Here are the business stories making the headlines across Scotland and the UK this morning.
North East Scotland College ‘having to turn people away’
Students are being turned away from a place at North East Scotland College because of a lack of funding.
College principal Neil Cowie revealed the pressure as he called for more cash to deliver courses, including in rural areas.
Nescol delivers courses to around 6,000 full time students across four campuses in Aberdeen, Fraserburgh and Peterhead.
It increases to around 20,000 students across full-time, part-time, distance learning and school programmes.
Read the full story in the P&J.
Lloyds ordered to pay £1billion in HMRC legal battle
Lloyds Banking Group has been hit with a £1billion tax bill after it lost a key legal battle against HMRC.
A tribunal in London ruled against Lloyds after the bank attempted to claw back losses related to property loans from its business in Ireland in the wake of the financial crisis.
The bank said on Wednesday that it planned to appeal the decision at the upper tax tribunal.
Click here to read more.
Council yet to agree purchase of any Raac homes
Aberdeen City Council has yet to agree the purchase of any privately-owned homes found to have potentially dangerous concrete, a meeting has been told.
The local authority wants to buy the 138 former council properties which contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac).
This would be through a process of voluntary acquisition but many residents are refusing to engage, amid anger about valuations.
Click here to read more.
Disney+ subscribers plunge after price rise
Disney has suffered a drop in subscriber numbers for its streaming service after increasing prices for millions of users.
The total number of subscribers to Disney+ stood at 125 million at the end of last year, a fall of 700,000 compared with a year before. The decline came from the group’s international operations, while its domestic subscriber base rose slightly.
It comes after the media giant raised prices in October, leaving customers paying up to £24 more per year. The cost of a standard subscription rose by £1 to £8.99 per month, while a premium subscription increased from £10.99 to £12.99.
Click here to read more.
EU to tighten checks on goods sold by sites such as Shein and Temu
Parcels sent from China by online retailers such as Shein and Temu will face strict new customs controls as part of a crackdown by the European Commission on “dangerous products” flooding the EU market.
Brussels officials also urged EU lawmakers to phase out the exemption on customs duties that is allowed for parcels under €150 (£125), which enables foreign suppliers to sell cheap goods in the bloc without paying the tax.
The commission said many of the billions of low-value products that enter the EU each year were not compliant with its laws, and European companies that respected the rules were losing out to competitors selling unsafe or counterfeit products.
Click here to read more.
Google joins firms dropping diversity recruitment goals
Google has become the latest big US firm to scrap its goals to recruit more workers from underrepresented groups, BBC News understands.
The decision to abandon the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) recruitment targets comes after the company carried out an annual review of its corporate policies.
The technology giant is also reviewing some of its other DEI programmes.
Click here to read more.