Business News Articles

Vodafone announce 500 job cuts in the UK
Vodafone has announced that it is to cut around 500 of UK jobs as the telecommunications company seeks to reduce operating costs by over £1bn. The company, which employs 10,000 workers in the UK, is cutting jobs as part of its recently announced plan to cut costs due to rising costs and increased competition. "Vodafone UK has today announced reductions to its operating costs in order for it... more

British & International Franchise Exhibition held in London March 20th and 21st
The British & International Franchise Exhibition is being held at Olympia in London on the 20th and 21st of March. The franchise show features exhibitors from a range of franchised businesses, each offering the chance to expand your company or to start running your own business. Tickets for the event, run in conjunction with the British Franchise Association, that are booked in advance cost... more

Small firms concerned over impact of further Post Office closures
Over 80% of small company owners depend on the Post Office to send their mail and for other business transactions and are concerned over the impact that potential closures of branches would have on their businesses, accoridng to a survey by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). The FSB conducted the survey of over 5,000 of its members ahead of the government's plans to part-nationalise the ... more

Google issues apology as Gmail crashes
Google has issued an apology to its Gmail users who were unable to send and receive emails yesterday for several hours after a global crash paralysed the system. Many small businesses were among the 127m users who lost valuable time yesterday as the third most popular webmail service experienced serious technical issues. Google has admitted that the service was down for over two hours and th... more

Employment law to be tightened for non-EU workers
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has said that the UK’s immigration laws will be tightened further as the government comes under pressure due to the mounting number of UK workers unemployed. The government are planning to make the current points –based system more stringent to limit the amount of migrant workers in the UK. From April this year non-EU workers seeking skilled jobs will require a m... more

Mandelson claims £40m lent through Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme
Business secretary Lord Mandelson has claimed that the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme has loaned more than £40m to small businesses in the UK. The loan scheme has come under criticism, with many small companies complaining that they are not able to access the funds through their bank. Recent analysis from the Financial Times suggested that the amount of money loaned only stands at arou... more

Government must 'promote benefits of apprenticeships to business'
UK employers are supportive of apprenticeships but believe that the government must do more to publicise and support them, according to research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Of the 800 firms questioned in the survey - many of them small and medium-sized companies - 78% believe that the government is right to introduce new targets and 75% responded that they ... more

New video and website from HMRC offers small firms free tax advice
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has launched a new series of online video guides for new and small companies. The series of ten videos will provide help on guidance on a range of tax issues from what to do when first setting up a new business, income tax for the self-employed, corporation tax and VAT. A website is being launched to accompany the videos, which will be hosted by TV presenter Dab S... more

Staff ‘waste an hour a day’ on emails
UK business workers waste an average of one hour a day sending and receiving emails, according to a poll by Expert Messaging. The survey of over 4,000 employees found that the majority did not filter or organise their email accounts efficiently and that many of the emails received at work were not relevant and did not help staff do their jobs. For small firms with a limited number of staff e... more

Travelodge offering credit to attract business travellers
Budget hotel chain Travelodge is launching a business account card in an attempt to attract more business as many small firms look to cut-back on their travel expenses during the recession. The card will offer businesses up to eight weeks credit as the chain aims to double its amount of corporate clients by the end of the year "An easy way for any business to cut costs is to stop paying a sm... more