Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
The Scottish Government has confirmed that there will be a £40m funding package for hospitality businesses affected but the latest restrictions.
“We have decided to put further restrictions on hospitality, but to offer significantly more financial help,” said First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in her announcement yesterday (7th October).
Details of the package haven’t been laid out yet, but we’ll update this article when we know.
What are the new COVID-19 restrictions in Scotland?
Pubs and restaurants in the central belt will be forced to close from 18:00 from Friday for 16 days (from 10th-26th October). They will only be able to offer takeaways.
This applies to the Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Arran, Lothian and Forth Valley health board areas.
As for the rest of the country, hospitality businesses will only be allowed to operate between 6am and 6pm and no alcohol is allowed to be served inside. Evening meals can be served.
Licensed premises can still serve alcohol outdoors until the 22:00 curfew that was announced last month.
The rule of six still applies indoors and outdoors for hospitality venues.
Alcohol can still be served at weddings and funerals, but attendance is limited to 20 people. They must take
Tag Archive for Outlook
Hot Business News Today
Large firms should each have one person to deal with late payments – FSB
by Anna Jordan • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has called on the government to introduce fundamental changes to tackle late payments.
Alok Sharma, secretary of state for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Martin McTague, policy and advocacy chairman at the Federation of Small Business, spoke at the Conservative’s virtual party conference yesterday (October 5th).
The late payment issue has worsened since the pandemic. In its report Late Again: how the coronavirus pandemic is impacting payment terms for small firms, 62 per cent of small businesses have experienced an increase an increase and/or had payments frozen completely as a result of COVID-19. McTague said that we need a complete change in attitudes.
“It’s a culture in the UK. There should be one person responsible for supply chain behaviour in a big business. There’s no place to hide, they know the data. They would be responsible for false information.”
He adds that the Small Business Commissioner (SBC) is doing a good job, but he’s got ‘one arm tied behind his back’. The Commissioner is relying on a whistleblower which damages the whistleblower’s relationship with the business and the SBC should have the power to hurt them financially.
“A lot of
Hot Business News Today
Rishi Sunak plans grants for small businesses hit by hard lockdown
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is drawing up plans for new Treasury support for small businesses who find themselves closed because of hard lockdown.
Pubs and restaurants would be forced to close, as well as possibly non-essential retailers, at the top level of a “three-tier” lockdown strategy, which could be announced as soon as tomorrow.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to announce a simplified three-tier system of local, regional and even a national lockdown. The system has yet to be finalised, with sources telling the Times that it was “stuck in No 10”, despite hurdling coronavirus infection cases in the North and scientists urging a national “circuit-breaker”.
>See also: HSBC will not accept any more Bounce Back Loan applications
According to the draft traffic-light-style plan, obtained by the Guardian, the top-tier lockdown would include closure of hospitality and leisure businesses.
Mr Sunak has already provided grants of £1,500 to businesses forced to close under local lockdowns and said this week the government was prepared to move with “pace and scale” to deal with new problems as they arose during the crisis.
Lockdown grants
In September, the government announced that small businesses affected by a local lockdown could claim for a £1,000
Hot Business News Today
Getting ready for Brexit – 6 steps you need to take to prepare
by sarahgunton • • 0 Comments
Originally written by sarahgunton on Small Business
6 steps to getting ready for Brexit
Here, we guide you through the six steps companies should be looking at if they’re getting ready for Brexit with detailed advice as to how firms can best prepare.
#1 – Tax, tariffs and customers
From January 1 2021, an Economic Operators Registration and Identification (EORI) number is required to move goods into or out of the EU. Register for an EORI number here. All goods imported to the UK will also be subject to UK Global Tariffs from 2021. As a business owner you check what these will be here.
>See also: EORI number: What it is and how to get or check one
If the UK leaves the EU without a deal, there will be new tariffs on many goods and services that are exported from the UK to the EU. Even if a deal is agreed, there may still be tariffs to pay on some traded items. Those goods that we export to the rest of the world that are currently subject to EU-negotiated tariffs will be subject to new duty rules too, many of which have yet to be agreed.
Getting ready for Brexit
Monitor announcements about new foreign tariffs
Hot Business News Today
Large firms should each have one person to deal with late payments – FSB
by Anna Jordan • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has called on the government to introduce fundamental changes to tackle late payments.
Alok Sharma, secretary of state for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Martin McTague, policy and advocacy chairman at the Federation of Small Business, spoke at the Conservative’s virtual party conference yesterday (October 5th).
The late payment issue has worsened since the pandemic. In its report Late Again: how the coronavirus pandemic is impacting payment terms for small firms, 62 per cent of small businesses have experienced an increase an increase and/or had payments frozen completely as a result of COVID-19. McTague said that we need a complete change in attitudes.
“It’s a culture in the UK. There should be one person responsible for supply chain behaviour in a big business. There’s no place to hide, they know the data. They would be responsible for false information.”
He adds that the Small Business Commissioner (SBC) is doing a good job, but he’s got ‘one arm tied behind his back’. The Commissioner is relying on a whistleblower which damages the whistleblower’s relationship with the business and the SBC should have the power to hurt them financially.
“A lot of
Hot Business News Today
Getting ready for Brexit – 6 steps you need to take to prepare
by sarahgunton • • 0 Comments
Originally written by sarahgunton on Small Business
6 steps to getting ready for Brexit
Here, we guide you through the six steps companies should be looking at if they’re getting ready for Brexit with detailed advice as to how firms can best prepare.
#1 – Tax, tariffs and customers
From January 1 2021, an Economic Operators Registration and Identification (EORI) number is required to move goods into or out of the EU. Register for an EORI number here. All goods imported to the UK will also be subject to UK Global Tariffs from 2021. As a business owner you check what these will be here.
>See also: EORI number: What it is and how to get or check one
If the UK leaves the EU without a deal, there will be new tariffs on many goods and services that are exported from the UK to the EU. Even if a deal is agreed, there may still be tariffs to pay on some traded items. Those goods that we export to the rest of the world that are currently subject to EU-negotiated tariffs will be subject to new duty rules too, many of which have yet to be agreed.
Getting ready for Brexit
Monitor announcements about new foreign tariffs
Hot Business News Today
Businesses could be facing fines for paying their suppliers late
by Anna Jordan • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
The Small Business Commissioner may be able to issue fines to companies who pay their suppliers late.
This proposal is part of a new consultation looking to extend the Small Business Commissioner’s powers, which in the past have been criticised for falling short.
If granted, businesses will be made to be pay suppliers as a lump sum or as part of a payment plan, or the Small Business Commissioner could impose further penalties.
The government may also allow the Commissioner to force firms to share information during an investigation and launch probes into suspected bad payment practices, even if no one has reported them.
Payment problems have worsened since COVID-19 surged in the UK as businesses are desperate to hold on to cash.
Larger companies have been made to publish their data in the past but critics have slated it, saying that the figures are very difficult to understand.
The current Small Business Commissioner, Paul Scully, says that £23.4bn is owed to small and medium-sized businesses, with a cost of £4.4bn a year just to collect the money owed.
Click here to take part in the consultation. It’s open until December 24th 2020.
Good news for supermarket suppliers
UK supermarkets have made
Hot Business News Today
Businesses could be facing fines for paying their suppliers late
by Anna Jordan • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
The Small Business Commissioner may be able to issue fines to companies who pay their suppliers late.
This proposal is part of a new consultation looking to extend the Small Business Commissioner’s powers, which in the past have been criticised for falling short.
If granted, businesses will be made to be pay suppliers as a lump sum or as part of a payment plan, or the Small Business Commissioner could impose further penalties.
The government may also allow the Commissioner to force firms to share information during an investigation and launch probes into suspected bad payment practices, even if no one has reported them.
Payment problems have worsened since COVID-19 surged in the UK as businesses are desperate to hold on to cash.
Larger companies have been made to publish their data in the past but critics have slated it, saying that the figures are very difficult to understand.
The current Small Business Commissioner, Paul Scully, says that £23.4bn is owed to small and medium-sized businesses, with a cost of £4.4bn a year just to collect the money owed.
Click here to take part in the consultation. It’s open until December 24th 2020.
Good news for supermarket suppliers
UK supermarkets have made
Hot Business News Today
Nearly two thirds of Bounce Back Loans could go bad, says government
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Nearly two thirds of Bounce Back Loans, designed to help small businesses survive Covid-19, may never be repaid, says the government.
The business department in its latest set of accounts says that up to 60 per cent of Bounce Back Loans, hurriedly introduced in July, could go bad.
If so, that could mean the taxpayer having to find over £20bn to cover small business loans which have defaulted.
>See also: Small businesses have average of just £9,000 left from Bounce Back Loan
The Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) provides private sector lenders with a 100-per-cent state guarantee on low-interest loans to small companies. It has underwritten £38bn of credit to 1.3 million companies to date.
Overall, the taxpayer faces losses of as much as £23bn so far in bad loans across all the state coronavirus emergency bailout schemes.
Vulnerable to abuse
Yesterday, it emerged that ex-British Business Bank (BBB) CEO Keith Morgan wrote to business secretary Alok Sharma in May, warning that the schemes risked wasting taxpayers money.
Mr Morgan said: “The scheme is vulnerable to abuse by individuals and by participants in organised crime.”
A draft review by PwC had classified the risk of fraud as “very high”, he added.
The BBB, which
Hot Business News Today
Jobs Support Scheme what it means for your small business
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
UPDATED: The government will pay one-third of the wages of workers on the days they do not work through its new Jobs Support Scheme. Employers will pay the other third and the employee will take a one-third paycut on days not worked.
In effect, this means the government has only committed to covering one-fifth of the wages of small business workers who are working one-third of their normal hours. Small business owners will be expected to cover 55 per cent of wage costs overall on a five-day week, the government 22 per cent — which means the small business employee faces a 23 per cent overall from November 1.
The question remains whether small businesses will be prepared to dig into their pockets to keep workers “fully employed” – even if they are not at work for the majority of the time under the Jobs Support Scheme – or whether it’s easier just to put them on reduced hours.
Accountancy firm Kreston Reeves pointed out that a flaw in the scheme that would leave small businesses that choose to keep three part-time employees working one third of their normal hours facing significantly higher costs than if