What do small businesses need to be created and to survive? 27/9/2026
Sixty percent of all new businesses will fail in the first two years, imposing tremendous monetary, health, and mental costs on the people involved. Most will close within three or four years, especially if they use brick-and-mortar premises, as this cost is untenable for most new businesses.
HMRC's TAX on small businesses
If you start a business and become self-employed, it will cost you in many ways. To give an example, your car insurance will go up just because you are self-employed. HMRC will TAX you with self-assessment tax on income you haven't yet earned or received. If your tax is over £1,000 you have to deal with "payment on account," which means if you have to pay £2,000 tax this year, you have to pay £1,000 TAX for the coming year even though you haven't earned any money for next year yet, leaving you to find this money out of what you have. This tax payment has to be paid in January, and if you don't pay it, it becomes a tax debt. If your tax bill is lower next year, you are out of pocket. This is just another way of extorting money and hurting, particularly, small businesses.
The cost of a tax return is increasing with the new digital tax return system, making you report your earnings four times a year if you are over a certain amount: £50,000, £30,000 (April 2027), and £20,000 (April 2028).
No businesses under £50,000 should have to make four returns and a final fifth return. How can the extra costs, time, admin, and specialist software required be justified?
On Tuesday 29th Sep 2026 I was refused enter to the Scottish parliament.
My day started at 5:30 a.m. so I could get to the Parliament by 10:00 a.m., a round journey of 350 miles from the Highlands. I have a metal stand and three boards which I carry on the bus from York Place down to the Parliament. I set them up at 10:00 a.m. and kept them up until 1:15 p.m. I was getting very cold and needed the toilet because I have had cancer and am 75 years old. When I tried to enter and get them put into the Clock Room, security unwrapped the three boards I had covered with black bin bags. As I know, they don't allow protesting signage on display inside the Parliament, and quite rightly. The last time I was there I was allowed to leave them in the Clock Room without any problem. Security consulted a manager and they said I couldn't come in as the signs were open and political. I was just by myself, so I was forced to go. I was unable to get to the toilet, get something to eat, or attend a debate on giving new powers to councils. It also means I can't protest in future without real distress, as I can't get access to a toilet which I need or attend debates. It costs me a lot to go down out of my pension and I don't get home till 9am over a 15 hour day.
Small Business VAT 29/9/26
A small business has to pay VAT at 20% when their revenue reaches £90,000 per year. Many small businesses can't afford to register for VAT because the profit they make is so low. The qualifying VAT threshold has only gone up by £5,000 in nine years. So businesses close or work shorter hours to avoid going over the £90,000. Many one‑person enterprises will never have to worry about VAT as their turnover will never reach this.
But for small businesses like food and corner shops that have a very low profit margin but high turnover and are approaching the limit, the extra administration, costs, and time can be devastating. Also, they are usually open long hours, so do they employ somebody to help and stay open even longer to help pay the extra costs and tax?
Don't start a business if you are on Universal Credit or want to become a working mum. Your entitlements after the first year from the Department for Work and Pensions will change: your self‑employment earnings will be assumed to be about £1,500 a month, even if you are making nothing. If you are claiming for children and they reach three, you will lose benefits even if you are making no money.
UK economic growth 27/9/26
The UK economic growth has been disappointing and will, in the coming year, be more affected by borrowing costs, government debts, and the Iran war, which will not be fixed for a long time. Anybody who thinks it will, be fixed only has to look at the war in Ukraine.
Inflation is rising, with food, energy, and fuel prices increasing. Higher costs for raw materials and taxes will impact all consumers and businesses except defence, AI and electronics, technology, and protected businesses. Manufacturing is slowing due to weak consumer demand, with people's personal finances under pressure and expectations about the increasing rise in costs. Businesses have increased and will continue to increase prices.
Households are bracing for a sharp rise in energy costs this winter, with bills rising faster than shop prices at this time, so it is little surprise that expectations of retail spending have fallen even as overall spending has plateaued at this time.
Employment has fallen, especially in the service sector, as consumer spending declines.
Andy Burnham State pension, Landlords and Energy.
Andy Burnham said the change to the National Care Service would generate significant savings while ensuring that the state pension holds its value relative to earnings over time. "Pensioners will always share in the rising prosperity of the nation," he promised. Burnham also promised that the state pension would hold its value relative to earnings over time, but the people on the old state pension haven't got a pension with any value. The oldest are treated as though they are dispensable and not worthy of a fair pension amount, as it is low and well below the minimum wage. The majority of people want to keep the triple lock as the pension is so low anyway and you can't live on it as it is now.
If the revisions to the triple lock had been in place 15 years ago, pensioners on the basic state pension would be worse off by more than £560 a year, or £11 per week. Since the triple lock's introduction, the full basic state pension given to older pensioners who hit state pension age before April 2011 has increased from £102.15 per week to £184.90 over 15 years — it has only gone up by £82.75 a week, not sufficient to live on today. The triple lock has only been used six times over this period. If the link to wages had not been there it would have only risen to about £170 a week.
Any reduction in the basic state pension would be a real financial problem for older pensioners. How can it benefit pensioners if £15bn is taken out of their pensions by 2040? It looks like he told the cabinet what was going to happen, so is Andy Burnham biased? Also, the cost of bed and board will not be paid for. Why do they not rein in benefit spending for people who do not, won't to work?
It's right that the pension in the future could be linked to earnings growth so workers and pensioners get the same rises, but if they remove the triple lock and the link to inflation now, people on the old pension will not have enough to live on as it really matters to them. One of the arguments is that while young people are struggling to find jobs and get on the housing ladder, pensioners' incomes are rising. It is over-taxation that is destroying jobs. People of 18 to 24 years old are concerned, but when they come to get their pension they will get less as it will not have increased as much with the triple lock gone, so they are going to be worse off. By keeping it they will get more to live on later in life.
Andy Burnham spoke about the experience of his own family: "care not worthy of the name," he said. "The current system is an indictment of my generation of politicians." This grandmother's modest savings she had built up and the house where I was born were all taken to pay for it.
This attack on landlords about renting — the worst-quality homes will be given warnings to improve them, and if they refuse ministers will legislate if necessary to make it easier for councils to acquire those homes. But what if they don't have the money to improve them because of all the taxes and bad tenants? If they give the councils powers to take them, they will at every opportunity and will make this happen to get the properties for nothing. He complained about this in his speech about his family home being taken; now he proposes to do the same to others, take their property.
There's slavery going on now by Scottish councils taking people's money, belongings and homes through enforced non-domestic rates by bailiffs on empty property owners — especially shops — as they have an ever-ending liability imposed on them. Does he care about these poor people?
He speaks about energy. Why is there a link between domestic and international energy? Politicians are deliberately making electricity expensive and destroying the planet as well. Some days renewables are generating most of the power we use. Why are they deliberately keeping electricity prices high? This could have been fixed to give the UK cheap electricity years ago: take all taxes off every kind of sea, wind and solar mass produce, produce them in the UK as cheaply as possible and give the people and industry cheap power. No, they just won't cut the tax at any cost, but cheap energy would give this country a tremendous advantage over many other countries. Politicians have forgotten they are there for the people, not their overpaid jobs.
"I will try my best to find common ground, but let me be clear: where I can't agree with others I will fight hard for what I believe to be right and what I believe to be in the best interests of the country," Burnham later warned in his speech. And his statement "good growth in every postcode, hope in every heart" — what do they think?