Good morning. After years of intense negotiations, yesterday the Rishi Sunak and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen finally agreed a deal on Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trading arrangements called the Windsor Framework. It marks the start of what many hope will be smoother trading relations between the UK and its largest trading partner the EU. 

Big Stories

Cap down energy bills up

Yesterday the energy regulator Ofgem announced that the price cap, the limit that utility firms can charge households will fall by 23% in April to £3,280 due to falling wholesale energy prices. Since October the government has paid the difference between the price cap and £2,500 but this threshold is due to rise to £3,000 in April – the same time that the £400 energy subsidy is due to end as well. The decrease in support will save the government an estimated £2.5bn but means higher energy bills for millions. Campaigners have called for the subsidies to be extended, something that the chancellor Jeremy Hunt has been reluctant to commit to. With global energy prices forecast to fall further in the coming months, analysts expect the price cap will fall when next updated in July to £2,112.

Twitter cuts more jobs

CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the social media platform is cutting more engineering and product jobs to curb costs. At least 200 workers will be made redundant or 10% of the 2,000 workforce still left at Twitter, since acquiring the business last year, Musk has slashed headcount by 70%. Not even Esther Crawford, a Musk loyalist and head of Twitter payments who oversaw the company’s Twitter Blue verification subscription, was spared. Employees found out they had been laid off yesterday after they realised they had lost access to Twitter’s internal Slack channel. According to data compiled by Layoffs.fyi, so far this year 417 tech companies have announced layoffs affecting nearly 120,000 employees. 

LinkedIn scam warning

The world’s largest professional network is warning that a growing number of its users are being defrauded by increasingly sophisticated recruitment scams. Historically the default expectation of in-person interviews made recruitment scams more difficult to execute but the rise of hybrid work has made it easier. In a typical con scammers pose as employers that are actually hiring (armed with copycat recruiter profiles and corporate websites), and reach out to jobseekers to set up a video interview. Then they offer the “candidate” the job and ask for personal information, like banking details or sensitive documents, as part of a fake onboarding process, allowing them to breach private accounts or steal identities.

Man Utd shares tumble

The New York listed shares of the football club fell 10% yesterday after reports that the owners, the Glazer family, want higher offers from bidders if the team is to be sold. It comes just a day after Manchester United won the Carabao Cup, its first trophy since 2017. Shares have fallen almost 20% in the past week, reducing the value of the club by $1bn to $3.8bn. The Glazers are understood to be looking for offers in the region of $6bn. So far interested bidders include chemicals billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Qatari Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al Thani. Any full sale of the club would be one of largest deals in sports history, and although the Glazers have put the club up to buy, they could remain in charge or still invest into the company.

Elsewhere...

Eating less greens: Lidl has become the latest supermarket to impose limits on the numbers of peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes customers can buy.

Shopping spree: Primark owner Associated British Foods has upped its outlook for the full year after reporting a jump in sales at the budget fashion chain as consumer spending held up better than expected.

Robo-lawyer: RobinAI, a British computing company, has raised $10.5m from backers including Magic Circle law firm Clifford Chance to develop an artificial intelligence driven lawyer.

Saying goodbye: John Lewis has parted company with Pippa Wicks, the head of its department store chain who oversaw the ditching of its famous “never knowingly undersold” marketing pledge, after less than three years.

Gender balance: Women now make up 40% of boardroom positions across FTSE 350 firms, as the UK hit its own gender balance target three years early.

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Number Of The Day

£7 trillion

The net UK housing wealth (property values minus mortgages) in 2022, the highest ever according to estate agent Savills.

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