Business

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has launched a new Defence & Economic Growth Taskforce aimed at unlocking the potential of the UK’s defence sector to drive long-term national growth, innovation, and economic resilience. Backed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Defence Secretary John Healey, the taskforce brings together top-level figures from across the defence, financial, and investment sectors. It will work at pace to deliver actionable recommendations to the government within 12 weeks, setting out...

Made Smarter, the Government-backed programme helping manufacturers embrace digital technologies, has launched a new £1 million funding round aimed at accelerating digital transformation across the North West’s manufacturing sector. The initiative, now in its seventh year, is offering match-funded grants of up to £20,000 to help small and medium-sized manufacturers adopt cutting-edge technologies such as robotics, automation, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and additive manufacturing. Alongside the financial support, eligible businesses gain...

The UK’s office market may have reached a turning point, with vacancy rates falling for the first time since the start of the pandemic. New data reveals a modest but symbolically significant drop in the amount of empty office space, suggesting that businesses are beginning to reclaim the desks they once deserted. According to commercial property data provider CoStar, the national office vacancy rate edged down to 8.6 per cent at the end of March,...

The UK government has put on hold controversial plans to relax rules around high-stakes slot machines in adult gaming centres (AGCs), in a move that signals growing caution over the industry’s impact on vulnerable players. The decision marks an unexpected setback for the rapidly expanding AGC sector, which had anticipated a shift in regulation that would allow more lucrative machines in high street venues. Industry figures had hoped the government would scrap or amend the...

Rachel Reeves faces mounting pressure to either raise taxes or announce deeper spending cuts after official figures revealed that UK borrowing for the last financial year exceeded forecasts by nearly £15 billion. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that public sector borrowing in the 12 months to March reached £151.9 billion—£14.6 billion more than forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) just weeks ago and over £20 billion higher than the previous year’s...

British Steel has officially withdrawn plans to make up to 2,700 workers at its Scunthorpe plant redundant, following an emergency intervention by the UK government earlier this month that secured the company’s immediate future. The move ends a period of intense uncertainty for employees at the Lincolnshire steelworks, after Chinese-owned parent company Jingye announced its intention to close the site’s two blast furnaces—Queen Anne and Queen Bess—effectively ending primary steelmaking in the UK. In response,...

Migrating your organisation’s data to the cloud doesn’t have to be a manual and time-consuming process. Tools like ShareGate have revolutionised the way businesses move their content to Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Online. When combined with expert guidance from partners like Adepteq, organisations can streamline and automate much of the migration process, reducing downtime, manual work, and user disruption. In this guide, we’ll explore how to automate your SharePoint migration using ShareGate, and the critical...

It started, as all great things do these days, with a streaming binge. Somewhere between insomnia, jet lag, nostalgia, and a desperate need for a bit of idealism in a very unideal world, I found myself rewatching The West Wing, and then The Newsroom. And then bits of A Few Good Men, The Social Network, even that short-lived, overambitious love letter to television, Studio 60, having watch a taping of The Late Show with Stephen...

In the bustling marketplace, small businesses constantly strive to stand out. Competing against larger corporations with vast resources often feels like an uphill battle, especially when it comes to creating tailored customer experiences. Historically, deep personalisation required significant manpower and investment, often placing it beyond the reach of smaller players. However, the rapid advancement and increasing accessibility of AI are rewriting this narrative, offering small and medium-sized businesses powerful new tools to understand and connect...

For years, online casinos have been the digital equivalent of fluorescent-lit rooms with no clocks, an endless scroll of games that looked fun enough until you tried to withdraw your winnings and realized it was easier to get a refund from an airline. The basic idea hasn’t changed in decades: play fast, lose faster, and don’t ask too many questions. But lately, there’s been a quiet shift. A new breed of gambling platform is emerging...