CPA – Prompting Punctual Payment
SME BUSINESS NEWS
A weekly round-up of press news and comment affecting your business
Tuesday, 10th April 2018
Are your business invoices often paid late?
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FINANCE
RBS pushes back against invoice fraudsters
Royal Bank of Scotland and Vocalink have developed a new system to detect invoice fraud. The system scans transactions by about 1m small and large business customers to identify fake invoices and prevent customers from paying fraudsters. NatWest, RBS’s main business banking brand, adopted the new technology last year and says that to date the system has prevented more than £7m of losses to customers. In a survey by Vocalink last year, almost a quarter of small businesses said that fraudsters had tried to get them to pay fake invoices.
The Times
Slow progress on late payment
James Ashton in the Times says tackling late payment is essential to enable small firms to thrive. He argues that regulation alone will not solve the problem, and suggests that what is required is for large companies to make prompt payment as important to their image as reducing their carbon footprint and increasing recruitment diversity.
The Times
Small business demand drives asset-based lending
Invoice finance and asset-based lending in the UK and Ireland rose to £23.4bn at the end of 2017, a 5% increase on the previous year. The figures, published by UK Finance, show invoice finance and asset-based lending to small businesses increased by 19% in December 2017 compared to the previous year, with advances worth a total of £833m. Annual sales of businesses supported by invoice finance and asset-based lending hit a record £311bn in 2017, up 4% on 2016, while annual sales from businesses using export invoice discounting facilities stood at £27bn in 2017, a 21% rise.
Accountancy Daily
Worldpay extends business finance plan
Worldpay is to extend a business finance scheme which could help more than 300,000 British small businesses access alternative financing. The scheme allows business owners to access a “cash advance” based on their future credit and debit card sales. The announcement follows a survey commissioned by Worldpay which found one in three small business owners reported difficulties in securing loans from banks.
City AM
Small firms need support as pension bills rise
The Telegraph’s leader urges the government to step up its support for small businesses in light of the increase in auto-enrolment pension contributions, which sees the minimum employer contribution doubling to 2% of pensionable pay. The paper backs the FSB’s call for the government to give an ‘NI holiday’ to firms that hire those who find it hardest to get a job, and to increase the employment allowance.
The Daily Telegraph
TAX
Taxes chainsaw massacre would help SMEs
Panmure Gordon’s Simon French calls on the government to simplify taxes for small businesses. He says larger businesses can minimise the tax burden they face because they have the resources to navigate the UK’s tax system, whereas small businesses are “woefully underequipped to navigate the opportunities and pitfalls.” “This largely invisible drag on competitiveness needs a chainsaw, not a surgeon’s knife,” he adds. Meanwhile, City AM reports that the business rates bill hitting small London firms rose to £8.2bn yesterday. According to the FSB, London now pays 33.1% of the country’s total business rates bill, while a recent survey from the group found that 60% of central Zone 1 firms fear they will not be able to afford their current premises in five years.
The Times, City AM
OUTLOOK
Growth fears top Brexit as biggest anxiety for business
A quarterly survey of CFOs by Deloitte has found weak growth is now a greater concern than Brexit for business leaders, with the transition deal said to have driven up optimism and risk appetite. Deloitte said: “For the first time since the EU referendum, Brexit is not the biggest risk finance directors say their businesses face.” The Times notes that a Lloyds Bank study found financial services firms less upbeat, as European banking regulators have not provided assurances that conditions will be unchanged during the implementation period. However, 88% of the more than 100 senior leaders surveyed said that they believe the UK will remain the most prominent hub for financial services in the EU even after Britain leaves the bloc.
The Times Daily Express The Guardian The Daily Telegraph City AM Yorkshire Post
Ten-point “manifesto” launched to boost SMEs and self-employed
A total of eleven organisations representing 2m small businesses have drawn up a ten-point plan to ensure Britain’s status as “one of the best places in the world to start and grow a business” is maintained. The groups, which include Enterprise Nation, the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE) and the Royal Society of Arts, have formed a “small business task force” to lobby ministers on issues such as simplifying the bidding process for Government contracts and resolving confusion over the definition of self-employment. They also call for existing tax relief schemes for investing in SMEs to be easier to apply for; better childcare support for the self-employed; rates relief for “co-working” shared office spaces and better education on entrepreneurship in schools.
The Times
FUNDING
Community-focussed lenders hope to fill funding gap
James Hurley talks to Jennifer Tankard, chief executive of Responsible Finance, in the Times about how responsible finance providers in the UK are helping to fill a funding gap between banks and local communities. Hurley says such providers have their origins in community development finance institutions – not-for-profit organisations run by and for local communities. Ms Tankard says: “There’s been a shift over many years in how banks assess small businesses…. We still meet people, we understand the communities we operate in, so we can apply a different decision-making framework to businesses that come through the door.”
The Times
Crowdcube rallies partners for regional funding boost
Crowdcube has partnered-up with BGF, G by Grant Thornton, Harper Macleod, IdeaSquares, Techstart Ventures and Virgin StartUp to launch a campaign to secure more equity funding deals for startups and growth businesses outside London. It aims to double equity funding deals in the regions within five years.
Yorkshire Post
INVESTMENT
Investors have opportunity to help restore trust in business
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Haakon Overli, a founding partner of early-stage investment firm Dawn, considers how, with public trust in business now at an at all-time low, it is up to investors to “take control of their businesses’ behaviours”, or someone else will. He adds that early-stage investors have an opportunity and a responsibility to “help businesses tread the right path early on, long before they reach the public markets. Building robust governance models right from the beginning will pay off handsomely over the long term.” Doing so will bring rewards for both businesses and investors, he concludes.
The Sunday Telegraph
Peugeot backs British plant despite Brexit uncertainty
Vauxhall owner Peugeot has guaranteed the future of its Luton plant, saying it will invest in the site for at least the next decade in spite of “Brexit uncertainties”. Business secretary Greg Clark, who was in Luton for the announcement, said 75% of Vauxhall’s products were exported, making it one of the most successful industrial facilities in the UK.
The Daily Telegraph The Guardian The Times
INFRASTRUCTURE
Ofcom raises £1.36bn from bandwidth auction
Ofcom has revealed that an auction for the next generation of mobile phone networks has raised £1.36bn. Vodafone, EE, O2 and Three all won the bandwidth needed for the future 5G mobile internet services, which are not expected to be launched until 2020. Telefónica, which owns O2, also bought additional frequency for its 4G coverage, which will improve existing connectivity for customers. Margot James, digital minister, commented: “This spectrum will be instrumental in further improving 4G mobile services now, while helping the UK to lead the 5G revolution and build a Britain that is fit for the future. We hope that it can now be deployed as soon as possible for the benefit of consumers right across the UK.”
BBC News Financial Times
Road and rail problems ‘are drag on business’
One third of businesses believe the UK’s road and rail networks are failing to meet their needs for accessing new and existing customers, according to a survey by the BCC. Some 68% of businesses regard the road network as less reliable than five years ago, while 36% think the same of the railways, with travel delays adding to costs. On a more positive note, UPS has said that battery-powered delivery vans could prove to be cheaper to own and run than traditional diesel vehicles by the early 2020s.
The Times City AM The Daily Telegraph
EXPORTS
Barclays boss wants exports rebalanced
Barclays’ chief executive has warned that UK exports are “disproportionately weighed” towards services. Jes Staley urged officials to tilt the balance towards goods and voiced concern over the fact that just over 3% of British exports went to China in 2016, compared with 8% of American exports.
The Times
REGULATION
Hundreds of firms miss gender pay deadline
More than 1,500 companies have broken the law by failing to report their gender pay gap figures before last Wednesday night’s deadline. The Equalities and Human Rights Commission said it will contact the 1,557 firms to remind them of their legal obligations. Those that fail to comply will face an investigation by the equalities watchdog, followed by legal action and an unlimited fine.
BBC News Financial Times The Guardian
Investors must drive cyber threat transparency
The threat to businesses from cybercrime should be of greater concern to investors, according to the head of the National Cyber Security Centre. Ciaran Martin said institutional investors are well-placed to push for higher standards of disclosure of risk. Asked by the Times whether he agreed with those calling for a new regulatory body to monitor companies’ cyber defences, Mr Martin said: “I think one thing that would help enormously is if institutional investors played a stronger role in asking the tough questions across the corporate sector. There should only be government intervention where it is essential.”
The Times
EMPLOYMENT
Today’s workforce drawn to SMEs
The Times considers how employment practices will increasingly be driven by millennials and generation Z – the latter demographic being described by one company director as “millennials on steroids”. Flexible working will be in even greater demand with SME tech firms the preferred destination for young workers – research by Sodexo Engage revealed 47% of millennials think SMEs are the ideal business size to work for. Moreover, the paper points out that a study by Moore Stephens shows that ever more under 30s are becoming directors: “millennials don’t just want to work for smaller companies, they want to start them.”
The Times
CBI demands levy review
The CBI is calling for an urgent review of the Government’s apprenticeship levy scheme, arguing that it discourages businesses from taking on trainees and could end up being dismissed as “just another tax on business.” The Sunday Times’ Peter Levy talks to businesses about their experiences with the scheme, with many small businesses reporting that they find the cost of hiring an apprentice is too high even with the levy, while accessing the fund is complicated.
The Sunday Times The Sunday Times
Recruiter faces pension scheme prosecution
The Pensions Regulator is poised to make its first prosecution of a company for illegally opting staff out of its workplace pension scheme. Workchain, previously known as Smart Recruitment UK, is accused of logging into its workplace scheme’s online system using employees’ personal details and ending their membership of the scheme.
The Times
ECONOMY
Snow weighs down services sector
Heavy snow and weak consumer demand weighed on the services sector in March, with activity rising at the slowest pace since just after the Brexit vote. The purchasing managers’ index for the services sector fell from 54.5 in February to 51.7 in March – the lowest reading since July 2016. Meanwhile, retail sales have suffered their biggest hit in almost ten years, according to a monthly report by BDO. Year-on-year sales as measured by its high street sales tracker fell 10.1% in March, the largest drop since November 2008.
The Times The Daily Telegraph Financial Times Daily Mail The Guardian The Sun Daily Express
Productivity picks up
Productivity in Britain is rising at the fastest pace in more than a decade. Robert Jenrick, exchequer secretary to the Treasury, said output per hour rose by 0.7% in October to December compared with the previous three months. The figure for July to September was also revised up slightly to 1%. Together the two consecutive quarters showed the strongest rate of growth since 2005.
The Times Daily Mail
Low-paid workers key to closing productivity gap
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research has said Britain could make big productivity gains if its lowest-paid workers could match the efficiency of their counterparts in the US, Germany and France. The NIESR calculated that output per hour in UK industries where at least one quarter of the workforce is paid less than about £9 an hour was up to 30% lower than European counterparts.
The Times
Are you a B2B supplier?
Do your customers pay late?
For FREE advice call 0330 053 9263 or click here