Business News Round Up (18/08/2025)
Profit warnings issued by UK listed companies increase by 20% year-on-year
UK-listed companies issued 59 profit warnings during the second quarter of 2025. The 20% rise compared to the same period last year resulted amid widespread policy change and geopolitical uncertainty. Having climbed to over 300 in 2022, the number of UK profit warnings of listed firms fell to 294 in 2023, and over 2024 it sank further to 274, according to new research from EY-Parthenon. This was the lowest number of warnings since 2013, when only 255 British businesses flagged up concerns about their financial performance. However, the picture may not have been as rosy as it appeared, when taken proportionally. A UK listed company is a business which has any class of its securities admitted to the official list, as well as admission to trading on a Recognised Investment Exchange (RIE).
Survey reveals ‘alarming’ failure rate for women-led start-ups in Scotland
Women’s Enterprise Scotland is calling for immediate action to address the “alarming” rate at which women-led businesses are failing to progress beyond the start-up phase. A new survey reveals a stark contrast between the high number of women starting businesses and the low number successfully scaling them. While women-led businesses now account for 54% of all start-ups in Scotland, the post-start-up pipeline suffers from a 61% attrition rate. Consequently, women-led employers have fallen to just 20% of all businesses. Carolyn Currie, chief executive of WES, described the situation as a “perfect storm of economic conditions and structural inequalities”. A significant number of new women-led businesses are “falling into an abyss, leaving their economic potential and the ambitions of their founders unfulfilled”. The study identified severe economic pressures, with 78% of respondents unable to recover increased costs, 55% using personal savings to capitalise their businesses, and 52% making no pension provision.
British manufacturers lagging behind international competitors on automation – Make UK
British manufacturing companies have been lagging behind international competitors over the last two decades, falling down global automation tables, according to a report. Use of robotics and AI systems was poor, with training of people in relevant digital skills well below what is needed to catch up, it was warned. The report by Make UK and Sage said nearly half of British manufacturers identify a lack of technical skills as the biggest hurdle to improving their use of innovative advanced technologies. Projects which do start often stall after implementation stage, because companies cannot find the help and advice they need to make the technologies work well.
Corporate tax reporting changes are coming for UK businesses
The digital transformation roadmap recently published by the UK tax authority confirmed what many suspected—that Making Tax Digital for Corporation Tax is no longer going ahead. For businesses and advisers, it’s a pragmatic and welcome step. But while the end of this initiative lifts the threat of quarterly digital filing obligations, it doesn’t mark the end of HM Revenue & Customs’ reform efforts. In fact, HMRC is already moving ahead with a quieter but potentially more important change: It plans to standardize how companies prepare and report their corporation tax, requiring more detailed disclosures and affecting how tax data is managed. The MTD regime would have obliged companies to file quarterly updates containing details of business income and expenditure, dates, amounts, and descriptions—creating an administrative burden.