Measures to reduce "burdensome" accounting red tape for micro-businesses have been confirmed today by Business Minister Jo Swinson. In the government response to the consultation on how best to implement the EU’s Micros Directive, published today, the UK’s 1.5 million micro-entities will now become exempt from certain financial reporting requirements.
UK house prices have seen their highest annual rise since June 2010. In the three months to August 2013, prices have risen an average of 5.4% from the same period last year, according to the Halfax's latest house price survey.
Prices were also up in the three months to August from the previous three months (March/April/May), rising by 2.1%. The August figure remains unchanged from both...
As the summer holidays end, a new survey has revealed gaps in childcare for parents of disabled children – impacting work for 90 per cent of parents.
Working Families survey of parents of disabled children this summer reveals the high costs and difficulties in finding suitable childcare which have a serious knock-on effect on parents’ work. Ninety per cent of parents responding said...
Half of all UK seven-year-olds are sedentary for between six and seven waking hours per day and half are not doing the recommended daily minimum of one hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity, according to the latest findings from the Millennium Cohort Study .
The research, led by academics at University College London (UCL) and published in the journal BMJ Open, shows that...
The CBI has raised its growth forecasts for 2013 and 2014 from 1.0% to 1.2%. But the UK's leading business lobbying organisation says the rebalancing away from consumption towards investment and trade is taking longer than expected.
The CBI says it has increased the figure from its May forecast, after a better than expected second quarter and signs of a pick-up in confidence across a...
The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rate of inflation fell by 0.1% to 2.8% in the year to July 2013, down from a 14-month high of 2.9% in June, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The largest contributions to the fall in the rate came from air fares, plus price movements (in some cases the result of seasonal sales) in the recreation & culture, and clothing & footwear...
The UK housing market appears to have finally turned a corner as buyers returned to the market in their biggest numbers for four years, according to the latest Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Residential Market Survey.
The survey reveals that during July, the number of potential buyers looking to enter the market grew at the fastest rate since July 2009. Since the start...
A YouGov poll, commissioned by easyJet, today highlights that adults in the South West could have an extraordinary £170million of leftover foreign currency lying around at home.
The research released by easyJet, the South West’s largest airline, and its onboard charity partner UNICEF, the world’s leading children’s organisation, marks the start of the summer Change for Good campaign on...
Brian James, Divisional Director and Head of Office, Brewin Dolphin Plymouth, offers his thoughts on the financial market place.
The FTSE
The prospects for UK equities remain positive although, as with most risk assets, the volatility is likely to be more pronounced as the reassuring warmth of quantitative easing is replaced by the harsh reality of market forces. However,...
Britain faces a hidden scandal where thousands of people cannot feed themselves or their families, according to a hard hitting report from Church Action Poverty and Oxfam.
The two charities, with the backing of the Trussell Trust, are calling for an urgent Parliamentary Inquiry into the relationship between benefit delay, error or sanctions, welfare reform changes and the growth of...
