Aidan and Howard Barclay escape bankruptcy as HSBC withdraws its High Court petitions following an Individual Voluntary Arrangement with creditors over the collapse of the family’s £143.5m logistics empire.
Category: News
The latest news affecting small and medium sized (SME) businesses in the UK
Britain braces for £35bn energy shock as Iran conflict pushes inflation back above 4%
Niesr warns the UK economy will lose £35bn over two years as the Iran conflict pushes inflation above 4% and forces the Bank of England to raise interest rates. SMEs face a fresh squeeze.
Claire’s pulls down the shutters: 154 stores shut and 1,300 jobs lost as gen alpha turns its back on the high street
Claire’s Accessories has shut all 154 standalone stores across the UK and Ireland, with 1,300 staff made redundant after a second administration in 12 months.
Blair think tank urges ’emergency handbrake’ on sickness benefits as bill races towards £78bn
Tony Blair Institute calls on ministers to slam an ’emergency handbrake’ on Britain’s spiralling £78bn sickness benefits bill, warning that mild mental health and musculoskeletal conditions should no longer trigger cash payouts.
UAE’s shock Opec exit signals a new era of energy market volatility for British business
The United Arab Emirates has announced it is to withdraw from Opec and the wider Opec+ alliance after nearly six decades of membership, in a move that analysts warn could herald the unravelling of the world’s most powerful oil cartel and usher in a fresh wave of price volatility for British businesses already grappling with stubborn energy costs.
Lloyds tops the league of shame as Britain’s finance firms pay out £236m to aggrieved customers
Lloyds Banking Group was the UK’s most complained-about financial services firm in H2 2025, with 187,516 grievances logged as the sector paid out £236.2m in redress.
Jamie Oliver warns ministers are ‘battering’ Britain’s entrepreneurs
Jamie Oliver accuses ministers of “battering” UK entrepreneurs with punishing taxes, warning that hospitality SMEs are being squeezed out as Britain risks losing its edge on enterprise.
Starmer urged to chair new cabinet committee on economic security as supply-chain shocks bite
BCC calls on Sir Keir Starmer to chair a new cabinet committee shielding UK businesses from global shocks, with 75% of British exports relying on imported parts.
Three licensed venues a day are going dark as Britain’s hospitality sector buckles
Pubs, bars and restaurants are pleading for targeted relief as wage bills, energy costs and a Gulf-driven fuel spike collide with consumers who have stopped spending.
Ministers urge British boardrooms to sign cyber-resilience pledge as AI threat escalates
Ministers have written to nearly 200 UK business leaders urging them to sign a new cyber-resilience pledge as Anthropic’s Mythos AI model raises hacking fears across the City, banks and SMEs.
HMRC backs down on free-drugs VAT raid as pharma giants threaten UK exodus
HMRC has paused enforcing VAT bills on free medicines supplied through compassionate use schemes after Bayer halted new patient enrolments and pharma giants warned the levy threatens the UK’s life sciences sector.
UK employers saddled with sharpest tax rise in developed world, OECD finds
Britain’s tax wedge jumped 2.45 points in a year — 16 times the OECD average — as Reeves’s employer NI hike and frozen thresholds punish SMEs and shrink payrolls.
L’Oréal banks on the ‘lipstick effect’ as anxious shoppers reach for affordable luxuries
The world’s largest cosmetics group shrugs off the drag from the Iran war, posting forecast-beating first-quarter sales as European consumers treat themselves to small indulgences and China stirs back into life.
Employers hit with £28bn National Insurance Shock as rate rise bites harder than treasury forecast
Employers’ National Insurance Contributions have soared by £28bn in a single year, £4bn above the Government’s own forecast, triggering redundancies in hospitality and retail and slowing hiring across the UK private sector.
UK borrowing slips to four-year low but Middle East tensions threaten Reeves’s fiscal plan
UK government borrowing dropped to £12.6bn in March, a four-year low, as debt interest payments tumbled. But economists warn the Middle East conflict could wipe out Rachel Reeves’s fiscal headroom.
