After a decade of rapid growth, Britain’s employee ownership movement is hitting the brakes. New tax rules introduced in last year’s Budget have curbed the number of business owners selling to their staff, following a clampdown on offshore trusts used to sidestep capital gains tax (CGT). The Employee Ownership Association (EOA) reports that company sales to employee ownership trusts (EOTs) fell from 550 in 2024 to just 200 in the first eight months of this...
House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, will not seek re-election in 2026. The senior Republican lawmaker will have finished serving a decade in Congress when he leaves at the end of next year. ‘I have a firm conviction, much like our founders did, that public service is a lifetime commitment, but public office is and should be a temporary stint in stewardship, not a career,’ Arrington said. And the conservative Texan told Fox News...
Critics once called it isolationist. But national security experts now say Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ strategy is proving to be something else entirely — a hard-nosed policy of deterrence built on strong alliances, especially with Israel. Fred Fleitz, vice chair of the America First Policy Institute’s Center for American Security and former chief of staff at the National Security Council, told Fox News Digital that ‘The America First approach to U.S. national security means a...
The Co-op has announced plans to open or refurbish 50 stores before Christmas, marking a major investment drive as it continues to recover from the fallout of a devastating cyber attack earlier this year. The retailer said the latest openings would bring its total store launches and refurbishments to more than 200 this financial year, representing over £200 million in investment across its estate. The group, which has 6.9 million member-owners and operates more than...
The UK government has unveiled a new £75 million strategy to accelerate the phase-out of animal testing in scientific research, setting out a clear roadmap to replace existing experiments with cutting-edge alternatives such as organ-on-a-chip systems, artificial intelligence modelling, and 3D bioprinted human tissues. Science Minister Lord Vallance announced the plan on Tuesday, calling it a “roadmap for innovation and compassion” that will help the UK become a global leader in non-animal testing methods. The...
Lord Anthony Bamford, the billionaire chairman of JCB and one of the Conservatives’ most prolific donors, has donated £200,000 to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, signalling growing business support for the populist party. JCB confirmed the contribution on Saturday, stating that it had donated the same amount to both the Conservative Party and Reform UK in recent weeks. “Both the Conservative Party and Reform UK believe in small business, and it’s for that reason JCB has...
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is preparing to announce a landmark whistleblower reward scheme that will pay informants a share of the taxes recovered from exposing large-scale fraud — a first for the UK. According to the Financial Times, the initiative will be unveiled in the Autumn Budget later this month as part of the government’s wider “Close the Tax Gap” strategy. The scheme, modelled on the successful US system, would allow HMRC to pay tipsters up...
One in eight UK small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) leaders are planning to relocate themselves, their companies, or both overseas, citing rising taxes and mounting regulatory costs, according to a new report by Rathbones. The research, released just weeks before Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivers her Autumn Budget, paints a bleak picture of business confidence across the UK’s private sector. If realised, the potential exodus could involve around 680,000 firms out of the UK’s 5.67 million...
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, integrity is “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.” In theory, it’s a simple word. But in the workplace, it can be one of the hardest qualities to sustain – especially in leadership. Between urgent decisions, conflicting priorities and day-to-day pressures, how do leaders stay true to their values? How do they balance what’s easy with what’s right – and make integrity part of everyday operations?...
The shutdown stalemate that has dragged on in the Senate officially ended late Monday night, and it places Congress on a path to reopen the government later this week. Senators advanced a bipartisan funding package to end the government shutdown after a group of Senate Democrats broke from their colleagues and joined Republicans in their bid to reopen the government. Those same eight Senate Democratic caucus members stuck with Republicans and provided the crucial votes...
