British finance minister Jeremy Hunt on Monday will announce a rise in the minimum wage in his annual Conservative party conference speech, where he is expected to ignore a growing clamour for tax cuts within his party, Reuters reported. The extracts of the speech released by the party made no reference to taxes after Conservative lawmakers and even senior minister Michael Gove have called for tax cuts ahead of an election expected next year. On Saturday, Hunt ruled out near-term tax cuts ahead of a mid-year fiscal statement due on Nov.

More than 5,000 new businesses were set up in Wales this summer, according to new research from R3, the UK’s insolvency and restructuring trade body, BusinessNewsWales.com reported. R3’s analysis of data provided by Creditsafe shows there were 5,014 start-ups in Wales over the summer months – an increase of 7.1% on last year’s figure of 4,683. Welsh start-up numbers peaked in August of this year, when 1,693 firms were launched, after falling between June (1,672) and July (1,649). This was a change on the trend in 2022, when numbers decreased during the summer months.

New Zealand-based Cooks Coffee Company plans to place its Triple Two coffee franchise business in the UK into an insolvency process, VerdictFoodService.com reported. For this, the company intends to appoint administrators for its franchise business, which includes Triple Two Holdings and its subsidiaries. In a statement, Cooks Coffee Company said: “Triple Two was growing rapidly before the Covid-19 pandemic and had shown continuing momentum in FY22.

The Bank of England halted its long run of interest rate increases on Thursday as the British economy slowed, but it said it was not taking a recent fall in inflation for granted, Reuters reported. A day after a surprise slowing in Britain's fast pace of price growth, the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee voted by a narrow margin of 5-4 to keep Bank Rate at 5.25%. Four members - Jon Cunliffe, Megan Greene, Jonathan Haskel and Catherine Mann - voted to raise rates to 5.5%. It was the first time since December 2021 that the BoE did not increase borrowing costs.

Inflation in Britain slowed for a third consecutive month in August, unexpectedly continuing its downward trend despite a jump in fuel prices, the New York Times reported. Consumer prices rose 6.7 percent last month compared with a year earlier, slightly slower than the previous month, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. Economists had expected inflation to rise following a global surge in energy prices.

Despite a successful investment round in January, and expansion plans, UK electric car subscription service Onto is now facing insolvency, Electrive.com reported. Onto is now in administration, despite raising large investments in January this year. The company raised £100 million (nearly €114 million) from global investment group CDPQ and asset manager Pollen Street to expand its UK fleet. There was even talk of expanding to other regions.

Company insolvencies in England and Wales in August rose 19% year on year to the third highest level since monthly record started in January 2019, as firms grapple with rising costs and uncertain economic outlook, government data showed on Friday, Reuters reported. The Insolvency Service, a government agency, reported 2,308 corporate insolvencies last month, up from 1,728 in July. Companies were mostly declared insolvent through creditors' voluntary liquidations, in which a firms' directors agree to wind up the business without a formal court order.

The director of a Scottish firm who conned US oil and gas investors to invest through his company has been given a 14-year ban, the International Business Times reported. The Glasgow director took millions from UK investors, assuring them of investing it in American oil and gas companies through a Ponzi scheme. On September 8, the British Insolvency Service announced that 52-year-old Kenneth James Campbell from Glasgow was banned from being the company director of HGEC Capital Limited.

A judge has dismissed a bankruptcy petition lodged by tax officials against former England rugby union star Lawrence Dallaglio, The Independent reported. Judge Sebastian Prentis considered Dallaglio’s case at an Insolvency and Companies Court hearing in London on Wednesday. An HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) official told him that a “voluntary agreement” had been reached. The judge had, in May, given Dallaglio time to pay after being told that he owed about £700,000 in tax.

British discount retailer Poundland said on Tuesday it would buy up to 71 Wilko stores and convert the collapsed homeware and household goods chain's sites into its own brand, Reuters reported. Poundland, which is owned by Warsaw-listed Pepco and has 800 stores in Britain, plans to offer roles to Wilko workers and expects the rebranded stores to open in the fourth quarter of 2023, it added. Wilko fell into administration last month having failed to secure emergency funding to get through a slowdown in trading.