HLAS

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is investing up to £25 million in the best game-changing and world-leading ideas. Ideas need to be designed for swift, successful commercialisation and be genuinely new and novel, not just disruptive within their sector. All proposals must be business-focused, with deliverable, realistic, adequately resourced plans to achieve return on investment, growth, and market share following project completion. Applications can come from any area of technology and be applied to any part of the economy, such as, but not exclusively: net-zero the arts design and media. To be in scope, your proposal must [...]

The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee announced on 2 February 2023 that it would increase the Bank of England base rate to 4% from 3.5%. HMRC interest rates are linked to the Bank of England base rate. As a consequence of the change in the base rate, HMRC interest rates for late payment and repayment will increase. These changes will come into effect on: 13 February 2023 for quarterly instalment payments 21 February 2023 for non-quarterly instalment payments. Late payment interest is set at base rate plus 2.5%. Repayment interest is set at base rate minus 1%, with a lower limit - [...]

The UK government has supported the recently introduced “Predictable Terms and Conditions” Bill, which will bring forward changes for tens of millions of workers across the UK. The move, which would apply to all workers and employees including agency workers, comes after a review found many workers on zero hours contracts experience ‘one-sided flexibility’. This means people across the country are currently left waiting, unable to get on with their lives in case of being called up at the last minute for a shift. With a more predictable working pattern, workers will have a guarantee of when they are required [...]

From Monday last week, households across Great Britain who don’t use mains gas for heating started to receive £200 towards their energy bills as the Alternative Fuel Payment (AFP) scheme launched. Most will get the £200 AFP automatically as a credit on their electricity bill, but some customers will need to apply for the support later this month. Nearly 2 million households who use alternative energy sources such as heating oil, biomass, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to warm their homes will receive the support. The vast majority, including many homes in rural areas, will get it automatically through their electricity supplier [...]

With ever increasing supplier prices, a recent rise in interest rates, and a looming recession, managing your business’s cash and understanding the flow are now vital tools in maintaining resilience and being able to adopt flexible strategies for success. Cash flows reflect all the cash that is flowing in and out of a business. Owners can look at the direction of the cash flows for insights about the health of specific products or services and overall market patterns. Some types of business are more likely to run into cash flow problems, while other types appear to be more resilient. If [...]

The Business Charity Awards provide the perfect platform to reflect on your efforts, share best practice and reward your achievements within the community. The Awards recognise the outstanding contribution made by UK businesses to good causes. The awards not only recognise the role that individuals, teams and entire companies play in supporting charitable activity both at home and abroad, but also help to educate the wider business community about the best ways to support good causes. Charities may enter on behalf of their corporate partners and joint entries from companies and their corporate foundations will also be accepted for their [...]

Developers have received legally binding contracts that will commit them to pay to repair unsafe buildings. The government has set a six-week deadline for developers to sign the legal agreements and is warning that companies who fail to sign and comply with the terms of the contract will face significant consequences. Legislation will be brought forward in the spring, giving the Secretary of State powers to prevent developers from operating freely in the housing market if they fail to sign and comply with the remediation contract. The contract, which has been drawn up by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing [...]

The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has set out detailed plans for the nation’s farming sector, “supporting farmers to be profitable and resilient as they produce food sustainably while protecting nature and enhancing the environment”. The accelerated roll out of the Sustainable Farming Incentive - a key part of the Government’s Environmental Land Management schemes - will provide farmers with a diverse range of paid actions to manage hedgerows for wildlife, plant nectar-rich wildflowers and manage crop pests without the use of insecticides. These incentives are designed to make food production more resilient and efficient over [...]

The UK Minister for Pensions Laura Trott has announced a shake-up of private pensions to create fairer, more predictable, and better-run pensions. Measures include consultation on new Value for Money framework, defined contribution scheme charge cap reforms, further work on small pots, and extension of Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) pension schemes. These plans will help address the pension inequality gap which has risen since the decline of Defined Benefit (DB) and the emergence of Defined Contributions (DC). This consultation seeks views on policy proposals to require trustees and managers of DC relevant occupational pension schemes and the providers and Independent [...]

Plans to protect consumers and grow the economy by regulating cryptoasset activities have been announced by the UK government. Cryptoassets – commonly known as ‘crypto’ – are a relatively new, diverse, and constantly evolving class of assets that have a range of potential benefits, as well as posing risks to the consumer. As is common in emerging technology markets, the crypto sector continues to experience high levels of volatility and a number of recent failures have exposed the structural vulnerability of some business models in the sector. Under plans set out by the government last week, it will seek to [...]