BTG

Reforms to the UK’s national living wage (NLW) are expected to compound the financial and operational pressures already facing UK care homes when announced in the autumn budget. The sector is stretched by soaring costs, a fragile funding model, and intensifying regulatory demands.

Wiltshire based furniture manufacturer Summit 1977 has been bought out of administration, rescuing 53 jobs at the company and securing its future after almost 50 years of trading.

Thames Water’s deepening crisis has become a litmus test for how the UK regulates, finances, and governs its most essential infrastructure. Over the past three decades, private capital has transformed low-risk utilities into overleveraged financial assets – prioritising short-term returns over long-term investment, environmental sustainability, service quality and affordability.

In recent weeks, the UK has concluded three bilateral trade agreements: a symbolic reset with the EU, a narrow tariff reprieve with the US, and a long-negotiated free trade deal with India. Each varies in scope, timing, and economic consequences.

The advance of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare is underway. These rapid technological developments offer significant productivity benefits, but also introduce operational, financial, ethical and legal risks that must be understood before healthcare operators integrate AI across their services and systems.

Independent schools across the UK are under growing financial strain. Spiralling costs, revenue pressures, and unsupportive policy changes are all accelerating a trend of school closures. The burdens are structural: operating costs are rising, pupil intakes are falling, revenues are constrained, and governance frameworks are often ill-equipped to navigate rapid financial change.

After much consultation with industry professionals and other stakeholders, in late 2024 the Home Office released detailed guidance relating to the new corporate criminal offence of failure to prevent fraud (“FTPF”), which forms part of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 ("ECCTA").

UK SMEs face a difficult and volatile year ahead. Companies must navigate a weakening macroeconomic environment, fragile fiscal policy, and heightened uncertainty over global trade. Although US President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on most tariffs

Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” – the culmination of his efforts to restructure the US economy and global trade – sparked a sharp global market sell-off that engulfed global equity markets and Bitcoin, as bonds rallied, in a fast-escalating trade war crisis.

Begbies Traynor Group has appointed Nick West as Partner to advise businesses across Shropshire and Mid-Wales, enhancing its insolvency services in the Midlands.

Shifting fiscal, tariff and geopolitical environments have introduced a range of uncertainties, which has blunted momentum for mid-market M&A activity in the UK. Fiscal tightening, weak productivity and policy uncertainty risk stalling deal flow, as risk-off sentiment, margin pressure, and tighter financing hit SMEs hardest.

The aviation industry is braced for the impact of global tariffs. The scope of plausible outcomes range in severity, with differing deleterious consequences on supply chain resilience, delivery delays, increased manufacturing and maintenance costs, lease rates, and ticket prices.

The UK’s tourism and travel industry are set for another record-breaking year for inbound visitors, but the headline figures mask a more complex picture below the surface, despite the well publicised concerns about VAT for tourists.