Competition watchdog risks ‘killing’ British tech firms, startups warn March 3, 2020 The UK competition watchdog risks “killing” rising British tech companies by launching lengthy investigations while global rivals are free to pull ahead, startups have warned. In a letter to chancellor Rishi Sunak, seen by City A.M., industry body the Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec) said the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) “eleventh-hour interventions” risked [...]
Airline bosses say worst is yet to come as more flights cancelled on coronavirus fears March 3, 2020 Airline bosses have warned that the worst is yet to come for the industry after coronavirus fears saw passenger demand slump, with carriers cutting flights to locations round the world. Speaking at an industry conference in Brussels, outgoing IAG boss Willie Walsh said that there had been “a very significant fall-off in demand” in Italian [...]
DVLA says excuses for not paying car tax include too many chickens and looming jail time March 3, 2020 The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) said today that excuses it has received for not paying vehicle tax included their van being full of chickens. The agency said that inventive excuses it had received for nonpayment included: “I’m about to start a prison sentence, so is there any way you could hang on to [...]
Coronavirus: Boris Johnson to outline UK ‘battle plan’ to combat Covid-19 outbreak March 3, 2020 Boris Johnson is set to unveil a government action plan to outline the UK’s response to a growing number of coronavirus cases across Britain. The Prime Minister will reveal a six-point plan at a Downing Street later today in which he is expected to commit to school closures and event cancellations if the spread of [...]
Chancellor Rishi Sunak tells EU: Stick to June timeline for City equivalence decision March 2, 2020 UK chancellor Rishi Sunak has told the European Union to stick to a June deadline to work out which parts of Britain’s financial system will be deemed equivalent after Brexit. British banks, trading platforms and insurers are hoping to be granted access to EU markets under a so-called equivalence system, under which the bloc would [...]
Coronavirus latest: UK to set out nationwide plan as Johnson warns spread ‘looks likely’ March 2, 2020 The UK government has agreed a plan for dealing with the coronavirus during an emergency Cobra meeting this morning, as the number of cases in the UK is expected to rise throughout the next few weeks. Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged people to “go about business as usual” and that the country was “very, very [...]
How Yorkshire Tea turned a storm in a teacup into a marketing success March 2, 2020 Yorkshire Tea unwittingly found itself in the middle of a Twitter storm last week when the new chancellor, Rishi Sunak, published a seemingly innocuous image of himself “making tea for the team”. The photo featured the brand like a poorly orchestrated influencer marketing campaign. Soon after, the company was faced with a torrent of abuse [...]
Most businesses would accept tax rise in exchange for simpler rules March 2, 2020 Two thirds of UK businesses would accept a tax rise in exchange for a simpler tax system, a survey from accountancy firm BDO has found. The survey comes ahead of the 11 March Budget, when new chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to increase spending and cut entrepreneurs’ tax relief, a tax rise equivalent to £2.7bn [...]
Businesses and government in entrepreneurs’ relief row March 2, 2020 A row has broken out between the government and businesses over plans to scrap the entrepreneurs’ relief tax scheme, which small firms have warned will “destroy retirements”. Separately, a report has found that the use of the scheme is growing more than twice as fast in the north of the country than in London, questioning [...]
Exclusive: Distillers demand cut to spirits duty in March budget March 2, 2020 A coalition of British distillers have written to Rishi Sunak to urge him to stick to his party’s election manifesto and cut spirits duty in this month’s budget. The letter – drawn up by the UK Spirits Alliance and signed by 40 of its members – asks the chancellor to “reduce the excise duty burden” to [...]