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Latest News:

  • Profits almost halve at Britain’s 100 biggest restaurant groups
  • Britain’s hidden productivity boom masked by ‘flawed’ ONS data
  • Uber faces €825m GDPR fine over automated driver deactivations
  • Dragons’ Den star Sara Davies takes stake in Not On The High Street turnaround
  • JLR pauses Defender redesign, pushing all-electric version into the 2030s
  • Hundreds of pharmacies weigh closure as business rates bills soar
  • UK firms in critical financial distress rise 9% to more than 53,000
  • UK retail sales fall 0.5% in July as heatwave keeps shoppers away
  • Borrowing hits £1.8bn in July as Healey’s first budget looms
  • Ron Yeffet: Building Projects That Last Across Continents

Category: News

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

Peter Kyle has been sacked as business secretary on Andy Burnham's first day in Downing Street, leaving the government's flagship late payment crackdown without the minister who built it while the bill is still midway through parliament.

Peter Kyle sacked, leaving SME late payment law without its champion

20 July 2026 News Jamie Young 0 Comments

Peter Kyle has been sacked as business secretary in Andy Burnham’s reshuffle. What his exit means for SMEs and the 60-day late payment bill in parliament.

UK Export Finance has signed a first-of-its-kind £750 million financing framework with GE Aerospace that will steer airline engine repair work, and the supply chain spending that comes with it, through the manufacturer's sites in Wales and Scotland.

£750m UKEF deal backs 2,000 GE Aerospace jobs in Wales and Scotland

20 July 2026 News Amy Ingham 0 Comments

UKEF and GE Aerospace sign a £750m engine maintenance financing framework at Farnborough, backing 2,000 jobs and supply chains in Wales and Scotland.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has delivered a bruising second Budget, confirming more than £30 billion in tax rises and abandoning earlier assurances that “working people” would be shielded from higher taxes.

Reeves sacked as Burnham dangles income tax cut for lower earners

20 July 2026 News Paul Jones 0 Comments

Rachel Reeves sacked as chancellor: what Andy Burnham’s income tax hints, 50p rate silence and £16bn borrowing plans mean for UK SMEs this autumn.

Gilt yields rose to 4.97 per cent after Andy Burnham's first speech as prime minister. What dearer UK borrowing costs mean for SME loans and contracts.

Borrowing costs rise as Burnham vows biggest shake-up in 40 years

20 July 2026 News Jamie Young 0 Comments

Gilt yields rose to 4.97 per cent after Andy Burnham’s first speech as prime minister. What dearer UK borrowing costs mean for SME loans and contracts.

Andy Burnham is prime minister. What his business rates pledge, tax stance and a stagnant economy mean for UK SME owners ahead of the autumn Budget.

Burnham enters No 10 with eight in ten SME owners braced for impact

20 July 2026 News Paul Jones 0 Comments

Andy Burnham is prime minister. What his business rates pledge, tax stance and a stagnant economy mean for UK SME owners ahead of the autumn Budget.

The Chinese owner of British Steel has demanded compensation from the UK government, accusing ministers of "trampling on international investment rules" just days after the Scunthorpe steelmaker was taken into public ownership.

Jingye demands payout as Beijing turns on UK over British Steel

20 July 2026 News Jamie Young 0 Comments

Jingye demands compensation for the British Steel nationalisation, accusing the UK of trampling investment rules. What the row means for UK SMEs.

Manchester has been named the UK's most AI-ready city for the third year in a row, and the message for business owners is hard to miss: the country's AI economy is no longer a London story.

Manchester tops UK AI index again as Southampton leaps 19 places

20 July 2026 Get Funded, News Amy Ingham 0 Comments

Manchester tops the SAS AI Cities Index 2026 for a third year. What the UK’s most AI-ready city, and fast risers Southampton and Derby, mean for SMEs.

British businesses, universities and researchers can now bid for a share of more than £62 million in government funding to develop homegrown satellite communications and space technologies, in a push ministers say is needed to stop the UK becoming dangerously dependent on others for capabilities it cannot do without.

Ministers hand UK space firms £62m to cut reliance on foreign tech

20 July 2026 Get Funded, News, Technology Jamie Young 0 Comments

Ministers unveil £62m in UK space funding for satellite communications and innovation. How SMEs and start-ups can apply, plus key deadlines to note.

Britain's biggest companies are getting quicker at paying their bills. New official statistics show the time large businesses take to pay their suppliers has fallen, and the proportion of invoices paid late dropped to 15 per cent in 2025, down from 25 per cent when records began in 2018.

£11bn late payment crackdown risks ‘car crash’, ex-tsar warns

20 July 2026 News Amy Ingham 0 Comments

Former small business commissioner Philip King warns the government’s £11bn late payment crackdown risks becoming a ‘car crash’ without proper enforcement.

Old Street roundabout in London's east end - The home to 'Tech City'

Burnham’s plan to scrap DSIT sparks tech industry revolt

20 July 2026 News, Technology Amy Ingham 0 Comments

Andy Burnham is weighing plans to close DSIT, drawing a backlash from tech leaders. What breaking up the department means for UK firms and founders.

Microscopic water fleas, sewage-eating fly larvae and technology designed for a moon base are among 20 projects to win £100,000 each in the Water Innovation Fund's second Water Discovery Challenge, a £7.5 million competition designed to open the water industry to businesses that have never worked in it.

Water fleas, moon tech and sewage-eating larvae win £100,000 apiece

20 July 202620 July 2026 Get Funded, News Amy Ingham 0 Comments

Water Discovery Challenge names 20 finalists winning £100,000 each from a £7.5m fund, opening the UK water sector to SMEs, from water fleas to moon tech.

Discover how Liverpool and Manchester’s “Northern Arc” plan, centred on a new railway, aims to rival the Oxford-Cambridge Arc, boosting investment and innovation in the North West.

Just 13% of firms expect taxes to fall under Labour’s new leader

19 July 202619 July 2026 News Amy Ingham 0 Comments

More than half of UK mid-sized firms expect business taxes to rise under the new Labour leadership. BDO urges a single 21% corporation tax rate instead.

The Farnborough International Airshow opens on Monday as the biggest edition in its history, with a record 1,636 exhibitors, more than 600 confirmed investors and American firms occupying more than a third of the exhibition floor.

Americans claim a third of the floor as record Farnborough opens

19 July 202619 July 2026 News Amy Ingham 0 Comments

Farnborough Airshow 2026 opens with a record 1,636 exhibitors, 600 investors and US firms taking 35 per cent of the floor. What it means for UK SMEs.

Just one in six of Britain's small businesses expects to grow over the next 12 months, the lowest proportion since records began in 2014, while nearly one in three anticipate shrinking, selling up or closing their doors for good.

One in three small firms expect to shrink, sell up or close

17 July 2026 News Jamie Young 0 Comments

Small business growth expectations have hit their lowest since 2014, the FSB warns, as one in three firms expect to shrink, sell up or close within a year.

Donald Trump has described it as “very dangerous” for the UK to do business with China, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in Shanghai on the third day of his official visit to the country.

Traders will pay to see Trump’s posts before you do

17 July 2026 Get Funded, News, Technology Jamie Young 0 Comments

Trump Media’s Truth API will sell trading firms millisecond access to the president’s market-moving Truth Social posts. What it means for UK firms.

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Latest Content

Capita, Pizza Express, Lidl and British Airways are among more than 500 companies publicly named and shamed by the UK government for failing to pay thousands of staff the legal minimum wage.

Profits almost halve at Britain’s 100 biggest restaurant groups

Restaurant group profits across Britain’s 100 largest operators have fallen by almost half in a year, to £204 million, as higher employers’ national insurance, a rising minimum wage and dearer ingredients eat into margins, even as combined sales climbed to £13.3 billion.

Britain’s hidden productivity boom masked by ‘flawed’ ONS data

Uber faces €825m GDPR fine over automated driver deactivations

Dragons’ Den star Sara Davies takes stake in Not On The High Street turnaround

Camra membership falls to eight-year low as beer campaigner slips £800,000 into the red

JLR pauses Defender redesign, pushing all-electric version into the 2030s

Hundreds of pharmacies weigh closure as business rates bills soar

UK firms in critical financial distress rise 9% to more than 53,000

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