Business

For many UK small and medium-sized enterprises, time is one of the most valuable, and most wasted, resources. While digital tools have streamlined accounting, marketing, and sales, one area still quietly consumes hours every week: meetings and documentation. Internal meetings, client calls, training sessions, and project updates generate vast amounts of spoken information. Yet much of it is never properly …

A new government scheme aimed at tackling long-term workplace sickness has been dismissed by business leaders and advisers as woefully inadequate, with critics warning it amounts to “emptying the ocean with a teaspoon”. The initiative, announced this morning by the Department for Work and Pensions, will fund occupational health training for 5,000 line managers working in small and medium-sized enterprises …

The manufacturing trade body Made in Britain has raised concerns over the alleged unauthorised use of a logo closely resembling its own by Reform UK. In a statement, Made in Britain said it had become aware that Reform UK was using a logo it believes to be “substantially similar” to its registered mark across marketing materials and merchandise. The organisation …

Thousands of taxpayers chose to spend part of their Christmas break tackling their tax affairs, with more than 4,600 people filing their Self Assessment returns on Christmas Day alone, new figures show. Data released by HM Revenue and Customs reveals that 37,435 people submitted their returns between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, suggesting that for a growing number of taxpayers, …

The founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, is among a group of Silicon Valley investors helping to bankroll Labour’s digital push against Reform UK on TikTok, raising fresh questions about the growing role of social media influencers in British politics. Labour has appointed FourOneOne, a digital marketing agency set up by figures behind the party’s 2024 general election campaign, to provide …

Hairdressers and barbers are joining pub landlords in banning Labour MPs from their premises, as anger intensifies across the high street over business rates, rising employment costs and what some owners describe as a “betrayal” by the government. Signs reading “No Labour MPs” have begun appearing in salon windows and barbershops, echoing a protest that has already seen more than …

The City of London is preparing to channel significantly more capital into defence as rising geopolitical tensions, and the growing threat posed by Vladimir Putin’s Russia, force a rethink of long-held investment priorities. Almost two-thirds of senior financial services leaders expect spending on Britain’s military capabilities to increase over the next year, according to new research from KPMG. More than …

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is once again fighting for survival at Ineos, as the industrial giant grapples with an £18bn debt mountain and an increasingly hostile debt market. Nervous bondholders have begun dumping Ineos debt at distressed prices amid a deep downturn in the global chemicals industry, opening the door for aggressive Wall Street hedge funds that specialise in exploiting corporate …

A £5 billion tax raid on salary sacrifice pension schemes announced in Rachel Reeves’s Budget has emerged as the single most damaging policy for business confidence, according to new research from the Confederation of British Industry. Almost three-quarters (73%) of companies surveyed by the CBI said the move to levy national insurance contributions on pension salary sacrifice above a new …

There’s a particular sound that stays with you once you’ve lived in the English countryside. Not birdsong, that’s too obvious, but the deeper rhythm of things: the tractor coughing into life at dawn, Chameau boots crunching on gravel, the hooves of the horses going out for a hack, the soft murmur of a village pub where everyone knows exactly why …