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Projects that tackle some of the greatest threats to trees and forests will get government funding, it was announced last week. This is alongside additional investment announced for local authority tree planting initiatives which will see hundreds of thousands of trees planted in communities across England. The funding aims to drive long-term woodland creation efforts, create jobs, boost biodiversity and support innovative approaches to tree health and resilience, in the face of climate change and the mounting threat of pests and diseases. Successful applicants include: The University of Lincoln’s ISILDUR project, which will work with tree nurseries to address labour [...]

The future flight challenge for Innovate UK will invest up to £500,000 in projects to close aviation industry skills gaps. The aim of the competition is to create and deliver course content and materials that will support skills, talent and training across the future flight sector. The purpose of this is to build awareness of future flight emerging markets and fill key gaps in the United Kingdom's workforce talent and training capabilities. Projects can deliver one or more of these objectives: Schools’ engagement Apprenticeships and internships Upskilling and reskilling of existing workforce Technical courses and vocational training Undergraduate, postgraduate and [...]

The much criticised “off-payroll” working rules were introduced for the public sector from 6 April 2017 and then extended to large and medium-sized private-sector organisations from 6 April 2021. The rules replaced the ‘IR35’ rules where workers supplied their services to these organisations via a personal service company (PSC) or other intermediary. The effect was to transfer the, not insignificant, tax compliance burden from the PSC to the service-acquiring organisation. The off-payrolling rules will now be removed from 6 April 2023 and the IR35 compliance burden will revert to resting with the PSC itself. This means the PSC must calculate [...]

The previous Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, had dangled a possible cut in the basic rate of income tax from 20% to 19% from 2024/25. This will now be brought forward by one year to 2023/24 and will apply to non-dividend income. The 45% and 39.35% ‘additional rates’ of income tax that apply to income over £150,000 will be abolished from 6 April 2023. This will mean that, in 2023/24, there will be just two rates of tax on general income - 19% and 40%, with two dividend income tax rates of 7.5% and 32.5%. Further, those who would have otherwise been [...]