Your three-minute digest

1 Whitehall is wasting tens of billions of pounds by paying over the odds for goods and services, using out of date IT systems and skimping on the maintenance of schools and hospitals, government auditors say. Gareth Davies, head of the National Audit Office, says that departments could save up to £8 billion a year simply by making companies compete for government contracts.

2 Germany is set to be the only economy in the G7 to have contracted in 2023 as a recession looms in Europe’s economic powerhouse. According to Destatis, Germany’s statistics agency, the nation’s gross domestic product dropped by 0.3 per cent last year.

3 Google’s days as the world’s dominant search engine could be numbered, the boss of Microsoft implied as he said that generative artificial intelligence would “reset” how information was found and distributed. However entrenched the verb “to Google” might seem, Satya Nadella said internet search was “ripe for disruption”.

4 Britain’s biggest nightclub operator is set to appoint administrators for parts of its business and could be forced to shut venues. Rekom UK, which owns the Atik and Pryzm brands, said the late-night sector had endured an “extremely difficult” year amid the cost of living crisis and rising bills. Page 29

5 The threat of artificial intelligence stoking inequality and sparking a financial crash provided a stark background to discussions as business leaders, regulators and policymakers gathered in Davos.

6 The government is preparing to reboot the development of Britain’s data centre network in response to complaints from the technology sector that there are issues with planning permission and power supplies for the key digital infrastructure.

7 The slowdown in the labour market has been thrown into focus by a warning from Page Group that its profits are set to fall short of ­expectations. The recruiter said that weaker demand for workers had steered ­employers away from its services.

8 A third profit warning in five months from Crest Nicholson has prompted talk that the housebuilder could find itself the target of a bid from a rival. It said that profits for its financial year until the end of October would be even lower than had been feared previously.

9 Strong investment returns for the ­final quarter of 2023 failed to stop clients withdrawing more of their money from ­Ashmore Group. The emerging markets fund ­manager won $3.9 billion of investment gains in the three-month period.

10 Installing carbon capture and storage technology at Britain’s largest power station could cost bill-payers £1 billion extra a year, according to an energy think tank.