As the UK and EU come together with a new renewables and climate change strategy, exporters and importers will face new reporting requirements and tax levies, say leading tax and advisory firm Blick Rothenberg.

Simon Sutcliffe, a customs expert and Partner at the firm, said: “The two customs unions of the UK and EU are aligning them themselves closer and closer in terms of a climate plan. The detailed reporting requirements and taxing of companies who move these types of goods, although a worthy cause, will add to the administrative burden and cost for business and no doubt increase prices for consumers as these costs are passed on.”

He added: “New reporting requirements and taxes due to be set in motion in 2024 will see the UK and EU move closer to each other in their climate change and environmental levies targeting import and export companies which will mean them paying higher levies and possibly fines.”

Simon said: “The proposed UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is measure that will be in addition to the UK’s existing Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT) which already that taxes UK manufactured plastic packaging for goods and goods imported in plastic packing for sale in the UK marketplace.”

He added: “HMRC will begin the process of consultation in 2024 before implementation in 2027. CBAM will cover recording the importation of goods that have a carbon impact and will cover such items as iron. steel, aluminium, glass, ceramics, fertilizer, and electricity, with a view to taxing those carbon polluting industries by 2027.”

Simon said: “The EU already has EU CBAM and has plans for a similar UK style PPT tax plan called the ‘EU Plastic Levy’ but it’s scope and implementation is not currently aligned across all the EU states. The EU may formalise their Plastic Levy commitments in the coming years to align the UK and the EU further on environmental issues surrounding trade and supply chains of certain goods.”

He added: “UK Companies already struggle with administering the UK’s Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT) having sufficient access to the production processes further down their supply chain to be able to comply with the tax. The introduction of another levy requiring even more information will put further strain upon them.

“Now as the UK draws nearer to the EU on its renewables and climate change combatting methods by the adoption of a new reporting requirement and tax levies aimed at importers and exporters, businesses will have to understand and have access to their supply chains to meet the reporting requirements.”

Read more:
UK and EU climate change strategy will see new reporting procedures and rising consumer prices

Today is Small Business Saturday. A day to celebrate the thousands of businesses and entrepreneurs across the country who are the backbone of our economy.

We use small businesses all the time. Whether it’s your local coffee shop, hairdresser, or family bakery, they are the beating heart of our high streets and a huge part of our economy. Nearly 10 million people across the UK work in companies with fewer than 50 employees. And standing behind these organisations is our network of over 630 Jobcentres.

This week I visited Arapina Bakery, a small business in South London, which has directly benefited from the support our Jobcentres offer. The local Employment Adviser, Liam told me about his work with the bakery owner, Michaela, to identify their business needs and implement a bespoke business plan. Through this partnership, the local Jobcentre helped Michaela to recruit five new members of staff which helped the business grow. The baked goods were amazing and we spoke about how, without much time to spare from the day job, Liam helped to select, sift and recruit staff.

This is just one of many ways local Jobcentres can help small business owners. Employer Advisors work with local businesses to source job opportunities and promote these vacancies to work ready jobseekers.

Whether helping draft job adverts, navigating the hiring process, or tapping into the local labour market and upskilling jobseekers, DWP Jobcentres are here to help at every stage of the recruitment journey.  Offering someone a chance can truly change a life and Jobcentres can work with you to help grow your team.

At this time of year, small businesses really do shine. It’s so important we back the businesses in our local communities who contribute so much to our vibrant, festive high streets and town centres.

I truly appreciate the dedication, adaptability and sheer resilience needed to succeed in business. As the new Minister for Employment, I am delighted to be advocating for small businesses at the heart of government, highlighting their value and ensuring they have the support they need.

Collaboration between small businesses and local Jobcentres is a recipe for success. Small enterprises gain access to a support network that understands their unique challenges and a pool of motivated, local jobseekers. But this partnership is about more than just filling vacancies; it’s a partnership that helps businesses and communities grow together.

This small business Saturday, I urge entrepreneurs and small business owners to explore the array of DWP services on offer, to tap into the expertise of employment advisors in Jobcentres and discover the wealth of opportunities that come with investing in local talent.

Read more:
Unlocking Potential: How jobcentres are driving small business growth 

Digital transformation, often hailed as the panacea for business growth and innovation, is continuing to prove to be a highly damaging leaky bucket for businesses both in the UK and world-wide.

Global investment in digital transformation is expected to almost double between 2022 and 2025 (according to Statista1), but given that many major business consultancies estimate the failure rate for digital transformations at 70 percent and based on their calculations of previous losses2, shockingly the price of wastage through digital transformation programmes not meeting their objectives could be around $2 trillion by 2026.

On the back of these startling statistics a recent study by leading strategic brand communications business 438 has unveiled that a major culprit for this waste is that often organisations forget the ‘people part’ in digital transformation. Recent studies have found that – of the 70 percent of enterprises that fail to create real value from their digital transformation efforts, 62 percent cited culture as the number one hurdle (McKinsey). A further study also found that 47% of digital transformation failures were attributed to employee resistance and a lack of change management (by Prosci)

“Given these estimates that ignoring the ‘people’ element of a transformation could be accounting for 50 percent of digital transformation failure, inadequate employee engagement could have a $1.4 trillion price tag come 2026!”, says 438 Director Andy Whitmore., who commissioned the research.

“But the other thing the monetary loss figures don’t show is the hidden cost of failed implementation. While digital transformation is often sold as a means to improving the employee experience, all too often, the opposite happens.

“One of the most notable roadblocks in achieving digital transformation success is a disconnection between business leaders and employees when it comes to technology adoption. Many companies invest heavily in new tech solutions, but they fall short in fostering a culture of tech adoption among their workforce.

“Whether due to a lack of training or the sheer effort it takes to manage multiple applications, a 2021 poll found that 35 percent of employees are frustrated by their organisation’s technology, and 44 percent say it does nothing to enable them in their job or in fact, makes their work harder.

To highlight the point further, 438 conversely highlights the positive impact investment in employee engagement can have on profitable transformation, including citing global giant PepsiCo as an example.  438’s study shows that a people-first approach to introducing new technology can improve the odds of successful digital transformation by almost three times, from 28 percent to 73 percent.

Turning the Tide

Offering examples of how businesses can tackle digital transformation failure, Andy Whitmore, says: “The statistics paint a grim picture, but there is hope. Successful digital transformation projects continue to yield substantial benefits, including increased efficiency, agility, and competitiveness. To mitigate the risk of failure, organisations are increasingly focusing on change management strategies, clearer objectives, and robust communication plans.

“While most organisations focus on the customer experience, the value of giving the same level of attention to the employee experience is gradually being realised. Yes, ironically, it’s the human side of digital transformation that ensures that change is successful, seamless, and sustainable and the anticipated value is truly realised.

“As Charlene Li, Chief Research Officer at PA Consulting, says so well: ‘Not enough businesses focus on the transformation part of digital transformation, and the transformation part has always been about people. This has been the blind spot for so many digital transformation efforts—it’s what a lot of companies are missing.”

All of which speaks to the need to engage users on an emotional level – and leaders who appeal to their teams through communications which empower, encourage collaboration and build community – are 260 percent more likely to be successful at transformations than those who don’t.

This supports the notion that even the best technology in the world is destined to not realise its potential if transformation programs are not anchored to an empathetic and compelling reason ‘why’.

Whitmore adds: “We’ve got first-hand experience of the positive impact that employee engagement campaigns can have.

“Using our work with PepsiCo’s internal AI platform, “Ada”, as an example, we have been able to centre the innovation empathetically and increase engagement in ways never seen before. Our user-first, integrated communications havedriven a 98 percent increase in total logins and a 78 percent increase in unique users.

So while technology implementation, operating models and customer-centric initiatives are crucial for building a digitally transformed organisation, more and more evidence shows that it’s the changing beliefs and behaviours – the new ways of working, the new tools being used, and the new habits formed – adopted within the organisation that can make or break transformation.

Digital transformation isn’t about technology, it’s about people.

And when employees understand where their company is headed, how they contribute to that larger purpose, and how they’ll benefit, they’re much more likely to be engaged. All of which requires open communication, a dedication to a common goal, and a culture of acceptance and innovation.

Employee engagement communication campaigns are not just an option; they are the heartbeat of successful transformation.

Read more:
Digital Transformation waste bill expected to be $2 trillion by 2026 

Recently, the BBC presented a segment within their BBC Breakfast broadcast, discussing self-employment statistics. Pulling reference from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), the BBC shed light on the fall in those registered as self-employed.

Discussing self-employment in more detail, BBC reporter Ben Bland says “Being self-employed can be the dream for many, but not for all”. Ben Bland goes on to discuss the self-employment figures, according to the ONS, explaining that in the year 2000, 3 million workers were registered as self-employed. The figure grew to 5 million by the year 2019, followed by a fall to 4.2 million by the summer of 2023. Ben goes on to discuss that the pandemic made self-employment even more difficult.

The Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs (IOEE) recognises that the pandemic created challenges that many people had never experienced before. However, the pandemic also offered entrepreneurs some unexpected opportunities.

With the IOEE nurturing a network of entrepreneurs from around the world, the desire to become self-employed is still as strong as ever. There has been another factor that has contributed to the fall in self-employment rates.

Andy Chamberlain, Director of Policy at IPSE, states “There was support for self-employed people, but not everyone qualified for it. Some people got nothing at all, so that made life very difficult, probably impossible for a lot of those businesses” highlighting the oversight of self-employment as a career during the pandemic.

Andy Chamberlain went on to discuss how a change in off-payroll tax rules had contributed to many people choosing to join the employed workforce, instead of pursuing their self-employed dream.

During the pandemic, the IOEE stepped in to support start-up business owners with an array of support for them and their businesses. Provide access to mentoring, business plan templates, e-learning modules and a range of video resources through their small business survival toolkit.

Following the pandemic, their support didn’t end. The IOEE launched a mentoring project in response to the pandemic, supporting those who were affected by the pandemic. The IOEE positions itself as the leading network for entrepreneurs, and those on an enterprise educational journey.

In light of the recent challenges discussed by the BBC regarding self-employment, the IOEE stands firm in its belief that self-employment remains a viable and rewarding career path. Despite the fluctuations highlighted by the ONS and the hurdles presented during the pandemic, the IOEE continues to nurture a global network of entrepreneurs. The IOEE encourages anyone considering self-employment, to join their network of entrepreneurs and explore the ongoing support available to them. The IOEE is here to guide business owners on their journey toward a successful and fulfilling self-employed career.

Read more:
Self-employment is a viable career path, despite ONS recent report

Whilst the determination of the Chancellor for HMRC to collect more taxes that people owe is admirable, the statement does not have any substance, say leading tax and advisory firm Blick Rothenberg.

Fiona Fernie, Partner at the firm, said: “The tax gap remains at a level of over £30billion – a figure which has not been impacted significantly over the last few years despite HMRC’s alleged focus on reducing it. A further reduction in the tax gap of £5bn is of course, welcome but is still less than 20% of the current problem.

“The statement also begs the question of how this additional collection is going to be achieved. At the moment, HMRC is under-resourced, and pockets of the organisation also need better training. There is too much onus on the taxpayer to come forward using various ‘disclosure campaigns’, and even when individuals do make a disclosure, there is often huge inefficiency in dealing with them, with HMRC seemingly using standard responses and a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach in order to relieve the pressure on their in-trays.”

She added: “If the Chancellor really wants to cut the tax gap significantly, HMRC need the resources to mount investigations into those taxpayers where there is a suspicion of serious non-compliance and large underpayments. They also need properly technically trained staff manning the helplines for the ordinary taxpayer to use to try and ensure they are compliant by getting appropriate advice.”

Read more:
Chancellor’s statement on tax collection has no substance

There were slices of good news for Britain’s retailers and SMEs in today’s Autumn Statement. However, there was also a filling of bad news on the overall economy and lack of business rates reform.

The home delivery expert ParcelHero, a champion of small retailers and SMEs, says there were layers of good news for small businesses in today’s Autumn Statement, but also a filling of less palatable announcements.

ParcelHero’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks M.I.L.T., says: ‘Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement was a bad news sandwich for Britain’s beleaguered small retailers and manufacturers.

‘The top layer is the fact that the Government has now made permanent a tax break known as “full expensing”. This allows businesses to deduct spending on investment from their profits, meaning they pay lower amounts of corporation tax. Companies will get up to 25p off their tax bill for every £1 that they invest, amounting to a tax cut of over £10bn a year, according to the Treasury.

‘The bottom layer of good news for logistics and tech companies is the announcement of an additional £4.5bn of support for manufacturing, including £960m for new green industry firms. There’s also £500m promised over the next two years to fund more innovation centres to help make the UK an “AI powerhouse”. The role of AI is set to transform Britain’s online retail and tech industries over the coming years.

‘However, sandwiched between these two layers is a hefty filling of bad news. Firstly, Hunt’s speech revealed the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) has sharply downgraded its forecast for economic growth in 2024 and 2025 from previous predictions. The figure for 2024 has fallen from 1.8% to 0.7%, while 2025 has similarly plummeted from 2.5% to 1.4%. Those are big cuts in expected growth that will impact on businesses of all size over the next couple of years. Inflation and interest rates are also predicted to drop more slowly than expected.

‘Also leaving a bitter taste, the Government has again failed to tackle business rate reform, leaving many retailers and businesses in a state of limbo for another year. Yes, the Chancellor announced the reapplication of the sticking plaster that is the small business multiplier for a further year. He has also continued the 75% discount on business rates up to £110,000 for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses for another year. Although that should save the average independent shop over £20,000 next year, it still leaves the eventual resumption of these rates hanging like the sword of Damocles over many much-loved local stores. Businesses will find it hard to plan for the future until there is a proper solution to the vexed issue of rates.

‘One piece of good news for many people is that National Insurance will be cut by 2%, from 12% to 10%, from 6 January, 2024. That could add up to a £450 annual saving for someone on a salary of £35,000. It may be enough to boost consumer confidence at a vital time for retailers. Spending this month has been down on traditional levels for the beginning of the Christmas sales season.

‘Knowing there’s a New Year tax decrease might be the incentive for shoppers to return online and in-store and encourage a burst of early Christmas shopping, perhaps in time for Black Friday this week. However, for those of us who tend to leave everything until much later, ParcelHero’s continually updated Christmas deadlines tool is invaluable for keeping shoppers in the know with their favourite retailers’ final online order dates. Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday this year, which means many stores’ deadlines are earlier than usual.

Read more:
Autumn Statement is a ‘bad news sandwich’ for small businesses and retailers

AI has rapidly revolutionised how marketing teams work, with 63% of UK marketers reporting that they had experimented with ChatGPT or generative AI as a part of their marketing and customer experience efforts.

This figure will only increase over the coming year, and it is vital that businesses start to plan how they’ll use AI in the long-term to keep up with an increasingly competitive market.

As Emmanuelle Benoliel, Chief Marketing Officer at Aircall explains, This is especially true for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) who, owing to less revenue and leaner teams – but the same expectations – see their investments placed increasingly under the microscope. The immediacy of AI technology makes it a very tempting prospect for content and idea creation, but the long-term benefits it will deliver remain unclear and SMBs need to better define the ongoing role they want it to play.

This byline will explore how generative AI can revolutionise marketing through enhanced customer experience and boosting human creativity. It will discuss how SMBs, in particular, can implement AI technologies without downgrading the input of their marketers or making ethically unsound decisions, and will look ahead to what the future of marketing for SMBs might look like, with AI and humans working together in high-performing harmony.

AI can revolutionise customer experiences for SMBs – so what’s holding them back?

In a challenging business environment, delivering impactful customer experiences is central to the success of businesses worldwide, but, on average, customer-facing teams spend just four hours of the working week on meaningful interactions with customers. It’s no secret that during a downturn such as we’re seeing now, customers are more likely to leave quicker – at a time when you need them to stick around. Simply put, these four hours aren’t enough, especially for SMBs.

The better experiences and improved retention SMBs need calls for investment, time and attention – factors that aren’t always possible for leaner organisations. When we consider how, according to the B2B Institute, 80% of business clients are not in the market for the product businesses are selling at any one moment, it becomes clear that this isn’t about turning the tap on and off again, but about weaving AI into customer engagement that can bring benefits in both the short and the long term.

Through its time-saving capabilities, generative AI is helping SMB marketers connect to their customers in a more personalised and dynamic way. Customers want to be understood and feel like they are heard, but this isn’t about asking ChatGPTto do that for you; it’s about leaning into generative AI’s capabilities to automate the time drags that marketing teams face as part of their customer engagement strategy. For instance, predicting future customer behaviour, audience segmentation, programmatic advertising, SEO, suggesting and then generating more personalised content – the list goes on! Implemented effectively, AI’s enablement (not replacement) of human performance unlocks the competitive advantage for SMBs in a crowded marketplace and helps to keep teams’ heads above water.

Without collaboration between humans and AI – there’ll be no future

Our AI Index report found that 64% of employees are optimistic about AI in general – rising to 68% of those aged 25 to 34. But despite this, more work is needed to get the most value out of AI. Greater education is required around the uses of it to support the daily work of teams, with 63% stating that there is a lack of understanding of what AI can do.

AI has enormous potential to help marketers to work more effectively and efficiently, but efforts must be directed towards establishing the right partnerships between people and AI. Crucially for SMBs, using AI doesn’t endanger their creativity, but it can make marketers’ lives easier. One option is bouncing ideas off generative AI in the same way you would a colleague. For example, when planning an advertising campaign concept, you could expect ChatGPT, Google Bard and co to provide the most common or entry-level answers and ideas; the ones that cover the main bases. This gives us a unique benchmark to build our human creativity up from – honing in on our human difference and providing something altogether more special and born from experience.

While I’m keen to avoid the melodrama of the movies we’ve all watched about the rise of AI, it’s true that if SMBs fail to work together with the technology, then there might not be a future for them. Not through the fault of AI – but their own inability to innovate and keep pace with a changing world. The tightrope SMBs are asked to walk gets higher and higher the more the economy tightens, and right now there’s an unmissable window for them to lay the foundation for a partnership that holds to the key to business survival and success.

Taking businesses to the next level

Navigating the AI revolution requires careful consideration in how we integrate new technologies, with a focus on human-centricity. After all, AI is only as good as the people who use it. It is encouraging, therefore, to see that almost half (48%) of employees want more guidance from their employers on how to use AI – and 39% say that a lack of AI training impacts their decisions to join a company.

At Aircall, we’re meeting SMBs halfway by creating AI-supported tools that might have traditionally been out of their reach. That’s because AI is the future and it cannot just be for big businesses. By democratising this technology, in both an easy-to-use and affordable way, we are empowering them to gather customer insights and make data-driven decisions to perform at their peak.

AI has evolved at a rapid pace and it shows no signs of slowing down. But with question marks remaining over its safety and ethics, it is important that we pause and take stock of the progress made so far, before deciding where to turn next in its implementation. Indeed, half of employees are concerned about moving too fast with AI, but we must educate and train to put these concerns aside. Because with the right partner and tools, we can get our processes right and seize the potential to bring humans and AI together for a brighter future of marketing and SMBs.

Read more:
AI is not a nice-to-have – it’s essential to the future of SMBs

HMRC’s  policy of disallowing VAT claims unless the imported goods form part of the importer’s onward taxable supplies is damaging UK PLC

That is the opinion of leading tax and advisory firm Blick Rothenberg.

Alan Pearce, a partner who leads the VAT team at the firm, said: “Many businesses are not able to reclaim import VAT if they don’t own the goods where these are being imported only for onward shipment after processing or packaging. This could discourage hundreds of businesses from taking on valuable service-related activities in the UK, because the alternative is to force them into complying with complex import regimes on behalf of overseas owners and manufacturers looking for UK expertise.”

Alan added: “In a recent First Tier Tribunal appeal, the decision confirmed HMRC’s policy of disallowing VAT claims unless the imported goods form part of the importer’s onward taxable supplies. This means that unless the importer owns the goods or becomes the owner of the goods, it cannot reclaim the import VAT.”

Alan said: “This is the case of Piramal Healthcare UK Limited, a company that imported goods into the UK for the purposes of undertaking various processes and clinical trials for the owner of the goods. Piramal took the view that the imported goods were being ‘used for the purpose of its business’ and therefore, this entitled it to reclaim the import VAT it had paid to HMRC when the goods arrived in the UK. This had been a long-established practice up until February 2019, when HMRC issued its Business Brief 02/19 announcing that with, effect from 15 July 2019, importers will no longer be entitled to claim import VAT unless they effectively owned the goods, and these became a cost component of the importer’s onward supply. The Tribunal has effectively agreed with HMRC that this is the legal meaning of using the goods for the purpose of the business.”

He added: “In this case, Piramal never took title to the imported goods and only provided taxable services to its customer. The import VAT, therefore, was never Piramal’s input tax to recover as title to the goods remained with its customer. The Tribunal concluded that import VAT is only deductible where the imported goods are a cost component of an onward supply made by the importer.”

Alan said: “This, therefore, begs the question, ‘Does the importer need to own the goods at the time the goods are imported?’ This is not necessarily the test, as HMRC has confirmed, if the importer has the right to dispose of the goods as if it were owner, they can still reclaim the import VAT.

This is a commonly used commercial arrangement where title doesn’t pass to the importer until sometime after the goods have been imported. Therefore, where it is envisaged that title will pass at some point (so that the goods do become a cost competent of the importer’s onward supply) then the import VAT can be claimed.”

Alan added: “Where this is not the case, other means of mitigating the VAT costs will need to be considered. The owner of the goods may be able to act as importer. However, where the owner is established overseas, and doesn’t make taxable supplies in the UK, they will need to apply for a direct refund claim to HMRC. This is not always a positive experience for overseas businesses.

Alternatively, there are some helpful temporary import reliefs available for goods that are imported for processing or packaging and are subsequently re-exported. However, these reliefs are generally only available to businesses established in the UK, so it may be necessary for an overseas owner to request that the UK processor or packager take on the extra administration and apply for the necessary authorisation to use the relief.”

Alan said: “In summary, to be able to reclaim import VAT, importers either need to own the goods, or have the right to dispose of the goods as owner, so that the goods themselves become a costs component of the importer’s onward taxable supply. However, as the UK is no longer in the EU, the UK Government could set its own rules and allow HMRC a more flexible approach to this type of business activity. It could simply allow the recovery of VAT by importers of goods used for qualifying processes and packaging rather than having to force them, or the overseas owners, into more complex solutions that only end up with the same overall revenue impact for UK PLC.”

Read more:
Disallowing VAT could damage UK PLC

The overall vacancy rate across Britain rose by 13.9% in the second quarter of 2023, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

They also found that around 6,000 retail outlets have closed their doors in the last five years. Increasing financial pressures – with everything from insurance to supply chain costs rising significantly – have been cited as the main reason for this exodus.

The success or failure of a high street right now very much depends on who is investing in these areas. Typically, high streets where local authorities are involved – such as they rent out commercial properties – are evolving quicker. Local authorities invest in these social spaces. For example, Warwickshire council are relaunching a Christmas campaign to encourage the public to shop locally by promoting independent retailers. Privately owned or rented commercial premises are less likely to have that sort of continuous investment.

In 2021, the Arcadia Group collapsed into administration.

This left around five hundred commercial premises empty. Many of which, still are. Empty units continue to be so as rents and business rates climb. Property managers or landlords simply cannot find people to occupy these spaces; and small independent retailers can’t be expected to take on the vast spaces left by the likes of Arcadia. Think Wilko’s. The chain itself can no longer operate as an in-person business, but the brand was bought out and taken online-only. High rents and high business rates will have had a major impact on that decision.

Helen Dickinson, CEO of the BRC, said in September: “The chancellor must freeze [business] rates to help keep a lid on retailers’ already high costs […] A £400m rates rise will also cost jobs, harm the economy, and damage the vibrancy of our town and city centres. While other business taxes, such as corporation tax and VAT, rise and fall with the movements in the economy, business rates must be paid in full whether firms are making a profit or a loss. This makes business rates the difference between retailers being forced to close existing stores rather than opening new ones.”

Those in sectors such as retail and hospitality are inundated with reliefs and schemes designed to help them. So why is this not working?

The Office of National Statistics has collated data that found for the 41st week (9th October to 15th October) of 2023, retail footfall remained relatively the same compared to the same period in 2022. However, overall, retail footfall decreased in six of the UK counties and regions in the 41st week of 2023. With the largest decreases occurring in Wales and the West Midlands.

Footfall – the amount of foot traffic a commercial premise is likely to achieve – can have a huge impact not only on the rent of a property, but also its business rates. A less accessible location is likely to see less footfall, though the rent and rates payable is likely to be lower.

Even with the lure of incentives and reliefs, retailers cannot offset the burden of increasing business rates or commercial property rent enough to return to the high street.

Anthony Hughes, Managing Director of RVA Surveyors, said: “Consumers and businesses are time poor. Online retailers offer greater convenience to consumers. This equals less foot traffic in shopping centres, and high streets. Big or small, if the audience is not there, businesses are going to struggle. Reliefs are designed to help offset the disadvantages, but with significant increases expected early next year, many may still face having to close their doors.”

Independent retailers – that is, businesses not part of a chain or franchise – tend to be hit hardest by loss of footfall. For bigger chains (who most likely have a greater online presence), it is the limitations on support that has a larger negative effect. Local authorities that run high streets and public spaces need to continue to adapt in order to encourage people to spend locally. From different types of businesses, to ensuring that independent retailers and larger chains sit side by side. Thereby offering the public a greater assortment, increasing foot traffic for all, and guaranteeing that appropriate commercial units are occupied or repurposed.

While some have recovered since the pandemic, many are still struggling. Habitat for Humanity (Great Britain) estimated that around 7,000 commercial properties owned by local authorities across England, Scotland, and Wales had been vacant for more than 12 months by 2020. Across the UK, 383 pubs closed before the end of June this year alone.

“Commercial premises aren’t empty because landlords want to keep it that way.” Hughes added. “They want people in there and, ideally, on long-term leases. Removing reliefs for landlords and empty properties isn’t going to help anyone in the long run; let alone our high streets.”

Read more:
Will our high streets crumble under the pressure of empty properties?

The global AI safety summit unveiled huge concerns highlighting that the technology poses a potentially catastrophic risk to humanity as worries around highly advanced forms of AI, with as-yet unknown capabilities, are put forward under a landmark declaration from countries including the UK, US, EU and China.

Discussions addressed the apprehension that, for the first time ever, AI presents itself as something that is far smarter than humans and how we are able to control this emerging piece of technology to ensure it is used in a safe and ethical way is unclear.

The event brings together over 100 world leaders, tech bosses and academics including Elon Musk, co-founder of the ChatGPT developer OpenAI and Tesla chief executive, Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder of DeepMind, Michelle Donelan, The UK technology secretary, Věra Jourová, The European Commission’s vice-president for values and transparency and King Charles, all of which gave their view on the roadmap forward.

Potential risks that were discussed included breaches to privacy, cyberattacks and the displacement of jobs while investing more in AI risk management was highlighted to be a priority by the UK government. The Bletchley Declaration, signed by 28 countries, calls for global cooperation on tackling the risks and says AI must be kept safe, trustworthy and responsible.

What the experts said:

Margo Waldorf, Founder at Change Awards, commented:“Road mapping the future of AI is essential for people and businesses, and it is essential that world leaders collaborate on the best route forward to both maximise AI’s potential while encouraging its safe development. AI is demanding change in the workplace and organisations must consider vital questions such as ‘How are we going to adopt AI?’ and ‘What do our employees need to do differently?’ in order to lead effective change management. We cannot forget about the human side of AI adoption, balancing how we can make AI work hand in hand with staff to maximise productivity.”

Tom Dunning, CEO of Ad Signal, commented: “Industry has been treating AI as the solution for every problem, adopting it into applications that don’t actually rely on AI to be efficient. Not only does this create the issue of regulation and control dominating the Bletchley Park Summit, but it also creates great danger for the environment. AI training, in particular, is causing significant environmental damage as it is by far the most power and cooling hungry aspect of AI, with estimates that a single AI model can emit over 284 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Sustainability and climate impact have to bear weight as part of global AI discussions.”

John Kirk, Deputy CEO for Inspired Thinking Group, commented: “The Bletchley Park AI Safety Summit is a positive step to planning the future of AI for businesses and we’d hope to see progress made towards its safe development and evolution. Generative AI, in particular, can support creative teams to produce a higher volume of content through asset creation and digital asset management, freeing marketers up to do what they love – be creative. Platforms such as Storyteq’s BrandCore can provide brands with an innovative AI-driven engine that provides marketers with secure, controllable AI that ensures brand compliance.“

Michelle Donelan, The UK technology secretary, said: “I really do think we need to change the conversation when it comes to jobs … What AI has the potential to do is actually reduce some of those tedious administrative part of our jobs, which is particularly impactful for doctors, our police force, our teachers.”

Elon Musk, Tesla chief executive, said: “I mean, for the first time, we have a situation where there’s something that is going to be far smarter than the smartest human. So, you know, we’re not stronger or faster than other creatures, but we are more intelligent. And here we are, for the first time really in human history, with something that’s going to be far more intelligent than us.”

Read more:
Bletchley park outcomes: AI biggest threat to humanity

Did you know that while 5% of adults have ADHD, 29% of entrepreneurs do? Bill Gates and Richard Branson are just two successful businesspeople who have been open about their diagnoses.

Undoubtedly, entrepreneurs with ADHD possess a unique blend of creativity, resilience, and adaptability that can serve as powerful drivers of success.

But it’s essential to be aware of pitfalls like distractibility and burnout.

Whether you have an official diagnosis or self-identify as having ADHD, the right support and self-care strategies can turn what some might see as a limitation into your greatest entrepreneurial asset.

What is neurodiversity, and why are we talking about it?

Neurodiversity describes the natural variation in the human brain and how people think, learn and process information differently.

Around one in seven people are neurodivergent, the umbrella term which includes autism spectrum conditions, ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia.

This conversation matters because, in embracing neurodiversity, we don’t just acknowledge differences; we can optimise for them.

Why does neurodiversity matter in entrepreneurship?

Entrepreneurship thrives on different ways of seeing and solving problems, precisely where many neurodiverse people excel.

For me, entrepreneurship was more than an option; it was a necessity.

Traditional work environments stifled my creativity and didn’t cater to my unique ways of thinking.

The entrepreneurial path provided the freedom to explore, create, and execute my visions, however unconventional they might have been.

What’s the link between ADHD and entrepreneurship?

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects the structure and function of the brain and nervous system. It is presumed to be present from birth.

Living with ADHD presents a unique blend of challenges and advantages, shaped by its severe impact on focus and impulsivity.

How do I describe my ADHD? It’s like having a brain with the horsepower of a Ferrari but the braking speed of a cheap bicycle. Or having a powerful internal motor that never shuts off. It’s constantly having 100 internet tabs open in my brain. It’s exhausting. But it also brings many gifts – or, as I prefer to call them, superpowers.

ADHD has given me natural creativity and problem-solving abilities. I get things done quickly. I see patterns and opportunities others don’t. I have a finely-tuned bullsh*t radar. I take risks, and sometimes they pay off. All of these things make me brilliant at my work.

Tell me more about ADHD superpowers in business.

Let’s consider some of the unique traits neurodiverse entrepreneurs often bring to the table:

Hyperfocus: Neurodiverse people often focus intently on tasks that capture their interest. This can be incredibly advantageous in the early stages of a start-up, where passion and focus are crucial.

Empathy: ADHDers are often more sensitive to other people’s needs and experiences. This hyper-empathy allows for a more nuanced understanding of client relationships and team dynamics.

Quick Adaptability: The ability to pivot swiftly in a new direction is often a lifesaver in the ever-changing landscape of entrepreneurship.

What about the challenges?

Risk Management: While risk-taking is essential for entrepreneurship, it can become a double-edged sword if not managed carefully. This is particularly relevant for those of us with ADHD, where impulsive decisions could lead to unnecessary risks.

Mental Health: Struggles with anxiety, depression, or even burnout are frequent companions for neurodiverse people, which need active management and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Self-Support Strategies for ADHD Entrepreneurs

While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for navigating entrepreneurship with ADHD, some strategies and preventive measures can make the journey smoother.

Prioritisation Skills: One of the challenges with ADHD is prioritising tasks. Using tools like to-do lists or project management software can help, but try to keep them simple. Identify your ‘big rocks’ – the tasks that must get done – and focus on them first.

Setting Boundaries: With an active mind always buzzing with ideas, knowing when to say no can be difficult. Setting clear boundaries can prevent you from overcommitting and help maintain a healthier work-life balance.

Mindfulness Techniques: Impulsivity and emotional peaks and troughs can be typical for those with ADHD. Practising mindfulness can help improve focus and self-regulation. There are several apps and short courses that can guide you in developing this skill.

Accountability: Share your goals and deadlines with someone you trust or, even better, someone who understands the intricacies of ADHD. Knowing that someone else is aware of your commitments can motivate you.

Body Doubling: This productivity hack involves having someone nearby while working on tedious tasks. Because our brains are interest-based, we can easily forget or put off the less exciting but equally important jobs in business. I use Flown, a virtual co-working space, to help keep me accountable for the bigger tasks I dread. It’s incredible how much more I get done when I feel like others are watching, even when they’re strangers!

Financial Planning: Given that ADHD can be associated with impulsivity, financial planning and budgeting can be more crucial than ever. You might consider consulting with a financial advisor who can offer tailored guidance.

Seek Professional Support: If you find that ADHD-related challenges are severely affecting your business, it may be beneficial to seek the support of professionals, like ADHD coaches or mental health advisors, who can provide personalised coping strategies.

What To Watch Out For

Burnout: The thrill of a new project can be intoxicating, but it’s easy to overextend yourself and end up burnt out. Keep an eye on your workload and take time to recharge.

Over-Promising: The enthusiasm and creativity that come with ADHD can sometimes lead to making commitments that are hard to fulfil. Be mindful of what’s realistically achievable.

Analysis Paralysis: The flip side of impulsivity is getting stuck in endless cycles of overthinking. If you procrastinate because you’re caught up in details, take a step back and refocus on the bigger picture.

Read more:
Unlock the Entrepreneurial Power of ADHD: Strategies and insights for maximising your unique strengths

In a rapidly-evolving digital landscape, Artificial Intelligence is transforming the landscape of business events, offering businesses a powerful toolset to enhance efficiency and drive engagement with their brand. But it also raises questions over security, accuracy, and reliability.

Hire Space, a tech-driven venue marketplace, which supports businesses planning corporate events, has been monitoring the impact of AI on business events through industry surveys and research into its usages. Here, the company shares some of the practical applications of AI to shed light on how it might affect business events.

AI’s Practical Applications in Business Event Planning

Corporate events, with their myriad of components and stakeholders, require meticulous planning and execution. AI is revolutionising the way many events are conceptualised, organised, and managed to save money for businesses in the following areas, among others:

AI in Supplier Sourcing: Procurement is a serious time drain for businesses planning events, with stretched teams and long response times to book venues, catering, and more. Venue selection, in particular, has become more efficient with machine learning algorithms that quickly connect event organisers with suitable venues, while aligning with specific requirements. Hire Space’s venue sourcing platform uses machine learning to connect businesses with the best venues for their events, and to make it easier to send event briefs to multiple relevant venues at once.

Budget Optimisation: AI can analyse past event data to provide accurate budget forecasts. It can also suggest cost-saving measures and allocate funds more efficiently. It can also analyse the scale and nature of the event to recommend the ideal number of staff required, minimising wastage.

Event Analysis: By analysing data from previous events, AI can predict potential challenges or bottlenecks which allows planners to create contingency plans. With wearable event tech and facial expression recognition becoming more popular at events, AI can analyse patterns of attendee engagement post-event to shape future strategies for event planning.

Networking Opportunities: AI can analyse attendee profiles to suggest potential networking matches, facilitating meaningful connections and enhancing the overall event value for participants. It can also provide conversation prompts based on connections between attendees who are wearing wearable technology, and suggest the best table layouts for corporate dinners and meetings.

Sustainability and Waste Management: AI can predict resource requirements more accurately, which may lead to reductions of waste. From predicting how much food will be eaten based on previous events, to analysing the return on investment for purchasing durable, reusable materials, it can help to suggest sustainable practices and vendors, aligning with the growing emphasis on eco-friendly events, and aiding companies to align with their CSR targets.

Concerns around AI in Events

While AI’s promise for business is undeniable, concerns about its reliability, precision, and data protection linger. According to Hire Space’s survey results, a significant portion of industry professionals remain sceptical about the accuracy of AI’s predictions in event planning and voice concerns over data security.

Despite the fact that three quarters of event organisers are actively using AI to streamline operations in corporate event planning and beyond, with two thirds expressing that they feel “very positive” about the adoption of AI in events, a third of event planners also voiced concerns over unfamiliarity with AI tools, which could lead to inaccuracies and errors when planning corporate events.

When dealing with personal or company data and sensitive information, this poses a real risk, and it’s clear that learning and development has a long way to go before AI can confidently be applied to planning business events.

The Road Ahead: Navigating Challenges and Opportunities

We may be at the beginning of the journey, but AI is set to play an increasingly prominent role in all areas of business. It’s critical that businesses are prepared to implement AI effectively, and safeguard employees and event attendees against errors caused by lack of knowledge of the tools.

To aid corporate event organisers in understanding how to use AI for future event planning, Hire Space has curated a comprehensive guide to using AI for events, offering insights into harnessing AI effectively to enhance business events.

Critically, AI’s role isn’t to replace but to complement human expertise. As Kerrin MacPhie of the MIA, aptly puts it, “The future of AI in the sector is about how we use it, not about how it decides to be used!” The key lies in harmonising this creativity with AI-driven tools to streamline processes, boost efficiency, and elevate the event planning experience.

Read more:
The Rise of AI in Business Events: A Boon or a Bane?

Menopause. It’s a hot topic of conversation for individuals and businesses alike, but with such a stigma still attached to it, the conversation around the menopause certainly packs a punch.

Every single person with female reproductive organs will experience the menopause – or ‘The Change’ – at some stage in their life, whether that be through natural causes, or medical or chemical induction.

Did you know that the menopause, where the female reproductive system no longer releases eggs, is actually just a one-day event?

As Charmaine Vincent, Founder and CEO of Baltimore Consulting explains, the perimenopause, however, can last up to 12 years, and can set off a chain-reaction of both physical and mental symptoms. The symptoms can seriously affect someone’s ability to do their job. More than that, they can also prey on their minds – a job that was “a walk in the park,” and now they are struggling. The menopause is something way out of the control of the employee, but something that the employer and the person’s colleagues must take on board and assist where possible.

As employers, Baltimore Consulting is at the leading edge in providing menopausal support for their staff. They are constantly taking steps towards providing clients with advice and educating everyone on how to advance menopause policy in the workplace.

Recently, I attended the Institute of Government & Public Policy’s ‘Advancing Menopause Policy in the Workplace’ online conference. The event was of special importance to me, having experienced early perimenopause and feeling its impact on life, both personally and professionally, first-hand. At 36 years old, I began experiencing anxiety for the first time, alongside debilitating brain fog, mood swings and hot sweats.

It took two years of unsuccessful GP visits before my fortune changed. I started receiving medical attention from Bristol’s Menopause clinic, where they diagnosed my symptoms as perimenopausal. They got her started on her journey with oestrogen. Now, at 40 and two years into my HRT journey, the physical and mental changes have been literally game-changing for me.

I am not alone. A parliamentary report found that one in 100 people with female reproductive organs go through the menopause under the age of 40, with one in 1000 experiencing menopause under 30.

So why aren’t we seeking help?

I believe it is largely down to ‘shame’. Approximately 35,000 30–45-year-olds in the UK are walking around with undiagnosed menopausal symptoms because there isn’t enough education or support around the menopause. Far too often, people don’t even realise that they’re experiencing menopausal symptoms because they feel shame, or they’re being turned away by GPs because they’re ‘too young’.

Whilst the average age of menopause is 51, people with female reproductive organs can live through the perimenopause for 12 years beforehand. This accounts for such a huge workforce population, so change needs to happen.

Perhaps the best-known physical symptoms are hot flushes and irritability, but in addition, the employee may suffer from insomnia, fatigue, headaches, poor concentration, and urinary issues. These issues and a possible hormone imbalance can lead to mental health issues like anxiety, depression, panic attacks, mood swings, memory issues and loss of confidence – all things which can impact the way someone performs their role.

Undeniably, all these would affect a woman’s ability to remain productive and happy in the workplace. Therefore, it is more important than ever to work to remove the taboo surrounding menopausal policy in a professional environment. Stigma, lack of support and discrimination play key roles in forcing menopausal employees out of the workplace.

In a survey of over 2,000 women commissioned by the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee, 67% reported ‘a loss of confidence’ due to menopausal symptoms, and 70% reported ‘increased stress’.

Despite this, only 12% of respondents sought any workplace adjustments, with 1 in 4 citing their worries about an employer’s reaction as their reason for not doing so. In a nutshell, you could lose a valuable experienced team member because you miss, rather than mitigate their menopause challenges.

The Advancing Menopause Policy in the Workplace conference addressed current policies and inequalities related to menopause in the workplace and offered insight into developing a stronger workplace culture regarding menopause, looking at overcoming discrimination and implementing practical support.

Here are a few simple ideas to consider as part of a menopause policy that mitigates, not just ticks a box.

• Look at the person’s workspace regarding its nearness to the toilets or away from cold spots.
• Conduct a general risk assessment to see if there are factors that could have a negative impact on an employee with the menopause.
• Work with the employee. Do they experience moments during the day when fatigue can suddenly hit them?
• Ask if they would feel more comfortable working from home.
• It could be that being around the positive influence of colleagues could help stave off or reduce feelings of depression.
• Engender a team spirit where colleagues can help and do their bit to support and help their fellow worker.

Read more:
Advancing Your Menopause Policy

JP Morgan boss, Jamie Dimon, has warned the world may be living through “the most dangerous time the world has seen in decades” as Israel prepares to launch an expected ground offensive on Gaza.

The escalating conflict could have “far-reaching impacts” on energy prices, food costs, international trade and diplomatic ties, he said as JPMorgan Chase, America’s largest bank, reported earnings for the latest quarter.

While the lender posted another robust set of results, Dimon cautioned that interest rates may increase further in the United States, as the savings of consumers dwindle.

Dimon said: “The war in Ukraine compounded by last week’s attacks on Israel may have far-reaching impacts on energy and food markets, global trade and geopolitical relationships. This may be the most dangerous time the world has seen in decades.

“While we hope for the best, we prepare the firm for a broad range of outcomes so we can consistently deliver for clients no matter the environment.”

Earlier this week, Dimon informed staff that JP Morgan employees in the region had been confirmed safe. “This past weekend’s attack on Israel and its people and the resulting war and bloodshed are a terrible tragedy”.

In a later memo, he also told employees that the conflict in the Middle East would have “ripple effects that extend far beyond the region”.

Global companies have scrambled in recent days to account for their staff and formulate public comments on developments. Antonio Neri, chief executive of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, described Saturday’s attack by Hamas as “unjustified and inexcusable”.

In a statement issued alongside the bank’s earnings on Friday, Dimon said US companies and consumers “generally remain healthy”, but noted that Americans have been “spending down their excess cash buffers”.

Read more:
JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon: The world is witnessing ‘most dangerous time in decades’

Taxpayers need to be honest with the Revenue as soon as their affairs are challenged and not call HMRC’s bluff; otherwise, they will end up in the position that Bernie Ecclestone finds himself, say leading tax and advisory firm Blick Rothenberg.

Bernie Ecclestone, the former boss of Formula 1 Racing, pleaded guilty to tax evasion before the High Court today regarding £400m of assets which he controlled in Singapore. This is despite having – in 2015 – previously declared that he had no such overseas assets under his control.

Fiona Fernie, a Tax Disputes and Resolutions Partner with the firm, said: “By not admitting to the offence when initially challenged by HMRC in 2015, Mr Ecclesone will face significantly more punitive penalties than might have been the case.”

She added: “If Mr Ecclestone had admitted to the position in 2015, he might only have faced a tax penalty of 15% of the tax due (depending on HMRC’s assessment of his behaviour up to that point) and would probably have avoided a criminal record. Even if HMRC had considered Mr Ecclestone’s behaviour to be both fraudulent and deliberately concealed, had he come clean in 2015, it should have been possible to reduce the penalty to just over 100% of the tax due.”

Fiona said: “However, by trying to hide the position in the way which he has, Mr Ecclestone became liable for a penalty for foreign tax evasion, which is likely to be as high as 200% of the tax which was illegally avoided, together with a criminal record. The poor behaviour of Mr Ecclestone in this case helps explain why the overall liability he now faces (ca. £652m of tax, penalties and late payment interest) is so high.”

She added: “This case represents a perfect example to taxpayers with ‘problematic tax positions’ of how they should not handle something.

“It is always better to be honest and pro-actively look to ensure that an incorrect position is corrected. Such a response to HMRC challenge helps ensure that any penalties etc. are minimised and the taxpayer’s position is resolved as quickly, cheaply and cleanly as possible.”

Read more:
Bernie Ecclestone’s £652M fine – A Lesson for Other Tax Evaders?

On the eve of the Conservative and Labour Party Conferences, new analysis reveals the acute need for greater support to help British businesses navigate a pivotal 15 months of new rules related to international trade.

A new report from the Institute of Export & International Trade (IOE&IT) finds that over 20 major policy changes will impact all British firms who trade internationally between now and the end of 2024. This makes the period even busier and more pivotal than 2021, when the EU began applying full customs requirement and checks on UK exports.

The report shows that once this period of change is navigated, it will be transformational for British businesses and allow the UK to harness the potential of the new trade deals and opportunities being explored around the world. However, to capitalise on this opportunity, firms must act now to prepare – and policymakers of all colours must work together to ensure this bedding in period is a success.

Last month the government announced its plans for a significant new approach to importing goods into Great Britain via the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM). BTOM will progressively be introduced from January 2024, and will affect borders procedures for incoming food, animal and plant products. However, IOE&IT’s analysis finds that BTOM is just the beginning, with 23 major legislative and policy changes set to affect businesses either directly or through their supply chains, delivery partners or freight forwarders.

The changes set to come into force over the coming months include the fifth release of the New Computerised Transit System, the rollout of the Electronic Trade Documents Act, the EU Import Control System 2, as well as multiple updates to the documentation, risk-based checks and health certification checks on specific products. With specific requirements and levels of understanding needed for each, IOE&IT finds that the time and support needed to implement these changes will be substantial – but that the benefits will be vast.

As the country stands on the precipice of great change in how it does business with the rest of the world, the Institute of Export & International Trade is taking this report to Party Conferences with the clear message that the business community needs support, education and clarity in order to plan properly and navigate this critical period of change successfully.

Commenting on this analysis, Marco Forgione, Director General of The Institute of Export & International Trade, said: “The UK’s international trade community is on the launchpad of great change. Such a raft of new measures in so short a period of time is almost unheard of. This presents an enormous opportunity for Britain to reap the benefits of the new trade deals and partnerships we are pursuing around the world. But we need businesses and policymakers pulling together in the same direction.

“From cutting red tape to our new digital borders, these changes are undoubtedly a cause for excitement. But with so much change, there is naturally going to be some apprehension amongst business owners. This is understandable, and there will be a bedding in period – but the potential benefits if we can navigate this period successfully are profound. The digitalisation of UK trade has the potential to add £25bn to the country’s GDP. But that potential cannot be realised without certainty and support. Businesses need to feel confident that they can not only navigate these changes, but that they have sufficient time to prepare so stock levels, deliveries and suppliers aren’t negatively impacted.

“My message to our leaders at Party Conferences this season is clear, 2024 is going to see profound change in how we trade with the rest of the world. We can longer take for granted that businesses are fully aware of all the changes coming into force. It is essential there are no more delays and that we work together to give our business community the best chance to succeed. We have a golden opportunity here for British business to flourish – but they can only reap the rewards of efficient new border systems and trade deals if they are armed with the right skills and knowledge in plenty of time.”

Read more:
Political leaders urged to support businesses navigate ‘seismic’ period promising transformational benefits for international trade

The Prompt Payment Code (PPC) was introduced to the UK in December 2008 as a voluntary code of practice, administered by the Office of the Small Business Commissioner (OSBC), on behalf of Department for Business and Trade (DBT).

As Pat Bermingham, CEO, Adflex explains it set standards for good payment practices between UK-based organisations and their suppliers. It was introduced in response to calls from UK businesses for a change in payment culture: at the time, one in four businesses were going insolvent due to invoices being paid late, and the problem was felt more acutely by smaller businesses with less cash in the bank.

The code initially received a positive response from the market and despite remaining a voluntary initiative, over 4,000 UK businesses from a variety of industries are signed up today. Does that mean it has solved the problem of late payments? Many feel it has failed to meet its initial objective.

Research from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has found that 50,000 businesses are closing each year in the UK due to suppliers not being paid on time. So where has it gone wrong and what can be done to correct the path toward prompt payment paradise?

How the Prompt Payment Code evolved

The initial code outlined three core principles:

1. Buyers should pay suppliers on time, within agreed terms.
2. Buyers should give clear guidance to suppliers on terms, dispute resolution and prompt notification of late payment.
3. Buyers should support good practice throughout their supply chain by encouraging adoption of the Prompt Payment Code.

Despite its introduction, over the ensuing 13 years, poor payment practices continued to plague UK businesses. When the pandemic hit in 2021, company insolvencies rose and late payments became a critical priority in order to keep the UK economy moving. The UK government announced an overhaul of the PPC, cracking down on delayed invoices and a number of changes designed specifically to help small businesses.

Reforms to the Prompt Payment Code in 2021 introduced a new set of payment standards, the most important of which was “the 95% rule”. This required that:

1. 95% of invoices must be paid within agreed terms.
2. 95% of invoices must be paid within 60 days.
3. 95% of invoices must be paid within 30 days for small businesses with less than 50 employees.

Some have found these terms unclear, as views differ on what the starting point is during the 30/60-day payment cycle. Suppliers typically view the initial sharing of the invoice as the start of the cycle, but manual processes on the buyer side can result in human error, with invoices being lost due to incorrect contact details or landing in spam folders. This leads to disagreement between buyers and suppliers on when the payment cycle began, and the resulting confusion can cause delays and harm important business relationships.

Also in 2021, the government published the Procurement Policy Note 08/21. This specifically addressed payment practices for government contracts worth £5 million or more. The note effectively makes it more difficult for companies to bid for government contracts without a proven track record of paying promptly. The hope was that these new standards would help address the shortcomings of the original code, and as a result, late payments would decrease.

Counting the cost of late payments

Despite the overhaul of the PPC and the Procurement Policy, late payments in the UK remained prevalent. According to research by PwC, in 2022 the length of time taken for invoices to be paid to SMEs reached a five-year high. In addition, a 2022 survey showed that on average, 25% of UK small businesses had reported an increase in late payments in the three months prior. Not only was the overhauled PPC failing to reduce late payments, but they were actually becoming more common.

When Carillion collapsed under billions of pounds worth of debt in 2018, it impacted 75,000 people working in its supply chain, highlighting the risk that suppliers run when buyers do not pay promptly.

Despite such high profile cases, and industry efforts to tackle the problem, the proportion of late invoices significantly in construction increased to 52.9% in 2022, a rise of 13 per cent compared with 2021. In a 2022 survey, 55% of the British public stated they would support more controls to prevent late payments. It is clear that current legislation and initiatives, while commendable, are failing to improve the situation.

So, why has the Prompt Payment Code not been more effective? Many feel that the voluntary nature of the code undermines any attempt to address poor payment practices. By comparison, some states in the US, such as Texas, require that payments are made on time by law – for both public and private contracts. The payment deadlines are also shorter in the US. Where in the UK 30-60 days is the ambitious target, in the US, 21-35 days is the standard.

The UK’s poor international standing was highlighted by Tina McKenzie, the Financial Stability Board Policy Chair, in March 2023: “The UK is almost unique in being a place where it is acceptable to pay small businesses late, and that will remain the case without further action.”

B2B payments are going digital

The problem of late payments is a collective one. Therefore, the solution requires collective action. Buyers and suppliers must work together to communicate and deliver the benefits of faster reconciliation to their organisations. After all, everyone benefits from prompt payments: businesses have a clearer picture of cashflow; some suppliers offer incentives for early payments; and others accepting commercial card payments are willing to waive merchant service charge costs, all to encourage speedy settlement.

In the last fifteen years, technology has also advanced dramatically. Consumer payments can be made quickly and easily from mobile devices, for example. B2B payments are more complex to manage but have also seen great innovation that is transforming payments in and out. Straight-through processing (STP) is one example that flips the traditional payment process on its head. STP allows the buyer to automatically ‘push’ commercial card payments to the supplier, instead of the supplier needing to initiate the payment via a payment gateway, such as a Virtual Terminal.

This reduces the cost of acceptance and can be used to automate transactions, removing additional friction and human error from the payment process, thus speeding up settlement.  Meanwhile, suppliers that can offer buyers choice in preferred payment methods removes further friction from the payment process and strengthens relationships crucial to repeat business.

Does digital transformation remove the excuses?

Despite many challenges, the Prompt Payment Code signalled a turning point in UK business payment practices. Over 4,000 businesses signed up and abiding by the code indicates the success it has already enjoyed, but if the UK is to become a thriving hub for business growth over the next fifteen years, it’s clear that more needs to be done.

Now that B2B payment technology is catching up with its B2C counterpart, businesses have access to a multitude of tools that can do the heaving lifting for them and enable them to focus on building and maintaining relationships that remain critical to growth. Responsibility ultimately lies with buyers and suppliers both large and small, and the financial partners with which they work.

In a world where digital payments are becoming the norm, there really is no excuse today for failing to pay promptly. In the end, those that do so will reap the benefits of closer relationships throughout the supply chain, and those that fail to do so may find themselves “promptly” removed from preferred buyer lists.

Read more:
15 years since the Prompt Payment Code was introduced, has it prompted faster payments?

As I watched Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveil the government’s new Net Zero targets, I couldn’t help but feel a pang of disappointment. It’s a day that will go down in history as a black mark against British business, and one we will rue for years to come.

Sunak’s announcement marks a disconcerting shift in priorities that could have catastrophic implications for British businesses. It’s a stark departure from the UK’s previous commitment to sustainability and the long-term benefits it brings, both economically and environmentally.

For many businesses, this new policy feels like a sudden pulling of the rug from under our feet. We’ve been striving hard to align our strategies with the initial Net Zero targets, investing significantly in greener and more sustainable practices. Now, the goalpost has been moved, and the consequences for businesses are grave.

With this change, businesses will face mounting challenges. The financial burden of adopting new practices to meet these new targets, combined with the uncertainty surrounding the specifics of the policy, will place enormous strain on SMEs. This could result in job losses, reduced competitiveness, and potential business closures.

The impact extends beyond the immediate business sphere. Consumers are increasingly demanding sustainable and ethical businesses. A shift away from our previous environmental commitments could potentially damage our reputation in the eyes of consumers, both domestically and internationally.

The Importance of Sustainability

What Sunak’s announcement overlooks is the long-term benefits of sustainability. Prioritising sustainability isn’t just about protecting the environment; it’s also about creating a resilient and future-proof economy.

Green practices stimulate innovation, create jobs, and open up new markets. They make us more competitive on a global scale. By turning our backs on these benefits, we are effectively sabotaging our own future.

A Call to Reconsider

This policy change is more than a mere adjustment of targets. It’s a clear message about where our government’s priorities lie. It’s a decision that underestimates the resilience and adaptability of British businesses, and one that sidelines the importance of sustainability.

As businesses, we must not let this announcement deter us from our commitment to sustainability. We must continue to innovate and find ways to reduce our carbon footprints. We need to keep reminding the government and the public why sustainability should be at the forefront of any economic strategy.

It’s a dark day for British business, but it’s also an opportunity. An opportunity to stand up for what we believe in and to show that we won’t be swayed by short-term political decisions.

Let’s use this as a catalyst to engage in deeper discussions about the kind of future we want for our businesses, our economy, and our planet. Today, more than ever, we must reaffirm our commitment to sustainability and the long-term benefits it brings. Only then can we hope to navigate the challenges that lie ahead and emerge stronger on the other side.

Read more:
A dark day for British business: Unraveling the implications of UK’s new Net Zero Targets

The Government needs to provide urgent additional support for employees and the self-employed using private vehicles for business purposes.

That’s the opinion of Robert Salter, a tax specialist with tax and advisory firm Blick Rothenberg, said: “The Government hasn’t increased the approved reimbursement rates which one can claim for each business mile travelled in a private vehicle for over 10 years now. Given the majority of business trips are done in employee’s own vehicles – as opposed to company cars, they need to step up.”

Salter said: “The Government’s current approved reimbursement rates, which in very simple terms represent the most an employer can reimburse to an employee, if they don’t want to create tax (PAYE) or NIC issues – are now hopelessly out of date, given that they haven’t changed since at least the 2012/12 UK tax year.”

He added: “More worryingly, they also mean that employees are having to personally bear at least some of the costs associated with travelling to visit clients etc., on their employers’ behalf, which is clearly nonsense and unfair.”

Robert said: “Someone who travels 20,000 miles per annum on business in their own private vehicle can receive the following per mileage reimbursement from their employer:

– 45 pence per mile for the first 10,000 business miles; and then

– 25 pence per mile for any business miles over 10,000 in that tax year.

“As these reimbursement rates cover ‘all’ the costs of someone’s business travel – including the cost of depreciation, additional insurance costs and the petrol / diesel costs which arise – the rates do not typically cover the real price suffered by the employee.

“This is particularly true for those employees who are required by their employer to drive a ‘nice car’ – that is one which is, for example, not too old and gives off a solid, professional impression from a business perspective, but for which, one will therefore suffer increased depreciation costs which are unrecoverable.”

He added: “If the Government had simply increased the above reimbursement rates by general inflation, motorists would be entitled to 61 pence per mile for their first 10,000 business miles per annum and 34 pence per mile thereafter. In practice, one could argue that the rates should be even higher than this, as using general inflation doesn’t fully capture the fact that UK car prices (and service costs) have shot up significantly more than general inflation over the past 10 years. A recent report highlighted that the average price of a used car in the UK had increased by 32% in the 12 months to April 2023.”

Salter concluded: “Whilst there are no easy or simple solutions to this issue for either employees or employers, the fact that the Government hasn’t changed the above rates since 2011/12 highlights the manner in which the Government increasingly relies upon ‘stealth taxation’ to punish hard-working business motorists who are – in many respects – the backbone of the British economy.”

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Government relies on ‘stealth tax’ from hardworking business motorists

Exactly one year ago, Liz Truss took office as the prime minister of the U.K., promising a transformative era of free-market economics. However, the 12-months that followed her appointment painted an entirely different picture, marked by economic upheaval, political farce, and a series of unexpected events that shook the very core of British politics.

We revisit the most significant moments of Truss’ brief tenure and look at how they impacted the U.K.’s political and economic landscape.

The Dawn of a New Era

The first day of Liz Truss as PM was marked by high optimism and anticipation. The former foreign secretary pledged to address the issues hampering Britain’s growth and hinted at a pro-growth agenda that aimed to reshape the U.K. economy. However, the journey ahead was far from smooth.

Truss’ ambitious economic plan, dubbed “Trussonomics“, was introduced through a mini-budget just days after her appointment. The plan, which comprised a series of supply-side reforms and debt-funded tax cuts, was expected to stimulate the economy. However, it led to an unprecedented drop in the pound’s value, forcing the Bank of England to intervene with an emergency bond-buying program.

Despite the initial setback, Truss remained steadfast in her commitment to deregulation and tax cuts, believing it to be the key to fostering economic growth. However, her approach was met with strong criticism, with detractors arguing that it would only fuel inflation and fail to address the cost-of-living crisis.

Adding to the economic turmoil, Truss faced unexpected challenges that further complicated her tenure. The death of Queen Elizabeth II, just days after Truss’ appointment, resulted in a period of national mourning that disrupted the government’s schedule and delayed the implementation of Truss’ economic plan.

Furthermore, Truss was under immense pressure to address the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which threatened to significantly increase energy bills for the U.K.’s most vulnerable citizens. Despite promising to cap energy bills, Truss’ energy strategy remained largely unclear, adding to the uncertainty facing the U.K. economy.

As the economic situation worsened, Truss found herself backtracking on several policies. In a desperate attempt to calm the turbulent markets, her key ally and the then Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, reversed the flagship cut to the top rate of tax. Despite these efforts, Truss’ economic plan continued to falter, leading to rising mortgage rates and increasing economic instability.

Just when it seemed that things couldn’t get worse, Truss was forced to resign, ending her brief yet tumultuous tenure as PM. Her resignation came after a series of political scandals and a party row over state pensions. The abrupt end to her leadership marked one of the shortest tenures of a U.K. prime minister, leaving a legacy of economic instability and political uncertainty.

The Aftermath of Truss’ Leadership

A year after Truss’ appointment, the repercussions of her leadership continue to be felt across the U.K. The Ipsos poll shows that the public’s trust in the Conservatives to manage the economy significantly declined during Truss’ tenure and has yet to recover. This decline in trust has given the Labour Party a considerable lead in the polls, leaving the Conservatives in a precarious position with an election looming.

Moreover, Truss’ time in office has negatively impacted Britain’s reputation globally. According to a survey by EY, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the U.K. fell significantly last year, placing the U.K. behind France. This decline in FDI, coupled with the U.K.’s underperformance post-COVID, paints a grim picture of the country’s economic prospects.

Despite her brief and controversial tenure, Truss remains a prominent figure in British politics. She continues to defend her economic approach, attributing the failure of her plan to a powerful economic establishment resistant to change. Truss is advocating for the overhaul of the U.K.’s sluggish economy and is expected to deliver a keynote speech on the country’s economic woes.

Liz Truss’ tenure as PM was a critical period in British politics, marked by high economic volatility and political uncertainty. A year on, the repercussions of her leadership continue to shape the U.K.’s political and economic landscape. As we look ahead, the lessons from Truss’ tenure offer valuable insights into the challenges and complexities of leading a nation through times of crisis.

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Reflecting a year on from the start of Liz Truss’ Premiership: A Rollercoaster of British Politic

Jonathan Maxwell, founder and CEO of Sustainable Development Capital LLP — one of the UK’s largest independent sustainability and climate-focussed investment firms — says that the ongoing energy crisis needs to be embraced by businesses as an opportunity to innovate and grow.

Good businesses, they say, solve problems.

That is fortunate, for Brexit, Covid, and the Russia-Ukraine crisis have left plenty of them in their wake.

Somewhere towards the top of the list for UK and European businesses is energy: the cost, the carbon, and even getting enough of it.

Indeed, the challenges that energy now represents for businesses and industry can be defining and, in some cases, existential in the long term.

But in the face of these challenges, good businesses may find some of their greatest opportunities.

These include deploying clean and renewable energy solutions on-site and delivering step changes in energy efficiency.

Our own research and investment portfolios — valued at over £1.5billion and linked to 50,000 properties worldwide — demonstrate that unless steps are taken, some 70% of primary energy can be lost before it even gets to the point of use.

Another 10–30% can be wasted at the point of use through inefficient equipment.

Take datacentres as an example. They are the one of largest and fastest growing users of energy in the modern economy, responsible for between one and two percent of final energy demand.

The energy is used mostly by servers and cooling, and they are so reliant on energy that datacentres are measured in units of it— megawatts — more often than their physical size (square feet).

What to do? On-site energy generation pairing cogeneration (replacing the grid for prime power and diesel for backup) with renewable energy solutions such as solar and storage have been proven to cut costs, reduce carbon intensity, and improve energy security by reducing reliance on the often-constrained electricity grid.

Newer immersion or liquid cooling solutions can reduce energy and water use by over 50% and, with it, the space needed for the datacentre itself — by focussing on cooling the server racks rather than the whole room.

Similar solutions, both on the supply and demand side, abound for other industries.

Recycling waste heat and gas from steel, cement, chemicals, and plastics facilities — so-called ‘hard-to-abate’ sectors that represent some 40% of human-made greenhouse gas emissions — has been proven to cut costs and emissions.

On-site solar and storage makes financial sense and is cheaper than the grid for large commercial buildings such as distribution centres, retail, and logistics facilities.

Since 2012, my firm, through the FTSE 250 investment trust, the SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust plc, and other funds under our management, has committed and invested over US$2billion to energy efficient projects worldwide.

This has provided us with privileged and deep insight into commercially attractive solutions that save money for business and industry, and we now publish much of this information publicly on the investment trust’s website: www.seeitplc.com.

Both the European Commission and the United States federal government, through the Inflation Reduction Act, now offer substantial market incentives, in the form of payments or tax credits, for energy efficiency projects.

One of the best open sources of data to illustrate the opportunity associated with business and industry is the ‘DEEP’ (which stands for De-risking Energy Efficiency Platform), sponsored by the European Commission.

It provides data for over 20,000 building projects, with median payback periods of less than six years. The most cost-effective solutions such as motors, heating, cooling, and lighting all have payback period of less than five years. It also provides data for 17,000 industrial projects with median payback periods of less than three years.

After Russia invaded Ukraine, until which point it supplied some 40% of Europe’s natural gas, energy prices in Europe have been highly volatile and, at times, so high that it made businesses and industries dependent on it uncompetitive.

There are genuine questions about whether energy-intense industry can survive in certain parts of Europe and the real prospect of losing business to — as well as having to pay for liquified natural gas imports to — the United States and other markets.

London and Dublin are struggling to meet the needs of the fast-growing information and communications technology markets. Energy prices are eroding margins for businesses everywhere.

Wasting energy in this context is even more problematic.

The energy crisis in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine amplified the need for ‘energy efficiency first’, a new mantra of European government policy.

So it should be for business — to cut costs, improve productivity, and, at the same time, achieve precious carbon emission reductions.

As they say, never waste a good crisis.

Energy wastage campaigner Jonathan Maxwell is a voice of reason in a time of global chaos and uncertainty. He is the founder and CEO of Sustainable Development Capital LLP, the London-based investment manager of the SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust plc (SEIT.LN), listed on the premium segment of the main market of the London Stock Exchange and a member of the FTSE 250 index. He advises corporates and multinationals on energy efficiency and under his stewardship, SDCL Group has earned a formidable reputation for making sustainability a sound financial investment. Visit www.sdclgroup.com.

His new book, The Edge: How competition for resources is pushing the world, and its climate, to the brink – and what we can do about it’ (Nicholas Brealey Publishing) is out now on Amazon, priced £25 in hardcover and £14.99 as an eBook. It offers a sound and practical solution to the global energy crisis that politicians and business leaders alike can’t afford to ignore.

Read more:
Turning The Energy Crisis Into An Opportunity For Business And Industry

Shoplifting has long been a concern for retailers worldwide, but recent events in London have brought the issue to the forefront.

In a shocking turn of events, hundreds of teenagers gathered on Oxford Street, expecting to take part in a mass robbery. The incident, fueled by viral posts on TikTok and Snapchat, left shoppers, store owners, and law enforcement on high alert. This brazen attempt at theft highlights a worrying trend that is going largely unpunished.

The incident on Oxford Street served as a wake-up call for retailers and law enforcement agencies. Social media platforms like TikTok and Snapchat played a significant role in organising this event, with posts inviting participants to wear balaclavas and gloves to “rob JD Sports.” The replication of a successful looting spree in an American candy store the previous year added fuel to the fire.

However, this time, the authorities were prepared. Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, issued a warning, and the Metropolitan Police announced a heavy presence, sending a clear message that anyone committing a crime would face robust action.

Social Media: Amplifying the Problem

Social media platforms have become powerful tools for organizing criminal activities, including shoplifting sprees. The viral nature of posts on TikTok and Snapchat can quickly mobilize a large number of individuals, facilitating the planning and execution of thefts. The anonymity provided by these platforms adds to the allure for potential participants, making it difficult for law enforcement to identify and apprehend the culprits. This incident on Oxford Street highlights the need for stricter regulations and monitoring of social media platforms to combat the rising trend of shoplifting.

Shoplifting not only results in immediate financial losses for retailers but also damages their reputation. The stolen merchandise represents a direct hit to their bottom line, leading to higher prices for honest customers to compensate for the losses. Moreover, incidents like the one on Oxford Street create a sense of insecurity among shoppers, impacting their trust in retailers and their willingness to visit physical stores. Retailers must invest in robust security measures, both physical and digital, to protect their assets and maintain customer confidence.

To combat the rising shoplifting epidemic, there is a pressing need for stricter enforcement and a comprehensive approach that focuses on deterrence and rehabilitation. While heavy police presence during high-risk periods can act as a deterrent, it is equally important to address the underlying causes that drive individuals to engage in such criminal acts. Education and outreach programs can play a crucial role in imparting a sense of responsibility and discouraging potential offenders. Additionally, rehabilitation programs can help reintegrate individuals into society, reducing the likelihood of repeat offences.

The battle against shoplifting requires a collaborative effort between retailers and law enforcement agencies. Retailers must invest in cutting-edge security systems, including surveillance cameras, alarms, and trained security personnel. Sharing information and best practices among retailers can also help identify emerging trends and prevent future incidents. Law enforcement agencies, on the other hand, need to allocate adequate resources and manpower to tackle this growing problem effectively. Close coordination and communication between retailers and law enforcement are crucial for the success of any anti-shoplifting initiatives.

Technological Solutions: Leveraging Innovation to Combat Shoplifting

As shoplifters become increasingly sophisticated, retailers must embrace technological solutions to stay one step ahead. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms can analyze data and detect patterns that may indicate shoplifting activities. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags can help track merchandise within the store, making it easier to identify any attempts at theft. Additionally, facial recognition technology can aid in the identification and apprehension of known shoplifters. Embracing these innovative solutions can significantly enhance the effectiveness of anti-shoplifting efforts.

Raising public awareness about the consequences of shoplifting is crucial in shaping a responsible and law-abiding society. Education campaigns targeting both potential offenders and the general public can help foster a sense of accountability and discourage participation in criminal activities. Public-private partnerships can play a vital role in funding and executing these awareness programs. By working together, we can create a society where shoplifting is seen as unacceptable, and the consequences are widely understood.

Legislation plays a significant role in addressing the shoplifting epidemic. Stricter penalties for offenders, especially repeat offenders, can act as a deterrent. Simultaneously, the legal framework should focus on rehabilitating individuals, providing them with the necessary support systems to overcome the root causes of their criminal behavior. It is essential to strike a balance between punishment and rehabilitation to ensure a fair and effective justice system that protects both retailers and potential offenders.

Shoplifting is a global issue that requires international cooperation to tackle effectively. Sharing best practices and learning from successful anti-shoplifting initiatives in other countries can provide valuable insights and strategies. International conferences and forums can serve as platforms for collaboration and knowledge exchange, fostering a global network committed to combating shoplifting and protecting the interests of retailers worldwide.

The incident on Oxford Street serves as a stark reminder of the growing shoplifting epidemic and the need for concerted action. Retailers, law enforcement agencies, and society as a whole must unite to combat this problem effectively. Stricter enforcement, technological innovation, public awareness campaigns, and international cooperation can all contribute to reducing shoplifting incidents and creating a safer retail environment. By working together, we can send a clear message that shoplifting will not be tolerated, and offenders will face the consequences of their actions. It is time to take a stand against shoplifting and protect the interests of retailers and communities worldwide.

Read more:
The rising trend of shoplifting epidemic is going unpunished

Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, has highlighted the potential of AI to enhance productivity and streamline mundane tasks.

However, he also warns of the risks associated with AI, including the potential for hackers to exploit sensitive government information. We explore the far-reaching implications of AI and how it could shape various aspects of society.

The AI Revolution: A Total Transformation

Oliver Dowden posits that AI is a revolution unlike any other witnessed before. Its rapid advancement promises to revolutionize nearly every facet of life in the coming years, and in some cases, even months. Dowden draws parallels to historical milestones such as the invention of the internal combustion engine and the Industrial Revolution, emphasizing that the impact of AI will surpass these previous revolutions in terms of both speed and scope.

AI has already begun to play a pivotal role in decision-making within the government. For instance, the Home Office employs AI to process asylum claims, resulting in faster and more efficient processing times. Furthermore, AI has the potential to streamline administrative tasks, such as reducing paperwork that burdens ministers. By analyzing vast datasets from various sources, AI enables decision-makers to make informed choices. However, Dowden is quick to assert that AI will not replace human decision-making but rather augment it.

The Dark Side of AI: Risks and Challenges

While the potential benefits of AI are immense, Dowden acknowledges the associated risks. AI can be weaponized by malicious actors, such as terrorists, to gain access to sensitive information and propagate cyberattacks. Recent incidents, including the breach of data at the Electoral Commission and the Police Service of Northern Ireland, highlight the vulnerabilities AI can exploit. Dowden cautions that the combination of disaffected individuals and AI amplifies the potential harm they can cause. It is imperative to address these risks and safeguard against the misuse of AI.

Restructuring the Economy: Adapting to the AI Era

The growth of AI will inevitably lead to significant changes in the economy. Dowden emphasises the government’s commitment to ensuring that humans are not penalized by this transition. Drawing a parallel to the advent of the automobile, Dowden points out that AI has the potential to automate mundane aspects of jobs, allowing humans to focus on more interesting and creative tasks. The government’s role is to facilitate this transition and ensure that individuals have the necessary support and opportunities to adapt.

AI and the Labour Market

Dowden acknowledges that the current labour market is already tight, and it is crucial for the government to facilitate a smooth transition. As AI takes on repetitive and monotonous tasks, there will be a need for reskilling and upskilling the workforce to remain relevant in the changing job landscape. The government should provide resources and training programs to facilitate this transition, ensuring that individuals are equipped with the skills needed for the AI age. By doing so, the government can mitigate any potential negative impact on employment.

Ethical Considerations: Striking a Balance

As AI becomes increasingly prevalent, ethical considerations must be at the forefront of its development and deployment. Dowden highlights the importance of basing decisions on evidence and avoiding overstatement when addressing the risks associated with AI. It is crucial to strike a balance between harnessing the potential of AI and safeguarding against its potential misuse. Robust regulations and oversight mechanisms should be put in place to ensure that AI is used responsibly and ethically.

AI and the Future of Work

While there are concerns about job displacement due to AI, Dowden believes that AI will ultimately enhance productivity and create new opportunities. By automating repetitive tasks, AI can free up human workers to focus on more complex and creative aspects of their jobs. This shift in job roles can lead to increased job satisfaction and productivity. However, it is essential to ensure that individuals have the necessary skills to adapt to these changes and take advantage of the opportunities presented by AI.

AI and Decision-Making

AI has the potential to revolutionize decision-making processes in various domains. By analyzing vast amounts of data, AI can provide valuable insights and support faster and more informed decision-making. However, Dowden emphasizes that AI should not replace human decision-makers entirely. Instead, AI should serve as a tool to augment human decision-making processes, enabling more efficient and effective outcomes.

Mitigating the Risks: Addressing AI’s Dark Side

To mitigate the risks associated with AI, Dowden stresses the importance of addressing the vulnerabilities that AI can exploit. This includes investing in robust cybersecurity measures to protect sensitive information from hackers and ensuring that AI systems are designed with security in mind. Additionally, fostering a culture of responsible AI use and educating the public about potential risks can help mitigate the misuse of AI technology.

Artificial intelligence is poised to bring about a revolution on par with the Industrial Revolution, transforming various aspects of society.

While the potential benefits are vast, it is crucial to address the risks and challenges associated with AI. By striking a balance between harnessing its potential and safeguarding against misuse, AI can drive innovation, enhance productivity, and create new opportunities.

The government’s role is to ensure that individuals are prepared for the changes brought about by AI and that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect against potential risks. By embracing AI responsibly, Britain can navigate the AI era and reap its many benefits.

Read more:
Artificial Intelligence: A Revolution on Par with the Industrial Revolution

Wilko, the well-known High Street homeware retailer, has recently collapsed into administration, unable to secure a rescue deal.

With 400 shops and 12,500 workers at stake, the future of the company hangs in the balance, I look at the reasons behind its downfall, and the potential implications for its employees and the retail industry as a whole.

The Current Situation

Despite entering administration, the stores will remain open for the time being, ensuring that there are no immediate job losses and employees will continue to be paid. PwC has been appointed as the administrator and will actively seek a potential buyer for the entire business or its parts. The collapse of Wilko, if no resolution is found, could mark one of the biggest casualties on the High Street this year.

The Factors Leading to Collapse

Wilko’s demise was not an overnight event; the company has been grappling with various challenges for some time. The depths of its problems became apparent when it announced its intention to appoint administrators, giving the company a 10-day window to secure a rescue deal. However, despite receiving a significant level of interest, Wilko was unable to strike a deal within the necessary timeframe, leading to its unfortunate collapse.

Missed Opportunities

The collapse of Wilko comes as a blow to many, with the GMB union arguing that it was entirely avoidable. According to the union, warnings were repeatedly given about the retailer’s potential to capitalize on the growing bargain retailer market, but the company failed to seize this opportunity. This missed potential is a clear indication that Wilko failed to adapt to the changing retail landscape and capitalize on emerging trends.

Financial Struggles

Wilko’s financial struggles were a significant contributing factor to its downfall. The company has been burdened with sharp losses and a severe cash shortage. In an attempt to alleviate the financial strain, Wilko borrowed £40 million from Hilco, a restructuring specialist. Despite these efforts, the company’s financial position remained precarious, ultimately leading to its administration.

Fierce Competition

Wilko faced intense competition from rivals such as B&M and The Range, exacerbating its financial woes. As the high cost of living pushed shoppers to seek out bargains, these competitors emerged as popular alternatives. Moreover, Wilko’s traditional town centre locations proved to be an expensive liability as customers increasingly shifted to larger retail parks and out-of-town locations.

Lack of Investment and Adaptation

One of the key factors contributing to Wilko’s downfall was a lack of investment in systems and infrastructure. The company failed to modernize and adapt its operations to meet the demands of a changing retail landscape. With a large estate of over 400 stores, Wilko needed significant investments to remain competitive, but these investments were not made. Consequently, the company found itself unable to keep up with emerging consumer behaviors and mounting challenges.

Economic Challenges

Wilko’s collapse also reflects the broader economic challenges faced by many High Street retailers in recent years. Reduced consumer spending, inflationary pressures, and increasing costs have had a significant impact on the retail sector as a whole. As a result, many retailers, including Wilko, have struggled to survive in this challenging environment.

Impact on Employees and Communities

The collapse of Wilko has significant implications for its employees and the communities it serves. With 12,500 workers at risk of losing their jobs, the immediate concern is the economic and psychological impact on individuals and families. Furthermore, the closure of Wilko’s stores could have a detrimental effect on the local communities, leading to reduced footfall, job losses in associated industries, and a decline in the overall vitality of the affected areas.

Pension Scheme and Deficit

Another concern arising from Wilko’s collapse is the potential impact on its pension scheme. Thousands of Wilko workers are members of the company’s pension scheme, which reportedly has a sizable deficit. The Pensions Regulator is currently in discussions with the employer and scheme to protect the interests of the scheme members during this challenging time.

Future Prospects

While the immediate future of Wilko remains uncertain, there is hope that a buyer may be found to rescue the company, either in its entirety or in parts. PwC, as the appointed administrator, will continue conversations with potential investors to explore all possibilities for the business. However, if no resolution is found, store closures and redundancies may become inevitable.

Wilko’s collapse into administration highlights the challenges faced by High Street retailers in an ever-evolving retail landscape. The company’s failure to adapt, coupled with financial struggles and fierce competition, ultimately led to its unfortunate demise. As Wilko’s future hangs in the balance, the impact on its employees and the retail industry as a whole remains to be seen. The collapse serves as a stark reminder of the need for retailers to stay agile, invest wisely, and anticipate changing consumer behaviors to secure their place in the evolving marketplace.

Read more:
As Wilko falls into administration: We look at the High Street retailer’s struggles

The World Wide Fund for Nature estimates there has been a 69% average loss in the abundance of mammal, bird, reptile, fish and amphibian species since 1970, and more than a quarter of all species are under current threat of extinction.

While most business leaders recognise this issue of biodiversity loss and the need to protect nature, few are doing more than the legal minimum to ensure their companies don’t exacerbate the problem, let alone make things better.

Madlen Sobkowiak, Assistant Professor in Accounting, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, explains that a key part of the problem is a lack of understanding about how fundamental ecological factors are to the profitability of a company. Nature just doesn’t make it onto most accountants’ spreadsheets. But how profitable would an agricultural business be without healthy soil or a seafood manufacturer without a healthy ocean? They are utterly dependent on them.

This is why the unique accounting of Brazilian organic sugar company, Native, seems at once both delightfully novel and blindingly obvious. As well as the standard metrics, their accounting processes include measurements and key performance indicators (KPIs) for their soil, looking at its nutrients, fungi and biodiversity.

It’s central to what Native’s CEO Leontino Balbo Jr describes as an ‘agroecological’ approach to farming that has seen soil fertility improve, water sources regenerate, more carbon absorbed than expelled and biodiversity ‘explode’ in the last 20 years. All these improvements have helped make the plants more resistant to pests, disease and drought, as well as turned their plantations into an important breeding ground for large cats and 45 other endangered species.

Ultimately, the impact of Native’s comprehensive accounting for environmental factors – allowing the company to anticipate problems with the soil and mitigate them before they lead to declining yields and wildlife – is greater natural resilience. And the more resilient nature is, the more viable and resilient the business is too.

Despite this obvious interconnection between nature and business, until very recently most accountancy courses taught at universities and colleges treated environmental as well as social impacts as ‘externalities’ – peripheral to the main task of monitoring financial transactions, as the term suggests. But in reality, it’s money and profits that are peripheral – or at least entirely contingent – on the material welfare of people and the planet.

The UN introduced a System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) in the 1990s to encourage countries to account for social and environmental ‘externalities’ in the valuing of their economy, which is normally just predicated on a valuation of the country’s finished goods and services, known as GDP. It pioneered the idea of ‘natural capital’ and ascribing a monetary ‘asset’ value to nature as a way of integrating it into the balance sheet of the economy, recognizing its value and managing it more sustainably.

But while its intentions may have been laudable, critics say it has led to a narrowly defined valuing of nature as a commodity that’s owned and traded, not enjoyed in its own right. Trees, for example, are measured by their commercial timber and carbon-sequestering value, while their importance to biodiversity or recreation is also linked to market valuations that bear little relation to how people and other wildlife actually enjoy or depend on them.

This financialization of nature, so that all environmental risks can be ‘priced in’, proffers the tempting notion that if, for example, whales are ascribed a monetary value for their contributions to fisheries, tourism and carbon sequestering (the International Monetary Fund [IMF] has come up with an estimate of US$2 million for each whale), then banks and businesses will be more inclined to preserve them. But more recent sustainability initiatives have shown taking a more systemic and values-led approach can be more effective.

In 2016, the Stockholm Resilience Centre helped set up the Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship (SeaBOS) initiative, whose mission is ‘to lead a global transformation towards sustainable seafood production and a healthy ocean’. The idea is that a minority of powerful actors can influence a majority of smaller actors and foment change on a global and systemic scale. So SeaBOS brings together leading scientists and the biggest seafood companies, including fisheries, feed producers and major aquaculture businesses, from across the globe to work jointly and harness their individual and collective influence to improve the socio-ecological resilience of the world’s oceans.

So far, nine of the world’s largest seafood companies participating in the initiative have committed to time-bound goals for a healthy ocean and agreed to develop and implement sustainable practices within their global supply chains. This includes recycling and reducing plastic, reducing the impact on endangered species and climate change, and adopting new tracing technology to combat illegal fishing and forced labour. These nine businesses alone represent over 10% of the world’s seafood production and over 600 subsidiary companies, so it’s clear to see how collaborating with these organisations can have a significant impact on the wider seafood sector.

Stewardship is at the heart of socio-ecological resilience initiatives like SeaBOS. Everyone on the planet has a responsibility to protect the health of society and the planet for centuries to come, but this is a particular challenge for businesses where a culture of short-termism and profiteering is common. SeaBOS encourages companies who depend on the world’s oceans to generate their income to look beyond short-term profit and instead focus on the intrinsic value of the oceans and the role these businesses can take in protecting the future health of the seas and ultimately their own companies.

For any business’ sustainability strategy to be effective, it needs to include collaboration with other businesses, organisations and government to tackle the big systemic problems – like biodiversity loss – which will ultimately help build the overall resilience of society and the environment upon which the business depends. But most fall well short of this ambition.

And for any business wanting to mitigate biodiversity loss, it must start by accounting for nature in its operations. Accountants have a leading role in making all sustainability issues visible, determining how they’re measured and framing the way a company responds. If they decide nature is no longer an ‘externality’ to the business, but an intrinsic part of its future health and resilience, then perhaps companies can take more of an active role in the fight to prevent biodiversity loss.

Read more:
Accounting for Nature

Ethical investing has gained significant traction in recent years as investors increasingly seek to align their financial goals with their personal values.

However, a recent snapshot of fund-buying behavior reveals a concerning trend – British investors are pulling money from funds badged as sustainable or ethical at an unprecedented rate as ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) funds and also face accusations of “greenwashing” that have plagued the industry.

The Growth of Ethical Investing

Ethical investing, also known as socially responsible investing (SRI) or sustainable investing, has gained substantial popularity in recent times. Investors are increasingly looking to support companies that prioritize environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and strong corporate governance practices. ESG funds, which focus on companies that demonstrate these credentials, have emerged as a popular investment choice for individuals and institutions alike.

The Backlash Begins

Despite the growing interest in ethical investing, a snapshot of fund-buying behavior reveals a concerning trend. Cumulative outflows from ESG equity funds in the three months leading up to July exceeded £1 billion, with July seeing the largest outflow on record – £376 million. This marks the third consecutive month of outflows for ESG funds, indicating a significant shift in investor sentiment.

The Role of Greenwashing

One of the key factors contributing to the backlash against ESG funds is the increasing skepticism surrounding their authenticity. Greenwashing, the practice of misleading consumers about the environmental benefits of a company or product, has become a prevalent concern in the industry. As ethical investing gains momentum, companies are increasingly leveraging the ESG label without genuinely committing to sustainable practices. This undermines the credibility of ESG funds and erodes investor trust.

Challenges Faced by ESG Funds

While greenwashing plays a significant role in the backlash against ESG funds, there are other challenges that have contributed to the outflows. These challenges include:

Lack of Standardisation

The lack of standardization in ESG reporting and metrics poses a significant challenge for investors. Without consistent and comparable data, it becomes challenging to assess the true environmental and social impact of companies. This lack of transparency can lead to skepticism among investors and hinder the growth of the ESG fund industry.

Performance Concerns

Another factor contributing to the retreat from ESG funds is the performance concerns raised by some investors. Critics argue that ESG funds may prioritize ethical considerations at the expense of financial returns. While there is evidence to support the idea that sustainable investing can generate comparable or even superior returns, the perception of lower financial performance remains a concern for some investors.

Limited Investment Universe

ESG funds often have a more limited investment universe compared to traditional funds. They exclude companies involved in controversial industries such as tobacco, firearms, or fossil fuels. This limited universe can restrict diversification opportunities and potentially impact the overall performance of the funds.

Regulators can play a crucial role in addressing the challenges faced by ESG funds. By implementing clearer guidelines and enforcing stricter regulations, they can ensure that companies and funds adhere to genuine sustainability practices. Standardisation of ESG reporting and metrics can also enhance transparency and facilitate informed decision-making for investors.

Educating investors about the true nature of ESG funds and the potential impact of sustainable investing is vital. By providing clear information about the investment strategies, performance expectations, and the limitations of ESG funds, investors can make more informed decisions. This education can help dispel misconceptions and address performance concerns.

Collaboration and Industry Initiatives

Collaboration among industry stakeholders is essential to address the challenges faced by ESG funds. Initiatives that promote transparency, share best practices, and drive innovation can enhance the credibility and effectiveness of ESG investing. By working together, companies, fund managers, and investors can build a stronger, more sustainable investment ecosystem.

Read more:
The Rise and Fall of Ethical ESG Funds: Understanding the Backlash

By now, you’ve likely heard of ‘quiet quitting’, when employees commit to doing the bare minimum that their job description demands.

The term gained traction in March 2022 after an employment influencer, Brian Creely, used it on social media to describe ‘coasting’ at work – and the phenomenon has only grown in strength thanks to the financial frustrations brought about by the cost-of-living crisis. Whilst this refusal to go the extra mile can prove frustrating for employers – who are unable to find a legitimate reason for dismissal – it’s important for CEOs, directors and mid-managers alike to address these challenges with kindness, rather than responding in kind.

What is quiet firing and why do companies do it?

Michael Doolin, Managing Director, Clover HR explains that ‘Quiet firing’ is the latest backlash response to the workforce checking out. It generally consists of gradually nudging ‘problem’ employees out of the company rather than firing them outright – and it does much more harm than good. What’s more, your company could be engaging in this non-committal trend without even knowing.

As a form of conflict avoidance, it’s only natural that some should see this passive-aggressive push-out tactic as a convenient way of preventing a scene. They see little harm in withholding training, opportunities, recognition and support if it achieves the result that they want – getting certain individuals gone – without the need to take costly, public action that could potentially spook other members of staff. Yet they couldn’t be more wrong.

The dangers of quiet firing

The truth is that quiet firing is a type of gaslighting that can prove dangerously counterproductive for any company engaging in it. A form of neglect, it cultivates a toxic workplace environment across the board – not only prompting the intended ‘targets’ to up and leave but also causing more valued workers to hand in their notice. Other members of staff are not oblivious to the relentless criticism that goes into quiet firing and, once the bullying they have witnessed makes it into the public domain, you’ll find yourself facing an unfavourable reputation that decimates future recruitment prospects.

Of course, excessive critique may also be interpreted as harassment, potentially landing you in trouble with HR. Whilst we should all expect a certain degree of constructive criticism in the workplace – using feedback to fuel personal development within our role – negative comments become considerably less helpful when they form part of a consistent barrage of minor niggles picked up on to distress or embarrass the recipient. The inability to justify such behaviour in terms of the good of the company could therefore lead to personal injury claims and lawsuits – particularly if the victim of the unfair treatment is able to attribute their poor performance or detached behaviour to difficulties experienced as part of a disability. Indeed, the Equality Act states that those protected must be offered reasonable adjustments by their employers before disciplinary action is taken, making it even more difficult for you to disprove that your failure to address concerns directly constituted managerial misconduct.

Naturally, not all quiet firing behaviours are quite so transparent, with practices such as withholding opportunities, raises and promotions often being regarded as more innocent. Once again, however, this soon causes discontent to spread throughout your wider team. As soon as others notice that certain individuals are meeting their targets and mastering the skills required for their roles without reaping rewards for their efforts, it’s goodbye to team morale. People will lose all motivation, feeling that their own performance will fall under the radar as well. Giving staff members menial tasks that fall beneath their abilities and skillset is likely to have a similar effect.

What can employers do to safeguard productivity instead?

Whilst it may seem contradictory, focussing on fostering a more positive culture based around recognition and praise has proven to be one of the most effective ways of preventing quiet quitting. If staff members are thanked and encouraged before there is a problem in the first place, they are more likely to develop additional motivation to continually demonstrate commitment to your team.

One-to-one conversations about personal progress also help to combat employment fatigue. Take the time to sit down with each individual in your department to find out what they want to achieve and how they might feel more comfortable within your company. Fostering a culture of movement and advancement through career development plans will prevent people from losing interest and checking out.

It’s essentially about improved communication. Indeed, it’s regrettable that, in 2022, we find ourselves talking about trends like quiet quitting and quiet firing at all, as both reveal an uncomfortable truth about the state of the modern workplace: both employers and employees are losing the ability to connect with one another. Old-fashioned managerial structures focussed heavily on hierarchy are quite possibly to blame, particularly in an age of employee empowerment when worker experience is more central than ever. By opening up dialogues between workers and bosses, however, both parties will develop mutual respect and learn to work peacefully together, rather than perpetuating silent war.

This bid for increased equality brings us to our final point: remember that it’s not just employees who are guilty of disengaging. Whilst some instances of quiet firing are indeed carried out with malicious intent, the majority of situations come to a head as a result of absentee managers who are not actively engaged in training, recognising and rewarding their supervisees. Rather than allowing such inadvertent quiet-firing behaviours to continue, organisations must therefore invest time and effort into reengaging those at the top, too.

When employees at all levels are given the resources and environment they need to thrive in and enjoy their roles, you will soon start to see the benefits of investing in the futures of those who work for you. Take a stance to support mental health and implement better occupational health measures to improve behaviour and performance across the board. There are plenty of positive actions you can take to address workplace discontent – all of which should limit the need to roll up your sleeves and address dismissals head on in the rare event that your affirmative approach to challenge should fail.

Given that the effects of quiet firing can be so devastating across an organisation – and can come about without managers and employers even realising it – it’s essential that you remain attentive to company culture and call in for HR help to create a more positive workplace environment however you can. If bosses and workers are to move forward in the most productive way possible, both quiet quitting and quiet firing must – loudly and clearly – be consigned to the past.

Read more:
Why ‘quiet firing’ is far from the easy way out

There is a lack of confidence about what the future holds for governing organisations, and their departments’ ability to handle change, according to PA Consulting’s latest Responsive Government survey, conducted in partnership with Global Government Forum.

Officials are also less confident in their organisation’s contingency plans in the era of constant, sustained, and compounded disruptive events – with only 45 percent having confidence that these are robust and align with strategy development.

This era of perma- or poly-crisis, in response, calls for always-on resilience and readiness, rather than an ad-hoc response to each incident. To navigate these complex decision-making environments and ecosystems successfully, forward-thinking governments are turning to an innovative tool for decision-making support: wargaming.

The power of wargaming

Wargaming is a realistic and safe experiential approach to decision making, it gives participants the chance to see, and to live, the potential consequences of their decisions. The interactive environment enables them to get inside the heads of other government departments – businesses, citizens, regulators, or media. And this fresh perspective means they can get inside-out and outside-in points of view and see the whole picture.

Wargaming is also proven to drive behavioural transformational. Governments will see that wargaming encourages teamwork, rehearses their responses, and builds much needed consensus or alignment with multiple stakeholders. This is highly effective in rehearsing crisis management or other project responses but is also useful in bringing people together to drive sustained change. It is particularly helpful at reducing management biases and behavioural blind spots.

As well as helping to prepare for near-term and more ‘known’ incidents, wargaming also has a critical role in helping governments plan for the future and the unexpected. It doesn’t provide a crystal-ball nor does it predict the future. But it does consider possible future impacts on governments’ priorities to support more robust decision-making and planning, which foresight or scenario planning cannot achieve on its own.

While they’re already bringing benefits, there is an opportunity to further embed resilience by truly rooting wargaming in governmental decision-making processes at all levels. Doing so will not only increase responsiveness but sustain it in our always-on disrupted world.

Implementing wargaming to boost Governments’ responsiveness

Based on our experience helping leaders run effective wargaming exercises across all major sectors, there are three areas of focus for governments:

First, embed wargaming into decision-making and planning processes. Identifying which decision and planning processes are to be prioritised, and defining an end-to-end approach where wargaming is the ‘safe to try and fail’ catalyst, is key. By following this embedding approach, governments can concentrate on front-of-mind and prioritised areas that are likely to require the most adaptability.

Second, draw on the right wargaming skills and teams. The quality and work you put into preparing for a wargame will define the outputs you will get from it. Responsiveness is a function of many organisations across and beyond government, not of any one team or department. So, designing scenarios, facilitating wargames, and analysing their outcomes calls for unique and niche skillsets from cross-government, domain experts, industry SMEs, and wargaming design specialists. This collective spread of skills helps maximise the quality outputs and outcomes of a wargame.

Third, consider unique wargaming design levers. Think about how to bring in for example:

• Gamification, including competitive elements, time constraints, limited resources, and uncertain outcomes – all of which will make it more engaging and challenging.
• Role-play or ‘real’ play, for example., red teams that role-play key stakeholders of your ecosystem (regulator, other department, businesses) or even real players (e.g. citizens). This will give you enhanced realism of what their responses or actions could be.
• Immersive components such as virtual reality or interactive tools to analyse and visualise data in real-time, enhance realism and fast data absorption.

Those design levers help boost responsiveness by immersing pan-government stakeholders in key decisions before they have to make them and demonstrating the importance of adaptability in a way that standard meetings, symposia, and governance boards cannot.

Embedding the wargaming method into key decision and planning processes can increase a government’s ability to see both the ‘forest and the trees’. And, in doing so, to be more responsive to public needs, as well as enhancing trust and legitimacy.

By Sara Ulrich, Wargaming lead at PA Consulting.

Read more:
Wargaming to help boost government’s responsiveness

Rishi Sunak’s objective for all children to study some form of maths until the age of 18 has several barriers in its way, three leading education experts have made clear.

The Prime Minister announced his ‘Maths to 18’ plan earlier this year including the establishment of a new advisory group.

However, in a joint article published by The University of Manchester’s policy engagement unit Policy@Manchester, Professors Maria Pampaka, Laura Black and Julian Williams set out a series of challenges facing Mr Sunak and offer recommendations to improve his chances of success.

The academics warn that current maths teaching practices are largely perceived to be “transmissionist” or “traditional, teaching to the test.”  They write: “This teaching practice has been found to be negatively associated with students’ dispositions to engage with mathematics,” in contrast to “more student-centred and interactive approaches” which are preferred by students and teachers.

Linked to this, they argue that a transformation of the curriculum, teaching methods and assessment is required, “one that values engagement, enjoyment, confidence and inclusion as much as, or more than attainment.” This, they state, “is important for both learners and teachers.”

The University of Manchester experts highlight the increasing demands in teaching post-16 maths and call for “an expansion of the pool of confident, well qualified, and motivated teachers at a time when the profession is currently losing people.”

They say: “Teachers – like nurses and other public service staff – are abandoning their profession for a variety of reasons but are citing that this is not just about pay, but also conditions in the workplace and the kind of pressures that Ofsted impose.”

Professors Pampaka, Black and Williams also raise concerns over low interest and appreciation for maths amongst some pupils studying the subject, together with high anxiety levels.  They add: “The evidence points particularly to gender, but other characteristics, like social and ethnic background, are equally important.”

Their article concludes: “Decades of education policy focussed on raising attainment has been most successful in discouraging engagement with mathematics learning and teaching.

“Increasing mathematics education for all, especially to age 18, will require policymakers to pay renewed attention to emotional aspects, i.e. the joys of mathematics.”

Read more:
Prime Minister’s ‘Maths to 18’ plan comes with challenges

Given the current rapidly approaching deadline to phase out petrol and diesel cars, many fear that UK buyers will have no choice but to turn to low-priced Chinese electric cars given their dominance in this sector of the market.

What’s more, this move has rekindled security worries around cars being fitted with spy features, with a number of officials – from the Royal United Services Institute and the Commons foreign affairs select committee – stating that anything to do with China will be a security threat.

Keith Hawes, Director of Nationwide Vehicle Contracts has shared his response: “The dominance in producing low-cost electric vehicles by the Chinese may or may not come as a surprise for some since they have been investing in EV vehicle technology for some considerable time. MG is perhaps the best-known Chinese brand currently in the UK selling a very capable range of electric versions. Not as well known is that Volvo and their EV brand, Polestar together with LVEC (London Electric Vehicle Company – building Taxis and Commercial vehicles in Coventry) are all owned by Chinese Geely Automotive. Over the coming months, we will see numerous new Chinese brands arriving in the UK.

In 2022, China accounted for around 60% of global electric car sales. However, there are now security concerns surrounding using these cars in Britain following escalating geopolitical tensions between China and the West. Fears focus specifically around sensor-packed cars that conceivably could share location and other data with the Chinese government. Policymakers are therefore likely going to continue to debate ways of ensuring a high standard for the cybersecurity of such a new industry and in particular vehicles manufactured in China.

Britain is extremely capable of making excellent electric cars, but our lack of access to raw materials and slow investment in building factory capacity to fuel a strong supply chain could take years to achieve capacity. We also need a clear unencumbered strategy for UK production. The UK Government should already be driving this at pace with local and prospective OEMs. The issue will be whether local production can compete on price with the potential wave of low-priced Chinese products on their way. Unless things happen quickly to develop these cars in the UK it may be too late.

As futuristic as it may sound given the electronic capability of existing vehicles it is theoretically possible for manufacturers to control certain features and collect data via telematics. Just as your mobile phone access is rigidly governed by strict data protection laws it would require drivers to agree data collection – many existing conventional and electric vehicles enable remote software updates therefore security concerns should be high on the agenda for users and UK Government. Provided that “lock-down” protocols are in place then there should not be any barriers to buying a new Chinese electric vehicle – in fact, there may be little alternative options at the economy end of the market which is where most buyers will sit for an EV. Electric cars do come with many other benefits which some may see as more important and impactful – from lower running and maintenance costs plus zero congestion/Low emission charges and other taxation advantages. However, the downside is the fast charging infrastructure which currently is well behind the curve in current EV sales.”

Read more:
Warning from Industry Leaders: UK Needs Government Aid to Protect EV Market

A great customer experience can make the difference between a business flourishing and failing.

When customers have a positive interaction with a company, almost all (94%) say it increases the chances of them purchasing again. In other words, great experiences lead to increased revenue. And while there are a few ingredients to delivering a standout experience, two stand above the rest – consistency and visibility.

Chris Mills, Head of Customer Success, EMEA, Slack, says that consistent offering boosts loyalty, while inconsistencies drive customers away. Unfortunately, this is where many businesses struggle. Three-fifths of consumers say that it usually feels like they’re communicating with separate departments rather than one company, when they contact service teams.

Alongside tackling those consistency issues, businesses also need to build a 360-degree view of the customer. That’s because too often issues can slip through the radar unreported and unnoticed. With clarity on how they’re faring against expectations, businesses can both deliver a service that has customers coming back for more, and proactively identify any issues they need to solve.

Conversely, if they fail to get each of these elements right, the company is likely to see a rising tide of ‘silent switchers’ – those customers who have quietly and quickly ditched a business for a competitor due to a bad incident, without the company even realising what’s gone wrong.

Of course, all of this is easier said than done – so, here are a few tips on how to get customer service right and create an antidote for the scourge of silent switching.

Building a connected, consistent team

If internal teams, like sales and customer support, are disconnected, the customer will realise. It might be that they keep having to repeat themselves each time they’ve called, or that they receive conflicting answers to the same question. This makes the organisation look unprofessional, leading to a lack of confidence and frustrations for the client. In short, it puts customers on track to become silent switchers.

To best serve customers consistently, it’s important that cross-functional departments can easily share knowledge, or search for existing knowledge, across the whole organisation. For a customer support team, that might mean they can quickly look up a solution for an issue that’s plagued a previous customer and share it with a new one, discover the latest updates on a service from the product team or connect with sales to pass on details if someone wants to renew a contract.

Enabling that interdepartmental knowledge sharing requires a single platform that connects and engages everyone in the business. If a sales team is communicating via email, service agents are siloed away on a standalone customer-support tool and product development teams are chatting live in an office, it’s impossible to deliver a consistent customer experience – because the teams themselves have inconsistent processes.

Instead, with everyone united around one productivity platform that houses all communications and collaboration, they can easily search for and share the answers they need. What’s more, they can connect and engage with other departments not just through messages, but with instant audio or video calls, asynchronous video clips and more – so it’s always simple to connect with coworkers from one central platform.

All of this helps build the level of consistency that customers demand – and will enable businesses to nurture relationships with customers that boost loyalty and reduce the risk of switching.

Creating a 360-degree view of the customer

While keeping internal teams connected is key to delivering a consistent approach to individual customers, it’s also important to have a bird’s eye view of those experiences on the whole. Without clarity on customer feedback, whether that’s through Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) or other metrics, businesses are flying blind. Delivering a meaningful experience for clients is an ongoing process – which means taking learnings and continuously evolving the service on offer.

By gathering insights and data through automations and integrations, and measuring the success (or shortcomings) of customer interactions, any issues can be caught early. They can then be dealt with swiftly – before leading to a customer ditching and switching.

For example, by automatically sharing feedback surveys through a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform to gather findings, a team might spot that customer experiences have dropped after a new product launched. Further investigations unearth a bug, or poor user instructions – and they can then take action to rework or fix it.

Crucially, though, this kind of data analysis doesn’t have to add additional admin work to support or sales teams. At the fast-growing fintech company, Revolut, for example, the sales team has been able to minimise the time spent on processes and admin by integrating their CRM from Salesforce so that it automatically captures customer activity and shares it in the platform where they are collaborating.

Not only does using automation like this accelerate work for the team at Revolut, it means they always have access to the latest information they need to better serve customers, while freeing up their time to focus on high-value work – like connecting with clients and closing deals.

Marrying consistency and visibility in one productivity platform

In a highly competitive world, customer loyalty is hard won and easily lost. Being able to present a united front, keeping internal teams connected and gathering the insights needed to understand customer experiences are all key to keeping customers on side.

Uniting teams in a productivity platform that’s integrated with critical apps like a CRM achieves this. It brings consistency to departments by unifying collaboration and communication, and puts customer challenges under the microscope – revealing pain points before they snowball.

While this will require embracing a new approach, businesses need to make a call: to either switch how they work today, or see their customers switching to competitors tomorrow.

Read more:
Is poor service turning your customers into ‘silent switchers’?

After the Flexible Working Bill passed through the final stages of the House of Lords, an employee engagement expert has called on employers to embrace better flexible working practices.

Ifty Nasir, founder and CEO of equity management platform Vestd, explained that the new law would provide huge benefits for both employees and employers.

He said:  “Research continues to show that flexible working leads to increased productivity and employee happiness, and flexibility around working days and hours is becoming an increasingly important consideration for job hunters.

“Businesses of all sizes and across all sectors are facing a battle to retain and attract the best people so, while this legislation is designed with employees in mind, employers that are able to accommodate their workers’ flexible working requests are likely to see huge advantages.

“Vestd’s own research shows there is a huge disparity between sectors that are offering remote working, as one example of flexible working, and those that aren’t. But introducing this type of role could open up a wealth of talent to your business.

“Older workers, for example, might prefer a part-time role or reduced hours, whereas those with childcare considerations or additional medical needs would benefit from the option to work from home.”

What is the Flexible Working Bill?

On Monday 16 July, the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill, progressed through its third reading in the House of Lords, meaning it now only requires royal assent before becoming law.

The new plans, first introduced by Yasmin Qureshi MP, mean that employees will be able to request changes to where, when and how they work from day one of their employment. For example, workers who start a new job will be able to request for an amendment to their working hours, location or times straightaway, rather than waiting six months to submit a request.

Managers will also be required to consult with employees before rejecting flexible working requests and formally discuss alternative options, as well as responding to requests in two months.

What do employers need to consider when discussing flexible working?

Once you have made the decision to introduce flexible working, there are some key considerations for employers. Ifty has provided his key advice to make flexible working a success:

Clear processes and guidelines

“A successful company culture is based on trust and the same goes for flexible working. Staff need to know the policy is being applied consistently and fairly, and managers need to trust that their teams are continuing to meet their objectives.

“Setting out a clear company-wide policy will ensure everyone is working from the same page and can set out any rules. This could include core office hours for the whole team to catch up or how teams will report on progress.”

Create consistent communication

“If your team is used to being in the office full time, a more flexible approach will have a significant approach on how you communicate. This doesn’t mean your company’s culture will see a similar shift, but it’s important to focus on how you plan to keep communication consistent across the board.

“There are a range of tools you can use. At Vestd we are fully-remote and love Slack, but try to provide your team with a rough framework of when and how to get in touch with people most effectively. Our teams regularly schedule one-on-ones and our bi-annual company-wide retreats are a great opportunity to regroup as a team.”

Flexible working is no longer a perk

“There has been a lot of discussion about the so-called ‘perk-cession’ in the media, as employers look to shed traditional office-based perks and benefits, while employees demand more meaningful returns for their hard-work.

“At Vestd we’re big believers in the ‘ownership effect’ which shows that staff are more likely to be more productive if they have a slice of the action and we see first-hand the impact that sharing equity with teams can have on company culture and employee happiness.”

Read more:
What do new flexible working laws mean for business

IR35 is ‘Frankenstein’s monster’ and ‘must be slayed’, writes senior Tory MP in latest attack on off-payroll rules

A senior MP is the latest Conservative politician to call for widescale changes to the IR35 legislation, which was described as a ‘Frankenstein’s monster’, impacting dynamism, entrepreneurship, jobs and growth.

In an article headlined ‘IR35 hits Conservative voters the hardest. Doing away with it would be an act of political expediency’, Robert Buckland MP urged the government to “reshape and rethink regulation surrounding the engagement of contractors”.

The MP for South Swindon, former Lord Chancellor and former Secretary of State for Wales wrote: “With the next General Election fast approaching, another look at the off-payroll working rules would be an act of political expediency. The onerous regulations hit a natural constituency of the Conservative Party’s hardest, and its support will be crucial for Conservative prospects come next Autumn.

“As the Labour Party increasingly positions itself as the party of business, it would be foolish not to review IR35 as part of the party renewing its appeal to natural supporters.

Buckland also wrote: “While nobly intended to tackle tax avoidance by contractors who work as employees, the legislation’s burdensome and complex nature mean it has become something of a Frankenstein’s monster. The deleterious impact it has had on dynamism, entrepreneurship, jobs, and growth means that there is no better time to slay it once and for all”.

Also writing for Conservative Home on the same daywas Sir John Redwood, who recommended that the government “lift IR35 from the self-employed”.

In response to both Buckland’s and Redwood’s comments, Seb Maley, CEO of Qdos, said: “Freelancers and contractors have been all but abandoned by this government, which has hit them with IR35 reform and tax hike after tax hike. The Conservative Party has shot itself in the foot when it comes to IR35. And with a general election on the horizon, many self-employed workers who would have once voted Conservative now feel politically homeless.

“Any party that looks to solve the fundamental flaws plaguing the IR35 legislation will score political points with contractors. Whether it’s addressing zero rights employment or policing non-compliant blanket IR35 determinations, there’s no shortage of issues to focus on.

“With more than 4m self-employed workers in the UK, many of whom are directly impacted by IR35, this vitally important sector of the labour market could well decide the next general election. But time is running out to win their support”.

Read more:
Foolish not to review IR35’ ahead of General Election, says MP

New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show UK household domestic spending spiralled £171.51bn in 2022, compared to 2021.

Domestic spending rose from around £1.31 trillion in 2021 to approximately £1.49 trillion. Inflation was, of course, responsible for a sizable part of this increase, due to spiralling energy bills and a barmy Budget. However, the home delivery expert ParcelHero says the numbers also show Brits finally threw off the shackles of Covid, dressing up and going out far more than in lockdown-hit 2021.

ParcelHero’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks M.I.L.T., says: ‘The latest ONS annual household consumption report clearly shows the impact of rising mortgages, soaring energy bills and sharp retail price increases. On the brighter side, it also reveals Brits didn’t forget how to party during Covid.

We all spent almost £9bn more on clothing and shoes (up from £64.73bn in 2021 to £73.65bn in 2022), £13.45bn more on recreation and culture (up from £131.07bn to £144.52bn) and £4.1bn more on food and soft drinks (up from £122.63bn to £126.73bn)

‘It’s telling that one of the biggest jumps in spending was on restaurants and hotels. We spent over £46.3bn more on eating and staying out in 2022, up from £119.90bn in partypooping 2021 to £166.20bn last year.

‘During the lockdowns, spending on cigarettes and alcohol spiralled by over £5.8bn, up from around £46.97bn in 2019 to £52.82bn in 2020. It stayed high, at £52.43bn, during 2021. If you were wondering how your money went up in smoke during Covid, there’s your answer. However, fortunately for everyone’s health, as soon as we could finally get out and about once more, Brits eased back on booze and fags. Spending on these items fell by over £1.35bn to £51.08bn last year.

‘Of course, a little post-Covid R&R aside, the sharp increase in spending in 2022 was very much a result of inflation, increased household energy bills and mortgages. This rise is starkly highlighted by the fact housing costs rocketed from £367.52bn in 2021 to £393.59bn last year.

Read more:
Brits partied post-Covid – increasing spending by £9bn on clothes and £46bn on going out

A recent study has indicated that the behaviours, attitudes, and shopping preferences between Gen Z and Millennials are not as different as what is often portrayed in the media.

In fact, both groups display very similar consumption patterns and preferences.

Both generations showed a marked preference for short, easily digestible video content such as Instagram Reels and TikTok. Daily video consumption was found to be consistent between the two generations, with 46% of respondents watching these platforms every day, and 66% engaging with them daily or every few days. There is already a massive opportunity for product discovery for new or small businesses with 21% of millennials and 14% of Gen Z audiences saying they often buy from brands they’ve never heard of before because of a social media recommendation. This indicates that Millennials are just as if not more reliant on social media as a source for shopping recommendations.

The study shows that both Gen Z and Millennials have a keen focus on wellness and upgrading their lifestyle habits, with social perception and image playing an important role in their lives. Specifically, fashion, makeup, dining, cooking, and fitness emerged as the top categories for which both groups use IG reels and TikTok as their primary source of information.

When it comes to the length of digital content, different types of media come with varying levels of attention spans. Data showed that entertainment/streams and live sports streaming have the highest tolerance for longer viewing, while advertisements and reviews have the shortest amount of time.

The research highlighted the preference for utility over brand, a trend more pronounced in the Millennial group. 75% of Millennials and 60% of Gen Z respondents agreed with the statement, “I have no problem switching brands if I think it’s going to be a better option for me.” Over 50% of both groups also indicated that they were happy to buy knock-off versions of brands rather than paying full price for the real brand.

Furthermore, ethical considerations play a pivotal role in brand engagement. A higher percentage of Millennials, compared to Gen Z, reported they would stop buying from a brand if they found it was unethical.

Adelynne Chao, Founder at the Untold Insights, comments on the findings: “Our research has highlighted the importance of understanding the nuanced behaviours of these influential generations. While there are differences, the similarities are striking and hold significant implications for businesses. These findings underscore the need for marketers to focus on authenticity, convenience, and socially conscious branding, as these factors greatly influence both Gen Z and Millennials’ consumer behaviours.”

The report concludes that while there may be subtle differences in the consumer habits of Gen Z and Millennials, these two generations exhibit many overlapping traits and interests. It encourages businesses to recognize these similarities to create marketing strategies that resonate with both generations, leading to greater success and growth in today’s ever-evolving marketplace.

Read more:
Today’s most influential generation(s): a fresh look at the consumer behaviours of Gen Z and millennials

Shopping centres are so much more than a place to purchase a new outfit or a loved one’s birthday gift. In recent years, they’ve become an exciting social hub that serves in strengthening communities and shaping urban areas.

Online shopping continues to grow even post-pandemic, meaning it’s never been more important that these complexes continue to differentiate themselves from online retailers, cementing their place in society.

Across the UK, there are around 528 shopping centres that need to stay relevant in the digital age.

What makes shopping centres so opportunistic for brands and communities is the varied footfall. From the solo shopper to the young family looking for fun; the teenagers hanging out to the millennials running errands.

Jade Wilkie, marketing manager of Glasgow-based The Forge Shopping Centre, explores how shopping centres play a crucial role in helping communities thrive.

Events

In many UK cities and towns, events are held throughout shopping centres. The type of events can vary significantly, but most exist with the aim of educating or entertaining an audience.

These occasions give locals the chance to meet new people and have fun from one convenient spot, offering a well-deserved break from shopping or running errands, or just something to do on a Saturday afternoon.

As the cost-of-living crisis deepens, more people are seeking local, budget-friendly activities that don’t compromise on fun or facts.

Many events in shopping centres are either free to attend or significantly cheaper than if they were held in an independent venue.

While they may not make a large profit from these events, shopping centres can still benefit from gaining consumer data, increasing centre awareness, social media exposure, and strengthened loyalty from customers.

Employment opportunities

The existence of a shopping centre in a town or city means consistent, significant employment opportunities for the local community. And there’s quite a few shopping centres per area!

Let’s take the UK’s biggest shopping centre as just one example. Westfield London spans across 150,000m² (1.615m ft²), which is the same as around 30 football pitches. Inside the precinct is a whopping 255 stores, all of which need local staff to run.

Additionally, there are further employment opportunities beyond retail. Successful shopping centres need security staff, facilities managers, marketing teams, cleaners, and more.

These job opportunities can serve communities in an obvious sense, by providing employment so people can afford housing, food, and utilities, but also by allowing them to explore different career paths. This is especially important for the younger generation.

Jade said: “Everyone in Glasgow will already know just how much community matters to us here at The Forge. We’re always going out of our way to support local people, local businesses, and local charities, understanding that times are incredibly difficult right now and additional opportunities are needed.

“Shopping centres have a responsibility to support their neighbourhood in any way that they can, whether that be through employment or events, and this duty can’t be shied away from.”

Leisure and hospitality

Most centres now have offerings beyond stores and events. Most likely, you’ll find an exciting hub of bars and restaurants among all the shops, or at least a few fast-food options.

This underpins a shopping centre’s place in society as it offers something online retailers can’t…

An opportunity to catch up with family or friends over a bite to eat, or a way to refuel in the middle of a busy shopping spree.

In terms of leisure, the bigger the shopping centre, the more varied the offerings. Predominantly you’ll find a cinema attached to one of these complexes, but in some cases, consumers can even be offered bowling lanes, arcades, and mini golf courses.

These options provide families and teenagers with means of entertainment beyond games consoles and social media apps. As we’re often warned, excessive use of technology can be disruptive to relationships and prevent the development of vital relationship skills and communication skills.

Communities need varied, cost-effective, and more importantly, physical options when it comes to arranging social gatherings and family days out. Shopping centres offer exactly that, which strengthens their place in cities and urban areas.

Economy

Shopping centres play a crucial role in supporting the local economy, and not just through the employment opportunities discussed above.

With each complex, significant value is generated from the construction supply chain through direct impacts, indirect impacts, and induced impacts. This means that before a shopping centre has even opened its doors, it has contributed to the economy.

The existence of shopping centres creates local income tax contributions, cost savings to the government, inward investment, and additional growth.

Put simply, a strong economy means a better standard of living, which is why it’s in every community’s best interest to ensure their own is as sturdy as possible.

Shopping centres can’t do it alone

While shopping centres do indeed play such a crucial role in our communities, they can’t uphold their responsibilities without us, the consumers.

These precincts rely on people visiting the centres, buying from shops, and engaging with activities and events. Without this support, they can’t keep assisting the community in all the incredible ways that they’re doing right now.

You should consider this thought the next time you visit a website to make purchase or need to plan the next fun day out with family or friends.

Shopping centres play a critical part in maintaining a healthy, happy community, especially in urban areas. Let’s help them help us.

Read more:
The Role of Shopping Centres in Creating Communities and Shaping Urban Areas

The Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) and APSCo OutSource, have raised concerns over plans to implement tougher consequences for promoters of tax avoidance in its latest HMRC consultation submission.

APSCo warned that planned measures to introduce a focused criminal offence for the continued promotion of a scheme covered by a Stop Notice won’t have the required impact, but did agree that disqualification proceedings against directors of those promoting tax avoidance schemes will help tackle the issue. The trade body has, however, also called for promoters of these schemes to be blocked from supply chains in order to drive real change.

Tania Bowers, Global Public Policy Director at APSCo comments: “While we welcome any plans to stamp out tax avoidance schemes in the recruitment supply chain, we believe that the current proposals are missing a few key elements, namely a focus on blocking promoters from the supply chain altogether. Unless the entire supply chain is notified then there is no way to stop the promoter offering adjunctive services, including legitimate activity. The communication needs to be widely publicised so that any party in a supply chain supplying a worker could undertake a simple compliance check. The umbrella consultation now open with HMRC, HMT and DBT is important in this regard in terms of supply chain responsibilities.

“The proposals around enforcing criminal offences for the continued promotion of a scheme that is covered by a Stop Notice is unlikely to have a significant impact for a number of reasons. In the first instance, those who are engaged in this activity are unlikely to be deterred by this unless there is well-publicised enforcement. Secondly, it is highly likely that the speed of enforcement will also hinder success, with activity likely to have ceased by the time of enforcement of the criminal offence. With many promoters also likely to be operating overseas, cooperation with international tax authorities is also going to be required, but will create an additional layer of complexity.”

Read more:
Employment trade body calls for tax promoters to be blocked from supply chains

HMRC figures out today show the tax authority believes small businesses are now responsible for 56% of the UK’s ‘tax gap’ – a total of £20.2bn in a single year*, says multinational law firm Pinsent Masons.

This figure has now risen for four consecutive years. Small businesses were only believed to be responsible for 40% of the tax gap in 2017/18 – a total of £12.8bn.

Steven Porter, Partner and Head of Tax Disputes and Investigations at Pinsent Masons, says: “HMRC is really shifting its attention to small businesses. It has worked hard to reduce the amount of tax that goes unpaid from large businesses and high net worth individuals – but it still has a lot of work to do on SMEs.”

“HMRC’s focus on large businesses and wealthy individuals means that small businesses get less attention. Investigations into small businesses anecdotally often take longer to complete and problems can persist for years.”

“For example, there are cases of small businesses continuing to use tax avoidance schemes for years after they were virtually wiped out among large businesses and high net worths.”

“Small businesses that aren’t tax compliant should not be surprised if they are investigated by HMRC over the next couple of years. That’s clearly the direction that HMRC looks set to go into based on these figures. Getting out ahead of that problem by taking professional advice would be a very good idea at this point.”

Pinsent Masons adds that the overall tax gap for the UK held steady at 4.8% of all tax theoretically due, the same figure as last year.

The tax gap measures the difference between the amount of tax which should, in theory, be collected by HMRC and what is actually collected. Much of the gap will relate to avoidance and evasion.

Read more:
HMRC says small business are now responsible for 56% of the UK’s ‘tax gap’

New data out today from HMRC today showed the estimate of the tax gap across all taxes and duties administered by the tax authority to be £35.8bn or 4.8% of theoretical tax liabilities. .

The tax gap is the difference between the amount of tax that should, in theory, be paid to HMRC, and what is actually paid.

Dominic Arnold, tax partner at Evelyn Partners, the leading integrated wealth management and professional services group, comments: “The compliant majority of taxpayers expect HMRC to minimise the tax gap as they ultimately are the ones that bear the cost. Taxpayers want a tax authority which is properly resourced, accessible, efficient and that deals with the non-compliant appropriately. HMRC’s latest tax gap analysis shows there’s still more work to be done.

“Small businesses continue to make up the biggest proportion of the tax gap at 56% (£20.2bn) with wealthy individuals at a much lower 5% (£1.7bn). Direct taxes such as income tax and corporation tax make up around two thirds of the tax gap with VAT at 5%.

“Underlying behaviours driving the tax gap show a marked increase in taxpayers failing to take reasonable care, with tax evasion and the hidden economy making up 20% of the tax HMRC estimates it did not collect. Tax avoidance related underpayments remain static at 4%.

“Despite the long-term downward trend, the tax gap has remained doggedly static in recent years and in monetary terms has returned to pre-pandemic levels. Although it remains at a low level, it is against a backdrop of record post pandemic tax receipts, fuelled in part by fiscal drag as many tax allowances and reliefs have been reduced or not increased in line with inflation. In 2022/2023, tax receipts as a percentage of GDP were at a 20 year high of 31.4%.

“To reduce this gap HMRC needs more resources and effective compliance programmes to tackle those who don’t play by the rules. A recent NAO report suggested that HMRC compliance yield plummeted during the pandemic by a staggering £9bn and concluded ‘It seems likely that many more non-compliant taxpayers will escape paying their fair share of tax potentially undermining the sense of fairness on which the system relies.’

“Those trying to get it right have also been badly affected by HMRC’s performance in dealing with telephone calls and postal correspondence and this has now been compounded by a decision to close the Self Assessment Helpline in summer 2023,

“Closing the Self Assessment helpline, even for a relatively short period, flies in the face of trying to better help taxpayers, particularly small businesses, get things right. Redirecting people to online resources will only help so many and the alternative of writing to HMRC risks joining a much bigger queue. ”

“Making Tax Digital programme is a transformational project aimed at improving the standard of record-keeping in UK businesses.

“The Making Tax Digital programme which aims to help businesses reduce errors in their tax records through digital record-keeping has been beset with delays since it was first announced in 2015 and the original fully implementation date of 2020 is now likely to be 2027. HMRC cannot begin to reap the full benefits of the programme until then.

“With the number of enquiries from HMRC now expected to escalate significantly, taxpayers who are contacted by the HMRC should consider getting professional tax advice to ensure their affairs are in order. Getting advice when dealing with an enquiry is usually sensible and ensures it’s dealt with correctly and quickly.”

Read more:
HMRC’s tax gap for financial year 2021 to 2022 increases by £3.8bn

According to Sky News, Cineworld’s London-listed holding company is preparing to file for administration before the month end as a part of an extensive global financial restructuring plan.

In recent years it has suffered from a potent mix of a debt fuelled acquisition, the rise in online streaming services and the COVID-19 pandemic. Cineworld filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US last Autumn, hoping to restructure its massive debt.

Kerri Wilson, Senior Associate, Ontier LLP   explains that it is expected the administration process in the UK will see the transfer of ownership of the company to its lenders but that operations at its 128 UK cinema chain will be unaffected.

What can other businesses learn from Cineworld’s journey?

Don’t overdo the debt

Without doubt the acquisition of US Regal Cinemas in the US in 2018, whilst ambitious, played a part in Cineworld’s fate. There was no way Cineworld could have predicted the global economic disruption which would follow with the COVID-19 pandemic 2 years later. However, there was earlier reason for concern about its financial health, including a 23% crash in share price in June 2019, given the company’s significant debt and lease liabilities.  In fact, by November 2019, Cineworld was the most shorted business in the UK meaning financial institutions were betting on Cineworld’s shares losing value.

Arguably management ignored the warning signs even proposing a further acquisition of Canada’s Cineplex Entertainment which was abandoned when the pandemic struck.

Smell the coffee

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected the Group’s results, with all sites across the Group closed for a period in 2020 and takings severely down thereafter. In its Annual Report and Accounts published April 2021, the Group recorded a revenue drop of 80.5% down on the previous year and an operating loss for the first time in its history. 2021 proved slightly, although not much, better with further losses yet again.

This begs the question – should Cineworld have acted sooner? Although there is no correct answer to this, restructuring a business sooner rather than later is always the best route.

Restructuring route

Even though Cineworld is under Chapter 11 protection in the US, it will need to file separately for administration in the UK. The intention behind the administration is, we understand, to facilitate the transfer of ownership of the company to its lenders via a debt for equity swap. This results in the debts/obligations of the company being exchanged for something of value and writes off money owed to creditors.

Why choose administration?

Administration can, potentially, save a business. It affords the company an opportunity to restructure or realise its assets while being protected by a statutory moratorium, preventing creditors from enforcing their claims against the company. You could say the company is placed in a safety bubble, giving an administrator breathing room to see what can be done to rescue the company or achieve the best results for the company’s creditors.

Next steps

The company’s administrator, an insolvency practitioner, takes control of the company’s business and assets from the company’s directors. The administrator is then required to achieve one of the following statutory purposes of administration, namely:

1. rescuing the company as a going concern;
2. achieving a better result for the company’s creditors as a whole than would be likely if the company were to be wound up; or
3. the realisation of some or all of the company’s property to make a distribution to one or more secured or preferential creditors.

Unlike liquidation, which puts an end to a company, Administration is a temporary process, hopefully ending with a much stronger company.

We saw other household name companies such as TM Lewin, Sofa Workshop, Joules, Made.com and Misguided fall into administration last year. Most have been saved in smaller form by new owners, although with a challenging economic outlook ahead it is perhaps still too soon to vouch for their long term future.

For Cineworld, the plan is that the restructured company will be taken forward by new management, with reduced indebtedness and a rights issue designed to place the company on a more sustainable financial footing.

Read more:
Lessons from Cineworld’s restructuring?

The United Kingdom’s landscape, characterised by its rich cultural heritage, economic dynamism, and intricate political scenarios, is once again at the forefront of international discussions.

This time, the focal point is the repercussions of the Brexit tax imposed on food imports from the European Union (EU). The consequences of this new financial burden are anticipated to ripple across the nation, affecting small businesses and consumers alike.

The Brexit tax, as it’s been colloquially named, is a new levy introduced by the UK government on food imports from the EU. Initiated by the Department for Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the tax aims to recover operating costs of government-run border control posts in England. The idea of a £43 charge per consignment might seem trivial on the surface, but considering the UK’s substantial daily import volumes, it adds up to a hefty sum, inflating the already bloated costs of importing goods post-Brexit.

The Economics of the Tax

The Brexit tax comes on top of other expenses associated with food imports, such as veterinary and customs agents’ fees, and increased supply chain costs. As the tax piles up with these additional costs, the financial burden on importers escalates, pushing them towards an almost unavoidable decision – to pass on the costs to consumers.

Impact on Small Businesses

The new tax regime seems to hit the smaller players in the market hardest. Specialty food retailers such as delicatessens, which import a variety of unique items from the EU, are particularly at risk. These small businesses, with their limited resources, will find it challenging to absorb the extra costs. Consequently, they may be forced to increase their prices, potentially harming their competitive edge in the market.

The Consumer’s Plight

As small businesses grapple with the new tax, it’s the consumers who are likely to bear the brunt of these changes. The tax, in combination with other import costs, will inevitably lead to higher retail prices. The cost of living, already burdened by a 19% rise in food and drink prices over the past year, is set to increase further.

The UK government has justified the tax by citing the need to recover operating costs for the border control posts built post-Brexit. However, the timing and implementation of the tax have come under scrutiny. Critics argue that imposing a flat-rate fee, regardless of the size or scale of the import, is unfair and disproportionately impacts small businesses.

The Post-Brexit Reality

Brexit has undeniably transformed the UK’s trading landscape. Since leaving the single market and customs union, UK exporters have faced increased costs and bureaucratic hurdles when sending goods to the EU. Now, with the introduction of the import tax, UK importers are set to experience a similar fate.

The Response from Industry Experts

Leading voices in the industry have expressed their concerns over the tax. Shane Brennan, director of the Cold Chain Federation, describes the tax as “the sting in the tail of a post-Brexit food inspection regime.” He warns that the policy could contribute to the collapse of haulage operations that small businesses rely on.

Bracing for Impact

Small businesses are bracing themselves for the impact of the tax. Many are exploring alternative strategies to mitigate the potential financial blow. Unfortunately, some smaller businesses have decided to cease exporting to the EU altogether, while others have established depots within the EU to circumvent the extra costs.

Addressing the Crisis

The escalating food price crisis prompted Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to convene a meeting with farmers, food producers, and leaders of some of Britain’s largest supermarkets. However, the effectiveness of these discussions remains to be seen, but it was reported that those at the meeting dubbed it as simply a ‘PR stunt.’

Conclusion

The Brexit tax on food imports signifies yet another twist in the post-Brexit saga. While the government aims to recover operational costs with this move, the repercussions on small businesses and consumers are concerning. As the UK navigates this challenging economic period, it will be crucial to monitor the evolving effects of this tax and its impact on the nation’s food industry.

Navigating the post-Brexit realities requires an understanding of the intricate economic, political, and societal factors at play. The Brexit tax, its implications, and the responses it has elicited from various stakeholders provide a fascinating insight into the UK’s dynamic post-Brexit landscape.

Read more:
The Ripple Effect of Brexit Tax on UK’s Small Businesses and Consumer Wallets

At some point or another, all of us have surely experienced that overwhelming feeling of dread on a Sunday evening, as the working week ahead looms large like a dark cloud on the horizon.

You’ve had a great weekend hanging out with family and friends, but you’re not ready for it to be over, and now it’s time to get back to work. That means knuckling down, figuring out what needs to be done, and working hard to meet the dozens of deadlines you’ve been set.

Or does it? Alexander Dick, CEO of Alexander Lyons Solutions  looks at a new trend known as ‘Bare Minimum Mondays’ is emerging among workers who feel overworked and underpaid for their services. As the name suggests, the idea is to ease into the working week by doing as little as you can possibly get away with on a Monday; effectively dipping your toe before diving back in headfirst.

It’s understandable why workers want a better work-life balance – after all, working from home since the pandemic has made many people happier and more productive in their roles. However, the concept of Bare Minimum Mondays isn’t about improving work-life balance; it’s just plain lazy, and could actually be damaging to your career.

A flawed concept

Of course, this is not to suggest that it isn’t okay to take things a little slower than normal every once in a while. We’re human beings, not robots, and it’s neither realistic nor fair to expect someone to work every second of the day between 9am and 5pm. It’s only natural that our energy levels will ebb and flow, and this is a reality that bosses must accept.

The problem with Bare Minimum Mondays, however, is that it’s built on the conscious decision to consistently do as little as possible on a Monday, regardless of how you might be feeling on any given day. In other words, the idea to do the bare minimum might not necessarily be because you feel burnt out or overworked, and may instead be because you just can’t be bothered to work. If the latter is the case, it might not be long before you end up feeling burnt out for real. With your email inbox continuing to fill up, and your deadlines getting pushed back, your workload will soon become overwhelming – then you really will have cause to dread Mondays!

Furthermore, what many exponents of Bare Minimum Mondays may not realise is that, by engaging in such a questionable practice, they could actually be harming their efforts to achieve a better work-life balance. While I’m a firm believer in WFH – having worked remotely full time since long before the pandemic – it should be acknowledged that many managers do not share my views. Indeed, in a recent survey conducted by Microsoft, 80% of employers disagreed that workers are more productive from home. As such, workers who are consistently failing to produce the goods on a Monday must bear in mind that their manager may soon notice this, and take action to correct their behaviour. This might result in the manager rescinding the employee’s work-from-home privileges if they feel that they can’t be trusted to do their job outside the office. Giving the impression that you need to be babysat is never a good look, and could significantly hold back your journey up the company ladder. Personally, I would never force any of my staff back into an office setting, but workers cannot simply ignore the possibility that their boss might do if they continue to ascribe to Bare Minimum Mondays.

Changing the narrative

If – like The Boomtown Rats – you really don’t like Mondays that much, you should perhaps consider why that is, rather than vetoing the day altogether. Of course, disliking Mondays is pretty normal, and something that we’ve been conditioned to do ever since we were at school. But dreading the advent of a new working week so much that you can’t even bring yourself to do your work is a massive red flag that you might be in the wrong job. If this is the case, you really need to think long and hard about whether the job is right for you, and if you’d be happier and more engaged doing something else. Not only do you owe it to yourself to consider this, but also to your employer, who’s paying for you to work five days a week but effectively only benefitting from four.

Things might not have to come to that, however. There might be some simple changes that can be made to your existing job that’ll help rid you of your Monday anxiety. Speak to your manager and run through whether there’s anything they can do to address your concerns, or that’ll make you feel more productive. Additionally, there might be certain modifications to your Monday that you can make yourself. Put something in your diary for Mondays that makes you look forward to them, such as coffee or a meal out with a friend on your lunch break. You might be surprised how much of a difference even small changes can make to your mood and motivation.

Ultimately, we need to get rid of the stigma around Mondays, and to a point where we treat them like any other day of the week. Bare Minimum Mondays isn’t the solution; it’s just another part of the problem. If you can’t bear the thought of your alarm clock going off at the start of the week, you need to work out why this is – only you have the power to change the narrative, and turn your Bare Minimum Mondays into Get Sh*t Done Days!

Read more:
Why embracing a Bare Minimum Monday mentality isn’t a wise career move!  

If the Labour party wins the next general election many UK small business owners will either shut down or try to sell their business.

That’s the view of leading business consultant Paul Vousden based on the conclusions of a survey carried out by wealth manager Evelyn Partners.

The survey reveals that two-thirds of UK businesses with a turnover of at least £5m are already preparing plans to exit their firm in the event of a Labour win.  Two in five owners polled are planning to sell or wind down their business within the next year.  Nearly one in four business owners said they had expedited such plans in the last year.

Business consultant Paul Vousden of Corporate Counsel, who advises businesses on succession planning said:”Despite Rishi Sunak’s determination to get the UK Government back to a more sensible and focused agenda he seems to be constantly interrupted by controversy and infighting within his own party.

The latest news that Boris Johnson has resigned as an MP with several of his MP supporters following behind has created another mini crisis for the Prime Minister as he battles to steady the ship and head for recovery. This of course is great news for Labour who are streets ahead in the polls and seem on course for a majority in next year’s elections.”

He added: “Concerns over a change in Government and potential tax rises were the most common reasons amongst those speeding up plans to sell or wind down their business, cited by 26% of respondents.  However, businesses rushing to sell should be wary of selling too cheaply, a decision they could regret for the rest of their lives.  The sale must be planned properly so owners achieve the best possible price for their companies and walk away with a fair reward for their life’s work.

“Statistics show that almost half of all planned business sales will fail, often at the last stage once substantial legal and accountancy costs have been incurred by the seller.  One of the most common reasons for the deal to fall apart is a lack of preparation, particularly in terms of due diligence from the buyer.

When we work with a seller we look at all aspects of the business such as staffing, contracts, systems, sales and marketing and much more.  We can also help with the actual price negotiations as having a third party involved can remove some of the emotion involved in selling a business.   We aim to make sure that clients get the maxmum rewards for the hard work they have put into their firms.”

Any business owner thinking of selling their business can speak to Corporate Counsel for a no obligation confidential chat about their requirements.

Read more:
Small business exodus predicted if Labour wins next election

Offsetting carbon output in the finance sector and why factoring environmentalism into a business plan is more important than ever.

But we need to be clear that while carbon offsetting is not the nirvana we all think it is, it is the best the fintech industry has today. This is according to Jeremy Baber, Chief Executive Officer, Lanistar.

“Concerns regarding the environment are at an all-time high. According to research conducted by The Round Up, 84% of customers would feel alienated from a brand or company with poor environmental practices, and products marketed as sustainable would grow 2.7x faster than those that aren’t,” stated Jeremy Baber.

“Someone has to be the first to make a stand against plastic waste. Our approach completely eliminates factory development, which already offsets our carbon output dramatically, but the virtual card? That reduces our plastic waste to near zero.”

Studies from institutions such as The Central Bank of the Netherlands revealed that, in 2015, the nation’s financial sector’s global warming potential (GWP) was 17 million kg CO2 equivalent (CO2e). The biggest contributing factors to this number were point-of-sale terminals, followed by debit card payment processing centres and plastic card manufacturing.

“Fundamentally, from the journey that we’ve started here, I envision that the rest of the world will want to follow. To move in that direction, of cutting plastic out, is what it’s really about. We have access to the virtual environment, and finance can thrive in that,” added Baber.

“And if you’re adopting a green strategy, it’s really about taking plastic out of the equation altogether and making sure that you can still have the same functionality and capabilities, but in a virtual space.”

It is clear to see that, now more than ever, businesses must consider their carbon output when putting together their business strategies. As awareness of the issue continues to grow and more measures are put in place to try and reverse the effects of climate change, it is likely that businesses will need to adapt or be left behind.

Fintech startup Lanistar has taken this new wave of environmental awareness and brought it to its financial product. A 100% virtual payment card hosted on the Lanistar app, which can be used to pay for goods using technologies like Google Pay for both online and offline transactions.

The Lanistar app is currently available in Brazil, with plans to have the product launched in the UK and further in Europe in 2023. Apple Pay operability is also set to become available to Lanistar app users in Summer 2023, allowing iPhone users to also get the most from their virtual card experience.

Read more:
Why carbon offsetting is crucial for the future of the finance industry 

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak must discuss a full US-UK free trade deal when he meets President Biden, says the international delivery expert ParcelHero.

One of the key Brexit benefits was supposed to be an agreement with the US but, currently, only trade pacts with Oklahoma, Indiana and North and South Carolina have been signed. Why the continued delay?

One of the main Brexit benefits was always supposed to be the ability of the UK to forge new free trade agreements with non-EU countries. The first fruits are now, finally, in place, with tariffs ending on all UK goods to Australia and New Zealand on 1 June. However, though Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is in the US for talks with President Biden, the international delivery expert ParcelHero says a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the US still seems as far away as ever.

ParcelHero’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks M.I.L.T., says: ‘So far, the chances of an FTA with President Biden’s administration look bleak. Last month, the UK signed a trade pact with Oklahoma, the fourth such agreement with an individual US State. But it was limited to specific areas, such as carbon capture, utilisation and storage. What we should be negotiating is a full USA-UK deal.

‘Of course, there are various political reasons why that hasn’t happened yet. While former President Donald Trump, a Republican, called himself “Mr Brexit” and promised a “phenomenal” trade deal on his state visit to Britain in June 2019, Biden’s Democrats are a lot less enthusiastic.

‘In fact, Trump’s Democrat predecessor, Barack Obama, once warned the UK that, if it voted for Brexit, Britain would go to the “back of the queue” on trade deals. Biden also prefers the option of negotiating with a united EU when reaching trade agreements.

‘A further hurdle was that President Biden, who is proud of his Irish heritage, consistently voiced concern about the potential impact of Brexit on the Good Friday Agreement. However, PM Sunak’s successful deal with the EU, dubbed “The Windsor Framework”, has been seen in the US as a good compromise.

‘Now, with the chief sticking points on an FTA removed, or at least softened, it’s surely time that a full agreement is back on the table. Memorandum of Understandings with Oklahoma, Indiana, North Carolina and South Carolina are slim pickings compared to a full trade agreement.

‘There’s a lot riding on a potential deal. The US was the UK’s largest trading partner in 2022, accounting for 16.3% of our trade. Total UK exports to the US amounted to £168.3bn last year, an increase of 19%, or £26.9bn, on 2021. It’s a market that flows both ways. Britain’s US imports amounted to £110.8bn. Imagine the potential trade with all tariffs removed.

‘Currently, significant hurdles remain for British businesses selling to the US. Most UK goods exported to the US that are valued at over $800 (the US import tax threshold) are still subject to tariffs of 0% to 37.5%, with the typical rate being 5.63%. ParcelHero’s USA page gives full details on Customs advice, sending food, prohibited items, etc.

‘Whatever Biden’s remaining issues are with UK politics, Britain needs to launch a charm offensive to move the issue of a trade deal back to the top of the agenda. There are rumours a UK-US minerals pact may be discussed, which would allow the UK automotive sector to benefit from some of the tax credits offered to American firms. This could help reduce the impact of the USA’s Inflation Reduction Act, which boosts US green tech at the expense of overseas products. It’s been condemned by the EU as protectionist. The US signed a minerals pact with Japan earlier this year, and a similar UK agreement would certainly help get the ball rolling.

Read more:
Sunak Goes to Washington – but must come back with a free trade agreement

A startling statistic recently surfaced from the Office for National Statistics – despite 77% of unemployed autistic people being eager to work, only 29% are currently employed.

Hopefully, this figure will improve following the Government’s recently launched Buckland review, an initiative to improve employment prospects for autistic individuals.

You might wonder, ‘Why should this matter to me as a business owner?’. It matters because you could be missing out on a wealth of untapped talent.

Top-tier employers like EY, JP Morgan Chase, SAP, and Autotrader have long recognised and reaped the benefits that neurodiverse employees bring to their teams. For instance, an internal analysis by JP Morgan Chase highlighted their autistic employees’ output was equal in quality but 48% more productive than their neurotypical counterparts.

Understanding the Buckland Review

Sir Robert Buckland is leading the review with support from the Department for Work and Pensions and Autistica, a renowned charity. His recommendations are expected in September 2023, and the review will examine the following:

• Ways to identify and support current autistic employees;
• Techniques to prepare autistic individuals to join or return to work;
• How to adapt work practices and initiatives to reduce stigma and boost the productivity of autistic employees.

What does this mean for you, the employer?

You are not just an observer in this process. The review encourages employers to re-evaluate their workplaces, identify potential barriers, and innovate their ways of working. The potential benefits are enormous:

• Autistic individuals get a supportive platform to flourish and reach their potential;
• Employers gain a competitive edge by benefitting from autistic individuals’ strengths and perspectives;
• Collectively, we boost the economy.

Navigating Autism and the Law

Autism is a spectrum condition affecting each individual differently. The condition is lifelong, and if it “has a substantial and long-term adverse effect” on an individual’s “ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities”, it will amount to a disability under the Equality Act 2010. Accordingly, employers must make reasonable adjustments where they know (or could reasonably be expected to know) that the individual has a disability and is likely to be placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to others who do not have a disability.

Empowering Autistic Employees: A Practical Approach

The path to inclusivity begins at the recruitment stage. Here are some simple steps you could take:

• Write clear, simple job descriptions with the necessary skills specified and consider using images;
• Engage with candidates pre-interview, offering necessary adjustments;
• Consider alternative interview formats like practical tasks or work trials;
• Be flexible with interview environments – offer online interviews, and provide quiet spaces;
• Ask questions sequentially during interviews to prevent information overload.

Support doesn’t stop at recruitment. During employment, engaging in regular dialogue with autistic employees and providing necessary training to neurotypical colleagues can foster a healthy and inclusive work environment.

For example, while hot-desking is a modern trend, it might unsettle an autistic individual. So be prepared to offer alternatives like allocated desks and consider developing a neurodiversity policy.

We eagerly await the results of the Buckland review, but in the meantime, these are tangible steps you can implement to support neurodiverse employees and boost your business.

Seek Support: We’re in This Together

To ease your journey, numerous support networks are available to help employers, such as the National Autistic Society and Autistica. They offer invaluable guidance on best working practices and can advise on becoming a more inclusive employer.

Remember, by embracing neurodiversity, you’re not just creating employment opportunities but opening your business to untapped potential and creativity.

Read more:
Unleashing Potential: Improving the employment prospects of autistic people

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has urged the UK to become a global leader in developing international regulations and guidelines around artificial intelligence, ahead of a meeting with US President Joe Biden next week.

Following the UK’s white paper issued earlier this year which highlighted the benefits of AI, the prime minister is rapidly changing his position as he becomes wary of the dangers and threats this piece of emerging technology could potentially cause.

Sunak is set to travel to Washington DC on the 7th and 8th of June to have meetings with the US president, members of Congress and business leaders, where officials state he will discuss the issue of AI regulation and call for the UK to play a leading role in creating global guidelines.

Last week, the PM met four top technology executives from OpenAI, Google Deep Mind and Anthropic to discuss AI regulations and is taking on board warnings from global AI experts who highlight the importance of improving regulations.

Sridhar Iyengar, Managing Director for Zoho Europe, commented: “Artificial Intelligence has the potential to be an extremely useful business tool, so it is great to see the government prioritising the creation of clear guidelines. A global approach is needed from experts and leaders in government and industry to ensure safe and ethical use of AI technology for all, and especially as technology developments are so fast moving in this space.

“Public trust must be gained for AI to be embraced and education around its benefits can help. As the economy stabilizes, AI can act as a way of boosting business growth by improving efficiencies, customer service and operations with capabilities such as customer service bots/assistants, fraud detection, data analysis, forecasting and many more.”

Rishi Sunak, prime minister, commented: “AI clearly can bring massive benefits to the economy and society, but we need to make sure this is done in a way that is safe and secure.”

“I think the UK can play a leadership role, because ultimately, we’re only going to grapple with this problem and solve it if we work together not just with the companies, but with countries around the world.”

Read more:
Prime Minister calls for UK to act as global leader in AI regulations amidst rising fears

There is something rather troubling at the moment regarding the future funding of UK (SMEs.

Certain media commentators will have you believe that ‘traditional’ lenders are in full retreat, neither having the appetite nor the resources to take a risk. It paints a picture of businesses wanting to grow, but being starved of cash to do so.

Cashflow funding doesn’t start and end with an overdraft, loan or credit card.

With cash being crucial to business survival and growth, Ant Persse, Managing Director, Optimum Finance, explains that SMEs need to ensure robust credit management activity to protect themselves from bad debt caused by business failure. They also need to access cash though funding to continue to enable them to adapt, innovate and grow. There is, however, a solution that could deliver to these requirements and could be considered an unsung hero during these tough times – invoice finance.

What is Invoice Finance

Invoice finance is a financing solution that allows businesses to receive immediate payment for their outstanding invoices, rather than waiting for their customers to pay on their own terms. In short it unlocks cash that could otherwise be trapped in your unpaid invoices. Invoice finance is a financial solution that can support the entire credit management process, protect against the risk of non-payment, and deliver funding when many other funding types are unable to.

It’s not new; indeed, it has been around for decades and supported many thousands of businesses and still does. And yet it continues to be overlooked by SMEs when seeking funding, and by the intermediaries to whom they turn for advice. Why? Because it has an image problem. More than this, it has an awareness problem.

According to the FSB Insurance and Finance Survey 2022, only 5% of businesses that applied for funding applied for invoice finance, far less than other funding types that can support working capital needs such as overdrafts (37%) and credit cards (19%). Yet the approval rate for invoice finance was one of the highest at 90%. This suggests that there is an awareness issue that needs to be addressed. Invoice finance can be the fundamental difference between make or break for many small companies and, in turn, our economy.

Liquidity and inflation challenges

Access to liquidity is more critical than ever as traditional financing providers are increasingly rejecting applications for cash. This is in part driven by the increased number of insolvencies and therefore perceived credit risk. SMEs are the backbone of the UK economy, however, and reducing the funding available to these businesses during tough economic periods only hurts it further. The demand for liquidity needs to be expanded during these periods, therefore, and not reduced.

Inflation similarly continues to be the top challenge facing small businesses this year, with many facing forced closures due to a loss of equilibrium on their balance sheets. Once the rising cost of electricity and gas are factored in, many SMEs’ margins will all but disappear. If they haven’t already, SMEs need to start preparing now for how they will finance these major increases in costs.

So why should they consider Invoice Finance? Invoice finance provides a variety of benefits for SMEs, including fast funding turnaround, and the ability to release cash tied up in unpaid invoices. Smaller independent funders like Optimum SME Finance also have more flexibility than traditional providers and can take advantage of value-creating opportunities. By changing the way SMEs are financed, they can survive and thrive in a post-pandemic, post-energy crisis, and inflationary Britain.

Conclusion

Providing the right SMEs with the pathway to secure lending will play an integral part in the economy’s resurgence – something which is in all of our interests, consumers, and businesses alike. Therefore, we need to drive awareness of products like invoice finance and those providers that offer them.

Invoice finance can be the fundamental difference between building a successful small business economy, or letting it wither on the vine. By embracing alternative financing options such as invoice finance, SMEs can not only survive but also thrive despite the challenges of a post-COVID world.

Read more:
The unsung hero for SMEs: Why invoice finance is crucial in tough economic times

The CEO and co-founder of UK fraud detection platform, Pasabi, has addressed delegates at the Marketplace Risk Management Conference alongside key speakers from Uber, Google and eBay.

The event, which took place in San Francisco this week, saw tech entrepreneur Chris Downie of Pasabi address attendees about the rising threat posed by fake reviews, which have flooded the internet. Mr Downie’s presentation, entitled “Why Behavioural Analytics Beats Content Analysis For Fighting Fake Reviews” was delivered in partnership with Anoop Joshi, VP, Legal & Platform Integrity, of review platform Trustpilot.

“The fake review epidemic now directly influences over $152 billion of online spending every year,” warned Chris Downie, CEO & co-founder of fraud detection platform Pasabi.

“The emergence of easy-to-use and sophisticated AI tools, such as ChatGPT, means that fraudsters now have the capability to flood the market with even more convincing fake reviews, misleading consumers and businesses.

“Regulators around the globe are beginning to crack down on this harmful practice, and  the time has come for review platforms and marketplaces to take action and tackle the issue as a top priority. Key to this effort is having the right technology partners in place that can look beyond content and use behavioural analytics and continual monitoring to identify fake reviews and the bad actors behind them,” added Downie.

Pasabi, which is based in Edinburgh and is backed by AWS specialist VeUp, also unveiled the company’s global expansion plans, which include increased investment in its technology platform and global hires in the US.

Read more:
UK tech entrepreneur warns of impact of fake review ‘epidemic’

Nearly half of U.K. workers are finding their work exhausting with 40 per cent feeling emotionally frustrated.

These are the findings from O.C. Tanner’s 2023 Global Culture Report which collected and analysed the perspectives of over 36,000 employees, leaders, HR practitioners, and business executives from 20 countries around the world, including 4,653 from the U.K.

The report suggests a number of reasons why workers are suffering both physically and emotionally, with a poor balance between their working lives and personal lives more likely to result in exhaustion and potential burnout. In fact, when an employee doesn’t have the balance right, they are 89 per cent more likely to suffer burnout. An organisational culture that doesn’t prioritise staff recognition will also increase the odds of poor mental health, with employees who feel appreciated for their efforts and results, 80 per cent less likely to suffer burnout.

“Employees feeling exhausted with their day-to-day work is symptomatic of a workplace that needs urgent attention” says Robert Ordever, European Managing Director of workplace culture expert, O.C. Tanner. “Leaders need to take an honest look at their culture to see whether their people have a good work-life balance, are regularly recognised, and feel part of a supportive and purpose-driven community. If these elements are lacking then employee mental health will invariably suffer, and the business will experience high levels of absence and staff turnover.”

If employees are to obtain a healthy balance between their work and personal lives, the report recommends that leaders give their people a say in how they work, as well as what work they do. Organisations must also establish pragmatic practices, and expectations that support balance while ensuring employees have opportunities to take time away from work without feeling any pressure, guilt, or obligation to work during their time off. Ensuring senior leaders communicate and demonstrate the importance of balance is also key, thereby making it a normal, natural part of everyday culture.

The culture must also be one of support and appreciation, in which frequently and authentically recognising employees’ efforts, achievements and career milestones becomes commonplace.

Ordever adds, “For employees to feel energised and fulfilled by their work, they must know that their efforts and results are appreciated by both leaders and peers. This means nurturing a culture of integrated recognition in which acts of appreciation are given, witnessed and received every single day.”

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Almost half of U.K. employees find their work exhausting