SME Business News

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has hit out at the government over the complexity of the legislation on employing foreign workers in the UK.
Parts of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act, which come into force tomorrow (Friday February 29), will require small employers to understand and verify up to thirteen different forms of identification [...]

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Alistair Darling must be ruing the day he accepted the position as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Almost every proposal he has made, has been hit by criticism from all quarters. As he attempts to refinance the treasury after Gordon Brown’s terrible book keeping the Chancellor has become the Labour party scapegoat for their financial failings [...]

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Small business owners Maria Hellyer, 51, and Patricia Forbes, 54, of Sussex based The British Curry Company have secured a £500,000  deal to supply the Waitrose supermarket chain with their range of curry sauces.
The partners started the business five years ago, when Maria was made redundant from her sales job in the food industry. Inspired [...]

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Stagecoach Transport group, which operates 7,000 buses across the UK, is to adopt a fuel saving compound across its entire fleet after tests showed that it reduced usage by 4%.
The Perth based company first started using the diesel additive in 2004, but started a validation test last year, involving 550 vehicles. The results showed a [...]

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For many years in the UK, we have witnessed the massive growth of supermarket chains decimate the competition from small businesses. By being allowed to develop massive stores out of town, High Street trade in some towns is practically non existent. Not content at that the stores have in a short time turned grocery shopping [...]

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The Professional Contractors Group (PCG) has urged Chancellor Alistair Darling, to pay as much attention to small business owners over his  proposed outlawing of “income shifting”, as he has done to those that forced a u turn on his Non Dom policy towards wealthy foreign workers.
The call came after pressure from the City forced Darling [...]

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The Enterprise Europe Network (EEN), Europe’s largest network of small business support organisations has been launched, the European Commission announced this week.
The EEN is designed to support and help small business owners and entrepreneurs, on a wide range of business issues, including  expanding into other EU countries, launching new products and accessing funding.
The services of [...]

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The Federation of Small Businesses has called for “integrity and loyalty” in the re-development of Camden Lock Market, following the catastrophic fire in London over the weekend.
The Federation says that the market has long been an important resource, offering an eclectic mix of stalls and shops. It has played an important role in getting people to [...]

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The UK economy has been dealt another blow as official data showed a rise in “factory gate”  inflation, to a 16 year high. The Office for National Statistics reported that the price of goods leaving the factory gate, rose by 1% in January, pushing the annual rate up from 5% to 5.7%.
The figure is at [...]

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British Chamber of Commerce director general, David Frost is concerned at the lack of skills among the young people seeking employment in the UK. The Chamber reports that skill levels and attitude to work, are so poor that firms across the country are increasingly employing eastern European migrants to fill jobs rather than local unemployed [...]

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