Explainer-in-brief: What’s happening in the Meghan & Harry free zone

If you started tuning out of the news in mid-December last year, you would have left as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix series dominated the headlines, strikes caused chaos before Christmas and the NHS struggled under the weight of winter pressures.

Turning on the radio this morning, little had changed, with the stateside Royal set to release his book tomorrow.

City A.M., however, is decisively a Meghan and Harry free-zone. Up until the point the gossip creates actual constitutional problems, we’ll focus on the challenges plaguing Britain and causing more pain every day for businesses up and down the country.

Parliament restarts today, with Rishi Sunak announcing £250m to get people out of hospitals and into social care settings.

But this initiative was already underway, with a £500m discharge fund announced in the Autumn Statement last year. So while the health service never says no to more cash, it is unlikely to be a game changer for stretched emergency rooms and doctors.

Many social care providers have pointed out that putting more money into getting people out of hospital and into secondary settings will mean little if there’s no care staff to look after them.

Inflation fell in November, a relief to many. But it still sits at 10.7 per cent, largely driven by high energy prices as well as the cost of food.

For many businesses, especially in hospitality, this could spell disaster as the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt plans to announce a new, slashed support scheme for businesses, charities and the public sector.

As the recession starts to bite, firms are set to sack staff and put hiring freezes in place, according to research shared with City A.M.’s economic correspondent Jack Barnett.

Nearly four in five companies plan to keep staffing levels unchanged in 2023.

Fresh figures out this Friday are expected to show the economy shrank 0.3 per cent in November, putting the UK in a technical recession.

The energy support scheme for households remains in place until April, and a dip in the cost of gas will be welcome news to bean counters in the Treasury, which could save as much as £13bn, according to analysts.

Households up and down the country will face a squeeze on their budgets, with the average disposable income for a working-age family set to fall by 3 per cent, according to the Resolution Foundation.

Need we go on?

So, if you’re interested in reading news outside of the two Californian celebs of the Royal Family, City A.M. is the place.

And if all of the gloom is getting to you, we even have reasons to be cheerful for this year.