Business and Economics

Between Trump wanting to slap tariffs on our steel and the UK Government refusing to be in a European customs union, UK manufacturing risks being stranded. The sharpest fall in UK manufacturing output since 2012 offers more worrying news about the state of the UK economy. The drop is in April was the highest in almost six years, with a 1.4 per cent fall in factory production marking the third consecutive monthly fall. The April dip was the steepest fall...

With three weeks to go until crunch Brexit talks in Brussels, and the Conservative Government accused of spending more time negotiating with itself than the EU, the freight industry warned that Britain was heading towards a road block scenario – quite literally. Theresa May’s disunited Brexit team were accused of “playing chicken with crucial parts of the British economy.” The UK’s leading logistics trade body warned that it had lost confidence in the Government’s ability to deliver a ‘frictionless’ Brexit...

The nation’s employees believe work now takes up 42 per cent of their life, according to research. Researchers carried out a detailed study of 2,000 adults in employment and found we all want more downtime. Half of those polled agreed waking up in the morning and dreading the day ahead at work is a sure-sign you need to address your work-life balance. And one third agreed struggling to sleep and finding yourself regularly in a bad mood are other common...

The UK has nine out of the ten poorest regions in northern Europe, with suggestions that the rapid industrial decline brought about under Margaret Thatcher is chiefly responsible for creating pockets of poverty in one of the World's richest economies. West Wales, Durham and Tees Valley, South Yorkshire and Northern Ireland all rank highly as the poorest areas in Europe in a report by Inequality Briefing. The report notes that despite Britain having a similar economic make-up to its northern European...

Startups that are able to identify opportunities and manage risks are able to succeed in the longer run. Starting up is the hardest thing to do but if you follow the right strategies, you are surely going to win this race. Here are 5 tips that every startup must follow in order to avoid failure. 1- Get Your Finances Right Raising startup capital for your business can be a difficult task if you don’t know how to raise proper funds....

The UK parliamentary constituencies most at risk from Donald Trump’s steel tariffs have been revealed in new analysis. Trump protectionist administration has slapped a 25 per cent tariff on steel and a 10 per cent tariff on aluminium, citing national security interests. Britain's steel industry directly contributes £2 billion to the economy every year, official figures show. In total, more than a billion pounds are paid in wages to steelworkers across the country each year. That adds up to more than...

Pret A Manger staff are set to receive a £1,000 bonus when the company’s planned sale goes through. The sandwich shop chain is set to be sold by private equity firm Bridgepoint to JAB for £1.5 billion, it was announced on Tuesday. And the firm's chief executive Clive Schlee said that thousands of the chain’s employees would receive a windfall when the deal is finalised. “Today is a big day for @Pret,” he tweeted. “As we welcome JAB, we’ll be thanking the people who...

The UK economy has been hit with some depressing economic statistics…and it can’t be blamed on the “beast from the east.” In the first quarter of 2018 GDP growth was a tiny 0.1% reported the Office for National Statistics. Household spending has been weak and business investment at reduced levels has meant that this is the worst performance for the economy for five years. The construction industry declined by 2.7% and business investment fell by 0.2%. These figures will heighten...

The rest of the world will move on with or without us. The stupidity of Brexit gives them a laugh, just as we laughed at the Greeks a few years ago. The World will change. What will those changes mean for UK entrepreneurs? Tax Changes VAT is dead, long live BAT. We might be headed out of European VAT, but you can bet the life of your first-born that HM Government will replace VAT with a similar tax on purchases,...