BIC Innovation Ltd’s Post

Are rising costs and inflation putting pressure on your business? You're not alone. 63% of businesses now cite tax, including National Insurance, as a key concern, while over half expect to raise prices in the next three months. Join us in Chippenham on Feb 6th for a free panel event to gain access to proven strategies to manage costs, boost productivity, and navigate today’s challenges with confidence. Hear directly from industry leaders and uncover practical solutions for managing rising costs, boosting productivity, and overcoming barriers to growth. Walk away with actionable insights, expert guidance, and tools you can put into practice right away. 📅 Date: Thursday, 6 February 2025 ⏰ Time: 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM 📍 Location: The Club House, Malmesbury Rd, Chippenham SN15 5LT 🎟 Secure your FREE spot today: https://lnkd.in/eJXWMK9h Seats are limited - don’t miss this opportunity to prepare your business for a successful 2025! The Wiltshire Fit For Growth programme is funded by the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and delivered by BIC Innovation Ltd on behalf of Wiltshire Council. Source: https://lnkd.in/epchFzte Swindon and Wiltshire Business and Growth Unit #BusinessGrowth #NetworkingEvent #SmallBusinessOwners #wiltshire #future #innovation #productivity #panelevent #insights #UKSPF

How Will This Year End for the UK’s Night-Time Economy? Once again, businesses across Scotland are being shafted—this time over business rates. Westminster giveth with one hand and taketh away with the other. Promises of policy reform, planning improvements, and business rates re-evaluation are all well and good, but these are long-term fixes. What our industry desperately needs are short-term solutions to survive the here and now. Meanwhile, the UK government is touting its Devolution White Paper as a “once-in-a-generation” shift in power. The plan includes:
 ✔️ Merging district and county councils into unitary authorities for streamlined governance.
 ✔️ Expanding mayoral zones with enhanced powers over transport, housing, and taxation.
 ✔️ Enabling new councils to operate before their formal recognition in April 2027, aiming to save £2 billion.
 ✔️ Reserving ministerial powers to override local resistance to reforms. While Westminster focuses on long-term restructuring, the jobs crisis deepens. UK firms are cutting staff at levels not seen since the 2008 crash. Where is the immediate support our businesses need to keep doors open and staff employed? UK’s night-time industries can’t wait for “ambitious reforms” in five years—they need action now. 💡 How do we balance saving jobs today with planning for tomorrow? Join the conversation and let us know your thoughts below. 👇 #SupportLocal #NightTimeEconomy #BusinessRatesScandal #DevolutionDebate #ActionNow

How Will This Year End for the UK’s Night-Time Economy? Once again, businesses across Scotland are being shafted—this time over business rates. Westminster giveth with one hand and taketh away with the other. Promises of policy reform, planning improvements, and business rates re-evaluation are all well and good, but these are long-term fixes. What our industry desperately needs are short-term solutions to survive the here and now. Meanwhile, the UK government is touting its Devolution White Paper as a “once-in-a-generation” shift in power. The plan includes:
 ✔️ Merging district and county councils into unitary authorities for streamlined governance.
 ✔️ Expanding mayoral zones with enhanced powers over transport, housing, and taxation.
 ✔️ Enabling new councils to operate before their formal recognition in April 2027, aiming to save £2 billion.
 ✔️ Reserving ministerial powers to override local resistance to reforms. While Westminster focuses on long-term restructuring, the jobs crisis deepens. UK firms are cutting staff at levels not seen since the 2008 crash. Where is the immediate support our businesses need to keep doors open and staff employed? UK’s night-time industries can’t wait for “ambitious reforms” in five years—they need action now. 💡 How do we balance saving jobs today with planning for tomorrow? Join the conversation and let us know your thoughts below. 👇 #SupportLocal #NightTimeEconomy #BusinessRatesScandal #DevolutionDebate #ActionNow

🔊 "Co-operative and mutual businesses have proved time and time again that they're resilient, they're productive, they're better for workers and better for customers. And you know what... the Labour government knows it too." Our CEO Rose Marley is on a mission to highlight how co-operatives and mutuals offer real, scalable solutions to the UK’s biggest challenges - from housing to climate change to social care. The Co-operative and Mutual Economy 2024 report tells us that #Coops and #Mutuals add more than £165 billion to the UK economy. They're more resilient, more productive and add value for workers and customers. But we’re just scratching the surface. Rose calls on us to think in an altogether different way; to unlock new opportunities by growing the democratic economy. But people don't know what they don't know - so increasing and spreading awareness is key. 📖 Read the full #CoopEconomy press release and report at www.uk.coop/Economy-Report. #CooperativeGrowth #SustainableBusiness #MutualSolutions

RANTON WITH ANTON - THEIR HEADS ARE IN THE SAND This weekend was Small Business weekend where we were all told to support local small businesses up and down the country. Which, living in Shropshire, we always try and buy local which feeds our local economy. BUT - it also made me laugh. You see, supply chain means that employees are effected by the increase in NI - therefore secretly they are also being taxed more. It starts with the large company supplying the small company who in turn supplies the small business who then supplies the public. If charges go up a small amount on the big business, it rolls down and gets bigger the lower down the supply chain it goes. Its obvious, but unfortunately only to those of us in the private sector who actually have run businesses unlike Rt Hon Rachel Reeves and also local MP Shaun Davies who voted not once, but twice to bring in these extra levels of cost to the public. What made me laugh even more is that MP's up and down the country make commercial decisions regarding the economy having never run a business. MP's then also make bold #lookatme social media posts claiming to work with local business, yet they boldly vote to punish private sector businesses and indirectly the public with the increase of NI. I am no fan of Reform UK for various reasons, but whether you like it or not both Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe MP have run businesses and have been part of the UK economy. Yet because of their politics, they are excluded and not listened to by the party in control who clearly have no business experience. #timeforcrosspartypolitics ? I suspect we are going to see a huge shift in politics in the future and I for one am hoping we get a pro the private sector type authority who can then be used to propel business and bring about change in the public Imagine if the NHS was a private sector business - how much wastage would their be? #ifyouthinkyouarenoteffected #stopwiththelookatmeposts #notanadvertforreform #stopblamingthepastforthefuture

How Will This Year End for the UK’s Night-Time Economy? Once again, businesses across Scotland are being shafted—this time over business rates. Westminster giveth with one hand and taketh away with the other. Promises of policy reform, planning improvements, and business rates re-evaluation are all well and good, but these are long-term fixes. What our industry desperately needs are short-term solutions to survive the here and now. Meanwhile, the UK government is touting its Devolution White Paper as a “once-in-a-generation” shift in power. The plan includes:
 ✔️ Merging district and county councils into unitary authorities for streamlined governance.
 ✔️ Expanding mayoral zones with enhanced powers over transport, housing, and taxation.
 ✔️ Enabling new councils to operate before their formal recognition in April 2027, aiming to save £2 billion.
 ✔️ Reserving ministerial powers to override local resistance to reforms. While Westminster focuses on long-term restructuring, the jobs crisis deepens. UK firms are cutting staff at levels not seen since the 2008 crash. Where is the immediate support our businesses need to keep doors open and staff employed? UK’s night-time industries can’t wait for “ambitious reforms” in five years—they need action now. 💡 How do we balance saving jobs today with planning for tomorrow? Join the conversation and let us know your thoughts below. 👇 #SupportLocal #NightTimeEconomy #BusinessRatesScandal #DevolutionDebate #ActionNow

Rt Hon Rachel Reeves is a massive advocate of growth, and will turn the UK economy around.... 👍 If you'd been travelling for a while, had no access to the press, had no friends to speak with, and stumbled across any of the Rachel Reeves soundbites over the last couple of days, you'd be feeling bullish about the UK economy!!! 😀 Red tape is getting slashed, growth is coming, working people will feel better off.... Absolutely loving the chat... But is that the problem? Is it just chat? Her proposed Heathrow runway is making the headlines, but the reality is, she's been saying a lot more than that!!! She's on a mission- Heathrow. Slashing red tape. Making Oxford/Cambridge the Uk Silicon Valley Overhaul of migration to attract the best. Welfare reform. A reset with the EU. Boosting productivity. Yes, she's been saying it all. And even if you're not a fan of The Labour Party, it is hard to argue with the ideas. However, my problem is that the theme with this party is they say one thing, and do the opposite. From the election, to the budget. The theme is consistent... However, as much as I am not a fan, I of course want them to do well for the UK economy. A thriving UK, makes the world feel like a better place... Great talking Rachel. Now it's time to deliver. Is Rachel turning a corner here? Have they been listening to the backlash and are making amends? Or more empty promises? Would love your thoughts. #ukeconomy #ukbusiness #labour #ukpolitics #ftse100 #investing TPP Edward Davies

The challenges ahead are numerous, but none are as critical or urgent as fostering economic growth – a national priority. If we want more funding for our public services like the NHS, if we want high-skilled jobs, if we want opportunities for our young people to thrive, we need a growing economy. Here in the City, the financial and professional services sector stands as one of Britain’s greatest success stories, as highlighted in the Labour manifesto. The City Corporation are committed to working in partnership with government on its five missions to help shape our economy to ensure and create a prosperous future for all. Read more in my latest column for City AM https://lnkd.in/eJdYVD6j  

IoD press release: Confidence levels approach Covid lows amongst UK business leaders. Anna Leach, Chief Economist at the Institute of Directors, said: This is a sobering set of results. As businesses continue to absorb the consequences of the Budget for their business plans, confidence has continued to plummet and is approaching the lows reached at the onset of the Covid pandemic. Far from fixing the foundations, the Budget has undermined them, damaging the private sector’s ability to invest in their businesses and their workforces. “The clash between government intentions to address inactivity and the sharpness of the increase in employment costs is jarring. Likewise welcome attempts to improve the environment for investment in the UK sit at palpable odds with a significant hit to profits which will undermine private sector investment. There’s now a significant risk of growth stalling across the private sector due to the extent of the reset required by business. Reckless, clueless, Labour! https://lnkd.in/eBCNQcid

💡📈 UK Economy in 2024: Starmer's Call to Action for Regulators 📊💼 Prime Minister Keir Starmer is urging UK regulators to step up and drive economic growth as the country faces a stagnant economy. With GDP shrinking and growth flatlining, Starmer is calling for reforms in key sectors like finance, energy, and water to unlock new opportunities. Regulators hold the key to simplifying processes, fostering innovation, and creating a thriving business environment. Can these changes kickstart the UK economy in 2024? Read more 👉 https://lnkd.in/edmMSemX #UKEconomy #EconomicGrowth #KeirStarmer #Regulators #BusinessInnovation #PolicyReform