Business rates are a relic of a bygone era. Reform them to save the high street August 22, 2025 Business rates are sinking Britain’s high streets - inaction is no longer an option for the Chancellor, writes Shevaun Haviland.
Training investment has dropped by £10.9bn since apprenticeship levy introduced August 14, 2025 Investment in training has dropped by £10.9bn since the apprenticeship levy was introduced in 2017, fresh analysis has shown, with calls growing for Labour to speed up its overhaul of skills programmes. In a new report by the Fabian Society, which is affiliated to the Labour Party, the government has been warned that the apprenticeship [...]
Why business confidence is all over the place August 12, 2025 Kemi Badenoch looked aghast but Keir Starmer was defiant. Business confidence was at a nine-year high, the prime minister declared in the House of Commons in mid-July. The Conservative Party leader was not having any of it. Neither were many economists and analysts watching from the City. What Starmer claimed was not false, per se. Research [...]
Starmer urged to ‘be honest’ about tax plans as business confidence slumps July 10, 2025 Business confidence has slumped to a three-year low as a “cocktail of costs” including higher taxes and tariff threats pour cold water on Keir Starmer’s claims of rising corporate optimism. The prime minister told MPs on Wednesday afternoon that business confidence had hit a nine-year high, citing a recent Lloyds Business Barometer, which typically reveals [...]
Investment plans and hiring intentions plunge July 1, 2025 The latest Directors’ Economic Confidence Index from the IoD, which measures business leaders’ optimism in prospects for the UK economy, fell in June as the impact of tax hikes filters down into bosses’ confidence levels. The index fell back to -53 in June 2025, having risen to -35 in May, with investment intentions taking one [...]
Bailey watching labour market softening ‘very closely’ June 26, 2025 Andrew Bailey has said his Monetary Policy Committee are watching signals of a rapidly softening labour market “very closely” in the wake of several soft employment readings and stark warnings of a slowdown from the recruitment industry. The Governor of the Bank of England told the British Chambers of Commerce’s summit that sticky wage growth [...]
Nationwide to Greggs: King’s honours list champions UK business leaders June 14, 2025 Entrepreneurs and company chiefs in tech, recruitment and banking have been recognised for their contributions to UK business in the King’s birthday honours. Microsoft UK boss Clare Barclay and ceramics founder Emma Bridgewater, dubbed the “queen of pottery”, received damehoods for services to business. Nationwide chief executive Debbie Crosbie, who led a £2.3bn takeover of [...]
Business investment could be revived in ‘promising’ sign, BCC says June 4, 2025 Business investment could soar as high as 4.8 per cent this year, a leading commercial group has predicted, bulldozing through its previous expectations of a paltry 0.6 per cent rise. Little cash has been put into making firms more effective in recent years, which has in turn stalled growth and hampered the UK’s ability to [...]
EU youth mobility scheme exposes Labour’s immigration angst April 28, 2025 The government will not back it, the government will back it. It will grow the economy, it will make Brits poorer. It will reverse Brexit, it doesn’t bring us close enough to the European Union. It is not a youth mobility scheme, it’s a ‘youth experience’ scheme. Labour’s hokey-cokey dance around the possible introduction of [...]
Business groups attack ‘deeply damaging’ employment reforms April 16, 2025 The UK’s five largest business groups have warned that the government’s flagship workers’ rights package will be “deeply damaging” to the UK’s growth prospects and will worsen living standards in the UK. In a co-ordinated effort, Britain’s ‘Big Five’ business groups have taken the unusual step of writing to all members of the House of [...]