Business group urges continuation of export drive
The UK must invest and export more to ensure that its ‘stellar’ growth this year is not a short-term effort, or ‘a flash in the pan’, a leading business group has warned.
The UK must invest and export more to ensure that its ‘stellar’ growth this year is not a short-term effort, or ‘a flash in the pan’, a leading business group has warned.
According to a survey from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), optimism among customer services firms is strong, with 48 per cent of companies feeling more confident than three months ago.
The unemployment rate fell to 6.4 per cent in the three months to the end of June, with the number of people out of work falling by 132,000 to 2.08 million, the lowest since late 2008, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The UK has been dubbed the ‘self-employment capital’ of Western Europe after an increase in the number of people working for themselves, according to a new report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are rejected for bank funding are to be offered access to an “SME dating agency” that will connect them with independent, non-bank lenders who are willing to back them, according to a Government report.
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has revealed that around one third of eligible retirees will take cash out of their pension pot from April 2015 under new flexibility rules. Around 400,000 people will have the chance to take the money initially and about 130,000 will do so, according to the taxman.
The UK’s dominant services sector, which makes up more than 70 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), grew strongly in July, with business activity hitting an eight-month high.
Although the number of personal insolvencies rose in the second quarter of this year, the number of firms going into liquidation decreased compared with the same period in 2013, and administrations, company voluntary arrangements and receiverships were also lower than during the same time a year ago.
The number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) facing detailed checks by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has risen by a third after checks were reintroduced in November 2012, according to a recent study.
The British Business Bank, which starts lending today (21 July) through peer-to-peer lender RateSetter, is considering the use of “securitisation” to create SME bonds in order to boost lending to small firms.
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