UK’s Disruptors, Innovators and Growth Hackers collide as SCALE Tables announced for April Summit April 2, 2026 New roundtable format brings curated, peer-level conversations to SCALE SUMMIT, inviting founders, investors and business leaders to “constructively disagree” to drive growth. SCALE SUMMIT, the UK’s leading event for ambitious, fast-growing businesses, has announced details of SCALE Tables – a roundtable experience running across both days of the Summit, designed to cut through the noise [...]
Sluggish economy spooks small housebuilders March 20, 2026 Small and medium (SME) housebuilders are being put off from investing in new projects by the UK’s economy and housing market, according to a new report. As many as 70 per cent of SME building firms said current market conditions are reducing their appetite for starting new sites and a quarter expect to cut back [...]
Oaknorth delays net zero goal as US expansion fuels lending boom March 17, 2026 UK fintech Oaknorth has slapped a ten year delay on its ambition to be a net zero bank as the firm’s expansion across the Atlantic picked up pace. The small business lender said it expects to meet net zero commitments by 2045, as opposed to previous guidance of 2035 set four years ago. Oaknorth said [...]
Small house building firms in ‘existential crisis’ as sales rates plummet March 9, 2026 Falling sales are pushing small and medium-sized (SME) house builders into an “existential crisis” that could threaten the government’s house building ambitions. SME house builders have seen average sales drop by 41 per cent between 2021 and 2025, according to a report by estate agents Savills for the Land, Planning and Development Federation (LPDF). The [...]
Metro Bank shares dip after SME lending pivot sees profit balloon March 4, 2026 Metro Bank has swung back into profit as the firm’s pivot into small business lending led to a bump in revenue. The FTSE 250 lender returned to profitability with a pre-tax profit of just north of £98m – a 15-year high and major clawback from losses of £14m last year. The swing came as Metro [...]
UK firms deliberately halting growth to dodge VAT March 2, 2026 Thousands of businesses are deliberately constraining their growth to remain below the £90,000 threshold at which firms start paying VAT. City accounting firm Lubbock Fine has argued that the government should raise the threshold to £115,000, the level it would be if it had increased in line with inflation since 2017. The VAT threshold was [...]
Allica Bank joins fintech unicorn club after £100m injection February 24, 2026 Small business lender Allica Bank will join the illustrious club of British fintech unicorns after securing a fresh funding round. The challenger bank is said to have netted $155m (£111m) in a Series D fundraise, which will take the firm’s valuation to $1.2bn and over the billion pound mark to declare unicorn status. The round [...]
Small businesses warn April cost hikes could force closures February 19, 2026 Small businesses have warned they are heading into an “unprecedented cost crunch” in April, with over a third of employers planning to cut output or shut down as higher taxes and bills take effect. The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has written to Rachel Reeves, warning that a combination of rising energy standing charges, business rate increases, [...]
Funding gap looms over Britain’s small businesses February 17, 2026 Record numbers of Brits are starting businesses, but innovation and export activity among small and medium-sized enterprises have fallen to a four-year low, as a looming funding gap threatens growth. The latest State of Small Business Britain report from the European Research Council (ERC) found that 36 per cent of working-age adults are running or [...]
One in three founders plan job cuts due to AI February 13, 2026 A third of Britain’s scale-up founders are expected to cut jobs in the next year as AI adoption accelerates, new data suggests. A new report by Helm found 33 per cent of founders expect AI to lead job cuts in their business within the next twelve months. Nearly two-thirds, or 64 per cent, said they [...]