Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) has warned that one pub will close every day this year, with a projected 378 closures across England, Wales, and Scotland. The industry body, which represents more than 20,000 pubs, estimated that the pub closures would amount to more than 5,600 direct job losses. The BBPA says that…
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Around one in five SMEs believe it will become more difficult to pay tax bills in the year ahead as business tax rises come into effect, new research from Premium Credit shows. The study by the leading provider of finance for businesses found worries about paying tax bills are a long-standing issue for SMEs but…
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New research by Capital on Tap has found that 46% of business owners don’t have a business credit card, with 54% of consumers actively avoiding them The data also showed that 36% of business owners have never owned a business credit card, and 54% of consumers said they actively avoid using credit cards. For business…
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Premium Credit research has found a surge in growth for the total amount it lends and number of customers it helps spread the cost of VAT, corporation tax and self-assessment tax payments. The number of customers using the Tax and VAT funding service has more than doubled in the past two years by 108% while…
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Payment defaults dip 1% on average across UK across all industry sectors from May 2024 to May 2025 according to latest research by Atradius. Despite continued inflationary pressure, high operating costs, and global economic uncertainty, some sectors are showing strong signs of resilience. The most notable year-on-year declines in payment claims (May 2024–May 2025) were…
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A survey of SME business owners and managers by Purbeck Insurance has found that three in four (77%) businesses are owed money by late-paying customers. On average, SMEs with ten or more employees across the UK are each currently owed £18k-£22K in unpaid invoices. The survey found that SMEs with 100-249 employees have the biggest…
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New data from Uswitch.com has found that the vast majority of SME owners (86%) believe that a subscription model can help improve cash flow management, offering a more predictable and manageable income stream. Nearly half of SME owners (46%) have already integrated subscriptions into their businesses. Whether they’re offering curated product boxes, regular services, or…
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A new report by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has put cost pressures in the UK retail sector could lead to one in ten jobs being at risk by 2028. Since 2015, over 350,000 retail jobs have already been lost, a decline significantly larger than that in the steel industry. While the Government has…
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A new survey of hospitality operators from across the sector lays bare the impact of recent increases to employer National Insurance Contributions (NICS) and the changes to Business Rates on hospitality businesses. The effects are already so dramatic that Government targets, including ambitions to hit 80% employment and high street renewal, look doomed to fail…
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The number of overdue invoices on the books of Scottish businesses dropped to the lowest level in 2025 so far in April, according to new research from R3, the UK’s insolvency and restructuring trade body. R3’s analysis of data provided by Creditsafe shows Scottish businesses had a total of 602,822 overdue invoices on their books in…
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The Office for Students (OfS) has revealed that financial pressures continue to mount across Universities, with more than 40% now operating in deficit. The new report, which examines the sector’s fiscal outlook for 2024–25, outlines serious challenges that threaten the long-term viability of institutions. The National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB) has previously raised…
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The National Debtline and Business Debtline have provided more free debt advice in 2024 than ever before as cost-of-living pressures continued to hit household finances, according to the Money Advice Trust’s latest Impact Report. The charity’s free, independent debt advice services for individuals and small businesses provided six million minutes of debt advice, with 271,900…
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Institute of Directors (IOD)’s latest Economic Confidence Index, which measures business leader optimism in prospects for the UK economy, rose slightly for the second month in a row, from -58 in March 2025 to –51 in April – the highest since September 2024 (-38). Business leader confidence in their own organisations also improved from +5…
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