Shoe Zone shares booted as Labour’s budget tax raid weighs August 13, 2025 Footwear retailer Shoe Zone has slashed its profit target in half for the full-year citing an overhang from Rachel Reeves’ 2024 Autumn Budget. The London-listed firm said in a trading update on Wednesday it expects pre-tax profit for the financial year ending September 2025 to be around £2.5m. This marks a stark drop from previous [...]
We are governed by people who don’t know what they’re doing August 6, 2025 Almost 100,000 jobs in the hospitality sector have disappeared since the government unveiled its hike to employers’ National Insurance Contributions, and lowered the threshold at which it is paid. Employers have also had to contend with a rise in the minimum wage amid a storm of other headwinds including inflation, energy costs and generally weak [...]
Hawes & Curtis: Profit continues to fall at Dragons’ Den star’s brand August 4, 2025 Profit at Hawes & Curtis, the retailer owned by Dragons’ Den star Touker Suleyman, has shrunk for a second consecutive year despite rising sales. The London-headquartered fashion brand has posted a pre-tax profit of £3.7m for 2024, new accounts filed with Companies House show. That figure compares to the £4.7m it reported for 2023 and [...]
Reeves’ tax hikes force Timothy Taylor to raise price of a pint June 13, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ tax hikes have forced brewer Timothy Taylor to raise its prices as it slammed the “hostile fiscal and regulatory environment” it now faces. The family-owned brewer said its industry is facing “significant input and labour cost increases” as well as dealing with the fall in business rates relief. Timothy Taylor added that it [...]
Labour tax hikes drive steepest fall in retail sentiment since Covid May 27, 2025 British retailers’ confidence has made the steepest dive in five years, after facing pressures from Rachel Reeves’ £26bn employer tax raid and uncertainty sparked by Donald Trump’s trade war. The drop is the most severe since the Covid-19 pandemic paralysed the UK high street, according to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). Grim sentiment in [...]
Travelodge in the red amid Reeves’ £21m tax hikes May 22, 2025 Travelodge has fallen to a loss during the first three months of its financial year as it battles the tax hikes announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in her Autumn Budget which will cost the hotel chain more than £20m this year. The company confirmed last year that the rise in the National Living Wage will cost [...]
Rachel Reeves’ tax hikes to cost Timpson £12m extra a year May 16, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Autumn Budget tax hikes are set to cost the business empire of fellow government minister Lord James Timpson £12m extra a year, it has been revealed. The Manchester-headquartered group said the increases in employer’s National Insurance contributions and the National Living Wage will eat into its earnings in the years to come. [...]
Employment dips as businesses brace for cost hikes March 17, 2025 Employment shrank by 0.4 per cent in February as small businesses prepare for rising costs, according to a new report from the hiring platform Employment Hero. In a monthly report looking at data from 105,000 employees, the company found that employment reforms and business tax hikes in the Budget have impacted hiring and employee retention. [...]
This is how UK small businesses are managing despite rising costs March 12, 2025 According to the latest Sage small business tracker, rising operational costs, mounting financial pressures, and pivoting business strategies are creating a challenging economic landscape for SMEs. But despite growing headwinds and challenges, such as higher costs and economic uncertainty, small businesses across the UK are adapting to the changing environment. Profit slows as costs rise [...]
‘Student Tax’ to hit graduates on minimum wage by April January 16, 2025 Thousands of graduates will find themselves stranded in their home town, unable to root out professional opportunities, when April’s hike in the minimum wage drags them into the threshold of student loan repayments, a top financial services firm has warned. The government announced an above inflation rise in the National Living Wage of 5.6 per [...]