New HMRC trade figures suggest the very smallest UK goods-trading businesses had a much tougher 2024 than larger firms. For businesses with no employees, export trade value fell 26% year on year and import trade…
The Competition and Markets Authority has opened five new investigations into fake and misleading online reviews, including cases involving Just Eat, Autotrader, Feefo, Dignity and Pasta Evangelists. On the surface that looks like a story…
The government has agreed to invest up to £100 million to reopen the mothballed Ensus plant on Teesside as part of a contingency plan against possible carbon dioxide shortages linked to the Iran war. That…
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax has felt like a problem for bigger sole traders first. That is still true in the short term, but HMRC has now made clear that a much larger group…
UK inflation did not get worse in February, but this is not the kind of update most small firms can relax over. The headline Consumer Prices Index stayed at 3.0%, unchanged from January, according to…
For a lot of small firms, switching work vehicles from diesel to electric still feels easier to talk about than to actually do. The running-cost case can look attractive on paper, but the upfront price…
Winning government work has often felt like a big-company game. The paperwork can be heavy, the buying frameworks can look intimidating, and many smaller firms assume Whitehall contracts are meant for larger suppliers with full…
Late payment has been one of those problems small firms are told to manage around rather than expect government to fix. That may be starting to change. On 24 March, the government announced what it…
Packaging compliance is becoming harder for UK businesses to shrug off as a problem for someone else. The latest sign came on 23 March, when PackUK announced that UK Packaging PRO has been appointed as…
The British Business Bank is set for a major increase in firepower from April, with its total financial capacity rising to £25.6 billion. For small businesses, that does not mean a cheque will suddenly land…