SME Magazine

Only around one in six small businesses expect to grow over the next 12 months. The economy, tax, and labour costs are the main barriers to growth for small firms, according to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) survey of 1,113 small business owners and sole traders in June. The 18% of small firms that expect to grow is the lowest ever proportion in the history of the FSB’s Small Business Index, which dates back to 2014.

Picture by Kirsty O'Connor / Treasury Rachel Reeves has delivered what could be her last Mansion House speech as chancellor. With Andy Burnham set to take over as prime minister and amid predictions that she will lose the role in his new Cabinet, Reeves delivered the annual speech in London which sets out the government’s economic strategy. Included in the speech were new measures to increase funding for small and medium-sized businesses.

The UK and Switzerland have agreed a new free trade agreement (FTA). Here are the key points of the deal for UK businesses. Benefits for service professionals and businesses The government said the FTA includes “the most significant trade agreement for services concluded by the UK” which is estimated to unlock £5.2 billion a year in additional UK services exports to Switzerland “in the long run”. UK service professionals will be able to trade in Switzerland visa-free for up to 90 days a year.

The Growth Guarantee Scheme (GGS), which provides a 70% government guarantee on loans to small and medium-sized businesses of up to £2 million, is to be extended. Launched in 2024 as a successor to the pandemic-era Recovery Loan Scheme, GGS has provided £3.7 billion of finance to 8,000 SMEs. GGS aims to provide greater certainty over credit risk, enabling lenders to provide debt finance to more viable SMEs that they wouldn’t otherwise consider.

Pubs can stay open until 30 minutes after the end of England’s World Cup quarter final against Norway, the government has said. An extension to licensing laws mean fans will be able to watch the full game in pubs in England and Wales even if the kick-off is delayed.

A recent report showed that the share of equity investment going to all female-founded businesses remained at 2% in 2025, the same as the average across the last decade. We asked female entrepreneurs and business experts for their thoughts. Some shared ideas for what needs to be done to increase the share of funding going to female founders and others explained why we’re focusing the wrong issue.

More than 1,000 small businesses have signed up to a scheme that helps micro and small firms access public sector contracts. Supply Connect was launched by small business support platform Enterprise Nation to capitalise on opportunities created by the Procurement Act 2023. It introduced regulations aimed at tackling the challenges faced by small firms in accessing contracts from public sector organisations.

MPs on Parliament’s Business and Trade Committee have said they have “serious concerns” about the government’s “inadequate” response to its proposals to improve support for helping small businesses “facing pressures comparable to the pandemic”. Earlier this year, a report by the cross-party group of MPs said late payment, high street costs, tax burdens, energy prices and crime are among the major pressures faced by small businesses.

New research by Searchable, the AI search visibility tool, has revealed that the vast majority of local businesses are suffering inaccuracies by the AI chatbots that hundreds of millions of people now turn to for everyday recommendations. Although ChatGPT and other popular AI chatbots are being adopted at a rapid pace for purchasing decisions, the large language models (LLMs) powering them are still regularly producing hallucinations and misinformation that can steer potential customers away.

Pubs will be allowed to stay open until 5am so they show in full England’s World Cup match against Mexico on Monday morning. The government originally said it would not relaxed licensing laws which have already been extended for hospitality businesses to screen the football tournament. In April, the rules were changed to allow opening until 1am for games with kick-offs from 5pm up to 9pm, and 2am for kick offs between 9pm and 10pm.