MADE Smarter, a programme helping SME manufacturers access technology and digital skills, is to be rolled out to Scotland. The Government has committed to expanding the Made Smarter Adoption Programme to all nine English regions in 2025-26 before working with Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland from 2026-27. The announcement by HM Treasury, on Friday November […]
More businesses are shutting down than starting up for the first time in 12 years, official data shows. The number of businesses closing down jumped by 5 per cent year-on-year to hit 345,000 last year, pushing the so-called “business death rate” to a 12-year high. 11.8 per cent of all active businesses closed down in […]
Nissan is to commit to making future electric versions of its two best selling cars in Sunderland. The Japanese carmaker will announce on Friday that its new electric Qashqai and Juke models will be made at the site, helping to preserve 6,000 jobs. The investment is thought to be in the region of £1bn and […]
The largest industrial companies have won what the chancellor described as “the largest business tax cut in modern British history”, a £10 billion-a-year break on investment in plant and machinery. Full expensing, the temporary tax break brought in by Rishi Sunak when he was chancellor to help industry get through the pandemic, will be made […]
UK Export Finance (UKEF) announces today at its annual conference that it is introducing more flexible, fast-track financing for small businesses – making it easier than ever for UK firms to sell in international markets. The export credit agency has expanded its ‘auto-inclusion’ scheme which provides fast-track access to trade finance products like the General […]
Jeremy Hunt has announced that he is cutting national insurance for more than 27 million people by two percentage points in a move that will save people more than £450. The chancellor said that he would reduce the main rate of employee national insurance from 12 per cent on earnings to 10 per cent. “If […]
UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said he will consider selling the government’s remaining shares in NatWest to the general public in the next 12 months as part of his Autumn Statement on Wednesday. The Treasury still owns 39 per cent of the UK high street bank as the result of a £45.5bn bailout of the […]
The number of pubs in England and Wales that shut their doors for good rose sharply in the first half of 2023, prompting warnings to the government that planned rises in business rates could force further closures in the beleaguered sector. Figures show that 383 pubs, or more than two a day, “vanished” in the […]
Deliveroo riders do not have the right to collective negotiations on pay and conditions, the UK’s top court has ruled, in a blow to gig economy campaigners and the unions that represent them. The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) has been fighting through the courts since 2017 to have Deliveroo riders classified as […]
Eight months after a workplace sexual misconduct scandal erupted and the CBI became embroiled in an existential crisis, the business lobby group has hosted its first significant public event. The gathering, held at the QEII Centre in Westminster only two days before the government’s autumn statement, hosted 400 delegates and was seen as a relaunch […]