The government has just announced that thousands of government credit cards will be cancelled as part of a crackdown on wasteful spending. With spending on these cards reportedly increasing fourfold in the last four years, it’s a reminder that keeping an eye on expenses is crucial.

The Bank of England held its regular meeting to discuss interest rates last Thursday. They voted to hold interest rates at 4.5% as had been widely expected prior to the meeting. The Bank targets an inflation rate of 2% and has already predicted that inflation will rise this year before dropping at the end of the year. However, inflation for the 12 months to January 2025 increased to 3.0% from 2.5% in December, a much higher and faster increase in inflation than had been expected.

For affected businesses there is now just a week left to submit their 2024 packaging data under the new extended producer responsibility for packaging (pEPR) scheme. The new legislation came into force on 1st January 2025 and requires data to be submitted by 1 April 2025. Large businesses are expected to submit their July-December 2024 data, whereas small businesses must submit their January-December 2024 data in one annual submission by that date.

As part of the changes being gradually introduced by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (ECCT), identity verification is set to become a Companies House requirement. This is one of a number of changes that the Act is making to better protect the data held at Companies House.

Goldman Sachs published their “The Growth Agenda” report last week. This is a report that puts forwards the ideas of small business owners that could help to boost the UK economy. The report looks at issues around several areas that affect small businesses and include ideas that may help to drive growth.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced that it has cleared Boporan’s proposed purchase of two feed mill sites. These are located at Burston and Radstock and currently owned by For Farmers. The inquiry made by CMA had two phases. After the phase 1 investigation the CMA concluded that the purchase of the Radstock did not raise competition concerns and the sale of this mill has already completed.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves met with senior Fintech representatives at No. 11 Downing Street last week to discuss growth opportunities as well as new draft legislation aimed at streamlining financial regulations. The proposed reforms focus on updating the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) rules inherited from the EU. These changes will empower the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to eliminate redundant regulations.

Success in business is never guaranteed, even for brands that dominate their industry for decades. A recent episode of the BBC Radio 4 show, Toast, explored five once-thriving companies: Little Chef, Vine, Mothercare, Green Shield Stamps and Safeway. Each of these businesses were very successful for a period of time, but for one reason or another ultimately failed.

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill was introduced to Parliament last week. The legislation is being heralded as bringing transformative reforms to the UK building sector that will boost homebuilding and remove obstacles to needed infrastructure.

New technology continues to progress at a fast rate. It can be difficult to keep up or see the opportunities for your business. Some new bite-sized introductions have been published by the Government Office for Science that may help.

The Health and Safety Executive are reminding employers about their responsibilities to protect workers from the health risks that come from working with display screen equipment (DSE), including PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones. The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations apply to any worker that uses DSE on a daily basis for continuous periods of an hour or more.

Following a confirmed case of foot and mouth disease at a cattle farm in Hungary’s north-west, new import bans have been announced. The commercial import from Hungary and Slovakia of cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and other non-domestic ruminants and porcines such as deer and their untreated products, such as fresh meat and dairy, are now banned.

In their latest blog, ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) revealed some insights from their latest helpline and early conciliation data. They report that the demand for their services continues to trend up. Their helpline service handled around 158,500 calls in the final quarter of 2024, which is an increase of 11% on the previous quarter. Web traffic has also increased significantly: up by nearly 20% on the previous year.