Niki Addison is Managing Director of Concert Networks, a connectivity and communications company based in Northwich (Cheshire) supplying businesses throughout the North West. Concert’s current focus is a connectivity project for the Liverpool City Region, which will see the roll out of a brand new £30 million, 212km full fibre network.
Businesses who are able to connect to the network for their internet connectivity will benefit from speeds of up to 1 gigabit. Niki talked to Bermans about the roll out and why projects like this are so important to the local economy in 2021 and beyond.
Many business owners are re-evaluating their future plans as a result of the pandemic. Some are finding that their thoughts on retirement planning are somewhat different now than they were back in 2019. Some owners have enjoyed more free time as their businesses have been forced to shut during the lockdowns and others have enjoyed more time at home as travel and office working has been discouraged.
In some cases exit plans have accelerated and business owners are looking at what options there are to achieve a sooner than expected exit. We consider some possible solutions in this article.
Remember the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that overhauled data protection rules a couple of years ago and required lots of changes to how individuals’ data was stored and processed?
Since the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020, UK businesses now have two versions of the GDPR to take into account – the UK GDPR and the EU GDPR.
Manchester Building Society (MBS) successfully appealed to the Supreme Court in a claim for negligence against its ex-auditors Grant Thornton (GT), after losing in the High Court and the Court of Appeal.
The facts of the case are quite unusual. However the judgment is of wider importance since the court took a different approach to assessing loss arising from an adviser’s breach of duty, from the previous line of cases going back to the 1990s, and the decision should signal a change of direction.
One of the more surprising handouts from the chancellor in response to the pandemic was the stamp duty holiday. As it comes to an end we explore what impact this will have on the housing market.
SDLT is the tax you pay on property purchases. The amount you pay depends on the value of the purchase. Prior to July 2020, SDLT was payable on all properties priced over £125,000.
January’s Supreme Court judgment in the FCA’s test case against insurers for COVID-19 business interruption insurance claims was a great relief to many SMEs, as we wrote at the time (see below)
Reports at the time of the judgment said that 370,000 businesses could be impacted by the test case – not all favourably although the judgment was undoubtedly good news for businesses overall.
In April 2021, Bermans topped the professional poll for choice of legal services for both £100k+ and sub £100k funds out in Business Money’s report of the UK invoice finance sector.
The professionals poll rankings are voted for by asset based lending providers who are asked about their choice of professional when acquiring a lawyer amongst other professional sectors.
There has been a massive overhaul of the UK’s immigration rules as part of the UK’s exit from the EU and the end of free movement for EU citizens in the UK.
New Points Based System
From the start of 2021 EU and non-EU citizens are now treated the same in terms of immigration law (save for Irish citizens who can still freely enter, live and work in the UK). According to the Government website, “the new points based system aims to attract people who can contribute to the UK’s economy.”
We spoke to Gary Goodman, Land & Planning Director at BXB Land Solutions Ltd, an investor developer that seeks to work with blue chip organisations in adding value to their redundant land assets.
Gary is a qualified Town Planner, with twenty-five years of experience of working within the public and private sectors. He has participated in a number of successful strategic brownfield projects which have delivered new residential, commercial, leisure, retail and community uses.
BXB has a strong track record of identifying viable land opportunities and successfully delivering them to the end user market. Their working knowledge of the development, planning and delivery process enables BXB to secure market value for land that is often considered to have a negative land value.
The statutory moratorium on lease forfeiture for commercial leases is set to expire at the end of June 2021. If it is not extended then tenants who have taken advantage of this will be required to resume rental payments as well as to pay any rent that has accrued during the moratorium.
We have received enquiries from tenants and landlords over the last few weeks anxious to understand what they can do about rent arrears and enquiring whether now is a good time to negotiate a new lease.
Our general thoughts on this are set out below. Obviously much will depend on your individual circumstances so it is important you seek specific advice before making any decisions.
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