Business News Articles

New Equality laws to be implemented
The coalition government is going to implement legislation propsed by the Labour government regarding employment law. The new government have said that the Equality Act -passed in April - would become law by October. Home Secretary Theresa May said it would make it easier for firms to comply with anti-discrimination rules and it will also stop employers using pay secrecy clauses to prevent s... more

Tube strike: latest news
Tube strike: latest news Tube Lines are going to the High Court in a bid to get an injunction to prevent a strike by maintenance workers. Members of the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union will stage a 48-hour walkout beginning at 7.00pm on Wednesday, following a row over pay and job conditions. Tube Lines will go to the High Court to question whether the union's ballot is legal, mere... more

Emergency Budget: main business points
VAT is to increase from 17.5% to 20% in January, announced Chancellor George Osborne in the emergency Budget. Corporation Tax will be cut next year to 27% and by 1% annually for the next three years, until it reaches 24%. The small companies' tax rate will be cut to 20%. It was also announced that from April 2011 the threshold at which employers start to pay National Insurance will rise by Â... more

Bosses urged to let staff watch England
Small business owners have been urged to allow staff to watch England's World Cup match with Slovenia on Wednesday. A survey of more than 140 firms by the London Chamber of Commerce found that two-thirds were not making any special arrangements for the 3.00pm kick off. "Not everyone has caught World Cup fever, but there are people all around the UK who would like to support their countries a... more

Small firms 'not going green'
Small companies are not investing in green practices as the difficult economic environment means that their priorities are to continue trading, according to data released by GE Capital. Just 9% of small businesses say they are putting significant investment into environmentally-friendly practices, while 37% admit they are doing little or nothing to make their workplaces greener, up from 30% in ... more

Retirement age ‘should be scrapped’
Over 65% of the UK population want business owners to lose the right to tell people when to retire, according to a survey by Age UK. Under the current system, employers can tell any member of staff to leave work once they pass their 65th birthday, regardless of whether the individual wants to stop work or not. The coalition government has said it intends to scrap the forced retirement age, ... more

Number of insolvencies falls 18%
The rate of businesses insolvencies declined 18% in May compared to April, according to data released by Experian. The rate of firms going out of business fell to 0.08% from 0.10% in April. This is now at the lowest rate since January this year and the third consecutive month that insolvencies have declined. The largest improvement came from small and medium-sized businesses with between 51 ... more

UK borrowing declines slightly to £16bn
Public sector borrowing declined in May from £17.4bn to £16bn, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The decline of 8% means that total government debt now stands at £903bn - equivalent to 62% of the UK's annual economic output. The new government coalition has pledged to cut the record peace time deficit and will unveil detailed plans in next weeks emergency Budget. M... more

Time to pay scheme ‘must not be axed’
The dissolution of HM & Revenue & Customs' ‘Time to Pay' scheme in next week's Budget could force thousands of small firms struggling to manage tax payments into administration, according to the Forum of Private Business (FPB). The scheme was launched in 2008 to allow small companies struggling with cash flow to defer tax payments to the HMRC. It is estimated that over 200,000 firms have used... more

SMEs lacking staff insurance
Over half of small and medium-sized business said that they would be significantly affected if a key employee was unable to work for more than six months due to a serious illness. Research by Scottish Provident has highlighted the need for firms to have adequate critical illness cover should one of their employees be unable to work. "Our research shows that small business owners need to impr... more