News

The separate tax controversies involving Premier League footballers and former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner should serve as a “wake-up call” about the importance of taking sound, professional advice, a senior tax expert has warned. Steven Martin, senior tax manager at Hampshire-based accountancy and business advisory firm HWB, said the two cases – though very different in scope – highlight the serious financial, legal and reputational consequences of inadequate or incomplete guidance. “While they differ,...

Five years after Britain’s departure from the European Union, the UK’s automotive sector continues to prove its global weight, generating £115 billion in imports and exports last year, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). The industry is on track to deliver more than £110 billion in trade for the third year running, despite grappling with new tariff barriers, customs costs, protectionism and geopolitical tensions. Yet the trade body warns that unresolved...

Dragons’ Den investor Touker Suleyman has emerged as one of the leading contenders to acquire the UK arm of Claire’s out of administration, with a proposal understood to preserve the Birmingham head office and a significant proportion of the store estate. The bid is being weighed against rival interest from Modella Capital and Doug Putman, the Sunrise Records owner who rescued HMV in 2019. Claire’s entered administration on 13 August 2025, placing 2,150 jobs and...

Cefinn, the womenswear brand founded by Samantha Cameron, is to be wound down after years of losses, bringing an end to a label once worn by the Princess of Wales and Queen Camilla. Launched in 2017 as “an urban uniform for busy women”, Cefinn never turned a profit and has struggled in recent years with wholesale upheaval, fragile consumer confidence and post-Brexit tariffs. The collapse of key stockist Matches—put into administration by Frasers Group last...

Businesses that cut back on their offices during the pandemic are now scrambling to find larger premises as the return-to-office trend gathers pace – but prime space is in short supply. After years of assuming hybrid working would permanently shrink their need for desks, bosses are increasingly bringing staff back more regularly. The result is a surge in demand for bigger, modern offices that has caught many firms short. One national consulting executive admitted he...

Europe’s youngest consumers are spearheading a growing shift towards refurbished smartphones, according to a new study that highlights changing attitudes to sustainable technology. The research – Refurbished over New: A Second Chance for Smartphones – was published by the Vodafone Institute and conducted by Kantar, with scientific support from the Wuppertal Institute. It surveyed more than 5,200 people across Germany, France, Spain, Sweden and the UK. The results show that while two-thirds of Europeans are...

Companies that received government support through Rishi Sunak’s pandemic-era Future Fund were more likely to collapse than peers who did not take state money, according to a new audit that raises fresh questions about the scheme’s value. A review by RSM UK Consulting found that Future Fund-backed firms were more likely to have gone into liquidation, suffered sharper falls in employment, and showed no outperformance on key financial measures such as turnover or valuation compared...