A new business council has been appointed by the UK Prime Minister to report from the business frontlines and to encourage stability and growth in the UK economy.
Fourteen business leaders, from a range of sectors across the UK economy, join the Prime Minister’s new Business Council. Chief Executives from AstraZeneca, NatWest Group and BAE Systems are among the fourteen business leaders joining the council, alongside SSE, Google Deepmind, Sainsbury’s and Vodafone. Other companies represented on the council include GSK, Aviva, Shell, Sage, Taylor Wimpey, Diageo and Barclays.
These leaders are recognised as trusted experts in their respective fields and are in charge of some of the country’s biggest employers in strategically important industries for UK growth, from construction, life-sciences and tech, to financial services and energy.
Together, they employ around 330,000 people across the country, with an even greater reach throughout their supply chain and a presence globally too.
The newly appointed Business Council will be a forum to bring a real-world perspective on how the current economic climate is impacting business and how government and industry can work together to boost investment and innovation, drive productivity and create highly skilled jobs.
Only time will tell if the UK government listens to the appointed business leaders. Certainly, encouraging investment, removing barriers to trade, and encouraging new opportunities would be welcomed by all businesses.
Unregulated Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) agreements will fall under full FCA regulation from 15 July 2026. For the first time, BNPL lenders will need to meet the same expectations as other consumer-credit providers. With almost 11 million UK adults using BNPL in 2024, according to an FCA survey, this is a significant change.
The government has published the draft secondary legislation for the UK’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which is due to go live on 1 January 2027. This is an important development for UK businesses importing affected materials.