Always Finance

Mortgage rates have moved higher again this spring, with the average two and five-year fixed deals now sitting at around 5.3 to 5.4 per cent, as lenders respond to a more volatile market. After a relatively stable start to the year, recent weeks have seen a clear shift. Around 1500 products have been removed since the start of the uncertainty and repriced more quickly, reducing the window borrowers have to secure deals and increasing pressure on those approaching a purchase or remortgage.

Accountancy and tax specialist Kilsby Williams has appointed Margaret Harrison as a director, strengthening the independent firm’s senior team. Margaret joins the Newport-based firm from MHA, where she qualified as a Chartered Accountant and accumulated a wide and varied breadth of knowledge and experience to lead their business services team.

A leading estate planning adviser is warning that a “perfect storm” of rising property values, frozen inheritance tax thresholds and increasing dementia rates means more families risk being caught out without proper plans in place. With the average UK home now forming the largest part of most estates, and inheritance tax thresholds remaining frozen, more households are being drawn into potential tax liability.

Kreston Reeves and Kreston ProWorks have advised Washin Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. on its acquisition of JFBR Group Limited, the holding company of Foilco Ltd. Headquartered in Japan, Washin Chemical Industry Co., Ltd manufactures hot stamping foils and specialty coatings and paints for products and consumer packaging around the world.

If this is the year you decide to grow your business and move into a new business premises, then what are the key points to be aware of when negotiating a commercial lease? Entering into a commercial lease is a significant legal and financial commitment for any small business. Commercial leases can be complex, and the terms agreed at the outset can have long-lasting implications.

Rise in reports of problems securing prompt payment and increased concerns over suppliers going bust Consequences of Middle East conflict likely to add to SMEs’ immediate challenges Rising costs, late payment problems and concerns over supply chain resilience are creating a gloomy outlook for the UK’s vital small and medium sized enterprises. That is according to the latest ACCA and IMA Global Economic Conditions Survey (GECS), which shows UK SME confidence is stuck near record lows.

As organisations move into the 2025-26 financial year-end, UK finance teams are discovering that the real challenge isn’t the new reporting rules themselves, but whether their systems are resilient enough to handle them. AI is embedded across more finance workflows, the Make Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax Self-Assessment (ITSA) threshold now applies to smaller businesses, and new Sustainability Reporting Standards require tighter integration between financial and non-financial data.

Partnership Combines SEON’s Comprehensive Fraud Detection Platform with Domaine’s Shopify Migration and Optimisation Expertise SEON, the command centre for real-time fraud prevention and AML compliance, today announced a strategic partnership with Domaine, the leading global Shopify design and development partner specialising in platform migrations and enterprise commerce enablement.

PLUG Charging, a Cardiff-based electric vehicle infrastructure provider, has announced the rollout of a lamp column charging pilot across Cardiff, delivering accessible, on-street EV charging for residents while reinvesting directly into local communities. The project, delivered in partnership with Cardiff Council, upgrades existing street lighting infrastructure to provide convenient residential EV charging, specifically designed for longer dwell times such as overnight charging.

A growing number of adults in their 20s, 30s and early 40s believe estate planning is something to worry about later in life – assuming it only matters once they own property, have significant savings, or start a family. However, The Estate Registry, which provides a suite of end of life admin services, warns that this perception is outdated, particularly for a generation whose most valuable possessions may exist online rather than in physical form.