Hunt reportedly set to retain SMEs 19 per cent tax rate amid fears for tech March 12, 2023 Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are set to hold on to the 19 per cent rate of company tax amid concerns for the future of the UK’s tech sector, the Mail has reported. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will hand small and medium businesses major tax breaks to boost investment in the spring statement this week, [...]
Does the BBC’s Gary Lineker row show that the government has a problem with football? March 12, 2023 The weather forecast finished and then suddenly there it was: the BBC’s hurried replacement for Match of the Day following its spectacular bungling of the Gary Lineker row. Shorn of its theme tune, opening title, studio, presenter, pundits, commentators and about an hour of running time, this was bleak and surreal; a sort of post-apocalyptic [...]
Silicon Valley Bank: ‘Serious risk’ to UK tech and life sciences, Jeremy Hunt warns March 12, 2023 The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank UK (SVBUK) poses a “serious risk” to the UK’s tech and life sciences sectors, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has warned. Ministers have said urgent plans to protect businesses from the fallout are being drawn up. Talks between Hunt, prime minister Rishi Sunak and Bank of England (BoE) governor Andrew Bailey [...]
Sunak and Macron strike deal: Britain to pay France £500m in bid stop small boat Channel crossings March 10, 2023 Britain will pay France nearly half a billion pounds over the next three years to step up efforts to prevent small boats from crossing the Channel, Rishi Sunak has announced. The Prime Minister committed to sending Paris £478 million (541 million euro) to fund a new detention centre in France and hundreds of extra French [...]
Start-up tax pain could scupper Rishi Sunak’s science superpower dreams, investors warn March 10, 2023 Further tax pain inflicted on the UK’s start-ups could scupper Rishi Sunak’s tech and science superpower plans, venture capital firms have warned. The warning comes as Jeremy Hunt prepares to announce his first full budget next week. Start-ups have piled pressure on Hunt to reverse changes to research and development tax credits announced in the [...]
Over 50s aren’t staying out of work because they’re sick – it’s because they’re rich March 10, 2023 Britain’s stagnant workforce, with 270,000 economically inactive over 50s, is keeping our productivity down. But to get them back in the labour market, we need to let them stay out of the office, writes Ben Cope.
Government plans to delay HS2 will cost the UK more in the long term, London business group warns March 9, 2023 Delaying the construction of HS2 to save money will cost the UK more in the long term, a London business group has warned after reports the government is set to announce further delays to the already over budget and overdue project. “Delaying construction of HS2 to save money is a false economy. Failing to invest [...]
Former Shell boss Ben van Beurden raked in £9.7m paypacket last year as profits soared March 9, 2023 The former Shell boss enjoyed a hefty bump-up in his paypacket last year, before leaving the energy giant in January.
‘Pension funds need to invest in UK growth’: former innovation minister Sam Gyimah on the future of UK tech March 9, 2023 Speak with most tech and innovation figures in the UK currently and you will hear a similar gripe: institutional investors are not pulling their weight. Investment into the UK’s tech sector, as with most of the world, has tumbled in the past year and brought into sharp relief a funding gap that they argue is [...]
Jeremy Hunt readies placeholder budget that will let a lot of people down March 9, 2023 Jeremy Hunt is going to let a lot of people down at his budget next Wednesday. Businesses. Families. Even former Prime Ministers. The Chancellor is poised to resist calls to save a flatlining economy by staying the course set in his November autumn statement of balancing the books. Households want an extension of energy support [...]