SME Magazine

Business rates bills have risen by over 70% and Employer National Insurance costs have almost doubled for local shops over the past two years, the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) said as it called on the chancellor to tackle the cost of trading in the government’s Budget.

Tech founder Alex Depledge, who was former chancellor Rachel Reeves’ adviser on entrepreneurship, has been given the same role in Andy Burnham’s government. When appointed previously, the government said “Alex will advise the chancellor on the government’s entrepreneurship landscape, focusing on addressing the key barriers faced by businesses seeking to start up and scale up in the UK.” Posting on LinkedIn, Depledge said she has been reappointed until at least the Budget on 28 October.

A new grant scheme to help pubs, restaurants and cafes get off the ground, run training schemes and bring vacant premises back into use has been launched by the government. The Hospitality Grant Scheme follows a pilot that helped deliver over 70 rural pub projects, two hospitality training facilities in UK prisons, and an innovation hub.

The government has announced the appointment of two people to represent freelancers in the creative industries. Leila D’Aronville and Lizzie Crump have been given the roles to advocate for the 703,000 self-employed people in the creative sector. Data for 2025 shows that 28.5% of sector’s 2.6 million workers were self-employed, compared to 14.8% for the wider economy.

Kemi Badenoch is reshuffling her shadow Cabinet following the resignation of James Cleverly and Priti Patel. Cleverly quit as communities secretary to run as London mayor and Patel stepped down from her shadow foreign secretary job to take on an “international role to strengthen diplomatic links with international sister parties and centre right movements around the world”.

The number of UK young people not in education, employment or training (Neets) has dropped below one million. There were an estimated 981,000 young people aged 16 to 24 during April to June 2026, the Office of National Statistics said. The figure increased by 30,000 compared with April to June 2025 but was down by 30,000 on January to March 2026 when it passed the one million mark to 1,012,000.

A programme to help Scottish companies adopt and capitalise on the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) has received funding for its second year. Backed by £1.8 million of continued funding, the National AI Adoption Programme for SMEs offers support and grant funding to help businesses identify AI opportunities, plan AI implementation and develop and test AI solutions. The scheme was launched last year with £1 million in funding. It has been accessed by around 1,000 businesses.

The Scottish Tourism Alliance (STA) has called on councils in Scotland to learn from the problems it says are being experienced by businesses in Edinburgh following the introduction of a visitor levy. Edinburgh became the first Scottish local authority to impose a levy on 24 July. It is 5% of the cost of accommodation.

The Welsh government has launched a fully-funded accelerator for high-growth firms and new grants to invest in new technology. The Business Wales Start-Up Accelerator is open to Wales-based founders with high-growth business ideas who can demonstrate potential to reach £1 million in annual turnover, create 10 or more full-time jobs and export internationally by 2029.

Prime minister Andy Burnham buys fruit at Lukanivska Market in Kyiv, Ukraine. Picture by Lauren Hurley / No 10 Downing Street Prime minister Andy Burnham has declined to say the government won’t raise taxes in the Budget on 28 October. Speaking to ITV News during his first official visit to Kyiv in Ukraine, he said he “won’t be unrealistic” and the public need to understand that “we are in a challenging position”.