Fears of stagflation, where economic inertia interlocks with higher inflation, will set economic warning bells ringing, with the release of a new survey from skills charity Enginuity. (Mind The Gap Report) Nearly 80% of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the UK are under pressure to increase prices due to escalating costs of labour and raw material, the ‘snapshot’ has revealed. For the first time since the regular snapshot survey was instigated, most SMEs, almost three-quarters, plan to offset these rising costs by passing them on to customers. In another blow to the Government’s growth ambitions, two-thirds of SMEs are…

There are some conversations in HR that happen again and again.  An employer comes to you because a member of staff has resigned unexpectedly. A manager is struggling with a difficult employee relationship. A team is unhappy. Someone has raised a complaint that could perhaps have been avoided. Often the frustrating thing is that these situations never needed to get to this stage and could have been addressed months earlier. With further changes to employment rights coming into force over the next few months, including strengthened sexual harassment protections from October and a planned reduction in the qualifying period for…

Banks have taken meaningful steps of late to incorporate stablecoins into their institutional payment strategy as pressure intensifies for faster cross-border settlement. This could finally signal the death of the multi-day payment, says Anil Oncu, Chief Executive Officer at Bitpace, but launching a stablecoin is just the beginning. Interoperability and end-to-end execution will determine whether bank-issued stablecoins remove friction from today’s fragmented correspondent-banking system or recreate it in a new collection of digital silos. Stablecoins are moving into mainstream payments infrastructure  Businesses still regularly wait days between a payment being initiated and the recipient gaining access to it in the…

With families getting ready for winter, social housing tenants often worry about the threat of mould, cold and other life-threatening hazards. Andrew Wilkinson, founder of South West-based health and safety consultancy Secure Safety Solutions, is highlighting new legislation which protects tenants against landlord negligence. Awaab’s Law, posthumously named after Awaab Ishak, who died in 2020 of a severe respiratory condition due to prolonged exposure to mould in his home without landlord intervention or action, is legislation aimed to prevent social landlords from putting their tenants at risk by failing to make repairs in fair time. Awaab’s Law came into force…

As Co-op continues to campaign for a faster, fairer transition to Net Zero, new funding is being shared to support young people pursue green careers, with a focus on those least likely to secure opportunities. Ahead of the final report of the Milburn review this autumn – with solutions being sought for the rising number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs) – Co-op and its charity Co-op Foundation are sharing £2.4m this week, towards the creation of new opportunities for young people. Funding is being received by organisations that support routes into ‘green careers’ or professional…

New platform designed to simplify carbon and sustainability data management, reporting and future planning Tunley Environmental has launched VerdaMetric, a new sustainability intelligence platform designed to help organisations collect, organise, manage and use carbon and sustainability data more effectively. Developed in response to the recurring challenges Tunley sees when supporting organisations with carbon accounting, sustainability reporting, verification and environmental strategy, VerdaMetric brings data, calculations, evidence, reporting activity and future planning together in one platform. The software is designed to address a common issue for sustainability teams: information is often spread across spreadsheets, inboxes, departments, sites and reporting periods, leaving teams…

Popular television antiques expert, auctioneer and jewellery specialist Izzie Balmer has joined the team at RWB Auctions in Royal Wootton Bassett, bringing more than a decade of industry experience to the growing Wiltshire auction house. Izzie, who is well known to television audiences through programmes including BBC’s Antiques Road Trip, Bargain Hunt and The Travelling Auctioneers, has joined RWB Auctions as a consultant valuer with a specialism in silver and jewellery. Gareth Wasp, Head Auctioneer, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Izzie to the team, we have got to know her when she has visited our auction house as part of her…

Britain’s workplaces are getting lost in translation, with new research revealing that 61% of UK office workers have pretended to understand workplace jargon rather than admit they do not know what a colleague means. The study of 2,000 UK office workers, commissioned by online printing company instantprint, explored how well different generations understand each other’s workplace vocabulary, from Gen Z favourites such as ‘rage applying’ and ‘coffee badging’ to office classics including ‘blue-sky thinking’ and getting your ‘ducks in a row’. The findings reveal that 68% of workers regularly encounter workplace phrases they do not understand, with more than a…

By Charlotte Dean, founder of P3 People Management In 22 years of supporting small and medium sized businesses, I have lost count of the number of leaders who want to build an inclusive team but are not sure where to start with neurodiversity. It is one of the people management issues I am asked about most, and one that, done well, genuinely changes a business for the better. Around 10% of the UK population has some form of dyslexia, and at least 700,000 adults in the UK are autistic, roughly one in 100 people. Many will not have a formal…

The team at award-winning company Southby & Co Financial Planning are celebrating a major business milestone – five years in business. The company, based in Wiltshire, now has a team of five and is growing steadily. Founder Dave Southby founded the company aged just 28 working from home with a plan to create a brand which offers a caring and holistic approach to planning for a client’s financial future. Today, the company is a multi award winning business, has been recognised within the Positive Business movement and has achieved Top Rated Adviser status for four consecutive years. Yet for Dave,…

Surrey based allergy campaigner and entrepreneur, Julianne Ponan MBE, has welcomed a new law which means every state-funded school in England must have an allergy safety policy in place. Benedict’s Law came into effect from 1st September and is named after five-year-old Benedict Blythe, who died after suffering anaphylaxis at his primary school in December 2021. His mum, Helen Blythe, founded the Benedict Blythe Foundation following his death and has campaigned for changes to allergy safety in schools so other families do not have to experience the same loss. For Julianne, founder and CEO of allergen-free food brand Creative Nature, the…

UK businesses should be preparing for the possibility of £3-a-litre diesel, according to Dr Jonathan Owens, operations and supply chain expert at the University of Salford, after President Donald Trump said he was “very seriously” considering a ban on US diesel exports. Dr Owens warns that the knock-on effects could ripple through UK supply chains, raising costs for businesses in almost every sector and adding to cost-of-living pressures that are already high. Dr Jonathan Owens, operations and supply chain expert, University of Salford, comments: “It is a scenario that businesses should at least be considering. President Donald Trump has publicly…

By Victoria Ansell, Partner, Marktlink UK Entrepreneurs who own capital-intensive businesses in sectors such as industrials and technical services have been hit particularly hard by reforms to IHT and CGT, but personal taxes shouldn’t be the driving factor behind business strategy… Recent reports have once again raised concerns that UK entrepreneurs and family-owned businesses are allowing tax considerations, rather than commercial objectives, to drive ownership and investment decisions. We are all familiar with the narrative. Recent changes to inheritance tax (IHT) have impacted succession planning and with another budget looming, there is renewed speculation about further reform to capital gains…

By Uditha Atukorala, CEO of Felk For scaling businesses chasing their next funding round, the pitch deck used to be all about growth metrics, market size and burn rate. Increasingly, though, investors are asking a different question before they sign the term sheet: how well protected is this company against a cyber attack? It’s a fair question. Government figures show that 43% of UK businesses identified a cyber security breach or attack in the past 12 months. It’s a shift I see constantly in conversations with founders and funders alike. Cyber security has moved from being an IT afterthought to…

A practical review of what you buy, what you use and what arrives on the invoice can give an SME a clearer basis for its next supplier conversation. A supplier offers a discount at renewal. Before accepting, ask what the new price actually covers. A lower rate is of limited use if the business is still paying for software accounts nobody needs, deliveries it could combine or a service level that no longer fits. For a small business without a dedicated buyer, a manageable starting point is one recurring cost category. Choose something you can investigate with the people who…

With fraud prevention increasingly a board-level responsibility, businesses need to look beyond major financial transactions and examine everyday spending, including employee expenses. The Ministry of Justice recently published its Counter Fraud Strategy for 2026–2030, days after the first anniversary of the failure to prevent fraud offence, which came into force in September 2025. The renewed focus stems from weak financial controls remaining in place in the UK, with three former company directors sentenced to a combined 15 years and nine months for their involvement in a £70m pension investment fraud. Furthermore, a 2025 Cifas survey found that 24% of employees surveyed…