London businesses have warned the Prime Minister that the capital’s housing costs are damaging their ability to hire and keep staff, and that growth “in every postcode” cannot be delivered if the forthcoming Budget makes London less competitive with rival international cities.

Polling commissioned for the launch of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (LCCI) Choose LDN campaign found that 74% of London business leaders say the cost of housing is limiting their ability to recruit and retain staff. The chamber, which has a business network of more than 12,000, said losing the next generation of talent would weaken the capital’s standing against other global cities and put jobs, investment and growth across Britain at risk.

The survey found that 70% of young people across the UK believe career opportunities are better in London than elsewhere, with just 11% saying they are better outside it. Yet 58% of those pursuing a career outside the capital believe London is too expensive to live or work in. Outside London, 28% of young people surveyed already own a suitable home; in London the figure is 13%.

LCCI said the gap between young people’s ambition and what they can afford was “deeply concerning” at a time when almost one million young people are not in work or education. The latest ONS figures put the number of 16 to 24 year olds not in education, employment or training at 981,000 in April to June 2026.

Among those already working in London, the capital retains its pull. Some 81% say they are happy working in London, 79% see a clear career benefit from being based there and 82% of young Londoners say career opportunities are better in the capital. But only 60% of young people living in London see their long-term future there. Asked what would attract them to move to the capital, 30% of young people named being able to afford property in the next 10 years, ahead of better pay on 25% and a job in their field on 20%.

The findings land as the capital’s housing pipeline stalls, with London building just 7% of the homes it needed last year, and as recruiters forecast that up to 90,000 professional jobs will move out of London to the regions by 2031 because of the cost of operating in the capital.

LCCI argues the whole country has a stake in London’s ability to attract investment. The capital accounts for nearly a quarter of UK economic output and a third of its corporation tax, and London and the south east pay 45% of England’s income tax, the chamber said. London ran a £43.6 billion net fiscal surplus in 2022/23, the latest year for which ONS regional public finance figures are available, meaning the city generates tens of billions of pounds more in tax than is spent on it.

The chamber said the Budget, the devolution white paper and the Prime Minister’s 10 Year Plan for Britain should be used to increase London’s international competitiveness, and warned that using those moments to make the capital less attractive to international businesses would damage the country’s growth prospects.

Its Choose LDN campaign calls on the government to reverse the previous Chancellor’s increase in employer National Insurance contributions, secure a “pragmatic new deal” with the EU, cut the cost of the planning system and support first-time buyers, restore VAT-free shopping for international tourists and reverse changes to the non-dom regime.

It also wants King’s Cross designated as an AI Investment Zone, airport expansion at Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton funded by private investment, and backing for the Bakerloo line extension, the DLR extension to Thamesmead and a restart of work on Crossrail 2. LCCI said the Elizabeth line, which it values at £42 billion to the UK economy and which was funded through a mix of public and private investment, should be the model for future infrastructure projects.

Karim Fatehi OBE, chief executive of LCCI, said: “Thriving economies treat the success of their capital cities as national policy issues and build a consensus around their capital succeeding, whether you live there or not. If the Prime Minister is to meet his promise to deliver growth in every postcode, we must now do the same for London.”

He added: “We know the investment London misses out on does not go to another UK town or city, it moves to Paris, Frankfurt, Dubai or Singapore. Our rivals are not our fellow towns and cities. Our rivals are capital cities across the world. Whether you live in London or Leeds, Leicester or Liverpool, the success of our capital matters for jobs and funding for public services in every single part of the country.”

Julia Onslow-Cole, chair of LCCI, said the campaign was “positive, ambitious and timely” and added: “Making our capital city as attractive as possible for investment, job creation and growth helps to deliver prosperity across the whole country.”

Professor Michael Mainelli, president of LCCI and Lord Mayor of London in 2023 to 2024, said: “London’s success is not a London issue; it is a UK, even global, issue.”

He added: “Our international rivals are not standing still, and neither can we. If we make London the most attractive city in the world to do business, the benefits will reach far beyond the capital. When the world chooses London, the whole country succeeds.”

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SYDNEY — Matt Dee, a former lifeguard who became a household name across Australia as one of the stars of the long-running reality television series “Bondi Rescue,” has died, according to an announcement shared by a clothing brand he championed as a mental health advocate.

The news was posted Wednesday morning on the Instagram page of FTW Revolution, a clothing label connected to Suicide Prevention Australia, for which Dee served as an ambassador. The post appeared alongside a photograph of Dee laughing while holding a beer.

“It is with the heaviest of hearts that we share the heartbreaking news of the passing of our Matt Dee,” the statement read. “Matt touched the lives of many, he also did amazing work and he will be deeply missed and forever remembered by those who knew and loved him.”

Dee’s cause of death has not been confirmed. The FTW Revolution page said funeral arrangements would be shared publicly once finalized.

“This page is being monitored, however, please understand that we may not be able to respond to every message,” the statement continued. “We truly appreciate every kind message, thought and tribute.”

Dee appeared on “Bondi Rescue,” the Australian reality series following lifeguards at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach, from 2008 to 2017. The show became one of Australia’s most internationally recognized television exports, airing in dozens of countries and turning several of its lifeguard cast members, including Dee, into recognizable public figures both in Australia and abroad.

Beyond his work on the beach, Dee was widely known for his advocacy around mental health, a cause that became deeply personal after he lost both his brother and sister within roughly a year of each other following their struggles with severe mental illness.

His younger sister, Rachel Bridger Dee, died in December 2009 at age 30, after living with schizophrenia for about a decade. His older brother, Jonathan, who had bipolar disorder, died months earlier at age 34. Matt Dee was two years younger than Jonathan and three years older than Rachel. The three siblings were raised by their single mother in Melbourne and spent family holidays surfing at Torquay, on Victoria’s coast.

In a 2011 interview with The Sun-Herald, Dee reflected on the deaths of his brother and sister, describing the guilt and grief that followed.

“What happened was not their fault,” Dee said at the time. “They did their best to manage their illnesses. It wasn’t their fault. They had a problem inside their heads. It’s something we don’t understand. How would we know what it’s like?”

Dee was open in subsequent years about carrying guilt over his siblings’ deaths, saying he often wondered whether he could have done more to help them. That experience shaped much of his later public work, as he became an ambassador for the Schizophrenia Research Institute and later helped launch FTW Revolution, a clothing brand built around raising awareness and funds for suicide prevention and mental health support.

Tributes poured in across social media following Wednesday’s announcement, with fans and former colleagues remembering Dee as a warm and larger-than-life presence both on screen and off.

“Rest easy, Matt. You were always my favourite lifeguard, and my admiration has only grown after learning and seeing what you stood for,” one person wrote in response to the announcement.

Another commenter wrote: “RIP Matty Dee your humour heroism will be missed and remembered every day.”

A third tribute read: “Rip my mate Matt Dee. We had so much fun surfing and running a muck together growing up. You definitely lived life to the fullest, see you in the next life legend Spikas.”

“Bondi Rescue” first premiered in 2006 and has run for numerous seasons since, following the daily work of lifeguards patrolling one of Australia’s most famous and heavily trafficked beaches. The show’s format, blending real rescue footage with the personalities of its lifeguard cast, helped popularize a genre of beach-based reality programming that has since been replicated in other countries. Dee was among the cast members who helped define the series during its most widely watched years, appearing in footage that showcased both the physical demands of lifeguarding and the camaraderie among Bondi’s beach patrol team.

Since departing the show, Dee had largely shifted his public focus toward mental health advocacy, using his public profile to speak openly about grief, guilt and the importance of seeking support, subjects that remain heavily stigmatized in many communities despite growing public awareness campaigns in Australia over the past decade.

Suicide Prevention Australia, the national peak body for suicide prevention with which FTW Revolution is connected, has continued to expand its public campaigns in recent years, working alongside ambassadors like Dee to encourage Australians experiencing mental health difficulties, or those supporting a loved one through one, to seek help rather than suffer in silence.

Dee’s death adds to a string of recent losses among public figures connected to the reality television and entertainment world in Australia, prompting renewed conversation among fans and mental health advocates about the pressures faced by those in the public eye, as well as the broader toll of grief and loss within families affected by serious mental illness.

No further details about the circumstances surrounding Dee’s death had been released as of Wednesday. FTW Revolution said additional information, including funeral arrangements, would be shared once his family had finalized those plans.

This is a developing story, and further details may emerge in the coming days as tributes continue and formal arrangements are announced.

This report touches on suicide and severe mental illness, which can be distressing subjects. If you or someone you know is struggling, support is available. In Australia, Lifeline can be reached at 13 11 14, available 24 hours a day, or by text at 0477 13 11 14.

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Consumer group Which? says it was able to create a fake listing for 10 Downing Street on travel giant Booking.com.

The UK watchdog said its researchers were able to book a bogus stay at the prime minister’s address – as well as leave a fake review noting “hanging out” with resident mouser Larry the cat as a highlight.

It said despite clear signs it was fake, Booking.com did not remove the listing until two months after it was uploaded.

“This limited test is not a true reflection of the experience of millions of listings or reviews published on our platform,” a Booking.com spokesperson told the BBC.

They said because Which?’s listing was not “live” on its site across the two months it was present, “some of our automatic fraud controls were not triggered to completely remove the closed listing”.

People could only see the listing and request to book the property during a 20-minute window opened by Which? so its researchers could try to book it.

Booking.com’s spokesperson added “a range of checks and verification measures” help secure the site, and technologies such as AI “help us detect and remove the majority of fraudulent listings within 24 hours”.

But Which? Travel editor Rory Boland said its checks had been shown to be “unfit for purpose”.

“If Booking.com’s so-called sophisticated AI systems can’t spot that 10 Downing Street is not a holiday rental, then it’s no wonder scammers can exploit the platform so easily,” he said.

“It would be laughable that we were able to list the UK’s most famous address for rent, if the consequences weren’t so devastating for holidaymakers, who risk losing thousands of pounds to bogus listings and phishing links.”

It is not the first time the site has faced criticism over its security efforts and customer service.

Story Continues

LONDON — Prince William had to be taught by his wife, Catherine, Princess of Wales, how to give his children a piggyback because he never received one himself growing up, according to new claims from former royal household staff featured in an upcoming book.

The details are included in “Yes Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants,” a book by author Tom Quinn that draws on interviews with people who worked inside royal households, offering a rare glimpse into the private family dynamics behind palace walls.

According to a former Kensington Palace maid quoted in the book, Catherine had to walk her husband through basic parenting gestures that many families take for granted, including something as simple as carrying a child on his shoulders.

“Kate had to explain many of the things that parents outside the royal family do with their children as a matter of course,” the former maid told Quinn. “She had to show him how to give the children a piggyback, for example. William said very quietly, ‘My father never gave me a piggyback.’”

The remark, if accurate, offers a window into the emotional distance that has long been described in accounts of William’s own childhood, when royal duties and public appearances often took precedence over conventional family life. William and his younger brother, Prince Harry, were raised under near-constant public scrutiny, accompanying their parents, King Charles III and the late Princess Diana, on numerous official tours from an early age.

That upbringing, according to the accounts gathered in Quinn’s book, appears to have shaped both William’s approach to fatherhood and his temperament more broadly. An extract published in The Times cited another former staff member describing both Charles and William as prone to impatience.

“[King Charles and William] both get irritated very quickly. They are very picky. It comes naturally to them,” the former staff member said.

In such moments, according to the same account, it is Catherine who often serves as a stabilizing presence within the family. A source close to the household suggested that role has become an essential part of the couple’s dynamic since their 2011 wedding.

“I don’t know where William would be without Kate — she hasn’t had everything done for her throughout her life, so she calms him down when he gets a bit fractious,” the insider said, adding that “she sometimes has to be treated as her fourth child.”

The claims add to a broader portrait offered throughout the book of Catherine as someone who navigated the unfamiliar customs and rigid hierarchies of royal life with patience and discretion, rather than attempting to immediately reshape them to her own preferences. A former Kensington Palace employee described her approach to adapting to palace culture in similar terms.

“Kate is someone who slowly and carefully absorbs the atmosphere of a place, the relationship between people and the rules,” the employee told Quinn. “She doesn’t jump in straight away and try to change everything to suit her way of thinking. She bides her time and is very intelligent and intuitive about other people, what they do and how they behave.”

That same source said Catherine received guidance not only from William, who reportedly wanted to help her avoid some of the difficulties his mother, Diana, faced after marrying into the royal family, but also from household staff themselves.

“She was also coached — not just by William, who wanted Kate to avoid the problems his mother had encountered, but also by the staff,” the source said. “Kate was always happy to accept advice both from the lower staff, with whom she got on very well, and from the courtiers, even though some of them were initially very snooty about her.”

The dynamic described in the book reflects a period of significant adjustment for Catherine, who began her relationship with William in 2003 while both were students at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. The couple married on April 29, 2011, at Westminster Abbey in a ceremony watched by a global television audience, after which Catherine took the title Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge. William, meanwhile, was granted the titles Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn and Baron Carrickfergus by his grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II.

The couple’s titles changed again more than a decade later. On September 9, 2022, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II and Charles’s accession to the throne, William was formally invested as Prince of Wales, a title that made Catherine the Princess of Wales — a title previously held by William’s mother, Diana, until her death in a car crash in Paris in August 1997 at the age of 36.

William and Catherine now have three children together: Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, all of whom have grown up largely out of the harsh media spotlight that defined their father’s own early years, a shift widely attributed to the couple’s deliberate efforts to shield their children from the level of public exposure William and Harry experienced as boys.

Quinn’s book joins a growing body of published accounts from former royal staff members offering insight into life inside Britain’s royal households, a genre that has proliferated in recent years as former employees, biographers and royal commentators continue to produce detailed portraits of the family’s private dynamics. Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace do not typically comment on individual claims made in such books, and neither William nor Catherine has publicly addressed the specific anecdotes attributed to them in “Yes Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants.”

The book adds to renewed public interest in the Wales family’s private life this year, amid continued scrutiny of the broader royal family’s internal relationships following years of public tension between William and his brother, Prince Harry, who has separately made a series of claims about their upbringing and relationship in his own memoir and subsequent interviews.

Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri shares have surged 38.9% across two sessions, climbing from Monday’s close of Rs 304.45 to Rs 423 at 9:25 am on Wednesday, as investors continued to react to GRT Jewellers’ proposed acquisition of the listed jewellery retailer.

The stock advanced 16.11% on Wednesday, gaining Rs 58.70 after opening at Rs 380. The rise followed Tuesday’s rally, when TBZ hit its upper-circuit level of Rs 366.80.

During Tuesday’s session, the stock opened at Rs 315 and touched a low of Rs 313.10 before rallying sharply.

The rally followed GRT Jewellers’ announcement that it would acquire TBZ’s entire promoter holding and take control of the company.

Under the share purchase agreement, GRT will acquire 4.95 crore shares, representing 74.12% of TBZ’s voting capital, at a maximum price of Rs 209 per share. The promoter-stake transaction is valued at up to Rs 1,033.71 crore.

The sellers include members of the Zaveri family and two promoter-group companies, which will exit their holdings after the transaction closes.
The acquisition triggered a mandatory open offer for up to 1.73 crore shares, representing the remaining 25.88% of TBZ’s voting capital, at Rs 249.61 per share. If fully accepted, the cash offer could cost GRT as much as Rs 431.10 crore, taking the maximum combined transaction value to about Rs 1,465 crore, according to the company’s filing.Although takeover regulations require an open offer for at least 26% of a target company’s voting capital, GRT’s offer covers 25.88% because that represents TBZ’s entire public shareholding as of the announcement date.

The rally has widened the gap between TBZ’s market value and the transaction prices. At Rs 423, the stock was trading nearly 69.5% above the open-offer price of Rs 249.61, and more than double the Rs 209-per-share price agreed for the promoter stake.

Despite the open offer being priced below the prevailing market value, the two-day advance appeared to reflect investor expectations surrounding the change in ownership and TBZ’s growth prospects under the new promoter.

Following completion of the acquisition, GRT will assume control of TBZ and become its promoter. The existing promoters will cease to be shareholders and will be declassified from the promoter and promoter-group category.

The transaction is subject to approval from the Competition Commission of India and identified lenders, along with other conditions under the share purchase agreement. The price paid for the promoter stake may be adjusted downwards but cannot be increased.

GRT has said it does not intend to delist TBZ. If the acquisition and open offer reduce public shareholding below the mandatory 25% threshold, the acquirer will take steps to restore compliance within the period permitted by listing regulations.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)