Lanarkshire-based Accountants Plus has reached a major milestone with the establishment of a new headquarters building in Motherwell’s Airbles Road. The move follows a period of growth, with annual fee income increasing almost four‑fold in seven years from around £750,000 in 2019 to &p
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Net borrowing of mortgage debt by individuals increased to £6.2 billion in March, from £5.2bn in February, above the previous 6-month average of £4.9bn, according to The Bank of England's latest Money and Credit release covering March 2026 The data points to a pickup in lending act
HSBC has reported a small drop in first-quarter profit after a sharp rise in credit charges, driven by a fraud-related exposure in its UK investment banking arm and the fallout from the conflict in the Middle East, overshadowed solid revenue growth across the lender's wealth and interest income busi
Scottish jam and marmalade maker Mackays has narrowed its annual losses, with the Arbroath-based business reporting a pre-tax loss of £958,455 for the year ended 31 December 2025, compared to a restated loss of £1.22 million in the prior year – a reduction of around 22%. Turnover r
An Italian national who attempted to defraud a Singapore watch retailer has been sentenced to seven months in prison, in a case that hinged on one extraordinary irony: the watch he believed to be counterfeit was entirely genuine. Singh Deepak, 24, had purchased a Rolex GMT Saru from an acquaintance
The Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust (EWIT) is faced with a significant boardroom overhaul as the New York-based activist investor Saba Capital Management seizes control. At the trust's AGM, which took place today, Saba won the vote to appoint three directors to the trust’s board. With fiv
Restructuring, turnaround and insolvency trade association, R3, has appointed Sonia Jordan, a solicitor and partner at Knights, with more than 30 years’ experience advising on corporate restructuring and recovery, as president. Ms Jordan has been actively involved with R3 for many years, most
Lloyds Banking Group has posted a 33% rise in statutory profit before tax to £2.0 billion, for the first quarter of 2026, but has shared concerns over the economic impact of the Middle East conflict. The Bank of Scotland-owner's Q1 growth was underpinned by an 8% rise in underlying net interes
The Housing Finance Corporation has pledged £550 million in funding to support the delivery of affordable housing across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Global sport is powered not just by competition, but innovation – and World IP Day highlights the critical need to protect the talent, entrepreneurship and technology behind all of that work, writes Alastair Smith Fine margins are everything in elite sport. We will see that on the global stage
UK taxpayers have handed over £938.8 billion in tax in 2024/25, a 9.3% rise on the previous year, according to HMRC's annual bulletin, as frozen thresholds and rising asset values are quietly eroding household wealth. Inheritance tax receipts reached a new record high of just under £8.5b
Scottish entrepreneurs are confident about their own business prospects in the upcoming tax year, despite pessimism over the wider UK economy, according to Rathbones. A survey of more than 1,000 SME founders, owners and senior executives found that two thirds (66%) of those in Scotland feel confiden
Recent data has remained positive for the Scottish economy, but the outlook for future growth is being dampened by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, according to the Fraser of Allander Institute. In its latest Quarterly Economic Commentary, the Institute has downgraded its 2026 growth forecas
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is convening a summit with the heads of UK banks this Wednesday to address the economic fallout from the war in Iran. The Chancellor has invited executives from Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, Santander UK and Nationwide to the meeting, which will include figures such as Na
Almost half (49%) of the 55 profit warnings issued by UK-listed companies in Q1 2026 cited the impact of policy change and geopolitical uncertainty as a leading factor, according to EY-Parthenon’s latest Profit Warnings report. This marked the highest quarterly proportion recorded for this cau
