Sometimes, a complete company rethink is needed to staying in business. These finalists grabbed their businesses by the horns and proceeded …
Category: In Business
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Business Champion Awards release Scale Up and Market Disruptor of the Year Award finalists
Get clued up on which businesses are making moves in the UK
Half of SMEs experience surge in cyber-attacks
Over half of UK SMEs have experienced some form of cyber-attack in recent months a new report has found.
Regions with easier commutes lead office return
Workers outside London who have shorter commutes on public transport are returning to their offices more frequently.
Container shipping costs plunge as consumer spending declines
The price of shipping goods on vital global trade routes has fallen 85 per cent below its peak as the cost of living crisis hits consumer spending and pandemic-related supply chain disruption eases.
Rail and postal strikes ‘decimated’ festive trade with worst impact for a decade
London’s festive economy was “decimated” by rail and postal strikes, as new figures revealed the disruption caused by walkouts was the worst month on record since 2011.
SME loan rejections rise as banks further increase cautiousness
Banks are reducing their appetite to fund small and medium-sized companies, according to brokers handling loan applications.
Lord Frost urges UK to ‘fully and enthusiastically embrace advantages of Brexit’
The UK’s former chief Brexit negotiator has urged the Government to “fully and enthusiastically embrace the advantages of Brexit” as he warned of a plot to undermine the agreement.
UK watchdog to review inflation-busting rises on mobile and broadband bills
The UK telecoms regulator has launched an investigation into the industry-wide practice of hitting broadband and mobile customers with inflation-busting price rises of up to 17% and could bring in tougher protections against hefty mid-contract increases.
“Wake up call” for government as self-employed sector shrinks by £25bn
New research suggesting the self-employed sector’s contribution to the UK economy fell by an estimated £25bn in 2022 is a “wake up call” for government to change course on its agenda for the nation’s smallest businesses, the UK’s freelancer trade body has said.
![Jeremy Hunt hit the TV and radio studios yesterday like a whirlwind. Hours into his new job as chancellor, his task was to calm the financial markets, which had so brutally moved against his predecessor and triggered surging borrowing costs for homeowners. But has he done enough? Can his words calm turbulent gilt yields when trading opens on Monday morning? The risk is that markets will be hugely volatile on what will be the first time in two weeks that the Bank of England is not standing behind gilts, or government bonds, ready to buy them to ease pressure on pension funds. IN YOUR INBOX Business briefing In-depth analysis and comment on the latest financial and economic news from our award-winning Business teams. Sign up now Hunt’s media appearances were seen as an attempt to address the problems Kwarteng had created with the unfunded tax cuts in his mini budget. Acknowledging that mortgage rates have already rocketed — to as high as 7 per cent, according to some estimates — Hunt pledged credible tax and spending policies. “No chancellor can control the markets or should ever seek to do so. But the thing that is within your power is to demonstrate certainty in public finances,” he told the BBC. ADVERTISEMENT Rupert Harrison, an adviser to George Osborne when he was chancellor and now at BlackRock, said Hunt’s comments were a “turning point”. “Markets now have someone in the Treasury who gets it and who they can trust,” he said. There has been an unprecedented sell-off of gilts in the past two weeks amid fears that the tax cuts proposed by Kwarteng would fuel inflation and force the Bank of England to raise interest rates. Markets are pricing in a rise of a full percentage point from the Bank next month to take the base rate to 3.25 per cent. Even after Kwarteng’s replacement by Hunt on Friday afternoon, bond markets kept selling. Some analysts have suggested they will keep attacking until Truss resigns. Economist Julian Jessop, who has been advising the Truss camp, said Hunt’s pledge of fiscal discipline meant “Trussonomics” had been junked. SPONSORED “The whole point about Trussonomics was growing the economy ... not about a combination of tax cuts and big cuts in spending [the traditional approach]”. Jessop has previously said that Kwarteng’s mini budget went too far in announcing tax cuts, as this had spooked the markets. Hunt attempted to show yesterday that he would start work on plans to balance the books ahead of the budget planned for October 31. Unlike with the mini budget, the Office for Budget Responsibility will publish economic forecasts to accompany the government’s fiscal plans. He acknowledged to the BBC that two mistakes had been made by Kwarteng: abolishing the 45 per cent top rate of income tax; and the decision to “fly blind” without the OBR forecasts. On Friday, Truss also ditched plans to reverse a rise in corporation tax from 19 per cent to 25 per cent. That will raise £18 billion. ADVERTISEMENT Hunt also warned about “difficult decisions” on spending and taxes. “We’re going to ask all government departments to find efficiencies,” he said. “But we’re also going to have pressure on the tax side — taxes are not going to come down by as much as people hoped, and some taxes will have to go up.” George Buckley, economist at Nomura, said more detail was still needed. The reversal of the corporation tax move, he argued , “goes only a portion of the way”. Business leaders, as well as the financial markets, were watching Hunt’s performances closely. Dominic Blakemore, chief executive of FTSE 100 catering giant Compass, said the events of the past few days had been “pretty shocking”. “Throughout, we’ve needed robust, fully costed plans, because markets just can’t operate without that and in a vacuum,” he explained. Phil Urban, chief executive of FTSE 250 pub chain Mitchells & Butlers, called the situation “ shambolic”. “Business is probably realising that it can’t rely on government or politics to sort things out. So we’re just focusing on what is in our gift to do,” said Urban. One FTSE 100 boss, who did not want to be identified, resorted to expletives to describe his frustration. Describing Truss and Kwarteng as “goons”, he added: “Every single household is spending most of their time trying to balance their books, and our f***ing prime minister and chancellor don’t have to? Are you f***ing taking the piss?” His view was that Truss also had to go, to restore credibility. And that may be what the markets start to demand when trading resumes on Monday. ADVERTISEMENT Jessop said: “I don’t think Hunt did anything that would upset the markets or surprise them. But markets don’t like uncertainty. Uncertainty about economic policy — that’s maybe eased a little bit. But now we’ve got an increase in political uncertainty as we can’t be sure who the prime minister is going to be next weekend.”](https://bmmagazine---co---uk.lsproxy.app/wp-content/smush-webp/2022/10/Jeremy-Hunt-230x129.jpg.webp)
Investors join forces to call on Jeremy Hunt to end stamp duty tax
One of Britain’s biggest investment platforms has added its voice to a campaign to scrap stamp duty on investment trust share purchases after calculating that its clients alone had paid £30 million in the tax over the past three years.
65,000 customers use HMRC app to pay their Self Assessment bill
Almost 65,000 customers have paid their Self Assessment bills, totalling nearly £67 million, via the HMRC app since April 2022, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has revealed.
Biggest tech trends for businesses in 2023 according to Google
A new study from B2B sales outsourcing company, inside global, reveals data around search patterns, and what we can expect to see from technology in business in the year ahead.
UK entrepreneurs lead exodus to Dubai
Entrepreneurs looking to start a new business or achieve growth targets in 2023 are increasingly looking to leave the UK as the cost of living pressure mounts, with huge numbers now setting their sights on the hyper-connected business hub of Dubai.
StoryTerrace agrees partnership with UKTV in airtime-for-equity deal
Biography-writing service StoryTerrace has announced a unique partnership with UKTV in a £1 million ‘airtime-for-equity’ deal.
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