Business
Student loan repayment review urged by 120 MPs and peers
More than 120 MPs and peers have written to Chancellor John Healey calling for an urgent review of the student loan repayment system, which they say places an “unsustainable burden on the next generation of workers”.
The open letter was coordinated by the campaign group Rethink Repayment. Its cross-party signatories include Laura Trott, the Conservative shadow education secretary, and Munira Wilson, the Liberal Democrats’ education spokeswoman, as well as MPs who hold Plan 2 student loans themselves.
The letter does not single out a particular loan plan or nation. The debate has, however, centred on Plan 2 loans, taken out by students in England between September 2012 and July 2023 and still issued in Wales. More than half of graduates who responded to a Treasury Committee survey this year said they would not take out a loan again.
Plan 2 graduates repay 9 per cent of earnings above the repayment threshold.
The signatories say that “successive governments’ adjustments to repayment thresholds”, together with high interest and marginal tax rates, are “placing an unsustainable burden on the next generation of workers”.
Many middle-income graduates, the letter says, “see less than half of any hard-earned pay rise due to a combination of income tax, national insurance and student loan repayments”.
It adds: “We are united in the belief that the current repayment framework requires urgent review… to ensure it is fair, sustainable, and supportive of aspiration.”
The letter refers to a decision taken last November by then-Chancellor Rachel Reeves to freeze the Plan 2 repayment threshold at £29,385 between 2027 and 2030, rather than allowing it to rise with inflation. The freeze means graduates will start repaying sooner than they otherwise would have done, and will repay more as their salaries rise.
Campaigners want that decision reversed, a call echoed by the Treasury select committee in its report last month following its inquiry into student loans.
The committee’s report referenced a BBC investigation which found the government compared Plan 2 repayments to £30-a-month phone contracts in promotional presentations to teenagers a decade ago. This was “inaccurate for higher earners”, the report said, and “amounted to mis-selling”.
Last week, Education Secretary Lucy Powell said the interest rate on Plan 2 loans was “egregious” and that the issue was at the top of her in-tray.
Tom Gordon, Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, who signed the letter, told the BBC he could not “see an end in sight” to his own Plan 2 repayments and expected his debt to be written off after 30 years in line with the repayment terms.
“If someone earning an MP’s salary still isn’t likely to repay their student loan in full, what chance does someone on a much lower income have?” Gordon asked, describing it as “an issue of fairness”.
“Governments have changed the repayment terms and increased interest rates after people had already signed up,” he said. “No bank or mortgage lender could retrospectively rewrite the terms of a loan like that. It simply wouldn’t be allowed. So why should the government be able to do it?”
Oliver Gardner, founder of Rethink Repayment, said the letter showed “the student loans crisis” was not “a partisan issue”.
“We believe that now is the time to create a system that is fair and that unshackles millions of graduates from mountains of student loan debt,” he said.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We know the system we inherited is broken and unfair, and some graduates feel the weight of this more strongly.
“We want to make sure the student loans system works better for everyone and are considering our response to the Treasury Committee’s inquiry.”
Business
Britannia Q1 Results: Profit rises 14% to Rs 593 crore on volumes, price rise
The company had logged a net profit of Rs 520.13 crore in the April-June period a year ago, according to a regulatory filing from the bakery food company.
Revenue from the sale of products was up 9.47 per cent to Rs 4,964.37 crore in the June quarter. Revenue from operations was higher by 8.17 per cent to Rs 4,999.97 crore.
Commenting on the results, MD and CEO Rakshit Hargave said:“ The year started with West Asia conflict, leading to a steep increase in cost of fuel and shipment charges across our domestic & international businesses, which we have been able to navigate well during this quarter delivering a healthy volume and value growth.”
The company, facing competition from local rivals, said it is also gaining ground against competition, with profits growing ahead of topline in double digit over last year.
“Most key categories saw positive sequential momentum as we exited the quarter with a mid-teens revenue growth, anchored by rapid scaling in e-commerce and robust growth in General Trade, aided by higher advertisement, influencers & promotion spends,” he said.
Moreover, its International Business also recovered sequentially as supply chain constraints began normalising in last part of the quarter, said Hargave.Total expenses were at Rs 4,262.24 crore, up 7.27 per cent in Q1/FY27.
Total income, which includes other income, was higher by 8.16 per cent to Rs 5,061.38 crore.
Over the outlook, the company said it will continue to closely monitor the evolving geopolitical situation in West Asia and crude oil volatility for potential impact on international operations and domestic input costs.
“We will remain agile in our actions to deliver healthy, sustainable revenue growth amid an improving domestic demand environment, driven by sharp innovation, strong brand investments, and disciplined margin management through accelerated cost efficiency initiatives,” he said.
Shares of Britannia Industries on Thursday settled at Rs 5,430 apiece on BSE, down 0.26 per cent from the previous close.
Business
Aschenbrenner makes quick return after near-collapse of Situational Awareness

Aschenbrenner makes quick return after near-collapse of Situational Awareness
Business
Satterley acquires Home HQ Busselton retail project
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Business
Car washes and vape shops can still sponsor skilled foreign workers despite visa changes
More than 1,900 small high street businesses including mini-marts, vape shops and car washes are licensed to sponsor foreign workers under a specialist scheme intended for high-earning individuals despite visa rules being tightened, BBC Verify has found.
The Home Office scheme allows registered employers to recruit workers from overseas who meet a certain skill level. The rules were tightened in July 2025 to restrict the scheme mostly to graduate-level employees who would be earning at least £41,700.
But a year on from the rule change, BBC Verify has found more than 1,500 grocery and convenience stores, 150 taxi operators, 100 barber shops, and dozens of car washes and vape shops are still on the register and able to sponsor people to apply for visas.
More than 100 of those businesses were added to the skilled worker sponsorship list after the rules were tightened. Being on the register does not mean applications for individual visas would be approved.
Health Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Thursday the government will “make sure that the rules are being properly enforced because we cannot have employers getting round the rules or finding different ways to deviate”.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood ordered an urgent review into the presence of vape shops, barbers and car washes on the skilled worker sponsor register two months ago, following concerns over the “potential misuse of the system”. The Home Office said at the time that any businesses seeking to abuse the system would have their licences revoked.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We have raised the skilled worker threshold and over 100 occupations are now ineligible for new skilled worker visas.”
It is understood some of the companies that joined the register after the rules changed may have applied before they took effect. Some companies may have also remained on the register because they were approved before July 2025 or are sponsoring workers who were already in the UK.
There are more than 120,000 businesses with licences to sponsor skilled workers. The skilled worker scheme was introduced after Brexit for employers to recruit workers after EU free movement ended. Smaller firms must pay a £611 fee to apply to join the register while larger businesses, such as those with more than 50 staff, pay a fee of £1,682. Anyone can be visited by the UK Visas and Immigration service during the application process.
Until July last year, someone being hired from abroad could qualify for sponsorship if their qualifications met an A-Level or equivalent standard, as long as they were paid at least £38,700 in most cases. Since the rule change, non-graduate professions, such as shop managers, are no longer eligible to apply. There are also higher English-language skill requirements that were introduced in January this year.
The Home Office said there were 68,067 skilled worker visas granted in the 12 months to March this year – 29,745 to main applicants and 38,322 to their dependants – which is 30% lower than the year before. IT professionals were the most common type of people to be granted the visas, followed by those people working in finance, while the fall in approvals was mostly attributed to those in food preparation and hospitality trades no longer qualifying for the scheme.
Business
Social media's ugly face turns up in Secret Harbour
ANALYSIS: There was always a good chance that political campaigning for Secret Harbour’s by-election would turn ugly.
Business
Cashed up goldies jostle for position
A US agitator and a $10.7 billion merger in Perth could be the catalyst for another major reshaping of WA’s gold sector.
Business
Peloton (PTON) Q4 2026 earnings
Peloton delivered its first full year of net profit and operating income in fiscal 2026, but said it expects sales to fall in the coming fiscal year as it begins to lap price increases on its hardware and subscription plans.
Peloton shares tumbled nearly 13% in morning trading Thursday as the outlook disappointed investors. Even so, Peloton CEO Peter Stern highlighted the major strides the company has made in becoming profitable.
“This was the year where Peloton sort of grew up,” Stern told CNBC in an interview, calling fiscal 2026 a “landmark” year for the company financially. “That solid foundation positions us for what we need to do to get to long-term growth to deliver on our strategy of becoming a connected wellness company and puts us in really our strongest position to date.”
In the year ended June 30, Peloton posted net income of $63.2 million, up from a loss of $118.9 million in the year-ago period, helped in part by the brand’s decision to raise prices last fall.
Looking ahead to fiscal 2027, the company expects another year of positive free cash flow. It also anticipates gross margin and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization will grow compared with the prior year.
Aside from its fiscal year, Peloton issued mixed results for its fiscal fourth quarter.
Here’s how the company performed compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: 13 cents vs. 13 cents expected
- Revenue: $608 million vs. $598 million expected
Peloton’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended June 30 was $61.6 million, or 13 cents per share, compared with $21.6 million, or 5 cents per share, a year earlier.
Sales rose to $607.7 million, up slightly from $606.9 million a year earlier.
Though it raised prices last fall, Peloton’s annual sales still dropped in fiscal 2026 compared with the year-ago period. In the current fiscal year 2027, Peloton said it expects sales to fall nearly 4% to between $2.3 billion and $2.4 billion, worse than the $2.42 billion analysts had been looking for, according to LSEG.
It shows that while Peloton has made enormous strides in becoming a stronger, more profitable business with more say over its destiny, it’s still struggling to sell its pricey hardware and keep subscribers engaged and paying.
“We are gradually improving the trajectory of our gross adds and our connected fitness sales while we’re keeping churn flat,” said Stern. “We’re not at the stage yet where we turn the net of all those things positive, but we’re getting better and better so that’s basically the story of [fiscal year] ’27. We’re a work in progress on that one but the trajectory is getting better in ’27 than it’s been in a long time.”
Peloton recently hired Sarah Robb O’Hagan as its new chief content and member development officer, succeeding company veteran Jen Cotter, as Peloton looks to stabilize churn, or subscribers dropping off memberships. In the role, Robb O’Hagan will focus on accelerating innovation and driving engagement and loyalty, said Stern.
“We’ve kicked off a major project under Sarah focusing on member development. This looks at everything from onboarding through to the experience of live classes,” said Stern.
“The other thing that Sarah’s done is at the same time that we’re adding new instructors, she has re-signed contracts with a significant portion of our existing instructors. So we’re continuing to deliver on what our members love about Peloton while also sort of challenging them to broaden their experience,” he added.
Peloton is pursuing a number of new revenue streams under Stern. It recently announced a partnership with Spotify and is working to launch its first-ever commercial Bike and Tread this fall, which will allow Peloton to expand into commercial gyms. Stern couldn’t yet say which gyms the company might be partnering with as it just finalized pricing on the machines, but said there’s been “plenty of interest.”
“We’re having lots of conversations, but we’re not actually making sales yet,” said Stern.
Business
Family offices back sustainability startups in July
Venture capital investor John Doerr during an interview on an episode of “Bloomberg Wealth with David Rubenstein” in Stanford, California, July 22, 2022.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
Investment firms of ultrawealthy families showed no signs of slowing down in July despite a turbulent month for markets between a sharp correction and soaring energy prices.
Last month, family offices made 57 direct investments in companies, holding steady from June, according to data provided exclusively to CNBC by Fintrx, a private wealth intelligence platform.
July’s buzziest deal was a $10 billion fundraise for Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, which included $2 billion from the Amazon billionaire’s namesake family office. Bezos Expeditions is the most active family office investor thus far this year, backing five artificial intelligence startups in June alone.
While AI startups represented the bulk of the month’s dealmaking activity, more than 15% of investments were made in clean energy and sustainability firms. Antora Energy, a thermal battery startup, closed a $550 million Series C round that included venture capital billionaire John Doerr as an investor. Foris Ventures, Doerr’s private venture firm, has backed other clean energy firms like Panthalassa, Pacific Fusion and Rondo Energy.
Investors’ appetite for renewable energy has cooled in recent years due to backlash against environmental, social and governance, or ESG, strategies, as well as the Trump administration’s crackdown on climate initiatives and policy. However, the power demands of AI and the fuel crisis caused by the Iran war have rejuvenated interest in green energy.
U.S. sustainability funds reported inflows of $3 billion in the second quarter of 2026, ending a streak of 14 quarters of net outflows, according to Morningstar.
“Roaring demand for electricity, shifting geopolitics, and disruptive market forces are reshaping the world as we know it. The question is: How will we respond?” Doerr wrote in April, announcing a new action plan for solving the climate crisis. “What was once an opportunity is now an imperative. Only clean energy can meet the surging demand for affordable, durable, and sustainable energy. Only clean energy can deliver abundance that lasts.”
Legendary energy trader John Arnold backed Hephae Energy Technology, an advanced geothermal drilling startup, in a $17.8 million Series A round that closed in July.
“I’m very interested in the geothermal story, the advanced geothermal story, which can unlock a lot more of that resource and provide the baseload power in many locations at what appears to be kind of a market price,” Arnold told CNBC’s Melissa Lee in February.
Family offices’ interest in renewable energy and sustainability has largely endured even as many traditional investors have retreated. More than half of respondents in a September poll of 346 family offices conducted by Citi Private Bank said they were likely to allocate to sustainable investments in the next five years.
This support is likely to continue as the next generation takes the reins, per a Bank of America survey released in November. More than half of family office principals said they expected heirs to maintain or increase their firms’ allocation to sustainable or impact investments.
Walmart heir Lukas Walton has dedicated his family office, Builders Vision, to advancing environmentalist and sustainability efforts through investing and philanthropy. In July, Builders Vision joined a $43 million Series A for Lydian, which produces synthetic aviation fuel, alongside Grok Ventures, the private investment firm of Atlassian’s billionaire CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes.
Business
Oportun Financial Corporation (OPRT) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Operator
Greetings, and welcome to the Oportun Financial Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
And now it is my pleasure to introduce Dorian Hare of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Dorian Hare
Senior Vice President of Investor Relations
Thanks, and hello, everyone. With me to discuss Oportun’s second quarter 2026 results are Doug Bland, our Chief Executive Officer; and Paul Appleton, our Interim Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Head of Capital Markets.
I remind everyone on the call or webcast that some of the remarks made today will include forward-looking statements related to our business, future results of operations and financial position, including projected adjusted ROE attainment and expected originations growth, planned products and services, business strategy, expense savings measures and plans and objectives of management for our future operations. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated or implied by these forward-looking statements, and we caution you not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.
A more detailed discussion of the risk factors that could cause these results to differ materially are set forth in our earnings press release and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the caption Risk Factors, including our upcoming Form 10-Q filing for the quarter ended June 30, 2026. Any forward-looking statement that we make on this call are based on assumptions
Business
Bank of America moves into Perth
Wall Street giant Bank of America has set its sights on Perth, relocating a senior Sydney banker to establish a permanent presence in the mining capital.
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