In considering what 2020 holds for our clients and business in general, this has to be written with a general election outcome caveat. Economic analysts are beginning to upgrade their economic forecasts for the country for 2020 which is good news. However, these upgrades are partly based on the spending pledges of the main Political […]
As he delivered the Budget 2018, Philip Hammond joked that he had avoided giving his speech on Halloween night itself because it would have been simply too tempting for the caption writers, and had avoided Christmas because he did not want to appear in cartoons disguised as Santa Claus. Even so, he was determined to […]
Since the introduction of flexible pensions in 2015, an increasing number of people are utilising the option to make a lump sum pension withdrawal from their funds. However, pension withdrawal rates are still within government forecasts, allaying concerns of there being a ‘run’ on pension funds leaving some without the means to support them into […]
The Taylor review, set up by the Government to investigate working practices and the ‘gig economy’, has now reported back to business secretary Greg Clark, with the promise that many of the recommendations will be taken forward and some expanded upon. The review was set up following significant employment cases involving major employers in the […]
In case you missed it, interest rates doubled earlier this month to their second lowest ever level… what a sentence. Expected for some time, this is the first of several ‘baby steps’ Governor Carney has been preparing us for, as The Bank of England seeks to balance spending, inflation and GDP growth. Commentators do not […]
Last month we wrote about the lost decade – the ten years since the financial crash of 2008 – and having discussed this theory in meetings with a range of SMEs it feels like the side effect of the lost decade is a numbness to economic uncertainty. That is not to say that businesses are […]
The Lost Decade? It’s hard to believe that the credit crunch that led to the downfall of Lehman Brothers and the ensuing melee in the economy was almost a decade ago. You would be forgiven for thinking that the time has passed quite quickly, perhaps because we have become used to switching on the news […]
In recent years, I have taken the chance over the Christmas break to sit and consider the factors most likely to impact our clients over the year ahead. I do not profess to be a commentator nor economic forecaster, although even they missed most of the big events of 2016; but I do think it […]
The 2016 Autumn Statement In recent times client feedback has suggested that most of you feel rather inundated with information following the autumn statements and annual budget delivered by The Chancellor. With the advent of social media, and most professional organisations now issuing commentary or updates immediately following the announcements, we believe these events have […]
On Friday 24th June we awoke to the news that Brexit was a reality and the UK had delivered a somewhat unexpected shock to the western world and decided that it intends to leave the European Union. But should it have been such a shock? – was this not a ‘Black Swan’ moment that we actually […]
By the time of our next newsletter we’ll know the result of the EU Referendum. Having discussed the EU referendum with many clients and business partners it has sparked interesting debate. As the dust settles it will be interesting to see if the scaremongers from either side were right with their predictions. This is probably […]
Be sure to have your say… The Chichester Observer and Spirit FM have published images of all 7 of the proposed options for the A27 sparking renewed debate around the City. Because of the controversial nature of some of the options, the debate is likely to be hijacked by those concerned about the impact to […]