Connect with us
DAPA Banner
DAPA Coin
DAPA
COIN PAYMENT ASSET
PRIVACY · BLOCKDAG · HOMOMORPHIC ENCRYPTION · RUST
ElGamal Encrypted MINE DAPA
🚫 GENESIS SOLD OUT
DAPAPAY COMING

Business

Business Rates Reform 2026: 104,000 Small Firms Hit by Threshold Freeze

Published

on

Business Rates Reform 2026: 104,000 Small Firms Hit by Threshold Freeze

The Federation of Small Businesses says a decade-long freeze on the relief threshold, coupled with backdated changes hitting shared offices, is “directly undermining” the government’s growth agenda.

More than 100,000 small companies have been pulled into the business rates regime for the first time, prompting the country’s largest small business lobby group to demand an urgent rethink from the Treasury.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has written to Daniel Tomlinson, exchequer secretary to the Treasury, urging ministers to lift the threshold at which premises become liable for the property tax, and to reverse a separate change in methodology that is leaving start-ups and micro-businesses in shared offices nursing unexpected bills running into thousands of pounds.

By piling further costs on the smallest firms, the FSB warned, the existing regime “directly undermines the government’s own growth ambitions”, a pointed reminder that the chancellor’s pro-growth rhetoric is being tested on the high street as much as in the City.

Business rates are levied on most commercial properties in England and are calculated on a building’s rateable value, an estimate of its open-market annual rent set by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA). Single-site small firms pay nothing if their rateable value sits below £15,000, a threshold that has not budged in ten years.

Advertisement

That decade of inertia, combined with the VOA’s latest revaluation cycle, means an estimated 104,000 small business premises were dragged inside the rates regime when the new financial year began in April. Before taking office in 2024, Labour had floated raising the threshold for small business rates relief from £15,000 to £25,000. Two years on, the FSB wants the chancellor to honour the spirit of that pledge.

Lifting the bar, the group argues, would predominantly benefit firms outside the capital, where property values keep most premises below the £25,000 mark. “This would take thousands of businesses out of paying the regressive pre-profit tax that we know holds back growth,” the FSB said, “and these are primarily across the north-east, north-west, Yorkshire and south-west, where rateable values, and prosperity levels, are lower.”

The FSB’s letter also flags what it calls an “escalating problem” for firms based in serviced and shared offices, typically start-ups and micro-businesses that have driven much of the post-pandemic recovery in regional cities.

A VOA change to how rateable values are calculated for such buildings, introduced in April and applied retrospectively, has stripped many tenants of the relief they previously claimed. Some are now staring at backdated demands running to several thousand pounds, an issue that has already drawn warnings from operators that the reclassification could put serviced offices at risk across regional markets.

Advertisement

“If this change of methodology from the VOA continues unchecked, the impact would be concentrated overwhelmingly on micro-businesses and SMEs in second cities and regional economies,” the FSB warned, characterising the change as a quirk of how rules are being applied rather than a “deliberate intended policy decision by government ministers”. The group wants officials to revert to the previous methodology.

Calls for wholesale reform of business rates are scarcely new. Pressure has been building from across the economy, most recently from manufacturers, who are bracing for a £1 billion rates bombshell as April’s revaluation feeds through to factory bills, and from hospitality operators who saw Rachel Reeves accused of imposing a “nice pub tax” earlier this year.

The chancellor has committed to permanent reform, but a comprehensive overhaul remains stuck in the long grass. The issue continues to dog ministers, with the King’s Speech in 2026 doing little to allay business concerns that the political will for a meaningful redesign of the tax is still missing.

The FSB’s intervention echoes earlier warnings from the lobby group that the rates system has become an “indefensible” disincentive to invest. For owners of corner shops, salons and small workshops, the maths is simple: a tax levied before a penny of profit has been earned is a tax on ambition.

Advertisement

A Treasury spokesman said the government had “the right economic plan” and pointed to the £4.3 billion set aside to support businesses facing higher rates bills. For the 104,000 firms now opening a brown envelope for the first time, that figure may feel rather more abstract than the bill on the desk.


Jamie Young

Jamie Young

Jamie is Senior Reporter at Business Matters, bringing over a decade of experience in UK SME business reporting.
Jamie holds a degree in Business Administration and regularly participates in industry conferences and workshops.

When not reporting on the latest business developments, Jamie is passionate about mentoring up-and-coming journalists and entrepreneurs to inspire the next generation of business leaders.

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

Business

Texas family sues Tesla over fatal crash into home

Published

on

Elon Musk walking in front of a projected image of a Tesla car, wearing a black suit and tie.

A Texas woman is suing Tesla and a driver for at least $1m (£759,000) in damages after one of the electric vehicles crashed into her family home, killing her mother

Jennifer Barbour filed her lawsuit in a local court on Tuesday, just days after her 76-year-old mother Martha Avila died from injuries she sustained after a Tesla Model 3 sped into their shared home.

The Tesla driver told police that he was using the car’s autonomous or “full self-driving” technology at the time of the crash.

In the lawsuit Barbour accuses Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company of defective design and negligence by promoting technology that is unsafe, while Musk on social media denied the technology was to blame.

Advertisement

Tesla was approached for comment.

Musk took to X, the social media platform he owns, to refute the idea that Tesla’s self-driving technology was to blame for the crash because it happened at a high speed.

“This makes no sense,” Musk wrote on Monday.

Tesla’s vice president of AI software Ashok Elluswamy followed up on Musk’s comment with more apparent detail on the accident.

Advertisement

Elluswamy wrote that the driver was going at 73mph (117 km/h) and had overridden the car’s self-driving mode “by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100%.”

He also claimed that the driver “had the accelerator pushed even after the crash”.

Barbour’s complaint, filed with her husband Justin Barbour, puts forward a different explanation.

It argues that the driver was operating his Tesla on “in a reasonably foreseeable manner” with full self-driving engaged when the car’s technology “failed to detect the end of the street”, went into “sudden unintended acceleration” and crashed into the Barbour residence.

Advertisement

In addition to the death of her mother, Barbour claims her husband also suffered severe and grievous injuries as a result of the crash.

Monetary damages being sought include those for anguish, injury and medical expenses, as well as “exemplary” damages because Tesla’s actions have been “grossly negligent.”

The crash remains under investigation by police in Texas and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the US government’s auto safety regulator.

Tesla’s self-driving technology has come under increased criticism and scrutiny.

Advertisement

Last week, Democratic Senators Edward Markey and Richard Blumenthal sent a letter, external to the NHTSA demanding that the agency investigate Tesla’s full self-driving technology for its safety risks.

Continue Reading

Business

Dish Network Down? Outage Reports Spike, With Picture Freezing and Signal Loss Affecting Customers

Published

on

FTSE 100 Surges 0.8% Today as Oil Eases and Markets

Reports of a possible service disruption affecting Dish Network surfaced Wednesday, with some viewers reporting issues across the satellite TV provider’s channels, even as official confirmation of a widespread outage remained limited.

What Users Are Reporting

StatusGator has detected an outage at Dish Network. Picture breaking up and freezing on all channels. There have been 36 user-submitted reports of outages in the past 24 hours. Based on our analysis, Dish Network might be experiencing or have recently experienced an outage even though there is no official acknowledgment of the issue.

The specific problems reported by users have centered primarily on signal quality issues rather than a complete blackout. Incident description: Satellite TV signal loss affecting service availability. The disruption was first detected at 5:57 p.m. on Wednesday, June 24.

Advertisement

Where Reports Are Concentrated

The most recent Dish Network outage reports came from the following cities: Crawfordville, Ashburn, Connersville, Phenix City, Chillicothe, Baytown, French Lick, Cedar Rapids, Charlotte, Tompkinsville, Mason, Beaverton, Abilene, Dallas, and Twin Falls — suggesting the reported issues, if connected, span a wide geographic footprint across multiple states rather than being confined to a single regional outage.

No Official Acknowledgment From the Company

Despite the volume of user reports, Dish Network has not issued any public statement confirming a widespread service disruption. According to monitoring data, the incident has never been officially acknowledged by the company, a pattern consistent with how Dish has historically responded to user-reported outage spikes that fall short of a confirmed, company-wide technical failure.

Advertisement

A History of Periodic, Brief Disruptions

Wednesday’s reports add to a documented pattern of intermittent service issues that Dish Network has experienced throughout 2026. Earlier outage data shows a signal loss incident affecting local channels detected on June 7, lasting about 20 minutes, as well as a separate incident on June 3 tied to local channels being unavailable due to maintenance, lasting roughly 29 minutes, and another brief disruption on June 2 involving local channels not working or showing a scrambled picture.

A Notably Quieter Track Record by Other Measures

Not every outage-tracking service has identified the same pattern of frequent disruptions, however, illustrating the inherent variability in how different monitoring tools detect and classify service issues. One service reported that Dish Network appears to be working normally, with report volume within the typical range for the time of day, and noted that the last reported incident before that assessment was roughly 680 days earlier. A separate tracker similarly noted zero confirmed outages over the prior 12 months, based on its own monitoring methodology, despite scattered individual user complaints about slow performance or channels not working.

Advertisement

What to Do During a Suspected Outage

For customers experiencing service problems, Dish has outlined a standard set of troubleshooting and verification steps. Customers can call the Dish customer support phone number, 1-800-333-3474, which is staffed 24/7, or check third-party outage tracker Downdetector, which surveys customers for issues they’ve faced within the last 24 hours and provides an outage map for a visual check of issues in a specific area. Dish has also directed customers to its DISH Answers account on social media during select hours for real-time updates on potential service outages in their area.

If a confirmed area-wide outage is identified, the company says the only thing customers can do is wait, though Dish maintains that it prioritizes these repairs to restore channels as quickly as possible. For issues isolated to an individual household rather than a broader area, the company recommends checking the connection of the satellite receiver, since equipment-level glitches — such as a failed software update or an overheating receiver — can also cause channel disruptions distinct from a true network-wide outage.

Understanding How Dish Signals Travel

Advertisement

Dish has explained that service disruptions can originate at any of three points along the signal’s path to a customer’s home. Live TV signals from Dish travel a long path to reach a home, passing through three major touchpoints that can cause an outage: the television stations that send their content to Dish satellites via radio waves, the Dish satellites that bounce the radio signal down to a customer’s satellite dish, and the home satellite setup itself, which converts the signals for display on the television. According to the company, losing just a channel or two typically points to an issue at the originating TV station, while a broader loss across most or all channels indicates a genuine Dish Network-side outage.

With user-submitted reports continuing to be monitored by third-party outage trackers and no official statement yet issued by Dish Network confirming the scope or cause of Wednesday’s reported issues, customers experiencing picture freezing, signal loss, or other service disruptions are encouraged to check Downdetector or similar tracking services for updates specific to their region, or to contact Dish customer support directly for individualized troubleshooting. Given the company’s history of brief, localized disruptions resolving within roughly 20 to 30 minutes, affected customers may see normal service restored relatively quickly, though the company has not provided a specific timeline for resolution as of the most recent reports.

Continue Reading

Business

Macy’s EVP, COO & CFO Edwards Jr. sells $408,726 in stock

Published

on


Macy’s EVP, COO & CFO Edwards Jr. sells $408,726 in stock

Continue Reading

Business

VAT cut on theme parks and kids’ meals comes into force

Published

on

A stock image of a family enjoying a rollercoaster.

Families are expected to get cheaper access to theme parks, zoos and museums as well as kids’ meals as a temporary VAT cut comes in to force on Thursday for the school summer holidays.

Ticket prices at various attractions are among the activities where VAT will be reduced from 20% to 5% in what the goverment said would help with the cost of living.

The cut begins on 25 June, in time for schools breaking up in Scotland at the end of this month, followed by Northern Ireland, England and Wales in July, until 1 September.

But families, charities and firms said the measure will do little to help squeezed budgets, with some doubting the tax saving would be passed on to customers.

Advertisement

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the summer holidays could be quite expensive, and the purpose of the temporary cut to VAT on family-related activities was to “help people make those precious memories during the summer holidays, but not having to fork out too much for it”.

Alan, 42, from Brighton goes to theme parks with him family regularly but he does not expect much from the VAT cut.

“These kind of attractions are quite expensive in the first place,” he said, adding that the savings, if passed on, would be “negligible” and only benefit those who go to theme parks as a one-off.

He said the best option for his family was having a theme park pass, which they use to go to Legoland, Chessington World of Adventure and Sea Life centres.

Advertisement

Helen Miller, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, previously said the measures would lead to some savings, but estimated they would equate to an “average saving of around £10 per UK household”.

Alan says that more useful measures would be if energy and fuel costs were addressed.

“How the government can say this is going to result in any household saving is a mystery,” he said.

Asked whether the savings would be meaningful, Reeves told the BBC the government was focused on helping families.

Advertisement

“Especially over the summer, things can be a bit more expensive. So we are targeting this directly at families,” she said, adding there would also be unlimited free bus travel for children in England in August.

The chancellor pointed to other measures the government has introduced including freezing prescription charges, freezing rail fares and providing energy bill relief as also helping households with cost of living pressures.

Continue Reading

Business

Fair Issac Stock: Strong Earnings Growth Makes The Valuation Attractive Again (NYSE:FICO)

Published

on

Fair Issac Stock: Strong Earnings Growth Makes The Valuation Attractive Again (NYSE:FICO)

This article was written by

I’m a passionate investor from the Netherlands with 12 years of stock market experience. My articles usually contain a good overview of important investment criteria. A stock for my portfolio is of interest to me if the company has the following characteristics:1. Companies that are growing in both revenue, earnings and free cash flow.2. Companies that have excellent growth prospects.3. Stocks with favorable valuations.I prefer steadily growing companies with high free cash flow margins, dividend stocks and stocks with generous share repurchase programs.Are you looking for European stock coverage? Visit my website (it’s free!): www.capitalinsights.euDisclaimer: My articles do not provide financial advice, they reflect my own findings and insights.

Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, but may initiate a beneficial Long position through a purchase of the stock, or the purchase of call options or similar derivatives in FICO over the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Business

Micron Technology, Inc. (MU) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Published

on

OneWater Marine Inc. (ONEW) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Micron Technology, Inc. (MU) Q3 2026 Earnings Call June 24, 2026 4:30 PM EDT

Company Participants

Satya Kumar – Corporate VP of Investor Relations & Treasurer
Sanjay Mehrotra – CEO, President & Chairman
Mark Murphy – Executive VP & CFO

Conference Call Participants

Advertisement

Timothy Arcuri – UBS Investment Bank, Research Division
Joseph Moore – Morgan Stanley, Research Division
Christopher Muse – Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., Research Division
Vivek Arya – BofA Securities, Research Division
Sreekrishnan Sankarnarayanan – TD Cowen, Research Division

Presentation

Operator

Advertisement

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us, and welcome to Micron Technology’s Fiscal Third Quarter 2026 Financial Conference Call. After today’s prepared remarks, we will host a question-and-answer session. Webcast viewers, please note that you will be able to advance the slides as you view at your own pace.

I will now hand the conference over to Satya Kumar, Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasury. Satya, please go ahead.

Satya Kumar
Corporate VP of Investor Relations & Treasurer

Advertisement

Thank you, and welcome to Micron Technology’s Fiscal Third Quarter 2026 Financial Conference Call. On the call with me today are Sanjay Mehrotra, our Chairman, President and CEO; and Mark Murphy, our CFO. Today’s call is being webcast from our Investor Relations site at investors.micron.com including audio and slides. In addition, the press release detailing our quarterly results has been posted on the website, along with the prepared remarks for this call.

Today’s discussion contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements include statements regarding our future financial and operating performance and our business model, as well as trends and expectations in our business, customers, market, industry products and regulatory and other matters. These statements are based on our current assumptions, and we assume no obligation to update these statements. Please refer to our most recent financial reports on Form 10-K, Forms 10-Q and

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Business

Apollo Private-Credit Fund Hit With Nearly 17% Redemption Request

Published

on

Jack Pitcher hedcut

Investors asked to redeem approximately 16.8% of their shares from Apollo’s flagship retail-focused private-credit fund in the second quarter, according to a company filing on Monday.

The $26 billion fund, Apollo Debt Solutions, limited redemptions at 5%. Redemption requests were about 11% in the first quarter.

The result for the second quarter is gross outflows of approximately $700 million compared to inflows of $300 million, according to preliminary numbers disclosed in the filing.

Continue Reading

Business

Wall Street ends mixed as shares in tech firms fall

Published

on

Wall Street ends mixed as shares in tech firms fall

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 ‌have closed lower, dragged by tech stocks on nagging concerns about high-flying valuations.

Continue Reading

Business

Capex boom, global sourcing tailwinds fuel textile stock rally

Published

on

Capex boom, global sourcing tailwinds fuel textile stock rally
Mumbai: Shares of textile exporters surged on Wednesday after Motilal Oswal Financial Services initiated coverage on some companies with ‘buy’ ratings, citing capacity expansion and policy support as the key growth drivers. The brokerage’s price targets imply gains of 9% to 28% over Wednesday’s closing prices.

Gokaldas Exports gained 3.7%, Arvind advanced 6.3%, Pearl Global jumped 11.2%, Indo Count Industries surged 9.5%, and Welspun Living rose 5%.

Textile Exporters Ride Capex, Policy BoostAgencies

“Indian textile sector is entering a strong capex cycle with leading players announcing significant investments across garments, fabrics, technical textiles, and value-added categories to capture rising global sourcing opportunities,” said Motilal Oswal in a client note. “Unlike earlier expansion phases focused on commoditised products, the current investment cycle is directed toward higher-margin segments such as garments, MMF, specialty fabrics and advanced textiles, along with automation, sustainability and premiumisation initiatives.”

Continue Reading

Business

This Isn’t the Dot-Com Selloff

Published

on

Jack Pitcher hedcut

📣 “All these comparisons to 1999-2000, to us, are totally out of line… It’s a bit of profit-taking, but we see the medium-term outlook as still very positive.”

Daniel Morris, chief market strategist at BNP Paribas Asset Management, on this week’s selloff in tech stocks.

Technology companies largely been meeting their expectations for earnings growth, which are ultimately driven by real demand for artificial-intelligence services and don’t appear out of line with reality, according to Morris.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2025