world’s biggest financial scandal’
Wegovy  
The slimming drug that keeps Denmark’s economy growing
Today's agenda
BMW will unveil a significant investment in its electric Mini plant in Oxford today, a move that will secure 4,000 jobs and strengthen the UK’s electric vehicle supply chain.

The investment by the German carmaker is the result of “extensive” engagement with the UK government, according to the business and trade department, and marks a reversal of plans to move electric Mini production abroad to China.

The plans to move production overseas – revealed last year – were seen as a blow to the UK’s ambitions to become a leader in global electric car manufacturing, and followed Honda’s decision to quit the UK in 2019.

The U-turn was hailed by government ministers including the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, who said BMW’s investment was “a huge vote of confidence in this country as a global leader in electric vehicles”.

Hunt said:“This industry is motoring, creating thousands of jobs and powering our green transition.”

The government said BMW’s move represented a “multimillion-pound investment” but did not disclose a figure.

The carmaker is expected to provide further details on the investment, including the total sum, later on Monday, with the taxpayer also providing government funding (previously reported at £75m).

The chair of the John Lewis Partnership is calling for the UK government to launch a new royal commission help rescue and restore Britain’s high streets.

Dame Sharon White warns that the UK high street is in poor health, and that planning, taxation, crime, environmental policy, housing and transport all need to be considered together to find solutions.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph today, she says: "Too many towns and cities are shells of their former selves. Boarded-up shops left vacant, dwindling numbers of banks and post offices. And in their place, seemingly endless rows of vaping and charity shops. For too many local residents, the heart has been ripped out of their community.

'Britain has lost 6,000 shops in the past five years, according to the British Retail Consortium. There are John Lewis and Waitrose stores amongst these statistics, but the Partnership is still standing strong, with more than 360 physical shops nationwide."

The collapse of Wilko this summer, which has already cost over 1,000 jobs, has highlighted the problems in retail.

The sector has endured a tough 15 years. First the financial crisis triggered a recession, followed by a long programme of austerity that squeezed household incomes.

The move to internet shopping forced more retailers to the wall, as the slump in the pound after the Brexit vote drove up import costs.

Between 2013 and 2018, one in 12 shops closed. And that process continued as the Covid-19 pandemic led to months of lockdowns, driving consumers to web shopping instead.Dame Sharon argues that a royal commission could consider the best mix of retail, hospitality, offices and housing needed locally, to return high streets to becoming more welcoming places where people want to live, work and spend time.

The agenda
• 9am BST: Bank of England’s chief economist Huw Pill is a panellist at the Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce
• 2pm BST: Russia’s balance of trade for July

We’ll be tracking all the main events throughout the day ...
Opinion
Post-Brexit shift in immigration may mean higher wages and more self-sufficient UK economy
Larry Elliott
Post-Brexit shift in immigration may mean higher wages and more self-sufficient UK economy
Analysis  
China troubles could upset Apple’s cart as it prepares to launch the iPhone 15
If Unilever truly wants ‘a world with more joy’, why is it filling Putin’s war chest?
Catherine Bennett
Now even the Bank of England admits greedflation is a thing
Phillip Inman
Media
Alastair Stewart  
Newsreader reveals he has been diagnosed with dementia
Newsreader reveals he has been diagnosed with dementia
Social media  
TikTok food tourists leave a bitter taste in Amsterdam
Spotlight
The strain of moderating social media
‘I log into a torture chamber each day’  
The strain of moderating social media
As jobs screening US, UK and EU platforms are shifted to India, viewing ‘gore’ to clean up the web has traumatised moderators
Popular on business
How austerity (and ideology) broke Britain
How austerity (and ideology) broke Britain
New NatWest boss worked for oil firm under investigation in ‘world’s biggest financial scandal’
Two years and £45m of taxpayer cash: the steady launch of state bank UKIB
Wegovy: the slimming drug that keeps Denmark’s economy growing
Don’t be fooled by rail ticket office promises
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