Business Bites

Mar- 2020 -

30 March

The minimum wage increase is about to hit – and it beggars belief

As if to bang the final nail into the coffin himself, we can only assume the Treasury’s top man, chancellor Rishi Sunak, refuses to give ground on the next wave to crash over the retail and hospitality industries. I am talking of course about the increase in the National Minimum…

26 March

Wetherspoons’ boss was right to withhold wages

The media and the Twitterati have had a field day vilifying the founder and owner of pub chain Wetherspoons over his decision not to pay his staff in light of the coronavirus restrictions. Tim Martin had sent an email to his 43,000 staff saying he could not afford to pay…

24 March

The furloughs and loans are useless to small businesses

The small business community has been watching with great hope to see if the government will introduce measures that are useful for them to survive this period. Alas, those announced are absolutely useless for small companies, which make up an extremely significant portion of the UK economy. Coronavirus Business Interruption…

13 March

BT’s boss catches it, markets rebounding, pain medication prices spike

Today I am going to rattle through a wider selection of stories than normal because the spread of the virus is hitting so many sectors hard, with key figures in the business community affected. The markets are recovering some of their losses this morning after having their worst selloff since…

11 March

ROUNDUP: Business rates holiday announced by chancellor Sunak

In his maiden budget, the new chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has announced a £30bn fiscal stimulus package to help combat the impact of coronavirus on the British economy including a one-year total suspension of business rates for small retail, leisure and hospitality businesses. Headline measures include: A £12bn plan to provide…

10 March

Banks to help us all out with coronavirus fallout

Once again the business pages on all major news outlets are pretty much dominated by the developing story of coronavirus – every sector has some kind of tale to tell. So here is the roundup from today. RBS said it will allow mortgage holidays for people who are forced to stay…

6 March

Flybe’s pensions in doubt; Poorest 20% no better off than before, 1m Virgin customers on unsecured database

lybe’s pension pot for 1,350 current and former workers is at risk, as the fallout from one of the first casualties of the coronavirus business threat manifests in full. Flybe of course was already embattled before the new Covid-19 virus came along, and was the subject of a controversial bailout by…

6 March

Flybe’s pensions in doubt; Poorest 20% no better off than before, 1m Virgin customers on unsecured database

Flybe’s pension pot for 1,350 current and former workers is at risk, as the fallout from one of the first casualties of the coronavirus business threat manifests in full. Flybe of course was already embattled before the new Covid-19 virus came along, and was the subject of a controversial bailout…

3 March

Coronavirus is stepping up a gear – this could be serious

When I started this column back in December I did not anticipate a single subject would dominate it so much, but as I wrote last week it would be silly not to address the latest coronavirus circumstances given that each new development so far has had a profound impact on…

2 March

Entrepreneurs relief may be scrapped by Sunak

The new chancellor, Rishi Sunak, may scrap entrepreneur’s relief to raise £3bn a year as a means to bring in some extra dosh for the Treasury. Sunak will undoubtedly be looking for ways to raise extra revenue given the government’s infrastructure spending plans as it seeks to make a visible…