But you hit a snag. Spotify does not approve of fake streams, and takes great pains to detect and stop them. You can’t scale your operation without it looking very fishy that a handful of your songs are apparently so newly popular. Luckily, you have a solution: artificial intelligence.

• Will AI give us new McCartney and Dylan albums in 2060?

This is allegedly the solution embraced by a music producer in the US, who was indicted for massive streaming fraud this month. The indictment accuses him of buying up to 10,000 AI-generated songs a month from an AI music company, distributing them on multiple streaming platforms, and spreading out his fake streams among them to avoid detection. He reportedly made $12 million over five years from this venture.

There were only about five AI music companies in existence at the start of the period covered by the indictment, and I was the CEO of one of them. (Not this one, I hasten to add.) But if you came up with this scheme today, you wouldn’t need to be in contact with an AI music company, or spend any money on these tracks at all. You can now easily, for zero expense, use AI to generate as many songs as you like.

Some people are excited about our new-found AI-powered ability to create at will any digital media — images, videos, text, speech, music — such that it’s indistinguishable from the best human output. It may lead to cheap AI assistants, more people making art and even AI surpassing our skills of technological invention. But it also presents serious issues for which we currently have no good answers.

Fraud — of which you can be sure there are many more examples waiting to emerge — is just the first. Deepfakes are another, and are altogether more frightening. Children from the US to South Korea are being sent deepfaked pornographic images of themselves by classmates. Similar images of Taylor Swift were seen 27 million times on X (formerly Twitter) before they were taken down. People have been able to create material like this for years but the difficulty of its creation used to be a bottleneck. Thanks to AI, that bottleneck has been removed.

• OpenAI launches new model with human-like reasoning

The deluge of AI-generated content also threatens our ability to sift truth from lies. A Google image search for Beethoven returns an AI image as the top hit. Faked images of Taylor Swift fans supporting Trump were reshared by the former president himself. AI chatbots, which many think will replace Google, regularly mix fact with fiction — every single one. And that’s before we come to the difficulty of examining students in the era of ChatGPT, and the huge impact on the creative job market that simple economics tells us will come from an explosion of supply.

I know lots of people at AI companies, and, in private, they are clear: AI will let anyone write a novel. AI will let people swing elections. Long before we get to Terminator-style end-of-world scenarios, we are entering a time when anyone can create any image, fake any audio, write any article, in a matter of seconds. I am generally pro-technology. But even the pro-technology among us should ask: have we really thought this through?

Ed Newton-Rex is chief executive of the AI non-profit Fairly Trained and a composer

In a poll of the industry by Cornwall Insight, the energy consultancy, and Weightmans, the law firm, 75 per cent of respondents said that being able to get a timely grid connection was the biggest hurdle to boosting the level of clean power on the UK’s energy system.

Under the present system, it can take up to 15 years for some wind and solar farms to secure a connection to the grid.

The pipeline of renewable projects, from scoping to being under construction, stands at more than 540 gigawatts. A report by the Commons environmental audit committee this year found that there was more than twice the amount of energy generation in the queue than was needed to achieve the previous government’s 2035 net zero power target.

However, the new analysis has indicated that more than 60 per cent of projects in the grid connection queue did not see any change in their developmental status between 2018 and 2023.

The hold-ups in the system pose a challenge to stretching targets that have been set out by Labour to double onshore wind, triple solar power, and quadruple offshore wind by 2030, as part of a commitment to decarbonise the UK’s electricity system by the end of the decade.

A previous study by Cornwall suggested that solar and wind power is on course to account for about 44 per cent of the nation’s electricity supply by 2030, a long way short of the estimated 67 per cent that the energy sector consultancy believes would be needed to hit net zero, with the slow pace of grid connections a key reason.

The Electricity System Operator, which is responsible for keeping the lights on and administering grid connections, set out a plan at the end of last year to reform the process so that connections to the electricity network will be awarded to projects that can be built the soonest, under reforms designed to prevent “zombie” projects blocking access to the grid. The new “first ready, first connected” process is due to go live at the start of next year.

The ESO was sold by National Grid to the government last week under plans to create a state-backed National Energy System Operator that will bring oversight of the electricity and gas systems together for the first time.

Matthew Chadwick, lead analyst at Cornwall Insight and author of the report, said that viable projects were being delayed by others that are “stalled or speculative”, leaving ready-to-connect projects stuck behind those unlikely to progress.

“Efforts by various stakeholders aim to accelerate connections and maximise the available renewable capacity. There have been positive signs from the new government that changes to the system, from planning consent changes to prioritising shovel-ready projects are on the way and Ofgem’s letter this week reaffirms the appetite for progress.

“However, there are concerns that current reforms may not go far enough or take effect fast enough. What’s clear is that without a more streamlined grid connection process, the 2030 targets will be out of reach.”

Delays in securing planning permission were cited as the second biggest barrier to increasing renewable energy on the system. The government has promised sweeping reforms of the planning system to speed up the process and lifted a de facto ban on onshore wind developments in England and Wales, as one of its first acts in office.

ESO said: “To deliver a clean and secure power system for 2030 and beyond, the connections process has to become fit for purpose. We are working closely with industry, government and the regulator to deliver the necessary reforms at pace to modernise and accelerate the connections process”

Officials at the Serious Fraud Office had applied for orders originally to protect their investigations into alleged offences by individual executives after the FTSE 100 mining company pleaded guilty two years ago to a corporate charge of paying about £22 million in bribes.

The five former Glencore executives also made submissions to the court in 2022 for their identities to remain anonymous in future criminal proceedings.

But sitting in Southwark crown court in London, Lord Justice Fraser has discharged the orders, meaning that the five individuals can be named.

None is accused of any criminal offence, but they are cited in the prosecution’s case against six other former executives who have been charged with bribery offences and who are set to stand trial later this year.

The six made their first appearances at Westminster magistrates’ court several days ago and have so far not entered pleas.

The proceedings are set to be heard at Southwark crown court, with the next hearing scheduled for October 9.

Two years ago in October, the Serious Fraud Office applied to withhold the names of 17 individuals and three companies from a case summary that was submitted to the court in advance of the company’s sentencing.

Of those, the five former Glencore executives supported the application for anonymity, while lawyers for the company were neutral.

Spotlight on Corruption, a campaign group, was joined by several media organisations to oppose the application for anonymity. They argued that such an order with no time limit would go beyond what was required to protect a possible future prosecution of individuals.

But Fraser granted the application — although not in the unlimited terms sought by prosecutors.

Explaining his decision, the judge noted at the time that the SFO was in the middle of an active investigation and that the order should be reassessed once charging decisions were made.

At the time, the court said that the order should be reassessed by April 2023. But the SFO’s investigation took significantly longer than anticipated, resulting in three extensions of the order.

Now that the agency has charged six former executives — and said that it had aimed to charge another who has refused to travel to the UK from abroad — the orders have been lifted.

Justice campaigners have argued that given the public interest in the Glencore case — the company reported revenue of £218 billion last year — the identification of those named in court proceedings is a victory for transparency.

Two years ago, Glencore became the first business to be convicted under provisions of the Bribery Act 2010.

The SFO said it would not comment on ongoing proceedings.

The online ticket-seller partially attributed its improved outlook to an increase in the number of passengers comfortable using digital tickets on their smartphones.

The news sent shares in Trainline up 25½p, or more than 8 per cent, to 325¾p, valuing the group at about £1.45 billion. That represents something of a rally following a downward drift since the spring.

The shares were floated at 350p in 2019, two decades after the company was originally founded by Virgin Group, subsequently passing through a number of pairs of hands.

The stock went above 500p before Covid-19 pretty much shut the railways. They topped that peak in 2021, during one of the false dawns that the coronavirus was in abeyance.

Since the pandemic receded the business has had to grapple with large numbers of former commuters working from home and a long-running series of strikes by train workers demanding pay rises.

Trainline reported that revenues in the six months to the end of August grew 16 per cent to £229 million on record total ticket sales of more than £3 billion, up 14 per cent year on year.

Trainline had previously guided that it believed its revenues would increase by between 7 per cent and 11 per cent and that ticket volumes would be increasing by between 8 per cent and 12 per cent.

With a run rate in the first half nearly double what had been hoped, the company indicated it was reasonably confident that the outcome for the full year would be at the top of those ranges.

More crucially it said that profitability would be far better than hoped. It had previously said it reckoned that its operating earnings would come in at between 2.4 per cent and 2.5 per cent of ticket sales. It now says it believes operating earnings are “now expected to exceed the previously stated guidance range” on ticket sales, which are also trending higher than expected.

On its own projections, the company is on course to have operating earnings of about £150 million, more than 22 per cent higher than the £122 million it did last year.

About two thirds of Trainline’s business is with the UK public and the rest is split between selling tickets to passengers in mainland Europe — Spain and Italy are growing fast because of an increasing amount of competition between different train companies — and corporate customers.

Of its performance in the UK, the company said: “This reflected more people switching to digital tickets [and] reduced impact from strike action versus the prior year.”

“Acting as a big tailwind is a structural shift in the UK for people to use digital tickets rather than paper ones,” Russ Mould, an investment director at share-trading platform AJ Bell, said.

“As more people become accustomed to scanning their phone to get through station barriers, the bigger the opportunity for Trainline to position itself as the go-to place for buying these types of tickets.

“A second tailwind is increased carrier competition in mainland Europe, primarily in Spain and Italy. Trainline has been able to position itself as an easy way to navigate the increasingly complex travel system and get good deals.”

It comes after the Supreme Court last week dismissed an appeal by the football referee body over a £584,000 employment tax liability.

Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) provides referees for all Premier League, English Football League and Football Association competitions, including the FA Cup. Some referees are permanent full-time employees, but others “referee in their spare time and usually have other full-time employment or occupations,” PGMOL told the court.

The case, which has been rumbling on for six years, centres on the employment status of 60 referees who worked for PGMOL in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 tax years. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) issued PGMOL with a £584,000 bill, arguing that they were effectively employees, not freelancers, and so should have been paid and taxed accordingly.

The tax office said that income tax and national insurance contributions should have been deducted from their pay instead of letting them handle their own tax affairs.

PGMOL disputed the bill in 2018 and the case was initially heard in the first-tier tribunal before eventually winding up in the Supreme Court in June 2023. Its judgment was finally issued last week, when it ruled in favour of HMRC, but fell short of making a final decision, instead referring the case back down to a lower court for reconsideration.

Waqar Shah from the law firm Kingsley Napley said that HMRC could use the court’s decision to “ramp up inquiries” into freelancers and the companies who employ them to raise extra tax revenue.Andrew Chamberlain from the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed, a not-for-profit membership organisation, said: “Simply put, this ruling is going to make it harder to be self-employed.

“HMRC, which is under pressure to close the tax gap, may feel emboldened to launch a crackdown on self-employed businesses in the hope it may be better supported by the courts.”

The case was the latest in a string of employment status hearings as HMRC has chased freelancers, celebrities and TV personalities for unpaid tax. They all stem from a complex set of off-payroll working rules (known as IR35 by HMRC), which make sure that workers who provide their services through their own intermediary company pay broadly the same income tax and national insurance as an employee would.

There are many cost benefits for keeping self-employed workers off the payroll. Freelancers who set up a company can pay themselves a small salary and take most of their income in dividends to reduce their tax bill. The tax rate on dividends is lower than on income: 8.75 per cent compared with 20 per cent income tax for basic-rate payers; 33.75 per cent for higher-rate payers compared with 40 per cent; and 39.35 per cent compared with 45 per cent for additional-rate payers.

Companies can also avoid paying employer national insurance, holiday pay or pension contributions by hiring self-employed workers.

But determining a worker’s employment status can be complicated because what constitutes an employee is not clearly defined in law. This is what has led to the legal battles with HMRC.

TV personalities including Gary Lineker, Lorraine Kelly and Adrian Chiles, who work off-payroll but do most of their work and get most of their income from one organisation or programme, have been pursued for taxes because HMRC says they should be treated as regular employees.

• Why Adrian Chiles’s £1.7m HMRC battle matters to the self-employed

In March last year Lineker won his dispute over a £4.9 million tax bill after HMRC accused him of being a disguised employee for his work with BBC and BT Sport.

In 2019 Kelly won her case over a £1.2 million bill. A judge ruled that she was a “self-employed star” rather than an ITV employee.

Chiles’s five-year-long legal battle with HMRC over a £1.7 million tax bill is still going on. In June his case was sent back to the first-tier tribunal to be reviewed again.

In the PGMOL case, the Supreme Court said it was satisfied that two of the three conditions needed to establish an employment relationship for tax purposes had been met. There was evidence of “mutuality of obligation” to provide and undertake work, and a degree of control over the referees, the court said.

But it’s not over yet — the court fell short of making a final decision on whether the referees were effectively employees and so the case has been sent back to the first-tier tribunal to be heard again. No date has yet been set but it is unlikely to be this year.

David Klass from the law firm Hill Dickinson said that even without a final resolution, the court’s decision about the contract could make it harder for self-employed people to get work.

“There is a possibility that it will influence companies to err on the side of caution, and they may be more reluctant to engage with people on a self-employed basis,” he said.

Having more workers on the payroll, with their taxes deducted automatically, would help to fill the gap between the amount of tax owed and how much is paid. The tax office estimates the tax gap was 4.8 per cent in 2022-23 — about £40 billion.

In its manifesto, Labour pledged £855 million a year to help HMRC crackdown on tax avoidance. This is expected to raise a net £5 billion a year by the end of this parliament.

“This is an area ripe for HMRC to look at and recover more taxes from,” Shah said. “Now more than ever, companies need to check the agreements they have in place with freelancers.”

Kaye Adams, who presented Loose Women on ITV, works through her own company. She was taken to court by HMRC but won three times, most recently in January after arguing that she was self-employed when she was a presenter on BBC Radio Scotland in the 2010s.

Commenting on the PGMOL case, Adams said: “What this judgment means for self-employed workers is yet more confusion. After ten years, the Supreme Court has remitted this case back to the first-tier tribunal to make a decision, meaning it is returned to the limbo land it’s been in for a decade. If this legislation is so difficult to understand and apply, surely it should be redrawn rather than endlessly thrashed out at the expense of hard-working people.”

• How do benefits and sick pay work if you’re self-employed

Matt Crawford from the tax adviser Blick Rothenberg said that freelancers caught up in IR35 legal cases may now be inclined to settle their unpaid tax bills with HMRC.

“Two or three years ago, HMRC was losing more cases than it was winning, but this trend has reversed. Those who have a first-tier tribunal case or are in disputes with HMRC may settle because they know the likelihood is HMRC will win,” he said.

HMRC said: “The ruling confirms our long-held position on employment status law and changes nothing, so we have no plans to increase investigations as a result of this judgment.”

Amid a renewed debate over flexible working since the Labour government was elected, 83 per cent of UK bosses have said they believe there will be a return to pre-pandemic ways of working within the next three years, up from 64 per cent a year ago, an annual survey of bosses by KPMG has found.

The research, involving 1,325 chief executives internationally, also found that 81 per cent said they would probably reward employees who came into the office — up significantly from 56 per cent in 2023.

The findings come as companies grapple with creating the optimum operating environment and with the government embarking on contentious workers’ rights reforms, which have unsettled parts of business.

In an interview with The Times this week, Jonathan Reynolds, the business and trade ­secretary, said giving employees the right to work from home or ignore work emails and calls in the evening will make them more “motivated and resilient”.

“It does contribute to productivity, it does contribute to [staff] resilience, their ability to stay working for an employer,” he said. “Good employers understand that their workforce, to keep them ­motivated and resilient, they do need to judge people on outcomes and not a culture of presenteeism.”

• Jonathan Reynolds: Tories’ war on flexible working was bizarre

The same percentage of global bosses who took part in the KPMG survey also increasingly expect a full return to office working in the next three years, while a higher proportion, 87 per cent globally, are likely to reward employees who do so.

Amazon told staff this week they must return to the office five days a week from the start of next year.

In one of the most exacting clampdowns on remote working since the Covid-19 crisis forced companies to introduce changes, Andy Jassy, Amazon’s chief executive, told staff in a memo that “it’s easier for our teammates to learn, model, practice and strengthen our culture; collaborating, brainstorming and inventing are simpler and more effective”.

In addition to staff returning to the office five days a week, Amazon said it would end hot-desking in the US, although it will continue in most of Europe.

In the wide-ranging CEO outlook survey, two-thirds of UK chief executives also said they viewed generative AI (GenAI) as a “positive disruptor”.

Almost three-quarters, 71 per cent, also said it would not fundamentally impact the number of jobs in the market, instead believing existing jobs could be redeployed and the new tech could enable “upskilling”. A further third said it would create more jobs, KPMG found.

Ahead of the government’s budget on October 30, 75 per cent of chief executives in the UK were “upbeat” about their companies’ growth prospects, a slight drop from 77 per cent last year. But business leaders also showed they were less confident in the growth of the UK’s economy compared with last year (79 per cent down from 83 per cent).

Generative AI is an opportunity, not a threat

It seems to have become an accepted fact that generative AI will replace many office jobs. But what if this isn’t the case?

We’ve all seen the reports and articles detailing the negative impact of genAI on our workforces. As a chief executive, I read these and think about the atmosphere of uncertainty they might be creating, damaging morale and demotivating people.

I am not alone in questioning that negative narrative. KPMG’s latest global CEO outlook survey of more than 1,300 chief executives shows the leaders of the world’s biggest businesses see genAI as positive for workers.

We found that 71 per cent of UK chief executives see genAI as an opportunity to try new ways of working, creating a highly skilled and productive workforce without significant job losses. A third even think it will create jobs. We found similar views across the broader population of chief executives globally.

When I look at how we have been introducing AI and genAI at KPMG UK, I can see that it is making the work we do even better.

All our audits are digital. We use AI today to support our teams and the ambition is for all our audits to always be delivered using the latest technology, including genAI, as this will lead to even better-quality audits.

As a graduate auditor I spent many, many — often frustrating — hours transferring data from a ledger. Today our auditors are saved from this grind by our AI-enabled tools, freeing them up to spend more time talking to clients and focusing on the more judgmental areas of the audit.

Of course, implementing genAI doesn’t come without challenges. When I talk to other CEOs the same thorny issues come up time and again: trust, regulation and concerns about a lack of skills. This is why it needs to be implemented with care.

For me, human intelligence combined with artificial intelligence is greater than the sum of their parts. With GenAI we have a genuine opportunity to help solve the UK’s productivity puzzle. There’s a role for the new government to make sure young people are starting out with the right skills. And there’s a role for businesses of all sizes in partnership with government, both national and local, in helping to achieve this.

The genAI story is changing every day and this is only the beginning. But the leaders who do get it right can look to a motivated workforce, empowered to do more interesting and productive work. That’s what I want for my people.

So it’s time to change the story on genAI and to see it as the great enabler of our time.

Jon Holt is chief executive and senior partner at KPMG UK

The regulator Ofgem said that 1,395 Ovo customers were affected by lengthy delays in having their complaints addressed, with some waiting as long as 18 months.

It said there were also delays in the energy supplier taking action on decisions by the Energy Ombudsman. The ombudsman’s decisions are legally binding and suppliers have to implement them within 28 days.

Ovo will pay £378,512 in compensation to affected customers and has paid £2 million to the Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Scheme “in recognition of the severity of consumer detriment caused”, Ofgem said.

Customers will be contacted directly by Ovo, the regulator added.

Jacqui Gehrmann, deputy director of retail compliance at Ofgem, said: “Ovo failed to adequately protect and respond to their customers when it was needed most. This is not acceptable.

“Consumers deserve a clear and timely response when they make a complaint, and that’s why we stepped in quickly when we identified that Ovo’s performance was falling below acceptable standards.”

Ofgem first contacted Ovo in June last year after reported concerns over the time taken to address complaints referred by Citizens Advice Scotland’s Extra Help Unit, as well as to action decisions from the Energy Ombudsman.

The ombudsman said: “We welcome today’s news that, following compliance engagement between Ofgem and Ovo, consumers will be compensated for Ovo’s failures to implement the remedies set by the Energy Ombudsman.

An Ovo spokeswoman said: “We recognise that a particular group of our customers in 2023 waited longer than we’d like for a resolution and were overdue a response from us, so we’ve sent them a letter of apology and compensation to help.”

Ovo was founded in 2009 to challenge British Gas, EDF Energy and E.on. It is now one of the biggest energy suppliers in the country.

Since then, she has painted a bleak picture of her economic inheritance while Sir Keir Starmer, the prime minister, has warned about tax rises needed to help plug a £22 billion black hole. The gloomy message was blamed last week for a sharp fall in the closely watched GfK measure of consumer confidence.

So, as Reeves prepares to invite international investors to a key summit to attract billions of pounds of investment into Britain before her first budget on October 30, what is on the minds of business leaders?

Aurrigo makes autonomous vehicles at its factory in Coventry where it employs 110 people. It listed on London’s junior market AIM two years ago.

David Keene, 60, chief executive, said he wanted to see a clear strategy from the government about its approach to industry and the economy. “Getting to that quickly would be a really important thing for the government right now because they’ve been brought in on a mandate [for change],” said Keene.

He said the messaging of, “We’ve got this £22 billion black hole, it’s all terrible and the country’s falling to pieces” needed to be replaced with a more positive spin.

“Where’s the plan for the growth?” he said. Once it was clear what the government’s intentions were, it would be easier for companies like his own to plan, he added.

“Our company’s doing really well and we’re beating the world on what we’re doing but the narrative over the top of it, it’s not great from a country point of view.”

The tech hub

DefProc Engineering is based on Liverpool Science Park after being founded in 2013 by Jen Fenner and her husband Patrick, the head of engineering. It employs six people, working on design projects for a wide range of companies. It helped develop Remlok, a remotely operated medicine cabinet for pharmacists.

Jen Fenner, 41, the managing director, has detected caution among her clients. “One of the things we’ve noticed, particularly over the last 12 months, is where people used to come to us with a budget ready for their innovation work, they are now wanting to de-risk everything. It would take maybe two to three months to land an innovation project, now it’s taking maybe six, sometimes 12,” she said.

She said the government had talked about innovative industries being an important driver for economic growth but called for clarity on key areas, such as whether hydrogen was a key part of the green economy.

Fenner also said that changes to the way HMRC was handling tax credits on R&D were delaying decisions because firms were no longer able to self-submit their applications. She added: “Business has been incredibly uncertain for a lot of people and our clients are very much looking to keep control of costs because they’re not sure where the economy is going.”

The floor maker

Based in Coventry, where it employs 400 of its 650 staff, Amtico makes wood-like flooring and is now part of the American family-owned company Mannington Mills.

Jonathan Duck, 63, the chief executive, said his business had been faring better than some rivals because its product tended to be used in expensive projects.

Even so, he said some customers might be delaying orders because of the government’s plans to charge VAT on school fees. “That just puts people off doing house renovations while they try and work out their numbers,” said Duck. “It’s the constant law of unintended consequences.”

For the same reason, Duck urged caution on plans to give workers more employment rights. “You get these arguments that workers have got these rights in Belgium or Ireland, say. Unfortunately, I’m not competing with Belgium and Ireland. I’m competing with China and Vietnam and America.”

The energy user

Family-owned Robinson Brothers is based in West Bromwich and employs 250 people in its chemical factories, where among other things it makes the smell that is put into the gas pumped into homes.

Adrian Hanrahan, 63, the chief executive, said he wanted the “obstacles” the business had faced in recent years to be removed. He pointed to the rise in energy prices after Russia invaded Ukraine as the reason the firm had to make 30 redundancies last year. The 10 per cent rise in the minimum wage in March to £10.42 hour also hit his costs, as other staff wanted comparative rises.

Hanrahan sees plans to change employment rights as a new obstacle, particularly the suggestion that probation periods may be ended. “It worries me that the ability for us to release people because of their unsuitability for the job, that it’s going to be curtailed.”

And he pleaded for a more positive tone from the government: “Just get on with it and give us some hope.”

The manufacturer

The 65-year-old business Rutland Plastics employs 150 people and makes moulds for use in the medical, electronics and engineering industries.

Stuart Johnston, 47, the chief executive, said that there seemed to be mixed messaging from the government. “There’s certainly a feeling that while we’ve got a new government and they’re saying they want to listen to business, the messages they are putting out don’t seem very supportive of business.”

One of his key concerns is recruiting staff so he is scrutinising Labour’s workers’ rights plan. He partly blamed Brexit as two longstanding colleagues from Romania face being forced to leave because their applications for settled status have been rejected. “One of the problems we have is getting people who are good enough. We don’t have access to people who want to work and have the capability.”

Johnston is also watching for confirmation that Labour’s pre-election pledge to keep capital allowances — which allow the costs of investment to be deducted before tax is due — are not reduced. “This is a massive thing for manufacturers,” he said.

The entrepreneur

Jen Fuller set up her baby sensory products business Etta Loves eight years ago and sells online and through retailers such as John Lewis. She employs four people in Sudbury, Suffolk.

Fuller, 44, wants policies from the government to help the economy grow and boost consumer confidence, which has been battered by concerns about interest rates and the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. “We’ve had a sense as a business that there’s been such uncertainty since the beginning of the year that it has really been playing out in how people have been spending or not spending. It’s been incredibly hard to forecast and manage all our stocks.”

She felt that trading should improve in the last three months of the year, particularly as interest rates had started to to be cut by the Bank of England. “That should be stimulating greater consumer spending,” she said.

“I want to feel that the economy is moving in the right direction towards enabling growth and therefore my customers to feel more confident, have more money in their pockets and feel more confident spending with my business.”

The adviser

Gravita is a private-equity backed accountancy firm targeted at small businesses and those listed on London’s junior market, AIM. It has about 400 employees.

Caroline Plumb, 45, the chief executive, said her clients were concerned about potential changes to capital gains tax that could affect how much tax entrepreneurs pay when they sell their businesses. Some entrepreneurs were trying to complete deals before any changes, she added. “My sense of what small businesses are worried about, particularly the owner-managers we talk to, are around capital gains tax and what that means for wealth creators as opposed to those who have wealth,” she said.

Clients were wondering whether the tax incentives to encourage investment would also be introduced for software. They were also discussing the implications of giving workers more rights. “Businesses want to know how do you encourage risk-taking and agility if at the same time you’re having day-one employment rights. How does that create flexibility?” she said, pointing out that start-up businesses often have to be agile in changing their employment needs in order to survive.

Getting on to the property ladder can be daunting amid high house prices, especially in London, and parental assistance can turn the dream of homeownership into a reality. For parents who have the money there are several ways you can help.

One of the simplest ways is to give your child money for their deposit. This can significantly reduce the amount they have to borrow and make it easier to get a mortgage. Lenders usually require a letter confirming that the money is a gift and not a loan. Parents who are older should take professional advice, however, because giving away money may have inheritance tax consequences.

Family-focused mortgages

Joint borrower sole proprietor mortgages allow the child to buy a property in their own name and add the parent’s name to the mortgage, but not all lenders offer them. Both incomes are taken into account when the lender decides how much can be borrowed, so it can boost the loan size and mean your child can afford a more expensive property. Both parties will be equally responsible for repayments, so it’s essential to understand the risks involved.

A parent should consider taking independent legal advice to confirm that they understand their liability for the mortgage — they will not have an interest in the actual property, but will be on the hook if their child cannot make their repayments. Without being on the title deeds, it is possible to avoid the additional 3 per cent second-home stamp duty surcharge that would be payable if the parent was on the deeds and already owned their own property.

• Best mortgage rates

The Barclays Family Springboard mortgage allows family members to help a loved one get on or up the property ladder. It has two elements: the borrower and the helper. Parents, or whoever is helping the buyer, provide a 10 per cent security deposit, which is held in an account called Helpful Start.

The buyer can then buy a property with as little as no personal deposit. After five years, the 10 per cent contribution will be released back to the parent, with interest added (restrictions may apply), and the property owner continues with their mortgage as normal.

Halifax’s Family Boost mortgage allows a family member to put 10 per cent of the agreed property purchase price into a savings account, which is then locked away for three years to earn interest. It enables the first-time buyer to get a mortgage at 95 per cent to 100 per cent loan-to-value (LTV). The buyer or family member has to hold a Halifax Reward current account to apply.

First-time buyer schemes

The shared ownership scheme allows eligible buyers to get a mortgage for a share of a property (usually between 25 per cent and 75 per cent) and to pay rent on the remaining value at a discounted rate. Rent is paid to the housing association or private developer who owns the building.

The deposit can be as little as 5 per cent of the price of the share that you buy, rather than of the whole property. Over time, buyers can increase their share until they own the property outright. The properties are usually sold on a leasehold basis, so there will probably be a monthly service charge. To qualify in the London area, the annual household income has to be less than £90,000.

The Lifetime Isa is a tax-free savings account that could help your sons to buy their first home, or to save for later in life. Savers aged between 18 and 40 can put away up to £4,000 each year until they are 50. The big plus is that the government adds a 25 per cent bonus, up to a maximum of £1,000 a year. Properties bought with the savings must cost no more than £450,000, which can be tricky in London. If you withdraw the money before the age of 60 for anything other than to buy a first home, you pay a 25 per cent penalty that effectively forfeits the bonus, and a little more on top.

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If an affordable homeownership scheme is not for your sons, or they don’t qualify, there is a choice of mortgages on the market tailored to first-time buyers.

Nationwide’s Helping Hand mortgage allows first-time buyers to borrow up to 95 per cent LTV when taking out a five or ten-year fixed rate. Eligible first-time buyers can borrow up to 20 per cent more with this mortgage than a standard mortgage with Nationwide.

If you are renting with a good track history and looking to buy your first home, or you have not owned a property in the past three years, then Skipton Building Society offers a Track Record mortgage requiring a deposit of 5 per cent or less. The maximum mortgage amount available is £600,000, and the rate is fixed for five years.

First-time buyers can borrow up to 22 per cent more than they usually can with Halifax’s First-Time Buyer Boost mortgage. They need at least a 10 per cent deposit and the total household income of everyone applying must be a minimum of £50,000. All applicants have to be employed, not self-employed.

Accord’s £5,000 deposit mortgage is available only to first-time buyers and offers a 99 per cent LTV with a £5,000 minimum deposit. You have to borrow between £95,001 to £495,000 and you cannot buy a flat or a new-build.

Adrian Anderson is the founder and managing director of Anderson Harris and has been a mortgage broker for more than 20 years