Businesses have been heavily impacted by this Budget, with several key changes being introduced, adding to their tax and operational costs. The rise in employers’ National Insurance Contributions (NICs) will impact employers significantly, particularly small businesses. Employers’ NIC increases by 1.2% to 15% from April 2025. And the threshold...
Rachel Reeves’ first Budget is the largest tax-raising Budget since 1993, with around £40bn being raised for government programmes of ‘national renewal’. Following months of speculation, we finally know the details of what this Budget has in store. While it will take some time to fully examine and understand...
Tax rises in the Budget aimed at companies could slow much-needed economic growth and undermine investment decisions, the region’s largest business organisation fears. Business West, the organisation behind Bristol Chamber of Commerce, said it recognised that the Chancellor faced a tight fiscal position and so had to make hard decisions....
Chancellor Rachel Reeves started her Budget speech by saying the country voted for change on 4 July. As a result, the Labour government could now “fix the foundations”. The way to ensure growth was to “invest, invest, invest”, she added. In total, the Budget will raise taxes by £40bn. Business...
National accountancy and advisory firm BDO has opened applications for 29 new trainee positions in its Bristol office as it continues to invest in its early-in-career programmes. The 2025 trainee cohort will join the firm’s 8,000-strong workforce across its audit, tax, deals, and consulting, risk and outsourcing teams. Applications...
South West accountancy, tax and business advisory firm Milsted Langdon has promoted Martin Johnson to partner, recognising his dedication and extensive expertise having joined in 2007 as an apprentice. During his 17 years at the firm, which has an office in Bristol, Martin, pictured, has worked in a range of...
Business owners are on tenterhooks in advance of tomorrow’s Budget, the first by new Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Despite election campaign promises that tax rises would not affect ‘working people’, subsequent claims of the discovery of a £22bn black hole by the government suggest the nation’s finances are in a...
A Bristol manufacturer producing specialist pumps for aquariums, zoos and entertainment parks has boosted its green credentials while also supporting its next phase of growth. Apex Pumps, which was founded in 1988 and has a 27-strong workforce, recently installed a 150-kW solar panel system on its Staple Hill factory...
A firm based near Bristol that has supplied weather sensors to airports, stadiums and offshore platforms for more than 25 years has been acquired by an international innovator in measurement technology. Biral, whose sensors measure everything from precipitation to visibility as well as detecting lightning, has become part of...
A bookshop specialising in witchcraft, fantasy and horror titles has opened in Bristol time for Halloween after receiving a loan from a specialist regional fund. Owner Monika Killer secured the £25,000 Start Up Loan through non-profit company SWIG Finance to help open The Haunted Bookshop in Stokes Croft. The...
South West accountancy firm Albert Goodman has welcomed a record 17 new trainees to the business as its dedication to nurturing new accounting continues. The chartered accountants, tax consultants and financial planning firm has been operating its trainee programme for a number of years, enabling school leavers, university graduates...
Business confidence in the South West has improved and remains firmly in positive territory amid strong domestic sales growth, according to new research. Published less than a week before one of the most important Budgets for a generation, the quarterly survey of chartered accountants in the region paints a...
A Bristol-based start-up has secured £860,000 to help get its groundbreaking eye imaging chip technology onto the market in a move that could help address the UK’s most common cause of sight loss. Siloton will use the funds to further develop its Akepa optical coherence tomography (OCT) chip technology...
