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Latest News:

  • Morrisons to shut 100 convenience stores as supermarket blames Labour’s ‘policy choices’ for rising costs
  • April borrowing surges to £24.3bn as debt interest bill breaks month record
  • Jaguar Land Rover eyes American tie-up with Stellantis to sidestep Trump tariffs
  • Labour eyes £1bn VAT raid on airport charges in stealth blow to family holidays
  • Blame the system, not the school leavers for youth unemployment, says Amazon’s UK boss
  • Potters win £120m rescue as government finally backs Britain’s ceramics heartland
  • Reeves serves up summer of savings with VAT cut on family days out
  • Andrew trade envoy files: Queen ‘very keen’ ex-prince led UK plc abroad, Whitehall papers reveal
  • HS2 reset to punch £33bn black hole in Britain’s public finances
  • Youth jobs in retreat: IFS warns Britain is sliding back to Covid-era lows

Category: News

The latest news affecting small and medium sized (SME) businesses in the UK

Morrisons is preparing to pull down the shutters on 100 loss-making convenience stores in a move that places hundreds of shop-floor jobs in jeopardy, with the Bradford-based grocer pointing the finger squarely at Labour's tax and wage agenda for tipping the sites into terminal decline.

Morrisons to shut 100 convenience stores as supermarket blames Labour’s ‘policy choices’ for rising costs

22 May 2026 News Amy Ingham 0 Comments

Morrisons is closing 100 loss-making convenience stores, putting hundreds of jobs at risk, and has blamed Labour’s “policy choices” for the rising costs eroding profitability.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is facing mounting calls to resign from frustrated business owners after a series of leaks ahead of this week’s Budget - drawing comparisons with Labour Chancellor Hugh Dalton, who quit in 1947 after briefing a journalist moments before delivering his statement.

April borrowing surges to £24.3bn as debt interest bill breaks month record

22 May 2026 News Jamie Young 0 Comments

UK public sector borrowing climbed to £24.3bn in April 2026, overshooting the OBR forecast, as Treasury debt interest payments hit a record £10.3bn for the month.

Britain's biggest car manufacturer has, for the first time in its history, cracked open the door to assembling Range Rovers and Land Rover Defenders on American soil, a move that would have been unthinkable a generation ago, and one that has been forced squarely onto the agenda by Donald Trump's tariff regime.

Jaguar Land Rover eyes American tie-up with Stellantis to sidestep Trump tariffs

22 May 2026 News Jamie Young 0 Comments

Jaguar Land Rover signs a memorandum of understanding with Stellantis to explore building Range Rovers and Defenders in the US, sidestepping President Trump’s tariff cap on British-made cars.

British families planning a getaway this summer could find the cost of flying creeping up again, after it emerged that Treasury officials are quietly drawing up plans for a £1bn VAT raid on the fees airports charge airlines, a move the industry has branded a stealth tax on holidaymakers and exporters alike.

Labour eyes £1bn VAT raid on airport charges in stealth blow to family holidays

22 May 2026 News Amy Ingham 0 Comments

HMRC drafts plans to slap 20% VAT on airport landing fees, adding £1bn to airline costs and pushing up the price of UK family holidays — even as Reeves cuts VAT on days out.

Britain's largest online retailer has waded into one of the most uncomfortable debates in Westminster and the boardroom: who, exactly, is to blame for almost a million young people sitting outside the labour market?

Blame the system, not the school leavers for youth unemployment, says Amazon’s UK boss

22 May 2026 News Amy Ingham 0 Comments

Amazon UK chief John Boumphrey tells employers to stop blaming young people for record NEET numbers and calls for compulsory work experience for over-16s.

After years of quiet desperation in Stoke-on-Trent, the kilns finally have something to celebrate. The government has unveiled a £120 million support package for the UK ceramics industry, ending a prolonged lobbying campaign by manufacturers and trade bodies who had warned that one of Britain's oldest industrial sectors was being allowed to slip away.

Potters win £120m rescue as government finally backs Britain’s ceramics heartland

22 May 2026 News Amy Ingham 0 Comments

The UK ceramics sector has secured a £120m government support package, split evenly between capital investment and operational relief, in a long-awaited win for Stoke-on-Trent’s pottery heartland.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves slashes VAT from 20% to 5% on summer attractions, children's meals and family days out, alongside a fuel duty freeze and supermarket tariff suspension to ease cost-of-living pressures.

Reeves serves up summer of savings with VAT cut on family days out

21 May 2026 News Jamie Young 0 Comments

Chancellor Rachel Reeves slashes VAT from 20% to 5% on summer attractions, children’s meals and family days out, alongside a fuel duty freeze and supermarket tariff suspension to ease cost-of-living pressures.

The late Queen Elizabeth II was “very keen” that her second son, then the Duke of York, take on a “prominent role in the promotion of national interests” as the United Kingdom’s special representative for international trade and investment, according to confidential papers on his 2001 appointment released by Downing Street this week.

Andrew trade envoy files: Queen ‘very keen’ ex-prince led UK plc abroad, Whitehall papers reveal

21 May 2026 News Paul Jones 0 Comments

Whitehall releases the file on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s 2001 appointment as UK trade envoy, showing Queen Elizabeth II was ‘very keen’ he take the role — raising fresh questions for British exporters and SMEs.

The Treasury faces the unenviable task of plugging a shortfall of up to £33bn after ministers conceded that the latest reset of HS2 has driven the embattled rail project's bill towards a staggering £102bn, leaving the chancellor with little choice but to raid other budgets, raise taxes, or both.

HS2 reset to punch £33bn black hole in Britain’s public finances

21 May 2026 News Amy Ingham 0 Comments

HS2’s revamped budget could leave Britain with up to £33bn of unfunded spending as Heidi Alexander warns the project may cost taxpayers £102bn. What it means for SMEs and the wider economy.

Britain's young workers are quietly slipping out of the labour market at a pace not seen since the pandemic, and economists at the Institute for Fiscal Studies are warning that ministers can no longer treat the slide as a passing wobble.

Youth jobs in retreat: IFS warns Britain is sliding back to Covid-era lows

21 May 2026 News Jamie Young 0 Comments

UK youth employment has fallen by 330,000 in three years, with the IFS warning the decline is closing in on Covid-era lows — and could scar a generation.

Britain’s private sector workforce is staring down its sharpest squeeze on real take-home pay since the cost-of-living crisis of 2022, as a fresh burst of oil-driven inflation outpaces a visibly slowing rate of earnings growth.

Private sector workers face worst real pay squeeze since 2022 as oil-driven inflation bites

21 May 2026 News Amy Ingham 0 Comments

Britain’s private sector workers are facing the worst hit to real incomes since 2022 as inflation outstrips earnings growth, a softening jobs market erodes bargaining power and the Bank of England weighs its next move.

Smruti Sriram OBE of Bags of Ethics wins the 2026 Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award, with Seabound's Alisha Fredriksson taking the Bold Future Award for slashing shipping emissions by up to 95 per cent

Bags of Ethics chief and shipping carbon-capture pioneer crowned at 2026 Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Awards

21 May 202621 May 2026 News Amy Ingham 0 Comments

Smruti Sriram OBE of Bags of Ethics wins the 2026 Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award, with Seabound’s Alisha Fredriksson taking the Bold Future Award for slashing shipping emissions by up to 95 per cent

England's water security is heading for a serious squeeze, and the bill for inaction will land squarely on the desks of farmers, food producers, manufacturers and the wider small business community.

Taps could run dry without urgent action on drought, peers warn ministers

21 May 202619 May 2026 News Amy Ingham 0 Comments

A House of Lords committee warns England’s water supply could fall 5bn litres a day short by 2055 unless ministers act now on drought, leakage and rainwater capture. What it means for SMEs, farmers and industry.

For more than two decades, SpaceX has been Silicon Valley's most closely guarded balance sheet, a privately held empire of reusable rockets and orbiting broadband terminals whose numbers were the subject of feverish speculation but never confirmation.

SpaceX lifts the veil on its finances as Musk readies the biggest flotation in stock market history

20 May 2026 News Jamie Young 0 Comments

SpaceX has revealed its finances for the first time, posting $18.7bn revenue and a $4.9bn loss as Elon Musk readies what may be the biggest IPO ever.

After more than five years of painstaking negotiation across six capitals, Britain has finally landed its long-awaited free trade agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council, a deal ministers say will add £3.7 billion a year to the economy and put UK exporters at the front of the queue in one of the world's fastest-growing regions.

Britain seals landmark Gulf trade deal in G7 first, promising £3.7bn lift for UK exporters

20 May 2026 News Jamie Young 0 Comments

Britain becomes the first G7 country to sign a free trade deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council, a £3.7bn-a-year prize for UK exporters, carmakers and food producers.

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Latest Content

Morrisons is preparing to pull down the shutters on 100 loss-making convenience stores in a move that places hundreds of shop-floor jobs in jeopardy, with the Bradford-based grocer pointing the finger squarely at Labour's tax and wage agenda for tipping the sites into terminal decline.

Morrisons to shut 100 convenience stores as supermarket blames Labour’s ‘policy choices’ for rising costs

Morrisons is closing 100 loss-making convenience stores, putting hundreds of jobs at risk, and has blamed Labour’s “policy choices” for the rising costs eroding profitability.

April borrowing surges to £24.3bn as debt interest bill breaks month record

Jaguar Land Rover eyes American tie-up with Stellantis to sidestep Trump tariffs

Labour eyes £1bn VAT raid on airport charges in stealth blow to family holidays

Blame the system, not the school leavers for youth unemployment, says Amazon’s UK boss

Potters win £120m rescue as government finally backs Britain’s ceramics heartland

Brad Burton interview: how the UK’s no.1 motivational speaker rebuilt after lockdown wiped out 4Networking, and survived a four-year online stalking campaign

Nightlife chief brands Chancellor’s summer VAT cut a ‘superficial fix’ that abandons clubs and festivals

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Business Energy Claims recovers £25,000 for UK chocolatier

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Manufacturing company recovers thousands from mis-sold energy contracts

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