Paper £20 and £50 banknotes cease to be legal tender after 30 September 2022

The Bank of England will be withdrawing legal tender status of the paper £20 and £50 notes after 30 September 2022 and are encouraging anyone who has these to spend or deposit them at their bank or Post Office.

As they are returned to the Bank of England, these are being replaced with the new polymer £20 notes featuring J.M.W. Turner, and polymer £50 notes featuring Alan Turing. After 30 September 2022, the new polymer notes will be the only ones with legal tender status.

After 30 September 2022 people with a UK bank account will still be able to deposit withdrawn notes into their account. Some Post Offices may also accept withdrawn notes as payment for goods and services or as a deposit to an account accessed via them.

The Bank of England will continue to exchange all withdrawn notes.

Recovery Loan Scheme extended

An important support scheme offering Government-backed loans to small businesses will be extended for a further two years, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng announced last week. 

The Recovery Loan Scheme, originally launched in April 2021 to help businesses recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, has supported almost 19,000 businesses with an average of £202,000 in support.

The Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS) is a government scheme aimed at supporting access to finance for UK businesses. It gives lenders a government-backed guarantee against the outstanding balance of the facility.

Seafarers to receive National Minimum Wage

New legislation will ensure seafarers get paid at least equivalent to the UK National Minimum Wage.

The UK government has introduced new legislation to make sure seafarers get paid at least equivalent to the UK National Minimum Wage.

The changes mean that thousands of seafarers regularly entering the UK will receive fairer pay.

The Seafarers’ Wages Bill – introduced in the House of Lords – enables port authorities to deny access to services calling regularly at UK ports who do not pay their workers equivalent rate to the UK National Minimum Wage (NMWe) for time spent in UK waters. 

Community Ownership Fund 2022

People across the UK will have the chance to become owners of at-risk local pubs, theatres, post offices, sports grounds and corner shops with the launch of the UK Government’s Community Ownership Fund.

Voluntary and community organisations can bid for match funding.

The Community Ownership Fund is open for Expressions of Interest applications.

Once you have passed the EOI stage you will be sent a link to submit a full application to the Fund. Please note you can only submit a full application if you have received confirmation that your project is eligible at the EOI stage.

Your full applications must be submitted before 12pm on 19 August 2022 if you are applying in the first bidding window.

Helping your business become more sustainable

After some of the hottest temperatures seen on record last week we are reminded about global warming and how small businesses can help our country drive towards net zero. A sustainable business, or a “green business”, is an enterprise that has minimal negative impact or potentially a positive effect on the global or local environment, community, society, or economy—a business that strives to meet the triple bottom line.

Going green can boost your competitiveness, lower costs, and improve your business’s reputation with your customers and staff. Most importantly, consumer trends reveal that consumers are increasingly assessing a company's environmental credentials, while business supply chains are under scrutiny to minimise environmental, ethical, and social impacts. 

There are also lots of incentives for environmentally switched-on businesses and climate change awareness is also likely to see legislation designed to support environmental pledges and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.

With a renewed focus on climate change and the environment, sustainability should be increasingly at the heart of business operations. Even small changes can help move UK businesses towards a greener future. 

The British business bank lists eight ideas on sustainability:

• Don’t use single use plastic;

• Use sustainable suppliers and service providers;

• Implement a greener commute scheme;

• Switch to low energy lightbulbs;

• Install smart power strips;

• Reduce water usage;

• Make workspaces more heat efficient; and

• Install built in recycling units.  

For the full details see:  8 sustainable business ideas - British Business Bank (british-business-bank.co.uk)

The British Business Bank has a wealth of information and guides on how to create a sustainable business and prepare for green growth. Take action with their green business guides, jargon busters and helpful explainers.

Find out what Net Zero actually means with their Green Decoder. The online guide has been co-created with Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University to help smaller businesses decipher the terminology surrounding decarbonisation.

You can also commit to the UK Business Climate Hub and take steps to be greener, saving your business money and saving the planet too.

For further information visit Sustainability - British Business Bank (british-business-bank.co.uk)

Tax credits claimants have until 31 July to renew their claims.

Thousands of claimants are yet to renew their tax credits ahead of the deadline, with HMRC reminding them to do so by 31 July or their payments will stop.

Tax credits help working families with targeted financial support, so claimants must renew before the deadline to ensure they don’t miss out on the money they are entitled to.

Renewing online is the best option, and you can log into GOV.UK to check the status of your renewal.

See: Manage your tax credits - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

 

Take control of your business!

We were finally getting over the financial crisis when Covid struck. Then, in the trough of the worst economic downturn in 300 years, we discovered that recovery was driving the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) to new heights and the job market into a frenzy. In the wake of that, it became clear that the recovery was overheating and that we were facing a period of rising inflation and industrial action. 

Russia’s war in Ukraine made things worse. It has not only meant human suffering, but it has also affected the entire global economy, driving up the cost of food and energy. It adds to the hardship for those on a low income and means serious food security risks in the world’s poorest economies.

The economy has always had its ups and downs, but its resemblance to a roller coaster is currently more marked than ever with the news of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s resignation and the race for his successor.   

Businesses of every size face challenges that are now suppressing growth. A business might have a great product or service, but without a strategic plan to help it define, articulate and communicate where it is going, it will be at the mercy of outside events. We encourage our clients to take some time to think long-term about their business and to establish goals or targets that you can control.    

A plan starts with identifying and accessing opportunities within your market and should address how your business is going to evolve to meet the challenges of today and the future. The plan gives your business purpose and it answers questions about your long-term goals.

The first step is to look at five important areas:

1. Think long term – invest time in understanding where the market is going and what this means for your customers. Short-term decisions do not help grow a business.
2. Having a good value proposition is essential – this states the relevance of your product or service, what it does and why customers need it. What is yours? 
3. Expand your reach – what is your target customer and what do you need to do to let them know you exist and that your product or service is relevant to them?
4. Growth means new people, systems and (maybe) different ways of doing things. Grow at a pace you can manage.
5. How will your marketing get your value proposition to relevant customers?

Once you have taken some time to write out your plan and where you want your business to be in (say) 2 years, the next step is to work out a marketing programme with actions to make it happen.

A marketing plan is a business document outlining your marketing strategy and tactics. It is often focused on a specific period (i.e. over the next 12 months) and covers a variety of marketing-related details, such as costs, goals and action steps. But like your business plan, a marketing plan is not a static document. The plan should outline:

1.    How you are going to keep existing customers happy and returning to buy more often.

2.    What the goals are for getting new customers.

3.    The marketing methods you are going to use to achieve points 1 and 2.

We specialise in helping our clients manage their businesses. We do this by preparing and updating detailed forecasts, using the latest and most powerful software. 

Please talk to us about strategic planning. We can provide a template so you can do this yourself or work together with you to produce estimates for a variety of scenarios and help you take control of your business!