China-US trade talks, SSE, Debenhams, Dyson electric car: your commercial news round-up

It has been a week in which we celebrated both the old and new royals, with a new prince born to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex (cue frenzied media coverage and a spike in the baby name Archie), and an ancient royal burial site found in Southend between a pub and Aldi supermarket. Elsewhere there are escalating tensions between China and the US (again) and the newly released plans for Dyson’s first electric car. Find out more here:

• Trade talks between the US and China are likely to be a little awkward today as President Donald Trump has said that China “broke the deal” and “will be paying”. As Trump vowed to more than double tariffs on $220 billion of Chinese goods, Beijing retaliated by saying it would take “necessary countermeasures” and preparations are in place for “all kinds of possible outcomes”. Stock markets have hit a five-week low ahead of the talks today and Friday, with investors clearly nervous of the increasing tensions between the two superpowers. 
• Energy supplier SSE will cut 444 jobs, it was announced this week, offering redundancy to meter installers and customer service workers. The company blamed the “challenges” of tough competition, the introduction of the government’s energy price cap for customers and higher operating costs. Last autumn SSE revealed that it had lost over 450,000 energy customer accounts and earlier this year it approached companies in order to find a buyer or merger partner after a tie-up with rival Npower was scrapped.
• All takeover bids for struggling high street chain Debenhams have been rejected, said the firm’s owners today. Celine, the consortium which took control in April, said it is convinced the proposed turnaround plan, which includes 50 of Debenhams’ 166 stores, will be supported by creditors who will be voting on the proposals later today.
• Dyson has released its patents for its first electrical vehicle which will be set to rival electric car company Tesla. The £2 billion project was launched in 2017 with the first prototype vehicles ready for testing next month. James Dyson has said that the vehicle will be significantly different to others on the market and will include “fundamentally new technologies and make some inventive leaps”. The plans show larger wheels and driver seats that would recline further than a normal car.
• The government confirmed that it will pay the £220 million to replace cladding on around 150 blocks in England similar to Grenfell Tower. Housing Secretary James Brokenshire had previously said that the bill should be paid by the owners and not the taxpayer, but leaseholders claimed that owners had been trying to offload the costs onto them. The news will come as a relief for residents still living in blocks with unsafe cladding.

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