Chancellor Philip Hammond’s Spring Budget, with its U-Turn on National Insurance Contributions (NICs), alienates the very businesses the government should be encouraging, warns Matthew Lee, managing partner at accountancy firm Bishop Fleming. The Budget is making a bad turn worse and I’m concerned that the government is out to get businesses and will now...
The clock is ticking for Bath directors to enter the region’s top award scheme recognising excellence and enterprise in the boardroom. The deadline for the Institute of Directors’ (IoD) South West Director of the Year Awards 2017 is March 31 and organisers are urging Bath’s top executives to get their skates on and submit...
Bath’s business scene is buzzing with bags of optimism and plentiful opportunities, according to stand holders and visitors at yesterday’s Bath Expo. The city’s largest event of its kind, the Bath Expo attracted hundreds of attendees to the Assembly Rooms, where they could chat to a wide range of businesses which had taken the...
Chancellor Philip Hammond has been told to follow up his dramatic Spring Budget U-Turn on proposed National Insurance increases for the self-employed by reversing planned tax rises on small business owners. Regional accountancy firm Bishop Fleming, which has a large office in Bath, welcomed the Mr Hammond’s decision to scrap the NI self-employed increase,...
Frome-based online homeware retailer company Cox & Cox has received a £1m cash injection from Barclays to support future growth. The £11m turnover business sells more than 1,300 eclectic items on its website ranging from lighting, rugs, textiles and furniture to a growing outdoor furniture range. It describes its products as “practical but also beautiful...
Pearson May partner David Richards looks at the various types of life insurance available to businesses You may well have considered life insurance in the context of your personal and family relationships to provide for loved ones on your death or critical/terminal illness. But what about your business relationships? Have you thought about providing...
Small business support group Enterprise Nation is to head west again to stage its flagship female-focused event, the Festival of Female Entrepreneurs. The event, the largest of its kind in the UK, has been held in Bristol since it was launched six years ago. Taking place this year on October 20, it will attract...
Business West, the region’s largest business organisation, described Chancellor Philip Hammond’s Spring Budget as “underwhelming” but warned there were some measures that will make firms nervous. These included the National Insurance increase for the self-employed – which it feared could dampen entrepreneurship – and the impact of business rate rises, despite help for some...
Business organisation the CBI’s director-general Carolyn Fairbairn described today’s Budget as a “breakthrough for skills”. She said: “There has never been a more important time for the UK to sit at the global top table of technical education for young people. “Firms will be looking for ongoing partnership with the government as they try...
Chancellor Philip Hammond has delivered his spring Budget. He said the aim was to “build an economy that works for everyone” and prepare Britian for a brighter future. In the light of intense lobbying from business groups concerned about the impact of this year’s business rates reform he announced: No business losing small business rate...
