UK consumer confidence tumbles as households fear ‘painful’ budget; UK debt hits 100% of GDP – as it happened

The City of London skyline in London Photograph: Hollie Adams/Reuters

4.09pm BST

Closing post

Time to wrap up, after an exciting week dominated by action (or inaction) by the world’s most powerful central banks.

Here’s today’s main stories so far:

• Microsoft has signed a major deal with nuclear plant owner Constellation Energy to restart its closed Three Mile Island plant by 2028 to power its data centres.

• Mercedes-Benz has warned that slowing sales in China would hit profits, knocking its shares today

• Personal insolvencies in England and Wales have jumped 16% year-on-year…

• …but people are still spending in the shops, lifting retail sales volumes by 1% last month

4.03pm BST

EY appointed as administrators for construction firm ISG

EY have announced that, as expected, they have been appointed as the administrators for construction firm ISG’s UK operations (as flagged earlier).

EY say:

On 20 September 2024 Timothy Graham Vance, Alan Michael Hudson and Dan Edkins of EY-Parthenon’s Turnaround & Restructuring Strategy team were appointed as Joint Administrators to the following eight UK trading entities of ISG: ISG Central Services Limited, ISG Interior Services Group UK Limited, ISG Fit Out Limited, ISG Engineering Services Limited, ISG UK Retail Limited, ISG Retail Limited, ISG Construction Limited and ISG Jackson Limited (all in Administration) (together “the Companies”).

ISG’s UK operations, which provided construction and related services across the UK, have ceased to trade with immediate effect.

ISG’s UK business has experienced liquidity constraints in recent months. The Directors explored a number of options to secure the future of the business, including a sale of all or part of the Group and refinancing options.

Despite significant efforts to secure a sale of the group over many months, a deal could not be completed. Whilst there has been misleading speculation surrounding the potential sale in the last few days, we wish to be clear to employees, suppliers, and customers that it was not possible to conclude a sale as the potential purchaser could not, despite repeated requests of them to do so, adequately demonstrate that they had the funding needed to recapitalise the business and keep it solvent.

Due to current market conditions, an alternative sale or additional funding could not be secured. As a result, the Directors made an application to Court to place certain UK trading entities of ISG in administration.