The Midlands created 5,970 foreign investment jobs in 2025, the most of any UK region outside London, as the EY 2026 Attractiveness Survey ranks Birmingham second only to the capital.
Category: In Business
Advice on growing your small and medium sized business, SME, in the UK. Hiring and managing staff and finance plus marketing all on one website
Revolut calls time on remote-first working for its newest graduates
Revolut will require graduates and interns to spend three days a week in the office from 2027, ending its remote-first stance for early-career staff while leaving wider flexibility untouched.
Find My Move launches free property portal as agents tire of rising listing fees
Hampshire-founded Find My Move has launched a free property portal for agents and landlords, signing up more than 9,000 subscribers as portal advertising costs climb.
Crown Estate banks £1bn war chest as it waits for borrowing powers to kick in
The Crown Estate held back nearly £1bn for capital projects, halving its Treasury payout to £487m as it awaits new borrowing powers under the Crown Estate Act 2025.
Tie pension tax relief to British investment, says Burnham’s economic adviser
Andy Haldane, BCC president and adviser to Andy Burnham, says the billions spent on pension tax relief should be steered towards British companies to power growth.
Anthropic accuses Alibaba of “illicitly” extracting its Claude AI in record distillation attack
Anthropic has told US lawmakers that Alibaba-linked operators ran 29 million exchanges across 25,000 fake accounts to “illicitly” extract its Claude AI model.
Whitehall has been frozen for six weeks, warns Reeves’s entrepreneurs adviser
Rachel Reeves’s entrepreneurs adviser Alex Depledge says Whitehall has been “frozen for six weeks” and warns the leadership change is a “colossal waste of energy”.
Stricter returns policies could cost UK retailers £34bn in lost sales, research warns
New Locus research warns UK retailers risk £34.1bn in annual sales as return fees and tighter policies push shoppers to spend less, or take their baskets elsewhere.
Silicon Valley money lands on British AI certifier as John Doerr backs isometric
Silicon Valley billionaire John Doerr has written the second-biggest cheque in a $40m round for Isometric, the London AI certification firm founded by an Onfido co-founder.
Getty opens its archive to ChatGPT as OpenAI deal sends shares soaring
Getty Images has signed a multi-year licensing deal with OpenAI to bring its photographs into ChatGPT, sending shares up as much as 108 per cent. Here is what the agreement means.
Small firms can buy ITV, Sky and Channel 4 airtime in minutes as Universal Ads launches in the UK
Comcast’s Universal Ads has launched in the UK with ITV, Sky and Channel 4, letting SMEs buy premium TV advertising across all three from one self-service platform.
Royal Mail opens £1m green skills fund to plug the low-carbon labour gap
Royal Mail has put £1 million of its apprenticeship levy on the table to help businesses build the green skills the UK needs to profit from, and not merely cope with, the shift to a low-carbon economy. Plumbers, electricians and other tradespeople are among those first in line to benefit.
Toy Story 5 lands the franchise’s biggest opening as Pixar returns to form
Toy Story 5 has delivered the franchise’s biggest ever opening weekend at $312m, signalling a return to form for Disney and Pixar. What it means for the box office.
‘Tax break tart’: how hospitality plans to game the summer VAT cut on children’s meals
Pubs and restaurants are devising “enterprising” menus to exploit the summer VAT cut on children’s meals, branding the Treasury’s scheme “laughable” as the sector demands a permanent 10% rate.
Weather trumps the World Cup at the till, says Tesco as growth cools
Tesco warns the weather matters more to grocery sales than home-nation World Cup wins, as a rainy spring and Middle East jitters halve UK growth to 1.8%.
