Despite the impact that Brexit has had on trade in the UK, a new survey conducted by YouGov has found that 38 per cent of small businesses are likely to trade overseas this year. The study, commissioned by Lawbite, found that of the 791 small businesses questioned two-fifths were planning to trade overseas, which scaled…
The Government is pressing ahead with plans to increase the rates of the National Living Wage (NLW) and the National Minimum Wage (NMW) from 1 April 2021, while people aged 23 and 24 will be entitled to the National Living Wage for the first time. The NLW will rise from £8.72 an hour to £8.91…
The Government has announced that the final report of its fundamental review of business rates will be delayed and will be published in the autumn. It says that by then there should be greater clarity about the economic situation and the future of the public finances. The review was announced by Rishi Sunak at his…
New research has found that SMEs across the UK are feeling increasingly optimistic about their prospects for the rest of 2021, after the success of the vaccine rollout. The Barclaycard Payments Barometer research found that SMEs expect to grow their revenues by an average of eight per cent. London SMEs, meanwhile, expect to see revenues…
In the year since the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, delivered his first Budget to a packed Commons chamber in March 2020, more than 135,000 people in the UK have died from Coronavirus, there have been three national lockdowns, the economy has shrunk by 9.9 per cent and Coronavirus support measures have cost around £280 billion. As…
Companies House will pause both the voluntary and compulsory strike-off processes for one month from 21 January until 21 February to support businesses affected by COVID-19, it has been announced. The extended measure comes in response to delays to the system caused by the third national lockdown. In a notice to customers, Companies House said…
A set of consultations on the future of Companies House published in December 2020, include proposals for mandatory digital filing, requirements to tag accountants digitally with IXBRL and shortening filing deadlines to three months for public companies and six months for private companies. The Department for Business and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is also seeking feedback…
The impact of the pandemic has been felt in many different ways. Some of the effects have been quite immediate, but now many businesses are starting to see how the events of the last year are affecting their annual business insurance rates as well. Before COVID-19 struck, there were already a number of factors adversely…
According to reports in the Financial Times, the Government is considering launching a new loan scheme, where businesses could borrow anything up to £10 million through an 80 per cent state-guaranteed bank loan. The new scheme, which could be a successor to the existing Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), would provide a permanent state-backed…
