Support clients with grant aid 

At the end of July, the government announced £20m of new grant funding was to be allocated to Growth Hubs, specifically to help smaller businesses that have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic to access much needed professional support.

These grants will provide businesses between

COVID measures – tougher fines announced

The Home Office has announced tougher measures targeting the most serious breaches of social distancing restrictions.

In most cases they will be effective from Friday 28 August 2020.

In their announcement issued 23 August, the Home Office said:

Those facilitating or organising illegal raves,

Banks stand up to be counted

The fifth publication has been released ranking the service quality league table of personal and business current account providers.

For personal and small business customers, the survey is designed to show clearly how the quality of services compares across different dimensions, such as service

Applications open for second round of self-employed scheme

The second round of the Self-employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) opened for applications on Monday 17th August. The second and final grant covers the quarter to 31 August 2020. The second grant will provide up to £6,570 for the quarter (£2,190 per month) paid in a single instalment. These

Greening of Scotch Whisky

Needless to say, the greening does not refer to the colour of whisky.

The Green agenda has received endorsement from Scotland’s world famous distilleries who are aiming to cut their emissions by almost half a million tons of CO2 every year.

The achievement has been facilitated by the new Green

Lockdown – be ready for the unexpected

One of the more insidious effects of the coronavirus outbreak is its unpredictability.

Businesses need to plan. To achieve this there needs to be an underlying, stable economic platform. Lockdown – whether locally or nationally applied – removes the certainty required to achieve planned

Want to start your own business?

One of the consequences of recession, such as the present downturn in activity caused by the Coronavirus outbreak, is the likelihood that many will face redundancy as employers try to manage the process.

In the past, this shake out process seems to reawaken dreams of not placing all your income

Reminder of who can claim SEISS

The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) was extended for a second and final three-month period from 1 June to 31 August 2020. The maximum grant available for the three-months is £6,570 (Previous quarter £7,500) paid in a single instalment. The application process for the SEISS extension

£20m in new grants for small businesses

£20 million worth of new government grants have been released to help small and medium sized businesses across England recover from the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic. These grants will provide businesses between £1,000 and £5,000 to help them access new technology and other equipment as well

Advice for early years sector

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched a COVID-19 taskforce back in March 2020 to identify any commercial practices that adversely affect consumers and to consider appropriate responses to help businesses comply with the law and protect consumers’ rights.

One of the areas where the