Employment is up but small businesses still need more support
The latest employment statistics, released by the ONS last week, showed a 0.1% decrease in the unemployment rate.
Will new employment minister reduce red tape for recruiters?
Umbrella company contractors may not be aware that the UK now has a new employment relations minister. Norman Lamb has taken over from Edward Davey and part of his remit is to look into ways to reduce the amount of red tape facing recruiters.
Should umbrella companies be concerned about income tax/NI merger?
Umbrella company contractors may be interested to learn that a firm of chartered accountants has expressed concerns about the plan to merge income tax and national insurance.
Would a second round of QE benefit the UK economy?
The Bank of England says that the quantitative easing programme that was rolled out after the credit crunch boosted the UK’s economy by 2%, adding weight to demands for the Bank to print more money.
Contractors are doing well despite the slow growing economy
Despite the slow growth in the UK economy, contractors such as those working through umbrella companies are doing surprisingly well, according to a new survey by the PCG.
Overseas investors deterred by excessive UK bureaucracy
Red tape is putting a lot of organisations off investing in the UK, according to recent research from BDO.
UK economy second worst of the G7 nations
The OECD has reported that the UK economy grew by a mere 0.7% in the last year, making it the second worst performing economy in the G7 nations. Only Japan’s economy performed worse than ours and it had the earthquake and tsunami to contend with.
Should sole traders be exempt from certain legislation?
The British Chamber of Commerce recently called on the coalition to encourage sole traders to grow by making them exempt from certain legislation.
SMEs spend weeks trying to understand government regulations
The problem of the multitude of different government regulations is now so bad that businesses often breach them simply because they don’t know which rules apply to them, according to a new report from the National Audit Office.
FSB speaks out during National Apprenticeship Week
This week is National Apprenticeship Week and the FSB has taken the opportunity to urge the coalition to remove some of the barriers stifling job creation, to enable more businesses to take on apprentices.
IT contractors could benefit if SMEs outsource
Advice website Smarta.com has predicted that small businesses could increasingly outsource some of their workloads this year and this could benefit umbrella company contractors.
Clegg gets tied in knots over excessive regulatory detail
The IoD is calling on the coalition to reduce the excessive burden of red tape that is bogging down UK enterprises and umbrella companies.
