SMEs fear high energy costs will act as a barrier to growth October 25, 2021 Seventy per cent of small and medium enterprises (SME) owners believe that high-energy costs will negatively affect the growth of their businesses, according to a new survey from Tyl by Natwest. The group questioned 500 UK SME business owners, and discovered that 65 per cent of SMEs are spending up to one fifth of their [...]
This week’s Budget: An overview of the £30bn of investments announced so far October 25, 2021 More than £30bn of investment has already been revealed by the Treasury ahead of Wednesday’s Budget. Chancellor Rishi Sunak said on Sunday that “(over) the last year, I’ve been focused on delivering our plan for jobs, protecting people’s livelihoods, their incomes, their jobs”. But he said he would now be “looking to the future and [...]
Minimum wage set to rise to £9.50 per hour October 25, 2021 The National Living Wage will increase from £8.91 per hour to £9.50 in the Budget this week. The 59p an hour boost means a full-time worker on the National Living Wage will see a pay rise of more than £1,000 a year. This is a 6.6 per cent increase in the minimum wage, which is [...]
UK petrol prices reach record highs October 25, 2021 Petrol prices soared to an all-time high on Sunday, reaching 142.94p a litre. The new record is 28p a litre higher than a year ago, when petrol cost about 114.5p. Motoring group RAC has described the outcome as a “dark day for drivers.” The rebound has seen prices rise from pandemic lows of 106.48p in [...]
Hiring bonanza: Nearly nine in ten London employers plan to recruit new staff in next 12 months October 25, 2021 Just over 85 per cent of all London employers are planning to recruit staff in the capital over the next 12 months, the highest recruitment intentions in eight years, according to new figures shared with City A.M. today. Over two-thirds (67 per cent) of employers who are hiring are looking for permanent staff, whilst a [...]
Business confidence drops after tax hikes, says FSB report October 25, 2021 Forthcoming hikes to national insurance have dented business confidence ahead of the Budget, according to the latest quarterly report from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). The group’s small business index (SBI) has decreased from 18.6 points in Q2 2021 to 16.4 in Q3 2021. FSB surveyed 1,383 small businesses in late September and the [...]
Shipping kingpin urges government to ramp up investment to tackle logistics crisis October 25, 2021 The chief of one of the world’s shipping kingpins has urged governments to urgently tackle the global shipping crisis. Jeremy Nixon, chief executive of Ocean Network Express, which oversee more than six per cent of the world’s freight, called on governments to ramp up investment to expand port capacity and improve railways and warehousing systems. [...]
The Week Ahead: Markets set for flurry of big bank earnings, ahead of the Budget October 25, 2021 It was contrasting week for US and European markets last week, with the Dow and S&P500 once again setting the pace with more record highs, while European stocks lagged behind, finishing the week lower, despite a valiant attempt to recoup their losses from an early week sell-off. The recovery in the latter part of the [...]
Tesco website and app hit by hackers October 24, 2021 Tesco’s website and app are down for a second day after being hit by hackers. Thousands of shoppers have been unable to book deliveries or amend existing orders due to the outage. The grocer said it did not believe customer data would be impacted and work was being taken to ensure private information was protected. [...]
TSB turns down ‘£1bn merger approach’ from Co-Operative Bank October 24, 2021 Co-operative Bank’s £1bn-plus offer for TSB has been rebuffed by its Spanish owners. Sabadell’s board decided to reject the offer at the end of September. The deal would have created a high street lender with 340 branches and over eight million customers, according to Sky News, which first reported the acquisition attempt. This would encompass [...]