Filed under: uk
20 storiesThe archive, indexed. Every story carries its tags at the foot of the page.
One in five young Britons now founding, as graduate vacancies fall 43%
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor puts youth entrepreneurial activity at a record 19.6 per cent. Adzuna counted 7,826 advertised graduate roles in September, down from 13,754 a year earlier.
Ministers weigh adding Vinted and eBay to under-16 platform ban
The culture secretary says the government is "looking seriously" at putting second-hand marketplaces inside a ban that starts in March. Any marketplace with a message box is now in scope.
39% of UK founders earn under £25,000 before cutting their pay
A survey of 295 UK founders found most took a pay cut in the past year, averaging £13,940. The money they gave up is, in practice, unrecorded runway.
Ministers weigh compulsory AI safety reporting for UK developers
Sifted reports that the UK government is considering making AI safety reporting mandatory. The shape of any scheme — who files, what they file and when — has not been set out.
The legality of training frontier AI in the UK is an open question
British AI founders are building models against a copyright and data regime whose application to training has not been settled. The detail of that exposure is not yet established.
Three employment law changes land on small employers this October
Tribunal claim windows doubled on 1 October. Two more duties start on the 30th, and one of them has no deadline chaser.
Beauty founder of 14 years starts writing about supply chains
Dean Butt has run APPLE & BEARS since 2011. He now publishes articles on what independent manufacturing actually costs a small brand.
Three employment law duties land on small firms in October
Tribunal claim windows double on 1 October. Two more duties arrive on the 30th, and the written union notice is the one with nobody chasing it.
Google settles UK app developer claim for £260m
£160m of the total is set aside for UK app developers who sold through the Play Store. No claim deadline has been published.
Small-firm AI use doubles to 47%, but only 19% feel confident
Simply Business says half of UK small business owners now use AI tools. Its own survey also finds a third use them only for routine admin, and security worries top the list of reasons the rest stay out.
British Business Bank puts £46m into Zinc's £70m science fund
The state-backed lender is committing up to £46m through its Enterprise Capital Funds programme to a pre-seed fund that intends to help start 80 deeptech companies. What it will not yet say is how founders get in.
Founders' campaign asks Chancellor to reverse three tax moves
Stop the Creep wants employers' National Insurance cut back, entrepreneurial reliefs restored and a fixed roadmap for business tax. Two of the three land directly on what a founder keeps.
Two visa routes a startup inherits the day it is acquired
Global Business Mobility sounds like a scheme for multinationals moving executives between capitals. An acquisition or a new overseas parent can put a small UK company inside it overnight.
Private sector pay growth falls to 2.8%, lowest in six years
ONS figures put private sector pay growth at less than half the public sector rate of 6.1 per cent, with vacancies down to 707,000. Founders setting next year's salary bands have more room and fewer candidates chasing them.
Subscription trap ban moves to January 2027, three months early
Founders billing customers on repeat now have months, not a year, to fix sign-up and cancellation flows. Mandatory phone calls and web-only cancellations are the obvious casualties.
Copper lines die on 31 January 2027. Check your card reader
Openreach switches off the analogue phone network in January 2027. Card terminals, fire alarms, lift emergency phones and ADSL broadband all sit on it, and most small firms have made no arrangements.
45% of sole traders would rather take a job than file quarterly
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax started on 6 April. Research by the tax platform Taxfix says nearly half of sole traders would return to employment rather than comply, and 23% have already begun incorporating.
Innovate UK names 100 women founders in largest cohort
Every awardee gets 12 months of tailored business support. The grant figures and the next application window are not yet confirmed.
Al Murray's WWII clothing firm puts 200 shirts on sale at £249
AVRE Industries, co-founded by the comedian Al Murray and the historian James Holland, has released a copy of a US Navy deck shirt. It says it has donated over £2,000 to veteran charities since 2024.
UK opens Global Talent visa route to 100-plus employers
More than 100 named companies can now bring foreign researchers into Britain on the Global Talent visa. The list runs from GSK and IBM to quantum startups — and leaves out the newest AI labs.