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    Helen Thomas

    Business columnist

    Helen Thomas writes about British business and finance for the FT. She has previously written for the Lex column, for FT Alphaville as well as covering M&A and the mining sector. From 2013, she worked at the Wall Street Journal and at BBC Newsnight before rejoining the FT in 2021.
    Email Helen Thomas @helentbiz  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)

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    • Wednesday, 22 November, 2023
      Autumn Statement
      The crucial thing missing from the vaunted business investment bonanza

      Government should be specific about what it wants to target and create regulation to support its goal

      A researcher works in a laboratory in London, using genome sequencing equipment
    • Monday, 20 November, 2023
      Isas
      A Brit Isa won’t reconnect the market to the masses

      Idea has some merits but seems unlikely to noticeably swell the ranks of plucky British retail investors

      Jeremy Hunt
    • Wednesday, 15 November, 2023
      UK banks
      What is the point of green mortgages?

      The impact of these loans is underwhelming

      Hydrogen canisters supply homes powered by hydrogen boilers at a hydrogen test facility near Carlisle,
    • Thursday, 9 November, 2023
      Waste management & recycling
      The UK is doing the right thing in steel — just badly

      Cutting carbon emissions is the correct path but the sector also needs a strategy to recycle scrap metal

      Steel plant with smoking chimneys silhouetted against a sunset
    • Monday, 30 October, 2023
      Oil & Gas industry
      Big Oil’s transatlantic strategy gulf has never been wider — and that is OK

      Mega-deals in the US make sense, but it’s not obvious why European groups should scale up too

      Aerial view of a Hess gas platform
    • Wednesday, 25 October, 2023
      UK house prices
      Another mortgage gimmick won’t help the housing market

      The UK political juggling act of keeping prices high and promising affordability is increasingly unsustainable

      Terraced houses on a housing estate in New Addington, Croydon
    • Monday, 23 October, 2023
      Financial services
      Your happy customers are no match for the UK’s consumer duty

      When first proposed, the new regulation was seen as slightly fluffy. Not any more

    • Wednesday, 18 October, 2023
      Property sector
      Britain needs to take its sheds more seriously

      Industrial and logistics is the poor relation in a planning system that doesn’t do much very well

      An aerial view of the Amazon fulfilment centre in Coventry,
    • Monday, 16 October, 2023
      UK companies
      Six years after Carillion, UK audit reform is still circling the drain

      Accounting regulator is no longer toothless but it still needs more powers

      The sun sets behind a construction crane showing the branding of British construction company Carillion
    • Wednesday, 11 October, 2023
      Insurance
      The insurance world is flirting with its climate doom loop

      Persistent extreme weather patterns demand appropriate pricing of risks and more emphasis on prevention

      A home in Houma, Louisiana, ruined by Hurricane Ida in 2021
    • Wednesday, 4 October, 2023
      Commercial property
      The London office market is becoming harder work

      Landlords are managing to extract a price for increased flexibility and services

      The offices of Canary Wharf in the background, covered by the Meta logo, and in the foreground the Meta office at Triton Square
    • Monday, 2 October, 2023
      London fights for its future
      Dear London, my negativity is not the problem

      Don’t blame the messenger: bad press is a symptom not a cause of the UK market’s woes

    • Wednesday, 20 September, 2023
      UK infrastructure
      Dithering and indecision: the British infrastructure curse

      Failure to make and stick to plans means big projects cost far more than they should while hampering their benefits

    • Monday, 18 September, 2023
      UK energy
      We’re back to a Big Six energy market. So now what?

      A decade of reform has left the UK with a power system in danger of failing on competition, innovation and fairness

    • Wednesday, 13 September, 2023
      Electric vehicles
      The EV car crash is a warning for Europe’s industrial transition

      China is so far ahead in the electric vehicles market that its competitors are trailing in the dust

    • Monday, 11 September, 2023
      Retail & Consumer industry
      The supermarkets’ next big product is your data

      Personalised online and in-store advertising could prove very profitable for retail chains

    • Wednesday, 6 September, 2023
      UK local government finance
      Local government audit is a serious mess

      Birmingham city council’s bankruptcy highlights the worrying state of local government finances

    • Monday, 4 September, 2023
      Equities
      Why is the London Stock Exchange muscling in on the private equity world?

      The market wants to give founders, investors and employees in private companies a way to sell their shares

      The logo of London Stock Exchange Group Plc in the office atrium in the City of London
    • Monday, 31 July, 2023
      UK economy
      These superfund zombies won’t take over the pensions market

      For-profit superfunds raise concerns about regulatory arbitrage but the need for them is much reduced after market changes

    • Wednesday, 26 July, 2023
      Construction sector
      M&S has a point: blocking redevelopment on Oxford Street is anti-business

      In absence of proper policy, decision looks arbitrary and confusing

      Marks and Spencer’s Orchard House on Oxford Street, in London, England
    • Monday, 24 July, 2023
      UK financial regulation
      The cost of living crisis is no reason to buy now, regulate later

      BNPL can be useful but it should be monitored alongside other forms of consumer credit

      Close-up of a girl paying online with a credit card on a laptop
    • Tuesday, 18 July, 2023
      Working It podcast19 min listen
      Why are sexual harassment and assault still happening at work?

      Sexual harassment and assault remain far too common

    • Tuesday, 18 July, 2023
      Mergers & Acquisitions
      Global antitrust needs police as well as guard dogs

      The recent Federal Trade Commission defeat on Microsoft-Activision is a blow for those wanting to reverse decades of lax enforcement

      Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission
    • Monday, 17 July, 2023
      Telecoms
      Why Vodafone’s megamerger could have a 3.9% problem

      Many mobile companies add an identical surcharge to bills, attracting the attention of regulators

      An illuminated Vodaphone logo on its regional headquarters in Madrie
    • Wednesday, 12 July, 2023
      Pensions industry
      The future of UK pensions: delayed and confused

      Flurry of consultations does not inspire confidence in chancellor’s promised clear ‘direction of travel’

      Commuters wait to cross a junction near London Cannon Street railway station
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