Government proposals to oblige UK companies to disclose details of the foreign workers they employ have been abandoned. Speaking to the BBC, Defence Secretary, Sir Michael Fallon, said: “This is not going to happen” but added that firms could be asked “simply to report their numbers” as this could help identify skills gaps in the…
Conditions in the UK manufacturing sector continued to improve at the end of the third quarter, according to the Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI). The domestic market remained a prime driver of new business wins, while the weaker sterling exchange rate drove up new orders from abroad. At 55.4 in September, up from 53.4 in…
Sentiment in the financial services sector deteriorated in the three months to September, as firms assimilated the challenges of lower interest rates and the uncertainty caused by the vote to leave the European Union, according to the latest CBI/PwC Financial Services Survey. The quarterly survey of 115 firms – the first since the Brexit vote…
New research from The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) shows that UK small business confidence has continued to fall, dipping into negative territory for the first time since 2012. Business owners feeling confident are outnumbered by those that feel the opposite. However, FSB found many immediate economic conditions improving, with small firms reporting greater access…