The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is warning that small businesses face the threat of bankruptcy because of Business Secretary Angela Rayner’s proposals to make statutory sick pay (SSP) available to employees after just one day of sickness, rather than the current three days, and make it available to all workers, not those earning above an average of £123 per week. The FSB says small businesses will be “disproportionately” affected by the proposal, as they employ a greater number of people with health issues. Craig Beaumont, Chief of External Affairs at the FSB said: “The average cost of sickness absence, including finding cover, stands at more than £3,000 a year for a small business – or £5bn across the small business economy as a whole. As labour costs rise steeply, increasing sick pay needs to include a small employer rebate, as we secured during Covid”. “If we want to tackle economic inactivity, we’ve got to help those who we know disproportionately recruit those with health issues,” he added. Last year, workers took an average of 7.8 days off work sick, the highest number of sick days in 10 years, according to the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development. Currently, employers are liable to pay SSP in the amount of at least £116.75 a week for up to 28 weeks.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been told by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) that her rumoured capital gains tax raid risks backfiring and costing the economy £2bn in 2027-28. An official estimate published by HMRC suggests that a 10% increase in the higher rate of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) would cause investors to change their behaviour to avoid the higher levy, meaning there would be fewer property transactions as landlords avoid selling homes, resulting in lower stamp duty revenues, as well as deferred sales of other assets subject to tax, leading to the shortfall. Baron Macpherson, formerly the most senior civil servant in the Treasury, told The Telegraph the idea has been looked at before, but makes little financial sense. He said: “The killer point is that raising the rate of capital gains tax does not bring you any revenue. When you increase the rate, people just sit on the gains and wait for a Government to come along which will have a lower rate”. However, it is understood that separate Treasury analysis indicates reforms to CGT could raise £6bn per year by the end of the decade, the newspaper says.

Industry body Offshore Energies UK has collated an open letter to The Treasury signed by more than 40 North Sea oil and gas firms who voice their “grave concern” about the Government’s plans for the Energy Profits Levy. These plans include raising the headline rate of tax to 78% and removing allowances for investment and exploration. Not only does the levy risk jeopardising investment in fledgling transition technologies, such as floating offshore wind and carbon capture technologies, it will also have a negative impact on jobs within the energy sector and those within the industries and communities that support it, the letter said, adding that the North Sea energy industry supports some 200,000 jobs, most of them in supporting roles such as catering, transport and infrastructure. It argued that entire communities in much of North East Scotland are dependent on the industry – Aberdeen is believed to support 30% of the city’s jobs. The letter also highlighted the threat to Britain’s energy security, saying: “The UK spent almost £27bn on imports of crude oil and over £21bn on gas imports last year. This is £6bn more than receipts from UK crude oil exports and £17bn more than gas exports. The measures as announced risk both the net import gap for fuels, and the emissions footprint of fuel imports, growing long before the UK can deliver reliable, affordable, alternative energy sources”. A spokesman for the Treasury said: “We are strengthening the previous government’s windfall tax to ensure North Sea oil and gas producers contribute their fair share towards our energy transition. Our plans for a new National Wealth Fund and Great British Energy will create thousands of new jobs in the industries of the future”.

Ofgem is lifting the energy price cap for the final quarter of the year by 10% to £1,717, meaning a typical household in the UK will pay an average of £149 a year or £12 per month more for their gas and electricity from October. However, compared to the same period last year, the new cap is 6% cheaper. Ofgem said that higher wholesale prices accounted for 83% of the rise. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband blamed the “failed energy policy” of the Conservatives for the rise. However, in opposition, Sir Keir Starmer said on X: “Labour has a fully costed plan to freeze energy bills, meaning people won’t pay a penny more this winter”.

Dale Vince, the ‘green energy’ tycoon who donated £5m to Labour in the run-up to the general election, says the ‘rich’ should be taxed more to meet trade union demands for multibillion-pound “pay restoration” deals in the public sector. The UK currently has “tax breaks for people who make the most money,” he claimed, adding: “If you look at other parts of our economy, bonuses are off the hook. Banking bonuses are back with no limit. It can’t be right that we have no limits on one part of our economy and yet we force real-terms pay cuts [on others],” he said. Restoring public sector pay to the same levels as 2011 in real terms is forecast to cost the economy more than £50bn. There are now almost 6m people employed by the state, the highest number since 2012, and ministers have refused to say how public sector pay rises will be funded, The Telegraph points out.

Lloyds Bank has issued a warning about fake website which are scamming tens of thousands of people out of £55 each, on average, with the total amount lost by victims totalling an estimate £6.6m. Such scams driven a 211% jump in card payment disputes over the last 12 months, the bank said, saying that fake websites were imitating brands such as House of Fraser, Office and Superdrug among others, before promoting significant discounts on social media to lure consumers into buying products from them. Other websites cloned included Fines Jewellery, Honest Concept Trading Hong Kong HKG, Ziniaofotec and Jimacy, Lloyds said. Gavin Evans, senior manager for consumer cards at Lloyds Bank, told Yahoo! Finance: "When we spot a bargain online, it can be tempting to snap it up, but it’s important to remain vigilant and know that rogue retailers use social media to promote significant discounts on goods they have no intention of delivering." "Remember the old adage — if something appears too good to be true, it usually is," he added.

AstraZeneca is warning it could relocate its vaccine manufacturing from the UK to the United States because talks with the new Labour government over plans to cut state aid have become deadlocked, the Financial Times reports. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is said to be planning to reduce funding in research and development support from the UK Health Security Agency, agreed by the previous Conservative administration, from £90m to £40m. Manufacturing could take place in India instead, where the company has produced vaccines in the past, people briefed on the discussions told The Telegraph. An AstraZeneca spokesperson said it was still in “constructive discussions” with the UK government.

Shein has admitted it found two cases of child labour in its supply chain last year. The Chinese fast fashion chain is hoping to list on the London Stock Exchange but is facing opposition because of criticism of its human rights record, confirmed yesterday in a report it published yesterday, which revealed it uncovered two instances of children under 16 being put to work in the manufacturing of its low-cost clothing. Shein said: “Both cases were resolved swiftly, with remediation steps including terminating contracts with underage employees, ensuring the payment of any outstanding wages, arranging medical checkups and facilitating repatriation to parents/legal guardians as needed”.  Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds is known to have met with Shein executives and before the election suggested it would back the Shein’s plans for a London stock flotation as it would then be regulated by UK law.

PwC China has reportedly told clients it expects to receive a six-month ban from the Chinese authorities, and potentially a large fine, as a punishment for its role in auditing the collapsed Chinese property developer Evergrande. The Financial Times cited an unnamed former partner at auditing giant PwC, which has more than 20,000 employees in mainland China, as saying: “The current partners are braced for impact.”  Evergrande, the world’s most indebted property developer, collapsed in January, after being found to have inflated its revenues by almost $80bn (£61.6bn) in 2019 and 2020. This led to scrutiny of PwC China, which had audited Evergrande’s accounts for 14 years until 2023.

Domus Social Housing is facing an uncertain future, City A.M. has revealed, having learnt that the social housing trust - owned by Canadian investment behemoth Fiera Capital and backed by a £62.9m loan from Phoenix, the UK’s biggest pension firm - saw its rental take evaporate last year after two of its largest housing association tenants went under, and another two - Big Help and Midland Living - stopped paying rent and surrendered their leases. Big Help is also under investigation from the charities regulator.  The two housing associations that went bust, Lotus Sanctuary and Redemption, were both run by the same person, Gurpaal Judge Singh, and folded into administration last year, a fact that also played a role in the downfall of former FTSE 250 social housing trust Home REIT last year. Asked by City A.M. whether the financial position of Domus was sustainable and whether it had reassigned the leases from the failed tenants, both Domus and Fiera declined to comment.

Pressure washing company EasyJetwash is having to change its name and pay “significant damages and legal costs” after settling a trademark dispute with the Stelios Haji-Ioannou’s EasyGroup, which has around 100 spin-off brands including EasyJet. It vigorously defends its brand; last year, British pop group Easy Life changed their name following legal action by EasyGroup, saying they did not have enough money to fight in court. However, cosmetics brand Easycosmetic won a court ruling earlier this year. Jozsef Spekker’s business, which is based in Newcastle-under-Lyme and specialises in cleaning patios and driveways, will be fully rebranded as Stoke Jetwash within the next 18 months, the phasing out period agreed with EasyGroup.  Spekker told The Guardian: “I would like to focus on the future and secure StokeJetwash.co.uk as a well-established small business. I am very proud of everything that I have achieved through hard work. I came to the UK on 5 November 2012. Twelve years ago, I didn’t speak the language and became a dishwasher in a restaurant in London. Today, I run my own business and am very proud to be a British citizen”.

Hiscox has appointed senior independent director Colin Keogh as interim chair following the death of Jonathan Bloomer in the sinking of the Bayesian superyacht off the coast of Sicily on Monday. His wife Judy also died in the tragedy, along with four others, including software millionaire and Autonomy founder Mike Lynch. Hiscox CEO Aki Hussain said: “"We are deeply shocked and saddened by Jonathan and Judy's tragic deaths. Our deepest sympathies go out to their family and friends at this devastating time. It was a privilege to have known Jonathan and to have benefitted from his generosity and wisdom over the last year in his role as chair of Hiscox. His deep experience across our industry and in the broader business arena, combined with his personal values, made him both an excellent chair and a person I was proud to know and work with. His advice and support were immensely valuable to me, and he will be dearly missed”.

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