Thousands of jobs are at risk after discount high street chain Poundland was sold – with dozens of shops expected to shut.

Poundland has been sold for a headline figure of €1 to investment firm and former Laura Ashley owners Gordon Brothers, confirming Sky News reporting.

Its previous owners, the Poland-based Pepco Group, however, are to be repaid tens of millions of pounds as part of the sale.

Poundland employs roughly 16,000 people across an estate of over 800 shops in the UK and Ireland.

Read more:
UK economy contracts – with record fall in exports to the US after Trump tariff hikes
Spending review’s key points at a glance

Around 100 stores are expected to close, and rent reviews are also expected to be negotiated with Poundland landlords.

The chain, known for selling products for £1, was put on the market earlier this year after a downturn in trading. Employers’ tax hikes announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the November budget increased the financial pressure on high street retailers.

Follow The World

Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday

Tap to follow

As part of the deal, a restructuring plan requiring High Court approval will take place. Details of that restructuring will be communicated in “due course”, owners Pepco said.

It will retain a minority stake in Poundland.

Pepco said the deal would help it shift away from food and drinks, improve its revenue growth and boost its profitability

Stephan Borchert, Pepco Group’s chief executive, said: “This transaction will strongly support our accelerated value creation programme by simplifying the group and focusing on our successful Pepco business.

“Poundland remains a key player in UK discount retail, with millions of customers annually and a well-loved brand and proposition.”

Economists suspected that the comfortable growth enjoyed at the beginning of the year might prove to be short-lived, and they appear to be right.

After expanding by 0.7% in the first quarter of the year, output struggled at the start of the second quarter, shrinking by 0.3% in April.

The damp performance is likely to continue, with economists expecting a 0.1% decline over the second quarter.

The dashboard is flashing warning signs.

The economic data for the start of the year was flattered by people bringing forward house purchases to beat the stamp duty holiday deadline as well as businesses racing to get orders out of the door to beat possible US tariffs.

Now that those temporary factors have faded away, we can better gauge the state of the economy. It makes for unpleasant reading.

A hobbled economy

We are still being hobbled by low growth and high taxes, and the two are reinforcing each other.

In a more detailed breakdown, the ONS revealed that the services sector shrank by 0.4%.

Although economists were expecting consumer spending to hold up, businesses are gripped by a crisis of confidence, with higher national insurance contributions forcing them to put up prices.

This led to a drop in sales. At the same time, the legal sector also came crashing down to earth following a drop in house purchases.

Consumers have less space than usual to absorb price rises, with utility bills on the up and general inflation proving persistent. Taxes are already at a generational high, and they could go higher if the economy disappoints.

The Chancellor Rachel Reeves‘s headroom against her fiscal rule is tight, with debt interest payments on the country’s debt eating into her room for manoeuvre.

A Reeves or a Trump problem?

The chancellor today pointed to factors outside of her control, hinting towards President Trump’s tariff policy.

Most of Britain’s problems are domestic ones – high government borrowing costs, rising cost of living pressures and higher taxation, but geopolitical forces have also conspired against us.

The production sector, which captures manufacturing, fell by 0.6%. This was driven by a 9.5% drop in the manufacturing of cars, with industry groups warning of a slump in export orders after Trump’s imposition of industry-wide tariffs at the end of March.

British officials are hopeful that the US will start lifting car tariffs this week after a deal was struck back in May, but it still hangs in the balance.

Even then, a new quota limits the scope for companies to grow in the US market. That’s bad news for the likes of JLR, the maker of Jaguars and Land Rovers.

Follow The World

Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday

Tap to follow

All this matters for a chancellor with a historically small fiscal headroom. Even small changes in the growth outlook could derail her plans, forcing further tax rises to pay for her spending plans.

She is betting big on investment in infrastructure- trains, nuclear power, social housing – but it could take many years for that to pay dividends, if it pays dividends at all.

In the meantime, the debt continues to grow as she borrows to fund those projects, putting further pressure on her budget to cover the interest payments alone.

It’s a painful feedback loop for the economy.

Footage has emerged showing the moments before a London-bound Air India flight crashed near Ahmedabad Airport in the northwestern Indian state of Gujarat – shortly after take-off.

More than 200 people – including 53 British nationals – were on board flight AI171 to London Gatwick.

Taken from what appears to be a property, harrowing footage shows the aircraft descending over a residential area.

India plane crash latest: Follow live updates

It crashed in an area called Meghani Nagar at 1:38pm local time on Thursday, according to Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, the director general of the directorate of civil aviation.

Its wheels are still down, as you would expect from take-off.

The plane then disappears behind buildings as it descends.

A massive explosion follows as a huge fireball erupts and thick black plumes of smoke can be seen rising into the skies.

Flight tracking website Flightradar said a signal was last received from the aircraft less than a minute after take-off.

Read more: What we know so far

It is the first ever crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.

Air India said 242 people, including 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian national, were on board the flight.

Follow The World

Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday

Tap to follow

In a statement, London Gatwick said the flight was due to land at 6.25pm local time on Thursday.

India’s civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said: “Rescue teams have been mobilised, and all efforts are being made to ensure medical aid and relief support are being rushed to the site.”