Category: News

There has been a dramatic fall in the number of entrepreneurs and people looking to start their own business throwing into doubt the strong belief that the UK business sector has the capacity to lead the recovery in the economy.

The leading business information provider, Equifax, has released its Business Failures Report for the second quarter of this year today. The reports shows a welcome slowing down in the pace of businesses going under compared to earlier in the year and all of 2009, however, the actual number of failures is not quite back to the pre-recession levels of early 2008.

Small businesses with big ideas for tackling climate change are being invited to compete for awards of £40,000 each, as the Shell Springboard programme opens for its sixth year.

Business lending under the Government’s Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme fell by 23pc in the six months leading up to the general election, despite ministers’ claims that it would support viable companies.

The UK economy continued to grow in the second quarter of this year, according to a survey by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).

The ballot of BT workers for strikes over pay, which could have been a huge problem for UK businesses as soon as next week, has been cancelled following legal advice, according to the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

BT could face strike action over a pay dispute when the result of a ballot of 50,000 CWU union members is known later, which could affect business phone line and broadband access.

In a move that has been spoken about since the Conservative party commissioned, the entrepreneur and past TV Dragon, Doug Richard to produce The Richard Report looking at Small Business and the Government in 2008. The findings were that Business Link was ‘unfit for purpose’, the now Conservative/Liberal Government has announced that Business Link is to be scrapped.

From December Lloyds TSB is cutting the daily and monthly fees for customers who go overdrawn without permission and will halve to £10 the fee for bouncing a cheque or electronic payment.

The Chancellor George Osborne today called the called the measures in this historic Budget “unavoidable,” and announced a raft of changes to tax and spending. The key news from today’s Budget was:

The Chancellor George Osborne will unveil the new coalition government’s emergency budget at 12.30pm today. He has already indicated the budget will be the tightest in decades, based on a pledge for a rapid reduction in the deficit. Osborne has hinted at public sector pay freezes, a bank levy, capital gains tax changes, reform of the benefits system and a holiday in National Insurance contributions for new firms in hard-hit areas.

Access to capital could hinder the plans of entrepreneurs. Only 6% expect it to be ‘easy’ to secure funds over the next 12 months

Business leaders have called on Chancellor George Osborne to use his emergency Budget to foster business growth as well as tackling the public deficit.

I was chatting with 4Networking’s director of strategy, Tim Johnson, yesterday evening about what has made 4Networking what it is, four years on from launching. So what is it?

Companies with public sector contracts are being urged to prepare for inevitable cuts so that they can avoid the risk of having, possibly immediate, financial problems as Chancellor George Osborne prepares for the deepest public sector cuts Britain has seen post the second World War.