Top tips on tightening your business’s belt, the Bank of England base rate remains high, and could online restaurant reviews be used by AI to detect illness outbreaks?
In today’s news, we give you some top tips on saving money within your business’s processes, the Bank of England base rates stays the same as predicted, and could AI be utilised to identify potential outbreaks of illness?
Cutting wasteful spending: What your business can learn from the government’s crackdown
The government has just announced that thousands of government credit cards will be cancelled as part of a crackdown on wasteful spending. With spending on these cards reportedly increasing fourfold in the last four years, it’s a reminder that keeping an eye on expenses is crucial.
While your business is likely much more mindful of costs than a government department – where inefficiencies can go unchecked – this is still a great opportunity to review your own spending and see if there’s any waste you can cut out.
Are you spending more than you need to?
Even in a profit-driven business, unnecessary spending can creep in without you realising it. Some common areas where businesses overspend include:
- Subscription services: Are you paying for software or memberships you no longer use? It’s easy to forget about recurring costs that add up over time.
- Travel and entertainment expenses: While meetings and networking are important, are you getting real value from every trip or client dinner?
- Office supplies and equipment: Are you making the most of bulk discounts and supplier negotiations, or could you be getting a better deal?
- Consultancy and external services: If you outsource work, are you regularly checking that it’s cost-effective, or could an in-house solution save you money?
Simple steps to reduce waste
If you want to tighten up your spending and make sure every pound is working for you, here are some practical steps to take:
- Review your expenses: Take a look at your spending over the last year and identify anything that isn’t delivering real value.
- Set approval processes: Introduce spending limits and require approvals for larger expenses to keep things under control.
- Use expense tracking tools: Software can help you see where your money is going in real-time, making it easier to spot savings.
- Negotiate with suppliers: Regularly review your supplier contracts to make sure you’re getting the best price possible.
- Update employee expense policies: Make sure your team knows what’s acceptable to claim and encourage cost-conscious decisions.
- Compare with industry standards: Benchmark your spending against similar businesses to see where you might be overspending.
How we can help
We’re here to help you keep your finances in top shape. We can review your expenses, identify cost-saving opportunities, and help you to make any needed improvements to your financial controls.
If you’d like to make sure your business isn’t wasting money unnecessarily, get in touch with us today. Cutting out waste doesn’t just protect your bottom line – it also helps your business grow stronger in the long run!
No change to Bank of England base rate
The Bank of England held its regular meeting to discuss interest rates last Thursday.
They voted to hold interest rates at 4.5% as had been widely expected prior to the meeting.
The Bank targets an inflation rate of 2% and has already predicted that inflation will rise this year before dropping at the end of the year. However, inflation for the 12 months to January 2025 increased to 3.0% from 2.5% in December, a much higher and faster increase in inflation than had been expected.
The Bank have been taking a cautious approach to reducing the rate, and more cuts are expected during 2025. However, with the increases in the amount of national insurance paid by employers and national minimum wage rates taking effect in April, the Bank is having to tread a fine line between slowing price rises and risking damaging the economy by having rates too high.
Could online restaurant reviews be used by AI to detect illness outbreaks?
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is exploring Artificial Intelligence’s (AI) ability to help them detect and investigate foodborne illness outbreaks.
UKHSA experts have conducted a study where they have assessed different types of AI on their ability to analyse online restaurant reviews and pick out indications of foodborne gastrointestinal illnesses. They hope that one day this could be used to help them to detect and, where necessary, investigate.
How successful was the study?
There were a number of challenges identified in the study that limit the usefulness of the analysis. These would need to be addressed for this use of AI to become reliable and useful, and include:
- Difficulties accessing real-time data.
- Determining exactly which ingredient or factor has caused the illness.
- Differences in spelling and use of slang by users.
- People not correctly attributing the illness to which meal.
Unsurprisingly, Professor Steven Riley, Chief Data Officer at UKHSA said: “Further work is needed before we adopt these methods into our routine approach to tackling foodborne illness outbreaks.”
While this use of AI remains a work-in-progress, efforts to look at ways to use AI to innovate are becoming widespread and leave business owners wondering how AI could benefit their business.
See: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ai-could-help-detect-and-investigate-foodborne-illness-outbreaks
A week left to submit 2024 packaging data
For affected businesses there is now just a week left to submit their 2024 packaging data under the new extended producer responsibility for packaging (pEPR) scheme.
Requirement to submit data and register
The new legislation came into force on 1st January 2025 and requires data to be submitted by 1 April 2025. Large businesses are expected to submit their July-December 2024 data, whereas small businesses must submit their January-December 2024 data in one annual submission by that date.
All businesses, regardless of size, also need to register with their environmental regulator by 1 April 2025. The fee is set based on the details provided during the registration process.
Failing to register or submit the required data can result in enforcement action.
What is the purpose of pEPR?
The pEPR legislation is moving the costs of dealing with household packaging waste onto the businesses that produce the packaging.
Clearly the fees provide motivation to reduce unnecessary packaging, However, if your business is affected by the legislation, innovating your packaging may take some time to achieve.
If you need help with budgeting for the additional costs or assessing their financial impact, please get in touch and we would be happy to help you!
Where can I get more information?
Guidance on registering can be found here.
If you are not sure whether you need to report packaging data, government guidance on who is affected and what to do can be found here.