IKEA will open a new store in a major city centre next year as it continues its focus on high street locations.

The shop in Churchill Square, Brighton, will replace the former Debenhams store which has been empty since 2021, when the high street giant fell into administration.

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Ikea has moved away from big warehouse stores in recent years and is now eyeing up smaller sites.

It already has a smaller store in Hammersmith, London, and has unveiled plans for a shop on Oxford Street, which will replace Topshop’s flagship store.

The Swedish giant has not yet confirmed the exact date when the Brighton store will open but has said it will be in 2025.

But it revealed to the Sun that it will be after the Oxford Street location has opened its doors next spring.

The launch of the Oxford Street store has been pushed back several times during the renovation of the seven-floor building.

The Churchill Square Ikea will be the homeware retailer’s 23rd store in the UK.

Plans for the site were revealed last year, to the excitement of shoppers.

It will stock a wide array of the brand’s most popular products, including 6,000 items on display and 3,000 available for immediate purchase.

Staff will be on hand to help customers plan a new kitchen, bedroom or bathroom installation.

The full Ikea range will be available for delivery.

There will also be a Swedish Deli where customers will be able to tuck into the retailer’s iconic meatballs.

The store will also have on-site parking and electric vehicle charging points.

It will be accessible by bus or using a cycle lane.

Ikea’s first city centre shop opened in Tottenham Court Road, London, in October 2018.

Although it closed in July 2021, the homeware brand has continued to focus on the high street.

In its company report Peter Jelkeby, chief executive and chief sustainability officer at Ikea UK, said: “We continue to dedicate our energy to our UK expansion plans.

“We are laser-focused on continuing to innovate to reach more customers, with a network of new, smaller stores that offer different experiences.” 

He added that the stores will also include “new services that meet all of our customers’ needs, no matter where they live”.

The report also revealed that Ikea sales slumped by 2.4% last year, which the retailer said was due to its decision to prioritise affordability by lowering prices.

The cost of almost 3,000 products were slashed last year, offering customers an average price reduction of around 19%.

Among the items to see their prices cut were the Malm chest of three drawers and Ikea 365+ frying pan.

Where is my closest Ikea?

A quick way of figuring out if you have an Ikea store near you is by using the retailer’s locator tool on its website.

You just have to enter the town or city where you live, or your postcode and it will pull up the nearest site.

The same page has a helpful map showing where all of the 21 current stores are located.

Below we reveal the full list of Ikea stores in the UK:

• Croydon
• Hammersmith
• Greenwich
• Lakeside
• Wembley
• Birmingham (Wednesbury)
• Nottingham
• Bristol
• Cardiff
• Exeter
• Belfast
• Manchester
• Warrington
• Edinburgh
• Gateshead
• Glasgow
• Leeds
• Sheffield
• Milton Keynes
• Reading
• Southampton

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Tesla shares closed down almost 9 per cent on Friday, wiping $67bn from the carmaker’s market valuation, after Elon Musk’s much-hyped Robotaxi event disappointed investors with a lack of detail about a planned fleet of autonomous “Cybercabs”.

The plunge in the stock left Tesla as the worst performer on the S&P 500. However, the group remains the most valuable car company in the world, with a market capitalisation of $696bn.

Musk, the world’s richest man, promised the new two-seated vehicle — without a steering wheel or pedals — would be available for less than $30,000 and be in production by the end of 2026, if it secures regulatory approval.

But he did not provide details on the technology behind the robotaxis, nor on how he would bring down the cost of the self-driving vehicles.

“We found Tesla’s Robotaxi event to be underwhelming and stunningly absent on detail,” said Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi. Information about “new products, offerings, and timeframes were absent, and product introductions were largely consistent with expectations”, he added.

At the glitzy “We, Robot” event at Warner Bros Studios in Los Angeles on Thursday, Musk also unveiled a prototype for a 20-person Robovan and predicted that his group’s artificial intelligence-powered Optimus humanoid robot “buddies” would be “the biggest product ever of any kind” and cost less than $30,000.

But the unveiling focused more on design, branding and Musk’s idiosyncratic vision of the future and less on the technology advances needed for Tesla to achieve it.

Following months of delay, Musk’s presentation started nearly an hour late and ended in less than 30 minutes, with Optimus robots dancing in glass gazebos and serving beer to investors.

While the robots moved with more fluidity than previous models, analysts at Morgan Stanley said they remained under human control. “It is our understanding that these robots were not operating entirely autonomously, but relied on tele-ops [human intervention] so it was more a demonstration of degrees of freedom and agility,” they said.

Jefferies analyst John Colantuoni described the event as “toothless” and predicted rivals such as Uber — which recently announced a partnership with Google’s self driving car unit, Waymo — would benefit as a result.

He added that “Tesla did not provide verifiable evidence of progress” towards the required technology, “which makes it difficult to assess feasibility of the targets outlined at the event”.

Uber stock rose 9 per cent on Friday, while rival ride-hailing app Lyft climbed 10 per cent.

Musk has said Tesla’s pivot to autonomous driving and AI could take its valuation as high as $5tn, about seven times its current market value. The group’s shares had risen 45 per cent in anticipation of the unveiling since it announced the “robotaxi day” on April 5.

But the Tesla chief has repeatedly missed targets to roll out self-driving taxis. He first promised fully autonomous rides from Los Angeles to New York by the end of 2017. In 2019, he predicted that 1mn robotaxis would be on the road by the following year.

Another disappointment for investors was Musk’s failure to unveil a more affordable electric vehicle, known unofficially as the Model 2, which will be priced at $25,000, to revive its ageing product portfolio.

MILLIONS of pensioners can get £150 to cover the cost of energy bills over the winter – but there are some key dates you need to know about.

The Warm Home Discount (WHD) is a reduction on your electricity, and sometimes gas, applied by energy firms once a year.

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Between now and December, the Government will issue letters to households that are eligible for the scheme.

The discount will be applied to energy bills over the winter by your energy firm.

The eligibility requirements for the Warm Home Discount are the same as last year, which we explain below.

You can get the help regardless of who supplies your energy, as long as you are eligible for the scheme and your firm is signed up.

If you think you might qualify for the WHD this year, there are a few dates to keep track of.

It’s important to make a note of these dates so you can plan out your finances and report any issues to your supplier.

Below, we’ve rounded up all the dates so you know what’s what.

Qualifying date – August 11

To qualify for the help, you need to have been in receipt of the guaranteed credit element of Pension Credit or a different qualifying benefit from the list below on August 11:

If you weren’t claiming any of the above benefits on August 11, 2024, you won’t be eligible for the rebate.

But, if your benefits claim is backdated to this date or earlier, you may become eligible for a discount.

Helpline opens – October 14

The WHD helpline opens for Core Group 1 and Core Group 2 customers in England and Wales.

The WHD helpline can be reached at 0800 030 9322.

The type of personal information that might be required from you includes an energy bill in your name or a tax credit certificate for the current tax year, which shows your income and the number of adults and children included in your assessment.

You may also have to provide proof of receipt of benefits.

Letters go out – between October and December

If you qualify for the WHD, you’ll receive a letter from your energy firm soon.

They’ll be dished out between October and December so keep your eyes peeled.

The letter will confirm if you are eligible for an automatic rebate or advise you to call a helpline to check if you are eligible.

Deadline to backdate Pension Credit – November 10

The August 11 qualifying date does not apply if you are receiving the guarantee credit element of Pension Credit.

This is because you can backdate Pension Credit claims by up to three months.

But, that does mean you will have to launch your Pension Credit claim by the end of Sunday, November 10.

Then, you’ll need to successfully backdate it to cover the August 11 date. If you fail to do this, you’ll miss out on the £150 discount this year.

When you need to act – January 2025

You should have received a letter to let you know if you can get the help by January.

If you still haven’t been notified and think you should be eligible then make sure you check the Government website gov.uk for more information.

Failing that, contact the above helpline for support.

Helpline shuts – February 28

February 28 is the deadline to contact the WHD helpline if you’re advised to get in touch in your letter.

Please contact the helpline included in your letter before this date if you’re eligible to make sure you don’t miss out on the payment.

All discounts must be applied – March 31

Energy firms have until the end of March next year to dish out the discounts to their eligible customers.

The £150 will be taken off your bill or given to you in voucher form between October and that date.

EDF Energy, which has around 5.22million customers, has said that it will aim to pay the discount by the end of February 28, 2025 at the latest.

And British Gas, the UK’s biggest supplier with 7million billpayers, has also confirmed that it will making the payments.

If you pay by direct debit or on receipt of your bill, the £150 Warm Home Discount will be added to your electricity account as a credit.

If you have a traditional prepayment meter, your firm will send you a voucher you can use to top up your meter at your nearest Paypoint kiosk.

You can find your closest one by visiting consumer.paypoint.com/cashout.

Boeing will axe its workforce by a tenth – cutting 17,000 jobs – and delay production as the airplane maker deals issues across its business.

Chief executive Kelly Ortberg said in an email to staff that “executives, managers, and employees” jobs are all at risk.

The business also warned of losses in its weapons and military equipment manufacturing arm and pushed back the delivery date of its 777X plane.

The news comes as the business grapples with staff striking and mounting concerns around the quality of its planes.

Mr Ortberg said in the email that the company will reduce its headcount “over the coming months”.

“Next week, your leadership team will share more tailored information about what this means for your organization,” he said, adding that it will not proceed with the next cycle of furloughs.

“The state of our business and our future recovery require tough actions,” said Mr Ortberg.

As well as cutting jobs, the company is also delaying production of its 777X due to “the challenges we have faced in development, as well as from the flight test pause and ongoing work stoppage”, a possible reference to the ongoing strike that has been going on for several weeks.

“We have notified customers that we now expect first delivery in 2026,” he said.