A recently departed senior executive at AstraZeneca and former right-hand man to Sir Pascal Soriot has said it would be “tragic” if the government did not follow through on a commitment to support a planned £450 million investment in a vaccine manufacturing facility in northwest England. A report this week suggested that the Treasury had…

The government has appointed Alan Taylor as Jonathan Haskel’s replacement on the Bank of England’s ratesetting committee. Taylor, a professor at Columbia University in New York who has advised some of the world’s largest financial institutions, will join the Bank’s monetary policy committee as an external member on a three-year term on September 2, meaning…

Being diagnosed with a rare type of cancer encouraged Kate Cotterill, co-founder of She Grows Veg, to “go big” on her seed business. In only nine months the Suffolk-based venture had sold more than 47,000 heirloom seed packets. Cotterill, 47, who had worked in advertising for 25 years, knew deep down that there was a…

Labour’s claims about the economic situation it inherited from the Conservatives should be treated with a dose of scepticism, a senior economist has said after retail sales bounced back last month. Sales increased by 0.5 per cent in July compared with June as retailers recovered from a 0.9 per cent slump previously. The rise was…

The Bank of Mum and Dad lent or gave £9.4 billion to their children last year to help them on to the property ladder – almost double the total five years ago. An analysis of UK Finance data by Savills, the estate agency, found that nearly six in ten, or 57 per cent, of mortgaged…

Paul Atterbury specialises in the art, architecture, design and history of the 19th and 20th centuries and has special interests in railway history, the First World War, sculpture and 1920-30s jazz. He has been an expert on the “miscellaneous” team on Antiques Roadshow for 34 years, has given lectures all over the world, curated exhibitions,…