The latest employment statistics, released by the ONS last week, showed a 0.1% decrease in the unemployment rate.
Employment is up but small businesses still need more support » Read the full story
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.
Will new employment minister reduce red tape for recruiters? » Read the full story
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.
Should umbrella companies be concerned about income tax/NI merger? » Read the full story
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.
Would a second round of QE benefit the UK economy? » Read the full story
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.
Contractors are doing well despite the slow growing economy » Read the full story
Red tape is putting a lot of organisations off investing in the UK, according to recent research from BDO.
Overseas investors deterred by excessive UK bureaucracy » Read the full story
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.
UK economy second worst of the G7 nations » Read the full story
The British Chamber of Commerce recently called on the coalition to encourage sole traders to grow by making them exempt from certain legislation.
Should sole traders be exempt from certain legislation? » Read the full story
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.
SMEs spend weeks trying to understand government regulations » Read the full story
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.
FSB speaks out during National Apprenticeship Week » Read the full story
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.
IT contractors could benefit if SMEs outsource » Read the full story
The IoD is calling on the coalition to reduce the excessive burden of red tape that is bogging down UK enterprises and umbrella companies.
Clegg gets tied in knots over excessive regulatory detail » Read the full story
Earlier this week Mark Prisk spoke to the Summit for Small Business and explained how the government intends to help the five million SMEs, which includes umbrella companies, in Britain grow now that the recession is behind us.
Are new government measures enough to support SMEs? » Read the full story
Small businesses and umbrella companies should plan ahead in order to cope with the changes that are likely to be introduced in next week’s budget.
Umbrella companies need to plan ahead for emergency budget » Read the full story
The coalition promised to cut the amount of red tape that umbrella companies and contractors are subjected to and yesterday Vince Cable announced the first stage of the plan.
Welcome announcement on red tape reduction » Read the full story
Small businesses in the UK are spending too much time complying with red tape and government bureaucracy, according to a new report by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).
Some legislation “just isn’t needed”! » Read the full story
