Rachel Reeves has come back after the Easter break with more bad news to look over. Today the IMF slashed its growth forecast for the UK in 2025 by 0.5%. Figures compiled by City AM won’t make comforting reading either, as businesses in Britain are closing at the fastest rate since the financial crash. Don’t mention the ‘G’ word…
Over 1,100 companies have faced winding-up orders (a court order that instructs a company to be closed) in the first fifteen weeks of 2025, up by a quarter on last year and the fastest rate since 2010. Just under 2,200 businesses have been handed winding-up petitions (issued by creditors to get back unpaid debt) as companies face added costs of Labour’s tax hikes and higher wage bills. Vice President of insolvency and restructuring trade body R3 Tom Russell said:
“A number of economic and political issues, high costs and cautious consumer and client spending mean creditors are being more aggressive about pursuing the money they are owed.”
In this month alone, 30 out of 300 companies facing wind-up orders were in the retail and hospitality industry. Awful April bills are just the beginning before Rayner’s ‘Union’ Employment Rights Bill kicks in…
Speaking on Times Radio, former Home Secretary David Blunkett spoke about overdiagnosis of mental problems:
“Let’s distinguish those who are really severely mentally ill, diagnosed with things that require prolonged medical and diagnostic treatment. My wife and I talk about this a lot, because she’s a retired GP, about the fact that you can be sad without being ill. You can be momentarily depressed because your boyfriend or girlfriend’s just thrown you and you’re not mentally ill. You can even have mild issues, which can be dealt with with the right kind of support, but it doesn’t make you mentally ill. So we’ve got a real task, I think, to get the psychology, if you like, of this over. But there are things where you definitely need medical intervention, and there are other things where you need good friends, you need good connectivity, and you need a job.”