Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
The British Business Bank (BBB), the Government’s economic development agency, reported a loss of £135 million in the year to March. The bank, which supports investments in SMEs, was affected by a drop in valuations across its portfolio. Despite this, the bank’s performance remained ahead of expectations. Louis Taylor, CEO, British Business Bank, said: “The British Business…
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Around two-in-five self-employed workers would switch to a salaried job if they could secure the same income, and around one-in-eight would accept a 20% pay cut to switch, according to new analysis by the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). The report found stagnant incomes and…
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The Bank of England has announced that it has held interest rates at 5.25%, pressing pause on rate hikes after rising relentlessly since December 2021, ending a fourteen-meeting run of rate rises. The.MPC voted 5 to 4 in favour of holding rates steady, with four members preferring a 0.25% rise to 5.5%. Commenting on the…
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Latest data that showed the annual rate of CPI inflation was 6.7% in August, down slightly from 6.8% in July. Commenting on the data Kitty Ussher, Chief Economist at the Institute of Directors, said “This slight fall in the headline rate of inflation is better than was expected given the increased cost of petrol in…
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Nearly half of businesses in the UK have been negatively impacted by cost of borrowing, according to new research from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC). Ahead of this week’s interest rate decision, new research by the BCC Insights Unit shows nearly half of firms say the cost of borrowing is negatively impacting their business. When asked if their company is directly impacted by the current interest rate – whether…
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Increasing late payments and spiralling running costs are taking their toll on small construction firms, with confidence amongst the sector falling considerably in Q2 2023, from 27.4 to -31.8, according to FSB’s latest Small Business Index. FSB research found that more than a third of small construction firms (39%) experienced an increase in late payments…
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The Government has paid out £7.39bn to settle bad Covid-era loans, with £2.23bn more in arrears and £750m in default. With data showing that the Government paid out £1.2bn to settle pandemic emergency loans that had gone bad in Q2, Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy figures suggest taxpayers could ending up paying £11.5bn…
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The Government must extend the 75 per cent rates relief discount for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses to provide targeted help to hard-pressed small businesses according to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). The FSB is calling for the relief to continue beyond the April cut off in England, throwing a lifeline to thousands of…
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With the latest labour market statistics, showing a 0.5 percentage point quarterly rise in unemployment in the three months to July, the Institute of Directors is calling on the Bank of England to stop raising interest rates. Kitty Ussher, Chief Economist at the Institute of Directors, said “With today’s data showing a weakening labour market,…
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The Government has been slow to take action to recover losses to error and fraud in Covid 19 grant schemes of over £1 billion according to a report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) The report found that three years on from the provision of £22.6 billion in business support schemes in the pandemic, the…
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Nine in ten small to medium-sized law firms are optimistic about their financial performance in the coming year, a new legal benchmarking survey commissioned by NatWest has found. The research found that whilst many small firms feel optimistic about their financial performance in 2023, the survey evidence suggests that firms’ fee rates will not rise…
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A new YouGov survey shows most MPs want tougher measures to crack down on late payments. The survey commissioned by the UK’s largest accountancy bodies – the Association of Accounting Technicians and the Association of Chartered Accountants – recently found that two-thirds of MPs think the Prompt Payment Code should be made compulsory for organisations…
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New data from the Institute of Directors shows that business confidence in the wider economy remained low in August. However, business views about their own organisations’ prospects recovered some ground in August. Inflation expectations have also improved, but cost pressures, particularly wage costs, remain a major concern. The monthly IoD Directors’ Economic Confidence Index, which…
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