This is the call from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), which has found that existing policy interventions have had no discernible effect on tackling problems around the UK’s poor payment culture in the last 5 years. Small businesses report that, on average, 30 per cent of payments are typically late compared with 28 per […]
Continue ReadingAccess to finance. The British Business Bank (BBB) comes under fire for its lack lustre performance in providing effective routes to finance for SMEs. Barry James, writing an open letter to chancellor, Philip Hammond in Real Business points out that 99% of companies are SMEs and they employ half of employed people outside government. He […]
Continue ReadingLast month the government’s Construction Leadership Council published a new payment charter for the construction supply chain. Signatories to the new Construction Supply Chain Payment Charter (CSCPC) will ensure that payments are made to their supply chain not more than 45 calendar days from the end of the calendar month in which the work […]
Continue ReadingIn January 2016, the Grocery Adjudicator, Christine Tacon, hauled Tesco over the coals and ordered it to introduce significant changes to practices and systems after finding Britain’s largest supermarket seriously breached a legally-binding Groceries Supply Code of Practice (the Code). Tesco Chief Executive Dave Lewis had earlier announced in October 2015 that smaller suppliers, who deliver up […]
Continue ReadingThe FT’s City Editor Jonathan Guthrie commented after the Brexit referendum that “…Two tribes, it transpires went to war on polling day. Remainers, whose beliefs reflect economics, and Leavers, whose economics reflect their beliefs. Unless the first group can understand and win over the second, the prospects for both look equally grim…” It is true […]
Continue ReadingRemain kind, remain open, remain inclusive, remain tolerant, remain together. Vote Remain…
Continue ReadingAccording Nobel prize-winning economist, Paul Krugman, a country’s ability to improve its standard of living over time depends almost entirely on its ability to raise its output per worker. If countries are to grow, either its people need to work harder (or longer…), or they need to increase immigration (as the US, UK and Germany […]
Continue ReadingBusinesses in the UK waste 5.2% of revenue each year due to poor cost management, according to a survey by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). The survey was conducted to inform CIMA’s Cost Transformation Model – a planning and control framework for transforming and managing a business’s cost-competitiveness. In 2015, the total amount […]
Continue ReadingCIPD – The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has questioned the government’s priorities on improving the UK’s productivity. Although the UK’s GDP has grown in recent years, this has been predominantly as a result of immigration increasing the size of the work force; productivity in terms of output per head has been more or […]
Continue ReadingMarket Invoice and now cloud accounting software provider FreeAgent has joined a chorus of complaints in finding typical UK micro-businesses write off nearly £2,000 in unpaid invoices each year. With 5m micro-businesses in the UK, this equates to a total of over £9bn written off in unpaid invoices last year. Based on invoices dated between […]
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