Labour says firms will be penalised for late payments to suppliers
Keir Starmer has warned businesses who persistently delay payments to their suppliers that it is “time to pay up” as the government prepares to impose fines and penalties on repeat offenders.In what Labour has billed as the toughest crackdown on late payments in a generation, the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, will say on Thursday that the changes will slash a cost to the economy that has escalated to £11bn a year.As many as 38 businesses shut down each day partly owing to late payments, the government said, hurting tradespeople, shopkeepers, startup founders and family-run firms.The planned changes will include handing the small business commissioner powers to impose fines, potentially worth millions of pounds.Established in 2016 to tackle late payments, the watchdog will also be able to carry out spot checks, verify claims and impose deadlines to clear a backlog of disputes.
As part of a wider Labour drive to provide more support for small businesses, Reynolds will also announce startup loans for 69,000 companies worth £4bn “to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs and small business owners”.The move is backed by the prime minister and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who is keen to focus on rebooting the economy after two consecutive months of negative growth and mounting speculation about tax rises.According to the Office for National Statistics, the economy contracted by 0.1% in May after a 0.3% monthly fall in April.
Sir Keir said it was important for the government to support small- and medium-sized firms, which employ 60% of the workforce and generate £2,8tn in turnover,“From builders and electricians to freelance designers and manufacturers, too many hardworking people are being forced to spend precious hours chasing payments instead of doing what they do best, growing their businesses,“It’s unfair, it’s exhausting and it’s holding Britain back,So, our message is clear: it’s time to pay up.
”Reynolds is expected to say legislation will include maximum payment terms of 60 days before a reduction after an introductory period to 45 days, “giving firms certainty they’ll be paid on time”.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionMinisters said last September that they would consult businesses about the most effective way to tackle a “culture of late payment” after several attempts by previous Tory administrations to toughen existing codes of conduct.Reynolds will say new laws were needed to give the commissioner extra powers and force large companies to be more transparent about how they pay subcontractors and suppliers.As part of the plan, audit committees will be required to scrutinise payment practices at board level, “placing greater pressure on large firms to show they’re treating small suppliers fairly backed by mandatory interest charges for those who pay late”.The small business minister, Gareth Thomas, said: “I hear all too often about businesses who just don’t have the cash needed to start up or grow.
Today, we’ve announced measures as part of our plan for change to tackle all of those issues and beyond.”
Zuckerberg claims ‘superintelligence is now in sight’ as Meta lavishes billions on AI
Whether it’s poaching top talent away from competitors, acquiring AI startups or proclaiming that it will build data centers the size of Manhattan, Meta has been on a spending spree to boost its artificial intelligence capabilities for months now.The massive splurge is paying off, according to Meta’s chief executive. In a new memo posted on Wednesday ahead of the company’s quarterly earnings report, Mark Zuckerberg, describes his ambitions for developing what he calls “superintelligence”.“Over the last few months we have begun to see glimpses of our AI systems improving themselves,” Zuckerberg wrote. “The improvement is slow for now, but undeniable
Wall Street delighted with Microsoft as it spends $100bn on AI
Microsoft, the world’s second-most valuable company, is dumping enormous sums of money into its artificial intelligence efforts. At the same time, the company is earning money hand over fist. Investors are thrilled.The enterprise software giant reported fiscal fourth-quarter results that exceeded expectations on Wednesday as the company races to acquire datacenters and talent, which continues to be investigated by investors. The company predicted its capital expenditure for the next fiscal year would top $100bn, a 14% increase from the year prior
YouTube to gauge US users’ ages with AI after UK and Australia add age checks
YouTube announced on Tuesday that it will begin to use artificial intelligence to estimate the ages of users in the US, in order to show them age-appropriate content.The rollout of the new feature comes one day after Australia’s government announced it would ban children under 16 from using YouTube and less than a week after the UK implemented sweeping age checks on content on social networks.YouTube’s AI age verification on its home turf indicates it is putting into place a form of compliance with the Australian and UK requirements, despite its persistent opposition to age-check requirements.“Over the next few weeks, we’ll begin to roll out machine learning to a small set of users in the US to estimate their age, so that teens are treated as teens and adults as adults,” wrote James Beser, director of product management for YouTube Youth, in a blogpost titled Extending our built-in protections to more teens on YouTube.YouTube was promised an exemption from Australia’s social media ban last year by the then communications minister, but the Australian government said on Monday that the platform would, in fact, be included in the country’s ban on children under 16 using social networks
UK online safety law leads to 5m extra age checks a day for pornography sites
Five million extra online age checks a day are being carried out in the UK since the introduction of age-gating for pornography sites, according to new data.The Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA) said there had been a sharp increase in additional age checks in the UK since Friday, when age verification became mandatory for accessing pornography under the Online Safety Act.“As a result of new codes under the Online Safety Act coming into force on Friday, we have seen an additional 5m age checks on a daily basis, as UK-based internet users seek to access sites that are age-restricted,” said Iain Corby, the executive director of the AVPA.The UK has also seen a surge in popularity of virtual private networks, which obscure a user’s real location and thus allow them to access sites blocked in their own country. Four of the top five free apps on the Apple download store in the UK are VPN apps, with Proton, the most popular, reporting a 1,800% increase in downloads
People in the UK: have you been the victim of phone theft recently?
According to data compiled by an insurance firm, nearly two in every five mobile phones stolen in Europe are taken in the UK. Claims made to the American insurance company SquareTrade showed 39% of all phone thefts across the company’s 12 European markets were in Britain.The data revealed that phone theft claims in the UK had increased by 425% since June 2021 and 42% of phone thefts in the UK occurred in London.We’d like to hear from people who have been the victim of phone theft in the UK in the last six months? Has your phone been snatched out of your hands? What happened next and how easy was it to secure your data and accounts? Did you report it to the police? Has it changed your behaviour using your phone or sense of safety on the streets? Why do you think that the UK is the phone theft capital of Europe.You can tell us if you have been the victim of phone theft in the UK by filling in the form below
UK viewers: are you watching YouTube on your TV more than other channels?
YouTube has become popular to watch on TV with children and older people choosing the video platform when they first switch on their televisions.Viewers aged 55 and over watched almost twice as much YouTube than they did in 2023, with 42% of them watching on a TV. The platform is also the most popular first TV destination for generation Alpha viewers, aged four to 15.We’d like to hear from people who watch YouTube on their TV more than other channels. When and why did your watching habits change and how does it differ to what you grew up with? What are your favourite YouTube shows and why?You can tell us why you watch YouTube more than other broadcast channels on your TV by filling in the form below
Trump threatens drug giants with crackdown over prices
Rolls-Royce hits turbo speed. Now keep going for a decade | Nils Prately
Apple quietens Wall Street’s fears of China struggles and slow AI progress
Amazon fails to quiet tariff worries with worse-than-expected financial outlook
Joe Burgess scores four tries as Hull KR’s demolition of Salford raises big questions
LeBron James, Nikola Jokić reportedly meet over $5bn upstart to rival NBA