COVID-19 Business News

Tablet showing graphs, technology, fintech

As everything falls apart, UK tech sector shows resilience

THE UK’S fastest-growing sector, the tech industry, will maintain resilience despite the Covid-19 outbreak. That optimistic claim follows analysis from recruitment firm Robert Walters. In...
Female speaker, training class, skills gap

Staffing association calls on UK government to address skills gap

LABOUR market data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics have elicited a welcome — and a caution — from the Association of Professional...
Businessman in handcuffs. Covid scheme fraud illustration

Lengthy bans for directors who fiddled Covid scheme

AN AVERAGE of 35 directors are being banned by the UK Insolvency Service each month for abusing the Covid Support Scheme. That’s almost treble the...
Roaring Twenties

Roaring ’20s, take two: Life returns to the high street

AS THE pandemic’s disruption fades, new patterns in consumer behaviour are taking shape. Increases in spending at the start of this year, coupled with the...
Rishi Sunak, UK Chancellor

Second helping of aid for the UK’s self-employed

SELF-EMPLOYED people whose income has been hit by coronavirus can apply for a second support grant from the UK government. The first was launched in...
Tablet showing graphs, technology, fintech

Fintech funding key to keeping SMEs strong after end of loans

ONE OF Europe’s largest business lenders says the fintech industry must be strengthened to support SMEs after the Bounce Back Loan scheme closes at...
Dad working from home, flexible working

Engineering firm funds research into lasting flexible work systems

BUILDING and civil engineering company Sir Robert McAlpine has funded a study using first-person accounts to provide employers with “more than stats” on the subject of...
UK Government loan

Covid-19 loan schemes ‘a debt, not a grant’ cautions UK Finance

UK BUSINESSES are pessimistic about their growth potential once the COVID-19 crisis passes. A survey of 1,200 firms has found that the pandemic has negatively...
Pott'd founders Frankie and Sascha

A founder’s story, and some Pott’d history

Lockdown was indisputably dull, but as FRANKIE THOROGOOD recounts, the boredom led to an exciting business idea... THE INSPIRATION for Pott’d came during a Groundhog...
Business closed

Relief for small firms as rent moratorium runs until 2022

THE FEDERATION of Small Businesses (FSB) has welcomed the extension to a moratorium on commercial tenant evictions in England until March 25 next year. FSB...