Help to start-up

There are over 5.5m businesses in the UK. If you’re ready to join them, we can help. Check what you need to do to set up your business and how to get help from government-backed schemes.

1. Register your business

Follow our guidance and set up your business . This includes:

  • Rules for your type of business
  • Responsibilities hiring freelance or agency support

2. Write a business plan

Get detailed information on how to write your business plan and download free business plan templates .

3. Get help with tax

If you’re starting a business, you’ll need to understand what tax you may have to pay. Check out the guidance , which covers some helpful topics below

  • Hiring an accountant or tax adviser
  • Check tax code guidance

4. Check your finance options

You could be eligible for a government backed Start Up Loan  of £500 to £25,000 to start or grow your business.

Seaweed & Co applied for a government-backed Start Up Loan which allowed the business to expand into markets in Europe and North America.

“Having the support from Start Up Loans, as a government-backed programme, gave me the confidence to believe in myself and fully make the move to become my own boss.”

Dr Craig Rose, Founder Seaweed & Co.

Company Founder Dr Craig Rose

Your free finance guide to help you get started

The British Business Bank’s finance guide is designed to help you make an informed choice about accessing the right type of finance for your business, whether you’re looking to start-up, scale or grow your business.

Middle aged woman working

Employing people

If you’re looking to employ people for the first time there’s several things you’ll need to consider. We’ve made it easy for you through this helpful checklist .

If you’re looking to employ more people, check out the support available .

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Free resources and network to start or develop your business

The British Library’s Business and IP Centre  network supports small business owners, entrepreneurs and inventors to take the right steps to start up, protect and grow their business. The National Network is delivered through regional and local libraries around Britain, offering insights and access to free resources, training and events to help you imagine, start or develop your business.

Help and advice

Contact the  Business Support Helpline  for general advice and support and speak to someone over the phone or online.

Or find out how your  local growth hub  can help you with advice and support at any stage of your business journey.

Blog / Small business tips / How to start a business in the UK: 9 essential steps

gov co uk business plan

How to start a business in the UK: 9 essential steps

The UK is a booming market for startups – and in 2023, SMEs make up 99.2% of the total business population . Why? Because the idea of starting a business is exciting, and it can be incredibly lucrative. 

However, there’s a lot of things to consider before jumping in. With just over a third of UK startups making it past the five year mark, it’s important to do the necessary preparation to ensure your business is successful. 

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of starting a business from scratch, providing valuable tips to position yourself for both immediate and long-term success.

Table of contents

  • Establish a solid business idea  
  • Conduct research on your idea
  • Create a business plan
  • Register your business
  • Organise your finances and funding  
  • Insure your business
  • Equip your business with the right tools

Develop a marketing plan

Prepare for business growth, wrapping up, 1. establish a solid business idea.

Your business idea should solve a problem for people. While starting a business doing something you love is the dream, you also want to make sure it’s profitable and sustainable. 

Finding the balance between something you love and something you’re good at is a great place to start. Once you’ve coined your idea, you can start researching growth strategies and building the foundations of your business plan.

2. Conduct research on your idea

Good business ideas come from doing plenty of market research.To identify whether your idea is viable, you can start by running SWOT analysis . 

SWOT stands for Strengths , Weaknesses , Opportunities and Threats . It’s a great technique to help you analyse your business idea in more depth, and develop the right strategy.

gov co uk business plan

In addition to your SWOT analysis, you can also conduct primary and secondary research to help you answer certain questions. 

Primary research involves testing your business idea on your target audience using questionnaires, interviews and product trials to answer the following: 

  • Who will buy your product or service
  • How much people are willing to pay for your product or service
  • What people think of your competitors
  • What potential problems your business faces

Secondary research involves looking at existing data to gather information on your potential market. Examples of this data include:

  • Government data
  • Recent surveys and studies
  • Newspaper reports
  • Recent company data

Top Tip: To learn more about why market research is valuable and the various types of market research you can do, read our guide on how to conduct market research for your business idea 🌟

3. Create a business plan

Your business plan serves as a roadmap – it outlines what your business is going to do along with your current and future goals of how you’ll achieve success. 

Your business plan doesn’t need to be incredibly long, but it does need to be comprehensive. It should show that you understand the market, your target customers and your financial plan/funding strategy. 

An effective business plan should include the following:

  • Business summary: An overview of your business and what you plan to achieve.
  • Business description: A brief description of what you plan to offer, why and who to, along with why your idea will be a success.
  • Marketing and sales strategy: Details on your customers, competitors, pricing, distribution and marketing tactics.
  • Products and/or services: A detailed description of the products/services you offer and how they’ll benefit your customers.
  • Organisation structure: Details on your professional credentials, those of your team and the people you plan to employ.
  • Business operations: Details on business location and premises, production and IT systems.

Financial projections: Details on cash flow forecasts , accounts and balance sheets. Key aspects of your financial plan should include income and revenue sources, amount of capital needed, how you plan to repay borrowings and what security you can offer lenders.

4. Register your business

Once you’ve conducted your research and your business is market-ready, it’s time to figure out the legal structure for your business. 

There are three main types to choose from when starting a small business in the UK – sole trader, limited company or partnership. 

Sole trader: A self-employed person who owns and runs their own business individually. Registration with HMRC is free and you keep all of the business profits after tax – which is paid through the Self Assessment tax system. 

Limited company: A company with a legal identity separate from owners and directors. It limits personal liability as company finances and tax are kept separate. This usually requires onboarding an accountant to help manage this, but it’s not mandatory. Your limited company must be registered with Companies House and HMRC. 

Partnership: Similar to a sole trader setup but the partnership, as well as the individuals, must be registered for Self Assessment. A partnership must dissolve if one partner leaves.  

For your business to be official, you need to register with HMRC or an approved formation agent of Companies House, like we are. 

At Tide, we have a business name checker where you can check your company name availability for free. 

Once you have a business name, you can easily register your business with Tide for free and benefit from opening a separate business current account at the same time. 

gov co uk business plan

5. Organise your finances and funding

A business bank account is a key starting point as it separates your business and personal finances.

It makes you look more professional and keeps your finances more organised. As a result, bookkeeping and tax preparation will be easier to manage.

If you’re wondering how you can start a small business with no money – don’t worry, there are many ways to fund your business and cover startup costs. These include:

  • Small business start up loans: You can get a startup loan or small business loan from a range of lenders to use for working capital, inventory, equipment and more. Use our business loans calculator to see how much you can borrow (this will depend on your revenue and credit score).
  • Start-up grants: There are several government and EU-backed initiatives offering business grants including British Small Business Grants , InnovateUK and Horizon Europe . Grants are issued on a case-by-case basis, and if you are successful, money doesn’t have to be paid back. 
  • Angel investments: Angel investors are investors who give new business owners capital in exchange for equity. While they lend entrepreneurial experience to help you get ahead in the market, they will become a stakeholder and therefore will gain partial control of your business.
  • Crowdfunding: This method of sourcing business capital has become increasingly popular, and traditionally involves a large number of people donating small amounts of money to finance a business venture. Alternatively you can ask friends and family to invest in return for equity or a reward. 

Top Tip: One of the best ways to widen your business funding options is to improve your credit score. Register your business, open a Tide bank account, then grow your creditworthiness with Tide’s Credit Builder 🌟

6. Insure your business

To ensure a safe and protected working environment, you’ll need business insurance. 

Your chosen type of insurance policy will depend on your business operations, but it’s likely you’ll require one or more of the following:

  • Business contents insurance: Covering all stock and materials in the event of damage, theft, fire or natural disaster. This is required even if you work from home and have home contents insurance. 
  • Commercial property insurance: Covering your business premises in the event of damage, theft, fire or natural disaster.
  • Professional indemnity insurance: Protecting you from claims made by unhappy clients.
  • Small business public liability insurance: Protecting you against claims from members of the public who have been injured or suffered property damage due to carelessness. 
  • Employers’ liability insurance: The same as public liability insurance, but for employees.

Business car insurance: Covering any vehicles used for business purposes.

7. Equip your business with the right tools

Your business will run a lot smoother if you invest in the right tools – they can help you make better business decisions and save you time and money. 

While this isn’t a definitive list, here are a few effective tools worth looking into when you start up your business.

You’ve conducted your research and put together your business plan with strategies in place – but how do you start marketing your business? 

There are all kinds of ways to do this: telling friends and family, attending networking events, advertising your product or service in the local press and/or online, and many more. 

The most likely place to see consistent results is through digital marketing. Making up 75% of the UK’s total marketing budget , it has surpassed traditional marketing, growing by 9.6% between 2020 and 2021. 

Below we list the important things to consider when marketing your business .

Get a website

Your website is essentially your online shop front and the place to send customers to find out more about you and your products or services.

Taking only 50 milliseconds to form an opinion about your website , you want to make sure its functionality is seamless. 

Your website should be simple, easy to navigate and organised so that visitors see your most important messages first. To gain credibility, it should work on all devices and operating systems, and only contain true information. 

Budget-friendly developer platforms such as WordPress and Squarespace let you use templates to build user-friendly websites from scratch, without prior design experience.

Optimise for SEO

Once your website is up and running, it’s important to optimise it for search engines (SEO), like Google. This involves researching keywords that potential users might use when looking for your product – and if done correctly, the search engine will point to your website. 

Bear in mind that this is a long-term strategy , so you may not see a rise in traffic volumes straight away.

Deploy a social media strategy

Social media is a sure way to get the attention of potential buyers – with approximately 16.4 million consumers in the UK making purchases via social media channels . 

Posting relevant content that appeals to your target audience will help drive traffic back to your website, where they can find out more about your business and the products/services you sell. 

While it’s not necessary to be on every social media channel, it’s worth doing some research to figure out what the best channels are for your business specifically. 

Facebook and Instagram can be good places to start, as they allow you to sell directly from your social media account. They also offer free ad training to help you market your business effectively.

Scaling your business involves balancing your finances – keeping costs down while remaining profitable. 

Whether you’re expanding marketing operations, introducing new products or collaborating with influencers, your main goal is to increase revenue and build a solid customer base.

Many businesses introduce automation technology to help manage tasks, such as lead generation, accounting and email marketing. 

As your business scales, you’ll need to build a team to handle daily operations – and depending on your business needs, this could be in the form of full-time employees, contractors or freelancers.

How to build your team

There are many ways to hire additional staff . Some of the most common include:

  • Job boards: post open positions, free of charge
  • Recruitment platforms: help in conducting video interviews, screen CVs, and more
  • Freelancer websites: find talent (long or short-term) to assist on specific projects
  • Social media: LinkedIn or Facebook

To start a business, it requires time, dedication, and resilience. Being methodical in your approach, with organised timelines and realistic objectives, can make all the difference between success and failure. 

However, if you’re willing to commit, you have a good chance of achieving your goals. 

Need some help with writing up your very first business plan? You can read our complete guide to writing your company roadmap and creating a business plan . 

You can also find resources from GOV.UK’s business plan hub , including business plan templates and examples to get you started.

Ready to start your business? Register your company with Tide for FREE . It’s incredibly fast, easy and free. We’ll pay the £12 incorporation fee on your behalf. Get a free business current account at the same time, and keep your finances in order from day one. Be your own boss and register your company today 🚀

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com, published on Unsplash

Valentine Hutchings

Valentine Hutchings

Head of Community and small business enthusiast

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Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

gov co uk business plan

Example business plans

gov co uk business plan

Put together your business plan with our tips.

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Where can I find an example of a business plan?

If you’re preparing to write your first business plan and are looking for some useful resources and advice on what elements to include you have come to the right page.

It is essential to have a realistic, working business plan when you’re starting up a business. We have our own section devoted to business planning where there are lots of articles and links to information on writing business plans . The content can show you how to prepare a high quality plan using a number of easy-to-follow steps but also contains more specialist information to help you really fine tune your document, plus advice on presentation and targeting.

If you are specifically looking for advice as a franchisee, check out our article on the 11 things you need to include in a franchise business plan .

There are a range of other sources you may also want to use. An often overlooked source is your Bank who may well have information, examples and templates of business plans:

  • Barclays template and checklist [pdf]
  • Lloyds sample plan [downloadable pdf – see section 4]

The Prince’s Trust offers downloadble pdf, MS Word and Excel templates . They also offer personal advice on completing a plan through their Enterprise programme if you are selected to work with them.

Slideshare has lots of business plans uploaded, which you can browse through here . We liked this thorough 26 page example from The Business Plan Team , as well as a template created by former Deloitte Management Consultants here , and a good example of a colourful, visual plan suitable for a trendy food business here .

An interesting interactive free business plan creator is offered by LawDepot . On the website you are stepped through 7 simple steps using a well-designed graphic interface, and at the end you can output the subsequent plan ready to fill in. There are 12 industries to choose from and it has sections for company structure, product, marketing, SWOT, operations and ‘Fine Details’.

Other Web Resources: Business Plan Templates

You can find examples of business plans for different types of businesses at:

  • ACCA – the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants have 3 example business plans for three different business sectors: Cafe, Import Business, UK Ltd business seeking finance.
  • Bplans – owned and operated by Palo Alto Software Inc., the site has free plans to download and it also has examples for lots of different types of individual or specific market sectors.
  • Expert Hub – based in South Africa, this site has 21 example business plans for different categories.
  • Start Up Loans – offer a downloadable .docx template.
  • Invest Northern Ireland – have a .doc business plan template to download here
  • StartUps.com – have four sample plans that you can access from Google Drive (note, this is a USA site so the examples are US-based, although the formats could still work for a UK business).
  • Examples.com – 20+ example downloadable .pdf plans for different sectors.

Finally, how about a video on the subject? Quite a few examples on Youtube.

How about this one from Craig Frazier?

Further reading on business plans:

  • Advice and the basic tips of writing a business plan
  • A check list of what should be in your business plan

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HELPING SMALL BUSINESSES SUCCEED

MORE DONUTS:

What do you need to know about starting a business?

  • Start up business ideas
  • Set up a business
  • Skills and wellbeing
  • Business planning
  • Financing a business
  • Tax and National Insurance
  • Business law
  • Sales and marketing
  • Business premises
  • Business IT
  • Grow your business
  • Types of business
  • Testing business ideas
  • Product development
  • Is running a business really for you?
  • Start up stories
  • Registering as a sole trader
  • Setting up a limited company
  • Business names
  • Buy a franchise
  • Buying a business
  • Starting an online business
  • Setting up a social enterprise
  • Small business support

Protect your wellbeing from the pressures of starting and running a business and develop key business skills.

  • Dealing with stress
  • Manage your time
  • Self-confidence
  • Write a business plan
  • Business strategy
  • Start up costs
  • Start up funding
  • Setting prices
  • How to work out tax and NI
  • Accounting and bookkeeping
  • Licences and registration
  • Protecting intellectual property
  • Insurance for business
  • Workplace health, safety and environmental rules
  • Looking after your customers
  • Promote your business
  • Your marketing strategy
  • Sales techniques
  • Research your market
  • Creating and optimising a website
  • Commercial premises
  • Premises security
  • People management
  • Recruitment, contracts, discipline and grievance
  • Employment rights
  • Hiring employees
  • Buying IT for your new business
  • Basic IT security
  • Preparing for business growth
  • How to scale up your business
  • Funding business growth
  • Start exporting
  • Personal development

Essential guide to writing a business plan

A group of people working on a business plan

Your business plan outlines what your business does and what you are trying to achieve. It explains what the market opportunity is, what makes your business special and how you will make it a success.

Writing a business plan helps you:

  • check that your business idea makes sense
  • plan your sales, marketing and business operations
  • identify potential problems and how to overcome them
  • set out your objectives and the financial return you expect
  • work out what financing you need
  • convince other people to back your business

Why write a business plan?

How to write a business plan

Your business and products

Your market and competition

Your marketing and sales

Management and personnel structure

Your business operations

Financial performance

SWOT analysis

1. Why write a business plan?

Writing a business plan helps you think about what you are doing.

  • The plan sets out your strategy and action plan for the next one to three years, or sometimes longer.
  • As part of the process, you set concrete objectives and plan how you will achieve them.
  • Writing a business plan helps you focus and develop your ideas. Priorities are identified. Non-priorities are dropped, saving precious time.
  • Putting the plan in writing makes it easier to spot any gaps where you have more work to do.
  • Once written, the plan is a benchmark for the performance of the business.
  • By involving your employees in the planning process, you can build a successful, committed team.

You may need a business plan to explain your idea to other people

  • A business plan is essential if you are raising finance from a bank or outside investors.
  • A good plan can help you attract new senior management, or business partners such as distributors and agents.
  • You should tailor your plan to the target audience. For example, you may want the plan to 'sell' the business to your bank manager or investors.
  • Ask the intended recipient if there are any specific issues they want the plan to address or a template you should follow.

2. How to write a business plan

Base your business plan on accurate, detailed information where possible. But do not include all the detail in the plan. Leave the detail for operational or marketing plans.

Keep the plan short

  • Focus on what the reader needs to know.
  • Cut out any waffle.
  • Make sure there are no spelling mistakes.
  • Detailed business plans are often quickly shelved because they are difficult to use on an ongoing basis.

Include any detailed information you need in an appendix

For example, you might want:

  • detailed financial forecasts and assumptions
  • market research data that backs up what you say
  • CVs of key personnel (essential if you are seeking outside funding)
  • product literature or technical specifications

Base your business plan on reality, or it may be counterproductive

  • Over-optimistic forecasts can lead to increased overheads followed by a cash flow crisis and drastic cost-cutting.
  • Be realistic, even if you are selling the business to a third party. Financiers, business partners and employees will see through over-optimistic plans that ignore weaknesses or threats. Management credibility can be damaged.

Make the plan professional

  • Put a cover on it.
  • Include a contents page, with page and section numbering.
  • Start with an executive summary. This summarises the key points, starting with the purpose of the business plan.
  • Use charts, if helpful.

Even if the plan is for internal use only, write it as if it were aimed at an outsider

  • Include company or product literature as an appendix.
  • Give details about the history and current status of the business.

Review your business plan

  • Read through the plan from your target reader's point of view. For example, try to imagine the impression the plan will make on your bank manager.
  • Check the plan is realistic. Include evidence to back up what you say (perhaps in the appendix) or provide evidence if needed.
  • Make sure you assess the risks. What might go wrong (eg if your main supplier closes down or you lose a key customer) and what would you do about it?
  • Concentrate on the executive summary. People often make provisional judgements based on this. Only then do they read the rest of the plan to confirm their decision.
  • Show the plan to friends, business peers and expert advisers for comments. Which parts did they not understand or find unconvincing?

3. Your business and products

Explain the history of the business.

  • When did it start trading and what progress has it made to date?
  • If the business is just starting up, what is your personal industry background and what progress towards launching the business has been made?
  • Who owned the business originally?
  • What is the current ownership structure?

Describe what your product or service is, avoiding technical jargon if possible

  • In general, what makes your product or service different ?
  • What benefits does it offer? What are its disadvantages and how will you address these?
  • What changes and improvements are you planning?

Explain any key features of the industry

  • For example, any special regulations, whether the industry is dominated by a few large companies or any major changes in technology.

4. Your market and competition

Describe the market in which you sell.

  • Highlight the segments of the market in which you compete. What are the key characteristics of customers in each segment and what influences their purchasing decisions?
  • How large is each market segment? What is your market share?
  • What are the important trends, such as market growth or changing tastes? Explain the reasons behind the trend.
  • What is the outlook for each important market segment?

Describe the nature and distribution of existing customers

  • Do they fit the profile of the chosen market segment? If not, why not?
  • Are sales largely made to one or two major customers?
  • If you are a new start-up, do you have any confirmed orders and who are your best prospects?

Outline the main competition

  • What are the competing products or services ? Who supplies them?
  • What are their advantages and disadvantages compared to you? For example, price, quality, distribution.
  • Why will customers buy your product or service instead? How will your competitors react to losing business and how you will respond?
  • Never openly criticise or underestimate competitors.

5. Your marketing and sales strategy

Where do you position your product or service in the market.

  • Is it high quality and high price?
  • Is it marketed as a specialist product due to a particular feature?
  • What unique benefits does it offer customers? For example, product reliability or customer service.
  • Which of these benefits are you going to highlight?

What is your pricing policy?

  • Explain how price-sensitive your customers are.
  • Look at each product or market segment in turn. Identify where you make your profits and where it may be possible to increase margins or sales or cut costs. Set your pricing accordingly.

How do you promote your product or service?

  • Each market segment will have one or two promotional methods that work best. For example, social media marketing, direct marketing, advertising or PR.
  • If you are considering a new marketing strategy, start small. A failed investment in marketing can be costly.

What sales channels do you use to reach your target customers?

  • For example, do you sell directly to the customer, or through retailers or agents? Do you sell online?
  • Compare your current channels with the alternatives. Note the distribution channels used by your competitors.
  • Look at the positive and negative trends in your chosen distribution channels.

How do you do your selling?

  • Look at the cost-efficiency of each of your sales methods . For example, online sales, in person, through an agent or using telesales.
  • Include all the hidden costs, such as management time when calculating prices or return on investment.
  • Explain how long it takes to make sales (and to get paid for them), what the average sales value is and how likely customers are to give repeat orders.

6. Management and personnel structure

Set out the structure and key skills and experience of the management team and the staff.

  • Clarify how you cover the key areas of production, sales, marketing, finance and administration.
  • Address any areas of deficiency, and your plans to cover this weakness.
  • Explain your recruitment and training plans, including timescales and costs.

Analyse the workforce in terms of total numbers and by department

  • Compare the efficiency ratios with competitors, or with similar industries. Useful figures might be sales, average salaries, employee retention rates and measures of productivity.

Be realistic about the commitment and motivation of the workforce

  • Show how committed you and other members of the management team are. For example, how much you have invested in the business.
  • Consider how you would survive the loss of a key member of the team.
  • Note any unusual upward pressure on pay levels.
  • Spell out any plans to improve or maintain motivation.

7. Your business operations

Look at the capacity and efficiency of your operations, and any planned improvements.

What premises does the business have?

  • Do your business premises meet your current and future needs? What are your long-term commitments to property?
  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of the present location? Should the business expand or move?

What production facilities do you have and how is production organised?

  • How modern is the equipment?
  • What is the capacity of the current facilities compared with existing and forecast demand?
  • Who are your key suppliers? How do you select and manage them?

What management information systems are in place?

  • For example, management accounts, sales, stock control and quality control.
  • Are they reliable? Can they deal with any proposed expansion?
  • A financier will be very concerned if management information systems are inadequate. Management of a business is always limited by the quality of the information available.

Are your IT systems reliable?

  • Is IT a key strength (or weakness) of your business? The development of IT systems to help your business is usually an important issue.

What quality or regulatory standards does the business conform to?

  • For example, ISO 9000 or CE approval.

8. Financial forecasts

Your financial forecasts translate what you have said about your business into numbers.

Set out historical financial information for the last three to five years, if available

  • Break total sales figures down into component parts. For example, sales of different types of product or to different groups of customers.
  • Show the gross margin for each sales component. List what costs are included as direct costs for each component.
  • Show the movement in the key working capital items of stock, trade debtors and creditors. Use ratios such as stock turnover (in months), debtors period (in days), and creditors period (in days).
  • Highlight any major capital expenditure made.
  • Provide an up-to-date balance sheet, and a profit and loss account .
  • Explain the reasons for movements in profitability, working capital and cash flow . Compare them with industry norms.

Provide forecasts for the next three (or even five) years

  • The sophistication of your forecasts should reflect the sophistication of your business. A small business may only need sales, profit and cash flow budgets .
  • A more complex, asset-based business - or one with complex working capital requirements - will need balance sheet forecasts as well.
  • Use the same format as for the historical information, to make comparison easier.
  • Clearly state the assumptions behind the forecasts. These should tie in with what you say in the rest of the plan. For example, if the plan says that the market is becoming more competitive, profit margins should probably be falling.
  • Be realistic about forecasts in new markets. For example, how much resource can you devote to selling, what success rate can you expect and how long will it take to convince new customers ?
  • Look at the overall trends of historical and forecast numbers. Are they believable? Do the forecasts allow for the possibility of problems and delays in payments that could affect cash flow?
  • Consider 'what-if' scenarios. For example, consider what will happen to your cash flow if sales are 20% lower than forecast (or 15% higher).

Put detailed financial forecasts in an appendix at the end

Include a detailed list of assumptions. For example:

  • the profit margin on each product
  • how long it takes to collect payment from debtors
  • what credit suppliers will offer you
  • what financing you are expecting and the interest rate you will pay

Use the cash flow forecast to predict any financing requirements

  • Add an extra contingency element onto the funding requirement shown in the forecast (perhaps 10-20%). Think about what mid-month peaks might be.
  • Identify what types of financing you want. For example, long-term loans or an increased overdraft facility.
  • Include the likely interest or dividend costs of any new finance.
  • Carry out sensitivity tests on the cash required by changing key factors, such as sales or margin. Note the outcomes.
  • Explain why the financing is required and what it will be used for.

If necessary, get help

  • Small business advisers at banks and business support organisations may help you put together financial forecasts free of charge.

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9. SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis helps show that you really understand your business and the key external factors that you need to deal with.

Set out a one-page analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

  • Strengths might include brand name, quality of product, or management experience.
  • Weaknesses might be lack of finance, or reliance on just a few customers.
  • Opportunities might be increasing demand or a competitor going bust.
  • Threats might be a downturn in the economy or a new competitor.

Be honest about your weaknesses and the threats you face

  • Spell out mitigating circumstances and the defensive actions you are taking.

Driving your business forward

Identify what makes you better than the competition.

  • Think about what the key ingredients of your future success will be and how you will strengthen your position in the market.

Establish your overall business aims

  • Where do you realistically intend to be in three years' time?

Decide on half a dozen key objectives that will make a significant difference

Many businesses think in terms of:

  • income - more sales, better margins
  • customers - new customers, higher levels of customer satisfaction
  • products - improving existing products, launching new ones
  • human resources - recruiting new employees, developing new skills

Set clear targets

  • You should know exactly what you want to achieve, by when.

Work out how you will reach these targets

  • Look at each aspect of your business in turn and create a step-by-step action plan for it.
  • Get help preparing a business plan and financial forecasts from your local enterprise agency .
  • Find an ICAEW chartered accountant or an ACCA accountancy firm for help with financial forecasting and business planning.
  • Find a trade association relevant to your sector through the Trade Association Forum.

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4.2 Create your business plan

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Are you ready to write your co-op's business plan? We provide advice on the best approach, links to a template plan, and a brief overview of each section you might need to include.

It's worth understanding that all business plans are different – like all  businesses  are different. 

You can use a template as a guide, but don't feel wedded to it. Make it work for your needs. 

Writing your business plan

Feasibility studies determine whether to go ahead with the business or with another idea. Business plans are designed after the decision to go ahead has already been made and provide a roadmap for this work.  

Make sure you have  completed a feasibility study before you start on your business plan. 

How do I start?

  • Getting past a blank piece of paper is the most difficult and important part of the whole process.  It does not matter how poor your first draft is, just start writing! You can refine it later
  • Get advice and keep asking questions. You do not have to take on every piece of advice. But if someone you know asks a question, it's worth thinking about how to answer it. They may think of something you haven't considered
  • Every time you find something worth putting in the business plan, add it in

How much detail?

  • Business plans should be meaningful documents and only include relevant information. Seventy page business plans may look impressive but nobody will actually read it, so it becomes no use at all
  • For each part of the business plan, create a resource folder which contains all the information that backs up your plan. This might be market research, quotes, work flow diagrams, etc. You can refer to these when you need them, but they don't need to be in the main document

Financial projections

Financial projections are a key part of your business plan. They help your reader understand how you have calculated the investment your business needs, how you're sourcing this finance and your projected income and expenditure

What do I need to include?

Projections for three years are usually sufficient for a start up business plan. You will need:

  • Financial projections – you can use these templates
  • Assumptions – what evidence do you have that your projections are accurate?
  • Scenarios and contingency plans – what will you do if things are worse (or better) then you expected?

What investment do you need?

As part of the business planning process you should have carried out a feasibility study . The investment requirement analysis that you did as part of your feasibility study will inform what investment is needed. 

If you haven't done this yet, you will need go back and do this before you can complete your financial projections.  Go back to feasibility study .

Ready to write your business plan?

Download a template and jump straight in – try this one from gov.uk .

Financial projection templates

Download and complete this financial projections template, which acts as the second 'half' of your business plan.

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Prudential Regulation Authority Business Plan 2023/24

Related links related links.

  • PRA annual reports and business plans
  • CP7/23 Regulated fees and levies: Rates proposals 2022/23

Maintain and build on the safety and soundness of the banking and insurance sectors, and ensure continuing resilience

Be at the forefront of identifying new and emerging risks, and developing international policy

Support competitive and dynamic markets, alongside facilitating international competitiveness and growth, in the sectors that we regulate, run an inclusive, efficient, and modern regulator within the central bank, the pra’s strategy.

Our strategy for 2023/24 will be delivered through our strategic goals, extracts of which are below. For the full detail of our workplan against each strategic priorities, see pages 10-29 in the Business Plan .

Foreword by Chief Executive Sam Woods

Recent events in the banking sector emphasise the need for strong standards and robust supervision. The UK banking and insurance sectors are resilient. But this resilience cannot be taken for granted: it requires constant work by firms and the PRA to maintain it, and we need to remain vigilant to emerging risks or any risk of an erosion of the foundations of financial stability.

At the same time, the progress of post-Brexit reforms points to the positive contribution strong financial regulation can make to wider economic success. Most importantly, under the Financial Services and Markets Bill currently being considered in Parliament, we expect very shortly to get a new secondary objective to facilitate, subject to aligning with relevant international standards, international competitiveness and medium to long-run growth of the UK economy when we make policy. Like our existing secondary objective for competition, this will rank below our primary objectives of safety and soundness and policyholder protection – as you would expect for a prudential regulator. However, it is a significant change in our mandate, and we will take forward our new objective vigorously.

There is no contradiction between robust standards and economic growth. The best thing we can do for the UK economy is make sure that banks and insurers are safe and sound: as we learnt in the financial crisis of 2008, economic growth based on excessive leverage and weak regulation is ultimately unsustainable and self-defeating. Our reputation for alignment with internationally-agreed minimum standards is also central to our attractiveness as a global financial centre – though there is always the scope to fine-tune rules to UK circumstances while maintaining that alignment. This relationship works both ways: safety and soundness is most likely to be achieved in a growing, competitive economy.

Our business plan for 2023/24 reflects both points. Our first strategic priority reflects our primary objective: Maintain and build on the safety and soundness of the banking and insurance sectors, and ensure continuing resilience .

Much of this first priority is achieved through the painstaking day-to-day work of our supervisory teams both on individual firms and across multiple firms. Alongside that, we have a programme of important policy reforms and thematic work. On the policy side, one highlight this year will be the implementation of the Basel 3.1 standards. This is the first major international standard being implemented by the PRA post-Brexit, and we will be considering carefully the evidence submitted in response to our recent consultation. This year we will also be taking forward a major set of reforms to the Solvency II rules for insurers.

Stress testing remains a vital part of how we achieve our mission. We will publish the results of our latest annual cyclical scenario for the major UK banks in summer 2023, and later in the year we will publish a timetable for the next insurance stress test. We will also work with colleagues in the wider Bank to run a system-wide exploratory scenario exercise to consider bank and non-bank financial institution behaviour in a severe but plausible market stress. We will also continue our work on operational risks and resilience, including for critical third parties that provide vital services to the financial sector. And we will continue to review trading book risk management in light of incidents like the failure of Archegos and events in the nickel market last year.

Of course, the environment in which we are operating is always changing, and regulation needs to adapt in order to respond to new risks and opportunities. Our second strategic priority: be at the forefront of identifying new and emerging risks, and developing international policy – is all about being ready to supervise the financial system of the future. This includes work on digitalisation and on the implications of AI and machine learning. It also includes work on cryptoassets, in coordination with UK and international authorities. And managing financial risks from climate change remains an important priority.

The new secondary competitiveness and growth objective, which if approved by Parliament will sit alongside our existing secondary competition objective, gives salience to the next priority: support competitive and dynamic markets, alongside facilitating international competitiveness and growth, in the sectors that we regulate .

A core part of this will be embedding competitiveness and growth in our policymaking processes, and looking for opportunities to improve our rules to support these objectives while still maintaining strong resilience. We will consult this year on our updated approach to rulemaking, and we have a long list of policy initiatives underway to enhance the financial sector’s contribution to growth. A particularly significant piece of work within this – which should support both secondary objectives – is our ‘Strong and Simple’ project for banks. By simplifying our rules for smaller banks, we should be able to achieve a material reduction in compliance costs for those firms. At the same time, we are clear that the ‘strong’ part of this project is just as important as ‘simple’, and we have no appetite to water down standards of resilience for small firms.

As CEO of the PRA, an important part of my job is ensuring that the PRA is set up to deliver on these substantial tasks. Our fourth strategic priority is all about this: run an inclusive, efficient and modern regulator within the central bank. This includes ensuring that we make best use of our resources – mindful of wider pressures on the public, we plan on maintaining our headcount broadly flat in the coming year, and our provisional budget and levy for 2023/24 is down a little on 2022/23 (in part reflecting fluctuations in pension costs).

Internally, a major focus this year will be improving the operational efficiency of processing regulatory transactions, in particular in relation to senior manager approvals where we have been too slow. We also have an ambitious programme of work on data and technology. We are paving the way for the Banking Data Review – a unique opportunity to modernise regulatory returns. More widely, we are improving how we collect data, and enhancing digital skills within the PRA. Ensuring we have the right skills and knowledge to support our evolving mission remains a key priority, as is our programme of work to strengthen our culture and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.

So in summary, we have a lot to do in the coming year! But I’m very confident in the dedication, resilience, and talent of the PRA team, and look forward to working together with them in the year ahead.

Deputy Governor and Chief Executive Officer

Overview of responsibilities and approach

The PRA has two primary objectives: a general objective to promote the safety and soundness of regulated firms, and an objective specific to insurance firms for the protection of policyholders. The PRA currently has a secondary objective to facilitate effective competition in the market for services provided by PRA-authorised firms. The Financial Services and Markets Bill 2022 (‘the FSM Bill’) implements the Future Regulatory Framework (FRF) review and, when enacted, will introduce a new secondary objective to act, where possible, to facilitate the UK economy’s international competitiveness and its growth over the medium to long term, subject to alignment with international standards.

In its December 2022 recommendations letter to the Prudential Regulation Committee (PRC), HM Treasury (HMT) set out aspects of the Government’s economic policy to which the PRA must have regard, while building on the important themes of openness and competitiveness; competition and innovation; delivering Net Zero, and energy security; and home ownership. The letter also set out that some sections of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA) will be amended by the FSM Bill to include a new secondary competitiveness and growth objective.

The final details of the FSM Bill are currently being considered by Parliament, and will reform the financial services regulatory framework. The Bill had not yet been enacted by the date of publication for this year’s business plan. However, in anticipation of the passage of the FSM Bill, the PRA has made some changes to its strategic priorities and used them to inform its plan for 2023/24, subject to Parliament’s decision on the Bill. The changes continue from those made in 2022/23, where the PRA covered the introduction of the FRF and its expanded role as a rule-maker in the business plan.

In September 2022, the PRA published discussion paper (DP) 4/22 – The Prudential Regulation Authority’s future approach to policy describing how it intends to approach policymaking as it takes on additional responsibilities under the FSM Bill. The DP sets out the PRA’s ambition to be a strong, accountable, responsive, and accessible policymaker. This means that the PRA will continue to be driven by the pursuit of strong prudential standards, which are a cornerstone of UK financial stability and the international reputation of the UK as a safe and attractive place to do financial services business. The PRA will continue to shape, influence, and align with global standards. The move to a more British style of regulation based on the FSMA, with most of the technical rules made by independent regulators, will enable the PRA to be more agile and deliver policies that are better suited to the UK’s financial sector.

The PRA’s objectives and priorities are delivered through regulation and supervision, and by developing standards and policies that set out expectations of firms. The PRA’s approach to supervision is forward-looking, judgement-based, and focused on the issues and firms that pose the greatest risk to the stability of the UK financial system and policyholders. This approach is set out in the PRA’s approach to supervision of the banking and insurance sectors .

The PRA’s regulatory focus is primarily at the individual firm and sector level, with the most important decisions taken by the PRC. The PRC works with other areas of the Bank of England (the Bank), including in its role as supervisor of Financial Market Infrastructures (FMIs), the UK’s Resolution Authority, and its committees, including the Financial Policy Committee (FPC), which has responsibility for the stability of the entire UK financial system. The PRA also works closely with the conduct regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), including through the Chief Executive of the PRA being a member of the FCA Board and the Chief Executive of the FCA being a member of the Prudential Regulation Committee (PRC).

The PRA regulates 1,420 firms and groups. footnote [1] These consist of 773 banks, building societies, credit unions and designated investment firms (DIFs), and 647 insurers of all types (general insurers, life insurers, friendly societies, mutuals, the London market and insurance special purpose vehicles (ISPVs)).

Chart 1: PRA supervised deposit takers, as at January 2023

Chart 2: pra supervised insurers, as at january 2023, the pra’s strategy, shaping the pra’s strategy.

Each year, the PRA is required by law footnote [2] to review, and, if necessary, revise its strategy in line with its statutory objectives:

  • the general primary objective to promote the safety and soundness of PRA-authorised firms;
  • specifically for insurance firms, a primary objective to contribute to the securing of an appropriate degree of protection for those who are or may become policyholders;
  • a secondary objective to act, so far as is reasonably possible, in a way which facilitates effective competition in the markets for services provided by PRA-firms; and
  • under proposals in the FSM Bill, a new secondary objective to act, so far as reasonably possible, in a way which facilitates the UK economy’s international competitiveness and its growth over the medium to long term, subject to alignment with international standards.

In addition to the statutory objectives, the PRA’s strategy is shaped by other responsibilities, such as the requirement to implement legislation and other changes necessary to meet international standards, and to continue to adapt to market changes in areas such as climate change and FinTech. When considering how to advance its objectives, there are a set of regulatory principles to which the PRA must also have regard. This includes regulatory principles from FSMA, ‘have regards’ and considerations from HMT’s December 2022 letter to the PRC on the Government’s economic policy, the FSM Bill (as drafted) 2022, the Equality Act 2010, the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006, and the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006. When pursuing its objectives, the PRA will review all the regulatory principles, identify which are significant to the proposed policy, and judge the extent to which they should influence the outcome being sought.

Furthermore, as part of the Bank, the PRA contributes to the delivery of the Bank’s wider financial stability and monetary policy objectives.

Strategic priorities for 2023/24

This year’s business plan continues to be structured around the PRA’s four strategic priorities set out in 2022/23, which are interrelated and supportive of each other. The PRA’s strategic priorities for 2023/24 are to:

  • maintain and build on the safety and soundness of the banking and insurance sectors, and ensure continuing resilience;
  • be at the forefront of identifying new and emerging risks, and developing international policy;
  • support competitive and dynamic markets, alongside facilitating international competitiveness and growth, in the sectors that we regulate; and
  • run an inclusive, efficient, and modern regulator within the central bank.

These updated priorities for 2023/24 reflect, among other things, the introduction of the FSM Bill which proposes to grant the PRA an expanded role as a rule-maker alongside the new secondary objective to facilitate international competitiveness and growth of the sectors it regulates.

PRA Business Plan 2023/24

Maintain and build on the safety and soundness of the banking and insurance sectors and ensure continuing resilience.

Over the decade following the financial crisis of 2008-2009, the PRA designed and implemented extensive reforms, which materially improved the safety and soundness of firms, policyholder protection, and financial stability. The resilience of the banking and insurance sectors, and the importance of strong standards, were both apparent in recent interventions by the Bank, the PRA, and international counterparts. The PRA will continue to ensure that firms remain adequately capitalised and have sufficient liquidity and stable funding profiles.

The PRA will continue to be focussed on maintaining financial and operational resilience, consistent with its objectives and those of the FPC. The PRA promotes a risk-aware culture in regulated firms, in which risk-taking should be conscious and controlled, and supported by adequate financial and non-financial resources. The PRA continues to seek to ensure that firms are resilient operationally as well as financially.

As part of post-Brexit reforms, the PRA’s role as a rulemaker is expanded following the introduction of the FRF, which forms part of the FSM Bill, and will allow for more effective rules for UK markets and firms. Under this new framework, the PRA will aim to be a strong, accountable, responsive, and accessible policymaker.

These changes proposed in the FSM Bill will enable the PRA to advance its statutory objective of promoting the safety and soundness of firms through a more targeted and risk-based regulatory framework. The PRA intends to publish consultations which will seek to advance the safety and soundness of firms while implementing global standards and markets in the UK through targeted policy reforms.

Financial resilience – banking

On 30 November 2022, the PRA published consultation paper (CP) 16/22 – Implementation of the Basel 3.1 standards setting out its proposals for the implementation of the international Basel 3.1 standards in the UK. In making these proposals, the PRA sought to maintain the UK’s reputation for adherence to global standards, and support its international competitiveness while having regard to other jurisdictions’ implementation of the standards. Basel 3.1 is the final set of post-financial crisis Basel standards for banks. The proposals in CP16/22 would significantly change how firms calculate their risk-weighted assets (RWAs). The Basel 3.1 standards aim to strengthen the risk-sensitivity of RWA calculations and address the degree of variability observed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) in firms’ calculation of RWAs, especially those using internal models. The changes will improve the comparability and credibility of firms’ risk-based capital ratios.

In CP16/22, the PRA has welcomed views on areas where data can be incomplete or sparse, such as for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and infrastructure lending. Later in 2023, the PRA will review and consider the responses to the consultation, which ended on 31 March 2023, publishing the final Basel 3.1 rules in a policy statement (PS) in due course. This will include considering feedback on the proposed implementation date of 1 January 2025.

The PRA is also developing a simpler but equally resilient prudential framework for smaller, domestic-focused banks and building societies, known as the ‘Strong and Simple’ framework. footnote [3] CP16/22 sets out the PRA’s revised proposed criteria (‘Simpler-regime criteria’) for determining which firms would be in scope of the ‘Strong and Simple’ prudential framework. footnote [4]

Non-performing exposures

The PRA has published a consultation proposing to remove the Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) capital deduction requirement for non-performing exposures (NPEs) that are treated as insufficiently provided for by firms. The CP also proposes to remove the associated NPE reporting requirements.

These proposals would enhance the definition of capital in a way that aligns with international standards. They would also increase the scope for the PRA to take a judgement-led approach to the prudential risks associated with NPE under-provisioning and remove a potential competitive disadvantage for UK firms compared to firms in jurisdictions that are not subject to the NPE deduction. The proposals to remove the associated reporting requirements will reduce the costs of compliance, monitoring, reporting, and data gathering for firms.

Securitisation

HMT has prioritised the securitisation regulation as an initial area of focus in the FRF process, supporting the delivery of policy changes in areas identified in HMT’s 2021 Review of the Securitisation Regulation . The PRA (in collaboration with the FCA) is considering these areas, including in relation to risk retention, due diligence, and disclosure. The PRA will consult (simultaneously with the FCA) on draft rules to restate, with modifications where appropriate, relevant firm-facing provisions in the securitisation regulation and related technical standards in 2023-24.

The PRA is reviewing the data and feedback received from firms and market participants, following its recent consultation on the application of the output floor to securitisation exposures in Chapter 9 – Output floor of CP16/22. The PRA may consider carrying out a further consultation to address any issues identified, and would aim to do so during the output floor transition period.

Bank stress testing

The Bank and the PRA has returned to the annual cyclical scenario (ACS) framework to test system-wide financial resilience, following two years of pandemic crisis-related stress test analysis. The ACS 2022 timeline was postponed following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, resulting in the ACS scenario being published in late 2022 and firms submitting their forecasts in January 2023. As a result, the Bank and the PRA expect to publish the results of the test in summer 2023. The 2022/23 ACS will test the resilience of the UK banking system to deep simultaneous recessions in the UK and global economies, large falls in asset prices and higher interest rates, and a separate stress of misconduct.

In addition, as flagged in the Q1 2023 FPC record , in collaboration with the Bank, the PRA will run, for the first time, a system-wide exploratory scenario exercise. This will investigate the behaviours of banks and non-bank financial institutions following a severe but plausible stress to financial markets. It will consider both what drives these behaviours and their consequences, and will focus on the potential for these actions to interact and to amplify shocks in ways that might cause adverse outcomes in UK financial markets core to UK financial stability. This will be an exploratory exercise focused on market resilience and its importance for financial stability; it will not be a test of individual firms’ resilience.

Model risk management, internal ratings-based approach/hybrid models and regulatory reporting

Banks’ use of and reliance on models and scenario analysis to assess future risks has increased significantly over the past decade, in part driven by new regulations and reporting requirements (eg IFRS 9) and regulatory expectations in respect of stress testing. The use of modelling extends beyond the scope of current PRA guidance and the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR), and the introduction of new, sophisticated modelling techniques has highlighted the need for sound model governance and effective model risk management practices.

In 2022, the PRA consulted on a set of principles that provide an overarching assessment framework for model risk management, published in CP6/22 – Model risk management principles for banks . The PRA intends to publish the final supervisory statement (SS) on model risk management principles for banks during 2023. This will set out supervisory expectations for model development, validation and model governance practices across multiple model and risk types and modelling disciplines. The adoption of the principles will help banks to build capability and develop good practice to manage the risks associated with the use of all models, raising prudential standards at banks operating in the UK.

There will be increased attention on management’s understanding of complex models as the PRA’s model risk management principles for banks are embedded. The PRA will continue to work with banks as they develop and implement their model risk management practices. Though CP6/22 was primarily relevant to all firms in the wider banking sector and their external auditors, insurers were also asked to consider which elements of the policy for banks are relevant for them in the 2023 priorities letter , and the PRA will continue to assess the application of these principles to insurers.

The PRA has published a range of policy statements (PS) on changes to the internal ratings based (IRB) approach to credit risk over recent years. The PRA will continue to work with firms as they progress their model submissions in line with these requirements and expectations. The PRA will focus on the ‘hybrid’ approach to mortgage modelling, and the IRB programme, both carried forward from 2022.

The PRA will continue with its programme of skilled person reviews of controls over data, governance, and systems for regulatory reporting in 2023, and expects firms to take steps to address the thematic findings set out in its communications on regulatory reporting.

Financial resilience – insurers

Regulatory reforms.

In November 2022, the government published a response to its consultation on the review of Solvency II. The response announced the intention to implement, through a combination of legislation and PRA rule changes, a package of measures needed to deliver the government’s objectives through a reformed UK regulatory regime for insurers, to be known as Solvency UK.

In 2023/24, subject to the decisions enacted by Parliament, the PRA will issue a series of consultations on rule changes and expectations that will implement the reforms outlined in HMT’s consultation response as quickly and transparently as is possible. The measures are intended to ease the flow of business and long term investment, and will include:

  • a significant streamlining of the rules for internal model approvals;
  • widening the range of assets that are eligible for the matching adjustment;
  • reduction to the risk margin (RM);
  • enabling firms to apply voluntary add-ons to the fundamental spread (FS) applied to the assets held in their matching adjustment portfolios;
  • setting clear expectations on how the relevant senior manager(s) should approach making the required attestation concerning the adequacy of the FS and level of the resulting matching adjustment (MA); and
  • raising the threshold at which firms are required to enter the Solvency UK regime.

The PRA also published a consultation paper on the second phase of changes to regulatory reporting requirements, with a proposed implementation date for all phases by 31 December 2024. A policy statement containing all reporting changes will be published this year, closely followed by the final taxonomy for firms to begin implementing the reporting changes.

Insurer Resolution Regime

The PRA is actively supporting the work being done by HMT to create an Insurance Resolution Regime, which would provide tools to the authorities enabling them to take prompt action to manage and stabilise an insurer that is failing or likely to fail. In January 2023, HMT published a consultation paper, which closed in April, and is now considering how best to take this work forward.

Insurance stress testing

Following publication of the results of the 2022 Insurance Stress Test , the PRA will work on the design of the longer-term strategy for insurance stress testing, and will announce a timeline for the next insurance stress test during H2 2023. This will also include work on the Bank’s system-wide exploratory scenario, which will investigate the behaviours of non-bank financial institutions following a severe but plausible stress to financial markets.

One of the supervisory measures announced by the Government in November 2022 was to require firms to participate in regular stress testing exercises prescribed by the PRA and to allow the PRA to publish individual firm results. The PRA will engage with firms in scope of the development of the insurance stress testing regime needed to provide a robust test of resilience and to deliver results suitable for publication at individual firm level.

Reinsurance risk

The PRA is paying close attention to the impact of the continued high level of reinsurance of longevity risk in new annuity business, and the emergence of the more complex ‘funded reinsurance’ in the UK life market, on the protection that UK policyholders enjoy.

In particular, the potential offshored counterparty concentration risk arising from rapidly growing levels of reinsurance could impact individual firms and the sector. The PRA’s review of risks will consider compliance of reinsurance strategies with the Prudent Person Principle (PPP). This will include the impact of and resilience to recapture risk where large concentrations to a small number of counterparties or to correlated counterparties exist. The PRA will also assess the need for further policy proposals or guidance on use of and risk management of these reinsurance structures and limits.

Impact of claims inflation in general insurance

Inflation of the amounts needed to settle claims under general insurance policies such as motor and home insurance was identified as a key risk in 2022, and the PRA wrote to firms in October 2022 setting out insights from a review of the risks posed to the sector. The PRA will maintain its focus on the impacts of inflation of general insurance claims, including through assessing how firms have responded to the recommendations made in the October 2022 letter. Firms are expected to have assessed the potential impact of claims inflation and reflected this in their year-end reserves and any implications on dividend proposals, and claim settlement costs.

The focus for this year will be on assessing the impact that claims inflation has had on 2022 year-end claim and premium provisions, and whether firms are set up to monitor and assess the continuing impact of claims inflation and to incorporate the factors that drive that inflation into their underlying pricing, reserving, and capital modelling.

The PRA will also monitor the impact of claims inflation that may present in the settlement process for businesses where claims are slower to emerge, for example those where costs are linked to wages and legal expenses. The PRA will continue to monitor that firms are assessing how expectations around the inflationary impacts of the cost of goods and services are feeding through into their business, and to inform setting reserves at the end of 2023.

Operational risk and resilience (including critical third party policy and cyber stress testing)

Operational disruption can impact financial stability, threaten the viability of individual firms and financial market infrastructures, or cause harm to consumers, policyholders, and other parts of the financial system. The PRA defines operational resilience as the ability of firms and the financial sector to prevent, respond to, recover, and learn from operational disruptions, including cyber threats.

The FCA’s, the Bank’s and the PRA’s operational resilience policies came into force in March 2022. Firms should have now identified important business services and set impact tolerances, and commenced a programme of scenario testing. The PRA has conducted an initial assessment of firms’ implementation of the policy and provided feedback of the results. In 2023, the PRA will work closely with the FCA to assess firms’ progress, with a particular focus on their ability to deliver important business services within impact tolerances through severe but plausible scenarios within a reasonable time frame and by no later than March 2025. Ensuring a more consistent approach in policy implementation will also be a key focus during 2023.

The PRA will also continue to monitor threats to firms’ resilience, including their growing dependency on third parties. The FSM Bill, currently going through Parliament, will give HMT the ability to designate certain third party service providers as ‘critical’ following consultation with the Bank, the PRA and the FCA (supervisory authorities). The Bill will also give the supervisory authorities new powers to oversee the services provided by critical third parties (CTPs) to regulated firms. In 2022 the PRA and the FCA published a joint discussion paper on how these proposed powers could be used to assess and strengthen the resilience of services provided by CTPs to firms and FMIs, thereby reducing the risk of systemic disruption. The PRA will continue to work with HMT to develop the policy and oversight approach in 2023.

Alongside this, the PRA will continue to monitor and assess firms’ ability to manage cyber threats through ongoing use of CBEST and the cyber questionnaire (CQUEST). The PRA will collaborate with the FCA, including in response to known technology and cyber incidents, and will continue to monitor and engage with firms on their execution of large and complex IT change programmes. The FPC’s recent cyber stress test has broadened the PRA’s understanding of how operational disruptions such as cyberattacks may impact financial stability. Throughout 2023 the PRA will continue to deliver this work through a broad range of industry, sector focussed and international engagement including the Authorities Response Framework, the Cross Market Business Continuity Group, the Cross Market Operational Resilience Group and the G7 Cyber Expert Group. This will focus on strengthening the sector’s resilience capabilities and its ability to respond to an operational disruption.

Governance and risk management (including remuneration reforms)

The PRA places great importance on effective governance, strong risk management and appropriate incentive setting from remuneration, individually and collectively, in supporting sound decision-making to achieve desired prudential outcomes. These aims are met both through policy development and day-to-day supervision of firms.

The PRA’s governance and remuneration regimes for banks and insurers are a combination of EU and domestic policies at present. While evaluation work carried out in recent years has indicated that these regimes are effective at achieving their aims, now that the UK has left the EU, there is scope to streamline some elements of the regimes to make them more effective and proportionate for the UK market. Rules around remuneration are an important tool to ensure decision-makers and risk-takers have the right incentives. In December 2022 the PRA, jointly with the FCA, published CP15/22 – Remuneration: Ratio between fixed and variable components of total remuneration (‘bonus cap’) on removing the fixed limits on the proportion of variable to fixed remuneration (known as the ‘bonus cap’).

In CP5/23 – Remuneration: Enhancing proportionality for small firms , proposals were published aiming to make the remuneration regime more proportionate for smaller banks, building societies, and designated investment firms. Final policy will be issued during 2023.

Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR) reforms

In March 2023, the PRA, jointly with the FCA, published a discussion paper DP1/23 – Review of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR) ; the Government launched a Call for Evidence on the regime at the same time. These reviews will collect information on the regime's effectiveness, scope, and proportionality, and seek views on potential improvements and reforms. After collating the responses to DP1/23, the PRA and the FCA will assess the need for further policy proposals.

Trading book controls

The default of Archegos Capital Management in March 2021 resulted in global losses for regulated firms of over US$10 billion. In response, the PRA (in conjunction with the FCA and other regulators) undertook cross-jurisdictional reviews which revealed deficiencies in firms’ risk management frameworks and the PRA has communicated its findings to industry. Regulatory responses are being considered internationally and, in addition, in 2023 the PRA will commence a review of regulatory policies in light of these findings to assess whether the policy framework for trading book risk management, controls and culture is adequate, robust, and accessible.

Diversity and inclusion in firms

The PRA considers diversity and inclusion in firms to be an important part of corporate culture, with a direct impact on the way a firm manages its risk. As set out in the joint Bank, PRA, and FCA discussion paper published in 2021 (DP2/21 – Diversity and inclusion in the financial sector – working together to drive change ), diversity can bring different perspectives and experiences to the workplace, while inclusion facilitates these views being expressed, contributing to more balanced discussions, constructive challenge, and debate. That in turn can help reduce the risk of ‘groupthink’, leading to better, more prudent decision-making and risk management. A firm with a diverse and inclusive culture is also likely to benefit from a wider talent pool, potentially making them more competitive in the labour market. Diversity among employees can also support greater innovation, enabling firms, particularly new entrants, to be more competitive.

Building on feedback to DP2/21 and a data survey, the PRA and the FCA will publish a consultation paper in 2023 with proposals on diversity and inclusion in the firms that we regulate, with the final policy expected to be published in 2024.

The PRA maintains flexibility to adapt and respond to changes in the external environment, economic and market developments, and any other risks that may impact its statutory objectives or priorities. The PRA has a horizon-scanning programme to identify emerging external risks, regulatory arbitrage, potentially dangerous practices, and to highlights features of the regulatory regime that are not yet delivering the desired results, and allocate supervisory and policy resources to tackling the highest priority risks. Consistent with its mission, the PRA will continue to contribute to lessons learned internationally, to promote the safety and soundness of the firms that it regulates.

Influencing international change

The PRA plays a leading role in influencing international regulatory standards, and will continue to participate actively in global standard-setting bodies, such as the BCBS and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS). Where required, it will also continue supporting the Bank’s work at international policy fora, such as the Financial Stability Board. Over the coming year, the PRA’s engagement will continue to focus on identifying and addressing emerging risks in priority areas (eg climate change, bank-issued stablecoins and operational resilience). There will also be a focus on promoting consistency in the implementation of Basel 3.1, the development and monitoring of the IAIS’s Insurance Capital Standard, the implementation of a holistic framework for assessing and mitigating systemic risk in the insurance sector, and work at IAIS on private equity and risk transfers.

Effective international collaboration remains crucial to addressing global risks, and is central to maintaining UK financial stability, the safety and soundness of internationally active firms, and reducing regulatory arbitrage. The PRA will continue to expand the list of jurisdictions with which it has a memorandum of understanding (MoU), to facilitate the supervision of international groups and enhance the safety and openness of the UK for financial services activities. More broadly, the PRA will continue to promote international collaboration through supervisory colleges, and by supporting HMT on trade agreements, mutual recognition agreements (MRAs), and equivalence assessments as required.

Digitalisation

The PRA aims to be at the forefront of identifying and responding to opportunities and risks faced by PRA regulated firms as they seek to use technology in innovative ways to attract and retain customers, reduce costs, and increase efficiencies.

External context and business risk remains at the heart of the PRA’s approach to supervision. Developments are monitored, with specialist input from the Bank’s Fintech Hub , to identify evidence of fragmentation of the value chain, novel outsourcing arrangements and the potential risks from non-banks using technology to disrupt financial markets or generate unacceptable levels of concentrations. The PRA will continue to monitor firms’ involvement in new technologies and asset tokenisation. Relatedly, the potential for capital and profit erosion for firms that are slower to adopt new technologies, is also a supervisory concern.

The PRA will continue to work closely with domestic and international regulatory partners, and through engagement with industry and stakeholders, to take a pro-active approach to digital innovations within the financial sector. The PRA will continue to consider policy proposals to respond to digitalisation and adapt its supervisory approach accordingly, while working closely with PRA horizon-scanning teams and other parts of the Bank to exchange information and escalate issues arising from digitalisation to senior committees. Through the new bank and insurer start-up units, the PRA will continue to engage with applicant firms that have novel uses of technology.

The PRA is a significant contributor to discussions on digitalisation in international banking and insurance forums, and will continue to input to the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s (BCBS) work on the digitalisation of finance and the deep dive analysis on the supervisory implications of Banking as a Service . The PRA will also continue be an active part of the IAIS Fintech Forum.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are rapidly developing technologies that have the potential to transform financial services and markets by making them more efficient, accessible, and tailored to users’ needs.  This may bring important benefits to consumers, financial services firms, financial market functioning, and the wider economy.

However, AI and ML can pose novel challenges including creating new regulatory risks, or amplifying existing risks to consumers, the safety and soundness of firms, market integrity, and financial stability. The PRA and other UK supervisory authorities are interested in the safe and responsible adoption of these technologies in UK financial services, including considering the appropriate role of policy and regulation.

One of the most significant questions is whether AI and ML can be managed through clarifications of the existing regulatory framework, or whether a new approach is needed. There is a wide-ranging debate, both in the UK and other jurisdictions around the world, about how to regulate these technologies to ensure they deliver in the best interests of consumers, firms, and markets.

To further the supervisory authorities’ understanding, survey results on machine learning in UK financial services and a discussion paper on artificial intelligence and machine learning were published in 2022. Responses to the discussion paper will allow the supervisory authorities to explore how best to address the above issues in a way that is aligned with our statutory objectives, provides clarity, is actionable, and makes a practical difference for consumers, firms, and markets.

The supervisory authorities are also considering the evolving wider national and international policy debate on AI, including the UK Government’s policy paper ‘Establishing a pro-innovation approach to regulating AI’ , joint work between UK regulators through the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (DRCF), and international developments from other regulators and authorities.

Cryptoassets

The PRA will continue to contribute to the Bank’s cross authority work on cryptoassets, including through the Cryptoassets Taskforce, which was announced in March 2018 by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, as part of the Government's FinTech Sector Strategy. In February 2023, HMT published a consultation and Call for Evidence on the future financial services regulatory regime for cryptoassets focused on enhancing market integrity, custody requirements and transparency. Work will also continue domestically in developing a regulatory framework that is ready for technological innovations, such as stablecoins and tokenised deposits.

The PRA will continue to work with international partners to establish a common, international standard for the treatment of banks’ cryptoassets exposures. In December 2022, the BCBS published prudential banking standards on this topic. In 2023, the PRA will start work on changes to PRA rules to implement the standards and continue working with international partners on a set of specific follow up issues that will be subject to monitoring and review. The PRA will also work with international partners, including the BCBS, to assess bank-related developments in cryptoassets markets, the role of banks as stablecoins issuers, custodians of cryptoassets and broader potential channels of interconnections with the cryptoassets ecosystem.

Climate change

Climate change presents a source of material and increasing financial risk to firms and to the financial system. Managing the risks to firms’ safety and soundness from climate change requires action and remains a key PRA priority. Expectations around enhancing banks’ and insurers’ approaches to managing the financial risks from climate change were first set out in April 2019, in SS3/19 – Enhancing banks’ and insurers’ approaches to managing the financial risks from climate change . The PRA has since provided further guidance via two Dear CEO letters, footnote [5] incorporating observations from supervisory processes and the 2022 Climate Biennial Exploratory Scenario exercise . The PRA, alongside the FCA, also worked with industry through the Climate Financial Risk Forum to produce practical guides and tools.

The PRA will continue to expect firms to take a forward-looking, strategic, and ambitious approach to managing climate-related financial risks. This approach is proportionate to the complexity, scale, or concentration of a firm’s operations – noting that geographic or sectoral concentrations may present greater climate-related financial risks regardless of size or complexity of the firm. This approach also observes that both regulators and firms need to build their understanding of risks, data, tools, and best practices. This necessitates the use of judgement, expertise, and existing tools to quantify climate-related risks and incorporate those risks into risk frameworks and business strategies.

The assessment of a firm’s management of climate-related financial risks is now included in the relevant elements of the supervisory cycle, as outlined in the Climate Change Adaptation Report 2021 .

Overall, the PRA has observed that banks and insurers across the sector have taken concrete and positive steps to implement the PRA’s supervisory expectations. While some firms have made considerable progress, the level of embedding varies, and the PRA’s assessment is that further progress is needed by all firms.

The PRA will assess firms’ ability to meet supervisory expectations in a proportionate way, through its supervisory engagement. The PRA expects firms to be able to demonstrate how they are responding to its supervisory expectations and to set out the steps they are taking to address barriers to progress.

The PRA advances its primary and secondary statutory objectives through regulation to support competitive and dynamic markets in the sectors that it regulates. Under the FRF, the PRA is likely to have greater freedom to design and implement regulation in a way that is driven by its objectives and is better suited to the requirements of the UK market. Alongside this, the FSM Bill proposes a new secondary objective for the PRA focused on facilitating competitiveness and growth in the medium to long term. This would allow the PRA to go further in developing proportionate and agile prudential requirements, reducing the burden on firms where appropriate, and pursuing its existing secondary competition objective. The PRA is working on a number of initiatives to take advantage of those opportunities, while maintaining high and consistent prudential standards. This also includes maintaining the UK’s position as a leading global financial centre. The PRA remains committed to playing an active role in international standard-setting, given the important role of global rules in safeguarding the UK’s open economy through ensuring safe financial markets.

Regulatory change – developing the PRA’s approach to rulemaking

As Parliament reaches the final stages of the legislative process, the PRA expects the FSM Bill to receive Royal Assent after this plan is published.

The FRF that forms part of this Bill will allow the PRA to be more responsive and proactive in how it advances its objectives, and to ensure rules are appropriately tailored to the circumstances of the UK. The PRA will also take this opportunity to enhance transparency and improve its engagement with stakeholders.

In September 2022, the PRA published DP4/22 setting out its intended approach to policymaking. The DP covered topics such as the new secondary competitiveness and growth objective, international engagement, and plans to deliver a more user-friendly website for the PRA Rulebook and supervisory material, with increased functionalities, hosted on the Bank’s website. A consultation paper will be published during 2023.

In the meantime, the PRA is continuing to make progress in preparing for its new role under the FRF, including its new competitiveness and growth objective and its approaches to Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) and rule review. It is also working closely with HMT on the transfer of a number of direct firm-facing rules to the PRA Rulebook.

Competitiveness

The PRA will look more broadly at the ways in which it can facilitate competitiveness and growth, taking advantage of the additional opportunities from the FSM Bill to review areas of policy that have previously been fixed in UK legislation. This will include providing firms with predictability over potential changes; considering the market impact of our proposals on UK competitiveness and growth relative to approaches taken in other jurisdictions; and making our regulatory framework more accessible and user-friendly. As set out in a speech in February by Victoria Saporta (Executive Director, Prudential Policy Directorate), the PRA already has plans to take action to facilitate competitiveness and growth in a range of areas, including remuneration and CTPs.

The PRA will fully integrate the new competitiveness and growth objective into its internal processes, including embedding it through the policy cycle and explaining how the judgements made are expected to advance the new secondary objective in CPs and PSs. In addition, the PRA will also undertake research to understand the impact that its actions have had on UK competitiveness and growth, and policy will be evaluated to explore ways to advance it further. The PRA will also be holding an international conference in September to deepen its understanding of the links between prudential regulation, international competitiveness, and growth.

These changes will enable the PRA to tailor its regime to the needs of the UK and respond faster to emerging risks and opportunities in the UK financial sector. The PRA will report yearly as part of its Annual Report on how it has advanced this new objective.

Developing the PRAs approach to rule making – rule review

The FSM Bill will also make amendments that require the PRA to keep its rules under review, publish a statement of policy with respect to its review of rules and carry out rule reviews. The purpose of these requirements is to increase the transparency and accountability as it takes on new rule-making responsibilities.

The PRA will publish a consultation paper on its approach to rule review this year.

Repealing and replacing direct regulatory requirements in the PRA Rulebook

The FSM Bill returns responsibility for designing and implementing most direct firm-facing regulatory requirements to the PRA. To do so, the FSM Bill creates a framework for HMT to commence the deletions of retained Financial Services EU laws repealed by Parliament, and for the regulators to replace most of those retained EU laws. The PRA is working closely with HMT to support this transfer process and is aiming to make significant progress on both banking and insurance policies throughout the next year.

Strong and Simple regime

As explained in the PRA Business Plan for 2022/23 , the PRA is working on creating a simpler but equally resilient prudential framework for smaller, domestic-focused banks and building societies, known as the Strong and Simple framework . This framework is being designed to maintain the financial resilience of banks and building societies operating in the UK, while reducing costs associated with prudential requirements for non-systemic banks and building societies.

The PRA published several CPs on key components of the Strong and Simple framework during 2022/23. The CPs covered the proposed criteria for determining whether a bank or building society would be in scope of a simpler prudential regime, proposals for a transitional capital regime so that eligible firms would not have to implement the Basel 3.1 standards before moving onto the simpler-regime capital framework and proposals for simplified liquidity and disclosure requirements for that regime.

In 2023/24, the PRA will progress these key components of the Strong and Simple framework, transferring the framework into PRA rules as well as developing proposals for simpler but robust capital requirements for non-systemic, domestic-focused, banks and building societies.

Ease of entry and exit

The PRA will continue to support potential market entrants in navigating the authorisation process though the work of the New Bank Start-up Unit and New Insurer Start-up Unit. This includes providing clear online guidance and industry engagement to build awareness of expectations and seek feedback on firms’ experience of the process. The PRA offers potential applicants the opportunity to meet with staff through a structured pre-application stage, allowing firms to iterate and develop their proposition to support a better-quality application.

The PRA will continue to make use of the mobilisation stage for newly authorised banks, where appropriate, to allow them to operate with restrictions while they complete their set up before starting to trade fully. The PRA is also planning to introduce a mobilisation option for new insurers as part of the Solvency II review, which will be considered in parallel with the revision to the Solvency II thresholds.

The PRA will work with applicants to apply the changes to the authorisation of insurance special purpose vehicles made in 2022 , and will embed an accelerated authorisation pathway for participants in the wholesale insurance market with a highly credible track record.

The PRA will consult on a proposed new policy on solvent exit planning for non-systemic banks and building societies, offering an orderly exit route that does not rely on the backstop of insolvency and resolution. The work is a key element of the PRA’s strategic focus on increasing ease of exit. Greater ease of exit is a vital corollary to greater ease of entry, enabling a dynamic and competitive market where entrants can join and leave with minimal impact on the wider market and the PRA’s statutory objectives.

Industry and the public will be invited to provide their views on the solvent exit policy proposals in a consultation during 2023. The PRA will also consider its policy on solvent exit for insurers, and will consult on requirements for insurers to prepare exit plans during the second half of the year.

Ring-fencing regime

The Bank and the PRA continue to work closely with HMT on the recommendations from the Independent Review of Ring-Fencing and Proprietary Trading , carried out by Sir Keith Skeoch. On 9 December 2022, the Government set out its plans on the near-term reforms, the issuance of a Call for Evidence on the longer term benefits of the ring-fencing regime considering developments in the resolution regime and relevant advances in the wider regulatory framework, and reviewing the deposit threshold.

The Bank and the PRA support, and continue to work on the proposed near-term reforms and other, more technical recommendations. The main recommendation in the near term is a change to the scope of which groups need to be ring-fenced - the review suggested introducing a threshold that could be used to exempt groups from ring-fencing if they are largely focused on retail banking and undertake only a small amount of investment banking.

Additionally, the PRA is required to carry out a review of its ring-fencing rules every five years. The first of these reviews will be submitted to HMT by 31 December 2023, and will be subsequently laid before Parliament and published. This will be a technical review, separate to the PRA's work on the Skeoch review.

Cost benefit analysis panel

The PRA is continuing to make progress in preparing for its new role under the FRF, including on the implementation of its new competitiveness and growth objective and its approaches to cost benefit analysis (CBA) and rule review.

One of the key elements of enhancing the PRA’s scrutiny and accountability mechanisms relates to its approach to the establishment of a new CBA panel introduced by the FSM Bill. This will mean that the PRA need more data from its stakeholders to inform its policymaking. This will help us better understand the anticipated costs and benefits of our proposals, and enable it to calibrate its approach to reflect the UK financial system.

The PRA has started work on how the CBA panel will be structured and on the appointment procedures. The PRA will publish a statement of policy on panel members’ appointments later this year, and then set up the CBA panel. Following the establishment of the CBA panel, the PRA will publish a consultation paper on the CBA framework, which will set out how the PRA conducts its CBAs and how it engages with the CBA panel.

Authorisation of EU branches: banks and insurers

In 2022, the PRA authorised a number of bank and insurance branches that previously operated in the UK under EU passporting rules. Throughout 2023, the PRA will determine the applications of the remaining EU bank and insurance branches in the temporary permissions regime (TPR) which have applied for authorisation, working with the FCA and EU authorities to ensure that firms that meet relevant standards are fully authorised and can continue to operate safely in the UK when the TPR comes to an end.

Branches that entered the TPR, but are not seeking authorisation, or whose Part 4A authorisation application is rejected, will leave the TPR before the end of 2023 and, upon their exit from the TPR, may enter supervised run-off if they are required to do so.

Operational efficiency on regulatory transactions

Maintaining a high level of regulatory operational effectiveness in authorisations plays an important part in the UK’s success as a global financial centre. The PRA remains committed to being an effective, transparent, and accountable regulator. To enhance transparency, the PRA will introduce quarterly reporting of performance metrics for a range of regulatory transactions, including on the time taken to determine cases. The PRA expects to have returned to a position of reliably determining applications under the Senior Managers Regime within three months by mid-2023, through continuation of additional resourcing and close work with the FCA to coordinate and streamline reviews of transactions.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the PRA

The PRA continues to take action to strengthen its culture and working environment. The Bank’s Court review into ethnic diversity and inclusion reported its findings in July 2021. The PRA is implementing the recommendations of this review and has made considerable progress across embedding inclusive recruitment, investing in talent support and development.

Data and technology

The PRA, along with the FCA and the Bank, will continue to work on its transforming regulatory data collection programme. The PRA will continue to implement its digital skills strategy . This strategy includes the PRA’s own use of technology to enhance supervision as well as the development and hiring of data scientists and specialists.

The PRA is progressing its ambitious programme of work to strengthen and transform its data-related capabilities, including keeping pace with technology, economic and social changes regarding innovation. The PRA will further develop its data culture, enabling it to apply new tools across front-line and specialist teams in support of efficient and effective supervision. This work will take the PRA towards its goals for 2026 to ensure that:

  • all supervisors have access to the data they need via a single customisable dashboard;
  • the PRA has the data and tools it needs to rapidly identify and probe emerging issues, risk and policy questions; and
  • the PRA only collects data that it needs from firms, thereby reducing unnecessary burdens on firms.

The PRA has launched a Banking Data Review (BDR), in the context of changes to the regulatory framework post-Brexit and its evolving needs for data in the light of experience and market developments. Our vision for Transforming Data Collection is that we ‘get the data we need to fulfil our mission at the lowest possible cost to industry’. The BDR is looking at which data the PRA collects from banks. The BDR aims to: better align collections to the needs of supervisors day-to-day; better integrate and streamline data collections; and ensure that the data needed to carry out any future responsibilities is available. The PRA will continue this work considering the implementation of the Basel 3.1 standards.

Alongside the BDR, the Bank continues its work to improve how it collects data, through the Transforming Data Collection Programme. The Bank’s 2023 work plan includes redesigning how the PRA collects Commercial Real Estate data, and design work on Incident, Outsourcing and Third-Party Reporting (IOREP).

Financial sector assessment programme

In February 2022, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) delivered its five yearly financial sector assessment programme (FSAP). The scope and high level findings of the review were outlined in our 2021/22 Annual Report. The PRA will continue to address the key recommendations made by the IMF during 2023.

Supervisory approach

In 2022 the PRA reviewed its supervisory approach footnote [6] to make it more risk-based and flexible in the way it is resourced. As part of this, the PRA deployed its confident and consistent supervisory approach and has adopted an updated approach to categorising firms according to their ‘potential impact’ on financial stability, reducing the number of categories from five to four. Alongside this, the PRA has refined its risk assessment framework to identify the risks firms pose more clearly to the PRA's objectives. The PRA will continue to focus on those risks that are outside tolerance and on firms that have the largest potential impact, whilst ensuring consistency in approach through core assurance. The PRA’s published supervisory approach documents will be updated during 2023.

Risks to delivery of business plan

Operating in a complex and fast-moving environment gives rise to risks to the delivery of this business plan. These risks are monitored, managed, actively mitigated (where possible), and reported to the PRC and relevant Bank forums on a regular basis.

The impact of competing priorities on staff and delivery of the PRA’s priorities is a key challenge for 2023/24 and beyond, as all areas face significant demand, particularly given uncertain economic conditions. The PRA increased headcount over 2022/23 to reflect additional responsibilities and/or increased scope, such as changes to its work following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. The PRA expects headcount to stay broadly flat over 2023/24. However, increased policymaking responsibilities and other provisions in the FSM Bill will require continued focus in order to achieve the PRA’s vision of being a strong, accountable, responsive and accessible policymaker. This is delivered alongside providing high quality, risk-based and forward-looking supervision of the banking and insurance sectors. The PRA is pursuing these strategic priorities whilst training and embedding a significant number of new staff.

The PRA will continue to need to impose discipline on how it deploys its budget to ensure resources are allocated appropriately, and may need to reprioritise during the year in response to changes in the external environment. The PRA’s focus will remain on managing its operational risks and strengthening its horizon scanning capabilities so that it can respond quickly to changes in risk including to drive decisions on prioritisation, business planning and resourcing. The PRA continues to implement other initiatives to increase efficiency and productivity, such as the data and technology programme, and strengthening of its supervisory approach.

Having access to the right technology and data remains a key area of focus in 2023/24 as part of a multi-year investment across the PRA and the Bank to ensure that the PRA’s technology capabilities support its strategic priorities. This is done by taking account of developments in regulatory technology, addressing inefficiencies, and leveraging the benefits of being a regulator within the UK’s central bank. There is a risk that the PRA may be unable to deliver its intended technology capability to support these projects because of availability of technology resources given the congested change agenda across the Bank. This challenge is being managed through careful prioritisation and scoping of key projects, including delaying some lower priority projects.

Dependencies

Dependencies on external parties, such as the FCA, HMT, and other overseas regulators could presented be a risk for the PRA, as a number of projects, authorisation processes, and supervision activities are contingent on maintaining relationships and co-operation with these parties. The PRA continues to strengthen its relationships with external parties as it adapts to its increased responsibilities and scope.

PRA Budget 2023/24

The PRA’s provisional budget for 2023/24, which is subject to finalisation of pension costs and year-end adjustments, is estimated at £312.0 million. This is a decrease of £8.9 million (3%) on the 2022/23 budget.

The PRA’s costs have decreased primarily due to a reduction in pension costs. This is partially offset by inflation and a share of the increase in the Bank’s central and other support services including technology and legal costs.

On a like for like basis, budgeted headcount for the PRA will decrease slightly from 1,440 in 2022/23 to 1,427 in 2023/24. The reduction in staff costs will help fund further investment in RegTech. Separately, a number of staff will be transferred from the Bank’s central functions to the PRA. After this transfer, the PRA’s headcount will be restated to 1,465 in 2023/24. These staff were already funded by the PRA and so there is no net change to the PRA’s budget as a result.

More details on how the PRA proposes to fund its budget can be found in the annual fees consultation paper . It includes proposals for allocating costs of the PRA’s 2023/24 ongoing regulatory activities across PRA fee payers.

Abbreviations

ACS – Annual Cyclical Scenario

AI – Artificial Intelligence

Bank – Bank of England

BCBS – Basel Committee on Banking Supervision

CBA – Cost Benefit Analysis

CBES – Climate Biennial Exploratory Scenario

CEO – Chief Executive Officer

CET1 – Common Equity Tier 1

CFRF – Climate financial risk forum

CP – Consultation Paper

CRE – Commercial Real Estate

CRR 2 – Capital Requirements Regulation 2

CTP – Critical Third Party

DEI – Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

DP – Discussion Paper

EL – Eligible liabilities

EU – European Union

EUWA – European Union Withdrawal Act 2018

FCA – Financial Conduct Authority

FinTech – Financial Technology

FMI – Financial Market Intermediary

FPC – Financial Policy Committee

FRF – Future Regulatory Framework

FSAP – Financial Sector Assessment Programme

FSB – Financial Stability Board

FSMA – Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (as amended)

HMT – HM Treasury

IAIS – International Association of Insurance Supervisors

ICS – Insurance Capital Standard

IMF – International Monetary Fund

IRB – Internal rating based

ISPV – Insurance special purpose vehicle

IST – Insurance Stress Test

IT – Information Technology

MA – Matching Adjustment

MoU – Memorandum of understanding

PPP – Prudent Person Principle

PRA – Prudential Regulation Authority

PRC – Prudential Regulation Committee

PS – Policy Statement

RegTech – Regulatory Technology

RM – Risk Margin

SM&CR – Senior Managers and Certification Regime

SS – Supervisory Statement

Contacting the Bank of England and the PRA

Please send any enquiries related to this publication to [email protected] .

As at 1 January 2023.

Section 2E of FSMA.

The PRA is seeking to simplify the prudential regulations faced by small, non-systemic domestic UK firms while maintaining their resilience through the development of a strong and simple framework.

Firms in the context of the ‘strong and simple’ framework refers to banks and building societies.

Letter from Sam Woods – Managing climate-related financial risk – thematic feedback from the PRA’s review of firms’ SS3/19 plans and clarifications of expectations , and Letter from Sam Woods – Thematic feedback on the PRA’s supervision of climate-related financial risk and the Bank of England’s Climate Biennial Exploratory Scenario exercise .

The PRA’s published supervisory approach documents will be updated during 2023.

Related publications

In June 2023, we will publish the PRA Annual Report 2022/23, which will demonstrate how we progressed on activities set out in last year’s Business Plan . See previous editions of our business plan and annual report .

You may find it helpful to subscribe to email notifications , which also include our PRA Regulatory Digest that highlights key regulatory news and publications delivered each month.

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Writing a business plan

You'll need to write a business plan if your business is looking to raise funding:

  • from a bank loan
  • from grants
  • from investors
  • to run your business day-to-day
  • to rent or purchase equipment
  • to develop an idea

What to include in your business plan

When writing a business plan you should include:

  • your company's details
  • an executive summary
  • information about your business and management team
  • information about your products, services and your market
  • financial information
  • what finance you're looking for

You can find a template business plan on the Business Gateway website .

Company details

This section of your business plan should include details of your business's trading address.

You should also include any professional advisors your business uses, for example an accountant or solicitor.

Limited companies

If your business is a limited company, you'll also need to include details of your registered offices and company number.

Executive summary

An executive summary should give an overview of each section of your business plan.

It's the part potential funders will read to decide if they're interested in reading your entire plan.

It's important your executive summary is well written to capture the interest of potential funders.

Information about your business

This section of your business plan will give a summary of:

  • what your business does
  • the history of your business
  • your current and future plans

Potential funders, like banks and investors, will look at this section to see how your business has performed in the past. They'll also want to see if your business is using the best practices for the future.

Your business's 'operations' are the way it makes and prepares a product or service.

This section of your plan should give details on things like:

  • raw materials
  • your facilities – location, size and cost
  • key equipment – its function and age
  • your distribution network

You should also include details if your business owns intellectual property on any processes or patents on any technologies.

Potential funders will use this section to see if your business can sell products or services in a form customers will like, as this could make your business successful.

Who manages your business

You'll need to give details of who is involved in managing your business.

This will be different for every business. For example, you could be managing a business on your own, or it could have an entire management team.

In particular, funders will be interested in finding out if you or the other people managing your business have the correct skills and experience to deliver your business plan.

You should give details of anyone involved in managing your business, including their:

  • role in your business
  • skills and experience

Businesses with management teams

If your business has a management team you should also give details of the team structure and any lines of reporting.

Information on products or services

This section of your business plan should describe what your business sells.

This will include details of any:

  • unique selling points
  • intellectual property
  • patents or trademarks

You should try to describe your products or services as specifically as possible.

You might also want to include photographs, diagrams or illustrations.

Businesses selling more than one product or service

You should give details of all the products or services your business sells. This will help potential funders to see if your new product or service either complements or adds diversity to your existing business.

Giving details of all your products or services will help potential funders to see these opportunities and might improve your chance of getting funding.

Your market and customers

You should give details of the expected market for your products and services. This means who you think will want to use or buy what your business produces.

This should include:

  • the size of your market and which part you want to target (for example Scotland, the UK, Europe)
  • how you think the market will grow
  • any competitors you have
  • how you'll meet the needs of your customers

When describing how you think the market will grow, try to reference an independent source, for example regulatory bodies or recognised industry experts.

This section should also explain how your business will get past any problems that could prevent you from reaching your market, like supplier problems.

Your competitors

You should give details of any products, services or providers you expect to be your main competitors.

Include products or services that you know are currently being developed. You should try to show how your business's own product or service is different and why customers will choose yours.

How you will sell your product or service

You should also use this section to detail your business's sales strategy.

This will include your plan for:

  • marketing and advertising
  • sales process
  • distribution

Financial summary and funding requirements

Your financial summary helps potential funders understand the opportunity they have by giving funding to your business.

It will include information on your business's historical performance – your profit/loss and balance sheet. It should also include your financial forecasts for the next 3 years – your cash flow, profit/loss and balance sheet.

Your financial forecasts should detail any assumptions you have made and how your business will respond to changes in your forecast, such as if you sell more or less.

For example if you've made the assumption your turnover will grow, you could say if this is because of market growth or price rises.

You can use information from other parts of your business plan to support your assumptions.

Funding requirements

This section of your business plan gives information on:

  • the total funding your business needs
  • where you expect to find this funding from
  • whether you need it all in one go or at intervals

You should explain what you need the funding for and how it will benefit your business.

If your company has applied for funding from a range of sources you should include details of this. For example, a bank loan of £5,000 or grant funding of £2,500.

Further help

You can find more information on writing business plans on the Business Gateway website .

You can also find general help and advice for businesses on the:

  • Find Business Support website
  • British Business Bank website

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The Step-By-Step Guide Of How To Write A Business Plan

How To Write A Business Plan: Step-By-Step Guide

You may have plenty of great ideas, but understanding how to write a business plan is essential if you want to grow your business, gain funding, and more. .

Yet, a lot of startups don’t take the time to make one or don’t often see the advantage that they can bring. 

Those with a business plan grew an average of 30% faster than those that didn’t. What’s more, they were 2x more likely to get investments or secure loans than those without. 

Ready to learn how to write a business plan? We’ve got the step-by-step instructions you need to write a business plan that works. 

Let’s get started. 

What you'll get from this page:

What is a business plan?

Before we dive into the details of writing a business plan, let’s just recap what one is. 

A business plan is a written document that describes your business. It may not sound like a lot, but it’s an in-depth guide to who you are, what you do, and how your business works. It’s useful for every business, whether you’re registered as a sole trader or limited company. 

A business plan covers all different subjects, such as: 

  • Your business objectives and goals;
  • Your employees and business structure;
  • Your products and how you market them;
  • Your customers, competitors, and industry;
  • Your financial information and funding needed.

Fundamentally, a business plan is there to clarify what your business is, set out your goals, spot any potential problems and set yourself up to grow. 

Why do I need a business plan? 

The most common reason why you need a business plan is to ask for investment.

If you want to get an investment from your business, you’ll need a business plan to show to your lender or investors. This is to show them exactly what the money is for, how it will be used and, more importantly, how it will make enough money to pay back the initial investment.

Your business plan is proof that you can be trusted with the investment and that you will pay it back. It’s peace of mind for your investors that you’re worth giving money to, and depending on the type of funding, that your business will be a valuable project for them. 

Without a business plan, you’ll find it hard to secure funding that doesn’t come from personal sources. That’s one of the reasons why understanding how to write a business plan is so important.

In addition, business plans are a great way to really solidify what your plans are and how you’ll grow. It forces you into asking some hard-hitting questions about your business, allowing you to solve problems because they cause big roadblocks for your company. 

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How to write a business plan

Right, now we’ve hammered home why you need a business plan, it’s time to start writing. But, before you open the document and get alarmed by the blank page that’s in front of you, here’s some advice. 

There’s no right or wrong way to write a business plan. This process is designed to help you uncover information about your company and guide you, not dictate every decision you’ll ever make from this point. So, breathe, relax and let us guide you through it. 

Generally, there are two types of business plans that exist: 

  • A traditional business plan
  • A lean startup business plan

Traditional business plans are more common and might be what you’re more familiar with. These can be dozens of pages long that list in detail about every aspect of your company. 

On the other hand, lean startup pages are only a page long. They’re not often used to secure investments, but as a way to summarise a business plan into the key bullet points. If you’re looking for a way to get the basics out of the way quickly, this type of business plan might be for you. 

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If you’ve never written a business plan before, it can be a good idea to start with a lean startup plan to get an overview of your business and goals. You may also want to write a traditional plan afterwards to help you focus more clearly on these objectives and map out your roadmap in more detail. 

Even if you aren’t showing these documents to investors at this stage, they’re good internal documents to look back on to keep you on the right path. 

Once you’ve decided which type of business plan you need, scroll down to the right section to follow our step-by-step instructions of how to write a business plan. 

How to write a traditional business plan

Traditional business plans are the norm and still widely used around the globe.

A traditional business plan is a more in-depth document that details almost every aspect of your company. If you want a thorough overview of your business or are trying to secure investment, this is the plan that you need. 

It’s made up of the following sections: 

  • Executive summary 
  • Company description 
  • Market research 
  • Organisation and management 
  • Product or service 
  • Marketing and sales strategy 
  • Funding requests
  • Financial forecasts 
  • Appendix 

Okay, that list may look daunting. But to help you through it, we’ll guide you through the business plan section by section, telling you what it’s about, what you need to include, and examples to give you the right idea. 

Right, let’s get started. 

1. Executive summary 

One of the first things we need to cover in our guide to how to write a business plan is the executive summary.

An executive summary is a high-level overview of your business. 

Its purpose is to describe your company to those that don’t have time to read your entire business plan, enticing them into finding out more about your company. 

It should include information about: 

  • What your business does in a nutshell;
  • What your product or services are;
  • Who you sell to;
  • What makes you different.

You’ll go into these factors in more detail later on, so don’t try to get everything in your executive summary. If you’re using your mission statement to apply for funding, it’s also a good idea to include a summary of the amounts here too. 

Although you don’t have any set word counts for any part of your business plan, you don’t want to go past a page for your executive summary. The key is the word summary here. Keep it short, sweet and easy to read. 

And because it’s a summary, it’s sometimes helpful to write this section last. That way you’ve had a chance to really think about everything in detail and hone in one the most important parts you want to portray here. 

Example executive summary 

Lick O’ Paint is an interior design and home decorating company. Its services include interior design work, home renovations, painting and decorating, and custom artwork. 

Customers  

Lick O’ Paint is for design-conscious home-owners who want to create a magical space for their home but are dissatisfied with the ordinary designs from other home decorating companies. 

Unique Selling Point 

Unlike other decorating companies, Lick O’ Paint was founded by an award-winning artist that not only can find pieces to fit a room but design and produce artwork bespoke for the space. 

2. Company description

Whether you sell cakes or law counselling, you have to describe your company in the business plan.

This is your section to provide detailed information about your company and what you do. 

A company description is made from these key elements: 

  • A mission statement;
  • Your history;
  • Your goals and objectives;
  • Your principal members.

If you’ve never written a mission statement before, this a 1-2 line description of why your business exists. It’s not simply a summary of what you do or what you sell, it’s the reason why you sell these products in the first place. 

For example, Nike’s mission statement isn’t to create sportswear . It’s to “Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world”. Powerful stuff. 

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Example company description 

  • Mission statement 

To transform houses into stunning homes full of life and personality. 

History  

Lick O’ Paint was founded in 2020 by award-winning artist Andie Bootstraps, after life-long friend Mark O’Chopping paid for, and was disappointed in, a recent home renovation. Stepping in to help recover the bland and lifeless space with bespoke art, Andie and Mark realised a gap in the market for those that want stunning and personal homes, without having to do everything themselves. 

Goals and objectives 

  • Gain a glowing reputation as the best interior design company in the Midlands. 
  • Complete at least 6 full renovations during year one, and 10 one-room makeovers. 
  • To double revenue in the first 2 years from £250,000 to £500,000. 

Principal Members

  • Andie Bootstraps – owner and head designer 
  • Mark O’Chopping – business manager/sales 
  • Gary Cannon – decorator and trades specialist 

3. Market analysis 

One of the most important points in your business plan is the competition analysis, also known as market analysis.

This is where you go into detail about your particular industry and where you sit within it. To do this section, you’ll need to carry out competitive research about other businesses that are similar to yours and the advantages or weaknesses you have over them. 

When doing comparative analysis, ask questions such as: 

  • What are your competitors doing well?
  • Do they offer any services that you don’t?
  • Do you offer services that they don’t?
  • What do customers say about them?
  • How do they market their company?
  • Who are their customers?

And so forth. 

Competitive analysis isn’t the time for blind-ego. Don’t just use this space to claim you’re better than anyone else. Instead, take a more honest look at the companies around you and what you can learn from them. 

This section is also the space to expand on your target customers in more detail. 

Example market analysis 

Industry  

Lick O’ Paint is within the design and home trades industry. During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, home renovations and DIY projects took a 200% increase, increasing revenue by £3.4 billion in the UK, proving an incredibly lucrative industry and time to invest in a company.  

Lick O’ Paint’s biggest competitors are The DIY-ers, which specialises in completing home renovation work, and The Home Designers, a team of interior designers that have won the ‘Best Designed Home’ award for the last three years running.

Unlike Lick O’ Paint, none of the competitors is founded by an award-winning artist who can design bespoke artwork as part of the home renovation packages. 

Detailed description of customers 

Lick O’ Paint customers are between the ages of 30-60 with a household income of £50,000+. 

They are design-conscious home-owners who want to create a magical space for their home, but are dissatisfied with the ordinary designs from other home decorating companies.

Working full time, our customers don’t have the time nor desire to complete DIY projects themselves and would rather use their home to relax after a long day. Instead of decorating themselves, they would rather outsource the work for a professional finish. 

Company advantages 

Lick O’ Paint’s biggest advantage is that we provide both interior design, home renovations and bespoke artwork by award-winning artist and founder Andie Bootstraps. 

In addition, Lick O’ Paint stands out due to:

  • Fully bespoke/unique designs for each client. 
  • Artwork that is created for the space, not found to ‘dress’ it afterwards. 
  • In-depth consultations before every project to really get a sense of the home-owners personality. 

4. Organisation and management 

It is also important to describe how your company is organised, more specifically hierarchical bonds.

This is where you list how your company is structured and who will be running it. 

For this section, you might want to include CV’s of your key personnel to help paint a better picture of your company. These CV’s can be uploaded to the appendix so the reader can quickly jump to and find the information they need. 

5. Product or service

So, what does your company actually sell? 

This is the section to lay down exactly what services or the types of products you offer. You don’t need to include your entire category, but give an overview of everything that your company does and extra information such as a product lifecycle, production, and distribution, or any research and development into future productions. 

This is also the section to include your pricing structure and how much you charge for each service. 

Example product or service 

Product/Service 

Services include: 

  • Interior design planning and services;
  • Design consultations;
  • Painting and decorating services;
  • Bespoke room design and planning;
  • Custom Andie Bootstraps interior artwork;
  • Full home renovations.

Pricing structure

Prices are determined on a case-by-case basis dependant on the level of work involved. As a base price, Lick O’ Paint charges: 

  • £500 for a one-day consultation;
  • £1,000 for 3D interior design plans;
  • £5,000 per room renovation.

6. Marketing and sales strategy 

You might have the best product in the world, but if you can't sell it, your business will fail. Make sure you have a strong marketing strategy.

Customers make a business. 

Without customers, your business is just an idea. So, this section details exactly how you plan to get and sell to your customers. 

It should outline what strategies your company will use to generate leads and sales and how you plan on making people loyal customers that will always turn to your brand. 

With marketing, remember that there’s no single way to sell your product. Marketing strategies aren’t something that you should set in stone either. They always grow and evolve with your company and as you try out new things that work or don’t work. 

Want some tips for your marketing strategy? Why don’t you read our guides to find out how PPC advertising and SEO can drive traffic to your website , how to market a small business on social media , and more on our blog. 

Example marketing and sales strategy 

Marketing and sales at Lick  O’ Paint is led by Mark O’Chopping, who has over 10 years experience in sales. 

Lick O’ Paint’s marketing and sales strategy will leverage the following tactics to attract customers. 

  • Word of mouth;
  • Reviews and ratings on local directories;
  • Local PPC and social media ads;
  • Print advertising at relevant art events and galleries;
  • Social media, including leveraging Andie Bootstraps existing 50,000 Instagram followers. 

Because interior design is a visual industry, we will be relying heavily on social media profiles and presences to visually showcase the bespoke designs we create. In addition, we’ll also take advantage of Andie Bootstrap’s unique links within the art world to advertise Lick O’ Paint at relevant art shows and exhibitions. 

The sales process will work as follows: 

  • Mark O’Chopping will contact leads, getting information about their project and setting up a consultation with the design team. 
  • The team will have a consultation with the client, talking through initial ideas and plans. 
  • The team will design and present plans to the client and arrange a contract for the completed work. 

7. Funding request 

If you’re learning how to write a business plan to apply for funding, this is the section you’ll need to pay the most attention to. 

For this, you need to clearly explain how much funding you’ll need for the next five years and exactly what you’re going to use it on. Be as specific as possible in your request and outline and outline how this investment will lead to more revenue from your company. 

8. Financial projections 

Finances and accounting are not for everyone but they are paramount to make any company profitable. Make sure you analyse thoroughly this section of your business plan.

If you’re applying for funding, financial projections are an essential piece of information that you’ll need to supplement and back up your request. 

But even if you aren’t applying for funding, financial projections are an important one to include because they convince the reader that your business is stable and will be a success. 

Financial projections show to your reader that you’ve done the math and that you predict that your business is using a profitable model that will be sustainable. 

If your business is already established, include income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements for the last three to five years. If you have other collateral you could put against a loan, here’s where to list it.  

Just be careful to make your financial projections realistic. People will see through optimistic plans that don’t account for the possibility of any disaster. What’s more, over-optimistic forecasts can lead to increased overheads. This will cause a dramatic problem with your cash flow and may even result in drastic cost-cutting down the line to put it right. 

Need some help with your finances? Find out 5 ways you can reduce your business costs here. 

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8. Appendix 

The appendix is the place to put any supporting documents or materials that were requested or support the statements that you’ve made. 

This can include: 

  • CV’s of key personal;
  • Credit histories;
  • Product pictures or portfolio of work;
  • Letters of reference;
  • Licenses or permits related to your business;
  • Legal documents or patents that you hold.

And that’s it! That’s your first business plan written and ready to go.  

How to write a lean startup business plan 

One sheet is all it takes to write a lean startup business plan. Don't go into much detail and cover all aspects of your business.

A lean startup business plan is the quicker, less detailed business plan option that you can write. It’s great for those that just need a high-level overview of your business that can be scanned. 

If you’re planning on applying for funding, you may want to scroll up to see how you can get started writing a traditional business plan instead. 

There are many different types of lean startup business plans. This is because it’s a less formal overview of your business, meaning you can pretty much swap and change up the sections to suit your business. 

However, to get you started we’d recommended including these sections: 

  • Company overview 
  • Unique selling point 
  • Target customers  
  • Market analysis 
  • Products or services 
  • Marketing strategy  
  • Key personnel 
  • Goals and objectives

Don’t be alarmed by the number of sections here. You’ll only need a quick sentence or two for each of them, meaning your overall document will be just a page long. 

Right, ready to get stuck in? 

1. Company overview 

This is a description of your company in a nutshell. 

Example: Lick O’ Paint is an interior design and home decorating company that offers designs by award-winning artist Andie Bootstraps. 

2. Mission statement 

A mission statement is an overall problem that your company is trying to solve, or the core reason that you were founded. This is another one-line description of your company, but instead of saying what you do, you need to say why you do it. 

Example: To transform houses into stunning homes full of life and personality. 

3. Unique selling point 

What do you do that your competitor's can't do? This is your value proposition or unique selling point!

Your unique selling point should showcase the value that you provide, that no other business else can offer. Also known as a value proposition, this is what makes your business different from the other companies in your industry. 

Example : Lick O’ Paint is the only interior design company founded by an award-winning artist who can design bespoke artwork as part of the home renovation packages. 

4. Target customers 

Who are the ideal customers of your business? Think about the people that would buy your product or service and summarise them into 1-2 sentences. 

Example: Lick O’ Paint is for design-conscious home-owners who want to create a magical space for their home but are dissatisfied with the ordinary designs from other home decorating companies. 

5. Market analysis 

This is where you list what industry your company is a part of, as well as your biggest competitors. As this is a summary, you won’t go into detail about these sections, but they are a massively useful tool for your business to utilise if you haven’t already done so. 

Example: Lick O’ Paint sits within the design and home trades industry, which has increased 200% during the 2020 pandemic, increasing revenue by £3.4 billion in the UK. Our biggest competitors in this industry are The DIY-ers and The Home Designers. 

6. Product or services 

This is where you list what your company sells. This is either a physical product or a service that you provide. Because this is a summary, you don’t want to list every single product that you sell. Just give an overview of the type of products that you offer. 

Example: Lick O’ Paint provides interior design plans and consutaltions, home renovations, painting and decorating and custom Andie Bootstraps artwork. 

7. Marketing strategy 

Now, you don’t have to list your entire marketing strategy here. This will be more of a summary of the channels that you’ll use to attract new customers into your business. After all, without your customers, there is no business. 

Example : Lick O’ Paint will primarily use social media profiles and presences to visually showcase the bespoke designs we create. In addition, we’ll also take advantage of Andie Bootstrap’s unique links within the art world to advertise Lick O’ Paint at relevant art shows and exhibitions. 

8. Key personnel 

All companies are made of people, so don't forget to mention the vital elements of your team.

Who’s involved in your business? List all the key people that are part of the package and their roles within the company. 

A quick bullet point list here will do. 

Example: 

9. Goals and objectives 

What are the key goals that your business is trying to achieve over the next few years? This is the space to list them in a quick bullet list. 

The key to setting goals is to be optimistic, but realistic. You don’t want to downplay your business by already thinking you can’t achieve a certain thing. In the same vein, you don’t want to blindly set a goal to be the best in the world. It needs to be something that’s measurable and realistic. 

How To Write A Business Plan: Key Tips 

No matter what type of business plan that you’re writing, we thought we’d lay out some of the key tips to make sure it’s the best it can be. 

  • Be concise. A business plan isn’t the place to ramble on about yourself. It’s a summary that’s built to provide investors, partners, or yourself with the key information about your business. So, make it easy to read by sticking to the important facts and dropping all the fluff. 
  • Make it simple. When writing business documents, there’s a preconception that you need to use complex words and language to make yourself sound smarter or more important, which is rubbish. Using complex language and words inside your business plan will just make it harder to read. And when you’re looking for investment, the last thing you want to do is make this process even harder. So, keep it simple. 
  • Be specific. Business plans aren’t the places to be vague or to guess. They need to be precise and specific, so give exact figures and calculations where possible. 
  • Do your research. One of the biggest factors for any business is to really know who your target audience is and your market. It’s no good just guessing at this information, you need to know exactly what your industry is and who your competitors are. If you haven’t done the research, it will show in your business plan. 
  • Know your finances. Finance isn’t the easiest subject for everyone. But, it is an essential one if you’re to work out how your business can be successful and make money.

Finance is a big part of building a business plan. So, if you’re unsure of your finances, talk to an accountant or expert for their advice planning before you start to write yours. It will make the process a lot easier, and give you a much clearer picture of your financial future. 

If you’re handling your finances yourself, why not free up some of your time by investing in some of the best accounting software around. 

By following our advice and step-by-step instructions, you’ll have a business plan that you can use to secure investments and help drive the growth of your business. 

Want more tips and advice on how to run your business? Keep an eye on our blog for more news and helpful articles. 

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  • Business Plan Template

Step 1: Business Plan

What is a business plan.

A Business Plan is a written document that describes your core business objectives and how you plan to achieve them over a set period of time. It is designed to help you, and others, understand how you plan to generate money and make your business sustainable. A Business Plan often includes information about your goals, strategies, marketing and sales plans and financial forecasts. Read on below for more information about the key sections of a Business Plan.

Download your copy of the Business Plan template now. The document includes a Personal Survival Budget template and a Cash Flow Forecast template, which are also required for your application:

The guide is an annotated version of the Business Plan template with notes from our Business Advisers about what type of information, examples and evidence to include in order to help us understand you and your business. While we encourage you to use this Business Plan template, it is not mandatory and you are welcome to submit your own Business Plan template provided it details similar information.

Please note, the following documents should open on any device with a document viewer and editor but for the best user experience, we recommend editing this Business Plan template on a desktop.

Why is a Business Plan important?  

There are many great reasons why it is worth your time creating a Business Plan – even if you’re not quite ready to apply for a Start Up Loan. Here are just seven:

A Business Plan:

  • Provides a structured way of organising your thoughts and clarifying your idea.
  • Helps you set out your goals and spot any potential problems in achieving these goals.
  • Gives you a clear strategy to follow when things get busy.
  • Is often essential for securing external finance for your business (and is required if you’re applying for a Start Up Loan).
  • Allows you to measure your progress as you go along.
  • Ensures all of your team are working towards the same vision.
  • Helps you plan for the future.

Key sections of a Business Plan:  

A Business Plan can include whatever information you feel is required to best convey how you are planning to make your business sustainable and, when it comes to applying for a Start Up Loan, the following are the core sections we require.

Your business and key objectives: A brief description of your business and its core products or services. This section also includes a clear and concise overview of the goals your business is trying to achieve over a set period of time. Sometimes these are broken down as short, mid and long-term goals, but it helps if they’re measurable (how will you know if you have achieved this?) and realistic (can you achieve this with the money, resources and time you have?).  

If you are applying for a Start Up Loan, you will of course also need to detail how you intend to use the money if you’re successful. Our Loan Assessment team will want to see that the Start Up Loan will support your overall business objectives.

Your skills and experience: An overview of your experience as it relates to your business. If you’ve previously worked in a similar business, or have experience running another business, this will help provide confidence that you are in a good position to start up. Even if this is all brand new to you, think about any transferable skills you’ve developed, life experiences you’ve had or training you’ve completed that may be useful.

Your target customers, market and competition: A summary of key insights that demonstrate you have a strong understanding of your customers (and how to identify them), your market (and how to position yourself within it) and your competitors (and how to differentiate yourself from them on factors like price, quality, brand etc).  

Your sales and marketing plans: This section is all about how you are planning to attract customers. You might include information about where you’ll distribute your products, what your branding and logo will be and what pricing you’ll apply. Additionally, you will need to demonstrate how you will spread the word about your product/services in order to generate demand, such as using social media, exhibiting at a trade conference or investing in online advertising.

Your operational plans: This will be different depending on your business model, but may include information on where you’ll trade (like a home office or external premises), the number of staff you’ll need to employ, what their roles will be and any equipment or tools you’ll need to run your business. You can also use this section to detail any processes that are important to your operations, as well as any industry, tax or legal regulations related to your business. It’s also good to think about any risks you may face, how you will overcome them and what you will do if things don’t go to plan.

Financials Many business plans include a financial section, which outlines how you’ll fund all of the activities you’ve outlined and what revenue you expect to generate. Because we ask you to complete a Cash Flow Forecast as part of your Start Up Loan application, we don’t require too much detail on this in your Business Plan. Rather, these two documents should be complementary.

Check out our Cash Flow Forecast guide and template >>

Writing a Business Plan – our top tips:

The tips below have been prepared by our Business Advisers and Loan Assessment team to help you understand some of the key things that will strengthen your application. For more in-depth advice, read our guidelines on how to write a Business Plan .

  • Demonstrate that you understand your market and customer. For our Loan Assessment team to feel comfortable that your business plans are viable, they will want to see that there is a market who wants and needs your product/service, that you have thought about how you’ll set yourself apart from competitors and that you know how to attract your customers. Any market research you can do, like a simple online survey, looking up industry reports or interviews with potential customers will help.
  • Use evidence and examples to back up any statements you make. It’s always more powerful when you can prove what you’re saying with hard facts, whether it’s with a strong statistic, a customer quote, examples of similar activity or other research. It doesn’t have to be detailed – sometimes it will be sufficient to include a link to further information – but it will help our loan assessment team feel more confident that your business plan is viable.
  • Make sure everything ties together by linking every strategy to your core objectives. The purpose of a Business Plan is to show what your goals are and how you’re going to achieve them so remember to put your objectives at the heart of your plan. For example, if one of your goals is to generate 10 new sales per month, then in your marketing section you’ll need to think about how many sales each promotional channel needs to deliver in order to support this objective.
  • Consider any risks you face and how you will overcome them. Every business has risks so don’t shy away from referencing these in your business plan. Demonstrating that you are aware of your key risks. Having a clear plan for how to reduce or overcome these is something that will set your business plan apart and give our loan assessment team confidence that you’re ready for the challenge.  
  • Be as clear and concise as possible and avoid waffle. Remember, we’re not looking to see every single detail about how your business will operate, rather we just need to know enough information to give us confidence that you have a clear plan in place. You might like to use bullet points, graphs, tables and subheadings to help you keep your content focused and help you avoid the temptation to go into too much detail.  
  • Presentation matters: proof read, review and format your document. As with most things in life, first impressions count. Use clear headings, structure your document in a clear order and check you’ve used consistent fonts throughout. Remember, you don’t have to be a writer or a designer to prepare a professional looking document. Most importantly, double check that you haven’t made any spelling or grammatical errors. It can be a good idea to have someone proof read your work for you once you’re finished to pick up anything you might have missed.

Learn new skills

Start Up Loans has partnered with the Open University to offer a range of free courses.

A Business Plan can include whatever information you feel is required to best convey how you are planning to make your business sustainable and, when it comes to applying for a Start Up Loan, the following are the core sections we require (our Business Plan template includes them).

Are you ready to kickstart your business?

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Spring Budget Must Set Out Strategic Economic Plan To Restore Business Confidence

20 February 2024, London – The London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has today called on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to address four key issues in the upcoming Spring Budget in order to restore stability and supercharge productivity and growth.

The combination of rising operating costs, high energy prices, and high interest rates means businesses have less available capital to invest for growth –the implications of which we will feel well into the longer term.

It is vital that the Government implements a clearly prioritised, long-term and targeted plan for UK business recovery.

In a letter sent this week, LCCI urges the Chancellor to include the following key measures in the upcoming Budget:

  • Restoring VAT-free shopping would enhance London’s global competitiveness, reversing the perception of being 20% more expensive than European counterparts. This move is crucial to revive the tourism industry, safeguarding employment, investments, and economic growth.

  Securing a Long-Term funding solution for TfL

  • London’s extensive transport network is indispensable for business operations and city connectivity. To ensure its sustainability, we urge the government to establish a stable, long-term funding solution, ending the cycle of short-term political decisions.
  • Simplify and enhance the Apprenticeship Levy to address its current limitations. London businesses would benefit from a more user-friendly system with greater flexibility to nurture a skilled workforce and thrive in today’s economy.
  • Th Government must work to combat rising energy costs, which continue to burden businesses and hinder economic confidence. Intervention is needed to alleviate these pressures, preventing further price increases and mitigating the detrimental effects of high inflation on the economy.

  Karim Fatehi MBE, Interim Chief Executive of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) ,  said:

“As we approach the Spring Budget, it’s imperative that Chancellor Hunt prioritizes London’s businesses’ urgent needs. The current operating climate is unsustainable for many businesses; rising operating costs, soaring energy prices, and high interest rates are stifling productivity and hampering economic recovery efforts.

“The reintroduction of VAT-free shopping is crucial for competitiveness, tourism, and economic growth. Long-term funding for TfL is vital for citywide connectivity and operations. Apprenticeship Levy reform is needed to support workforce development effectively and addressing the energy crisis is much needed to alleviate burdens on businesses and boost confidence.

“On behalf of London’s vibrant business community, we urge The Chancellor to heed our call and take swift, decisive action in the Spring Budget. Now is the time for strategic economic planning and proactive measures to restore business confidence and ensure London remains as the premier global city for business.”

It's on: Farage and Clegg debate on the way

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A luxury Audi car is surrounded by exhaust gases

UK ministers in court again over net zero plans

Friends of the Earth dismisses government’s revised climate action plan as a ‘pipe dream’

UK ministers are facing court for a second time over plans to meet legally binding climate targets, after environmental groups branded revised measures “a complete pipe dream”.

The government has already been forced to change its climate action plan after a legal challenge by environmentalists, but the same groups are taking it back to court over updated plans they say are “riddled with holes and relian[t] on risky techno-fixes”.

“We believe the government’s revised climate action plan is a complete pipe dream,” said Katie de Kauwe, a lawyer for Friends of the Earth . “It lacks critical information on the very real risks that its policies will fail to deliver the cuts needed to meet legally binding carbon reduction targets and relies too heavily on unproven technologies.

“The government ought to just come clean that this is a reckless, high-risk plan, and should come up with a credible and lawful strategy that ensures all our climate targets are met – including our international pledge to cut emissions two thirds by 2030.”

Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and the Good Law Project will make their case for a judicial review of the government’s carbon budget delivery plan in a “rolled-up hearing” at the high court in London on Tuesday.

They argue the plan, published in March 2023, fails to meet the criteria laid down by the Climate Change Act (CCA) 2008, which places a legal duty on the government to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The latest plan was drafted after judges in 2022 ordered the government to revise its strategy, after the same three organisations successfully argued it was in breach of the CCA.

Sam Hunter-Jones, a lawyer for ClientEarth, said: “The UK government continues to rely on pie-in-the-sky measures to address a crisis that needs real, immediate action – an approach the UK’s flagship law the Climate Change Act was designed to prevent.

“Instead of plugging the gaps identified by their own expert advisers, ministers are standing behind a strategy that is riddled with policy holes and reliance on risky techno-fixes.

“This approach flies in the face of key legal requirements and puts the UK well off track from meeting its legally binding commitments, which is why we’re back in court.”

Emma Dearnaley, legal director at the Good Law Project, said: “The government has admitted to us that, on its own assessments, its net zero plan is fraught with risks. Many of its flagship policies could fail to be achieved by the legally binding deadlines, yet ministers are stubbornly keeping vital information under lock and key to save embarrassment.

“With so much at stake for our planet and our economy, that needs to change. The sooner we can see what the risks are, the sooner the government will have to face up to the shortcomings in its net zero strategy and take action to fix them. So as soon as the risk tables are mentioned in court, we plan to publish them for all to see.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero defended the government’s record. “The UK is the first major economy to halve its greenhouse gas emissions since 1990, while growing the economy by nearly 80%,” they said.

“The government has overdelivered on every carbon budget to date and we’re on track to meet our future targets, which are among the most ambitious in the world.

“While we cannot comment further on matters that are subject to live litigation, our long-term plans to deliver net zero in a pragmatic way will continue to lower energy bills, create jobs across the UK and reduce emissions.”

  • Greenhouse gas emissions
  • Friends of the Earth
  • Environmental activism
  • Climate crisis

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Climate crisis: 2023 was UK’s second-hottest year on record

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XR co-founder who broke window at HS2 protest given suspended sentence

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Most viewed.

Money latest: Big drop in energy bills expected to be announced at 7am on Friday

Based on wholesale costs, the cap is expected to fall to £1,656 per year for a typical dual-fuel household - a 14% decrease from the current level. Read this and more in the Money blog, your place for consumer and economic news. Listen to the latest Ian King podcast as you scroll.

Thursday 22 February 2024 21:53, UK

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Respected predictor Cornwall Insight has released its final prediction for Friday's energy price cap announcement. 

Based on wholesale costs, the cap is expected to fall to £1,656 per year for a typical dual-fuel household - a 14% decrease from the current level.

The current price cap sits at £1,928 a year for a typical household.

Although this means energy bills will get cheaper, this prediction is slightly higher than the previous forecast from Cornwall Insight.

It previously said the cap was likely to drop 15% to £1,635.

Here's what else you need to know... 

We'll be hearing at 7am on Friday what the new energy price cap will be from April.

The cap is controlled by energy regulator Ofgem and aims to prevent households on variable tariffs being ripped off. 

It doesn't represent a maximum bill. Instead it creates an average bill by limiting how much you pay per unit of gas and electricity, as well as setting a maximum daily standing charge (which all households must pay to stay connected to the grid). 

It changes every three months - in January, April, July and October.

The changes are mostly based on the costs faced by suppliers for providing energy. 

Who is covered by the energy price cap? 

Most households will be covered by the energy price cap. 

You'll know you're on a price-capped tariff if you're on a standard variable tariff. 

Diageo, the FTSE-100 alcoholic beverages giant, is exploring the sale of a trio of non-core brands including Pimm's , the quintessentially English drink.

Read Mark Kleinman's story here ...

Takeaway couriers from Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat are planning to strike every Friday and bank holiday unless they get a pay rise, according to a report . 

About 5,000 couriers in London and others in Liverpool, Newcastle, Brighton and Oxford will not be picking up orders from 5pm until 10pm on those days, The Sun has reported.

They want a fee of at least £5 per order - a rise on the minimum £2.80 paid by Uber Eats and £3.15 by Deliveroo.

Boeing has ousted the executive responsible for rolling out its troubled 737 MAX planes.

The dismissal comes weeks after a panel on a new 737 MAX 9 aircraft blew out in midair, reigniting safety concerns over Boeing's 737 MAX fleet. 

Read more on this here ...

Average pay rises have fallen and they are unlikely to reach levels seen last year, a leading HR site has found. 

Pay rises dropped to 5.1% in the three months to January compared with 6% in the previous quarter, XpertHR data revealed.

XpertHR's senior content manager Sheila Attwood warned there were signs the 6% pay award seen in 2023 will not be matched in 2024. 

"We are already beginning to see that around half of employee groups are receiving settlements worth less than their previous award," she said. 

"The financial pressure from high inflation levels and elevated pay awards budgets in 2023 may mean that organisations will be limiting their budgets in 2024 in response." 

While this might not be welcome news for employees, high wages contribute to inflation - which affects all of us in what we pay for goods.

Wage rises coming down, if these figures are replicated in official data, would make an interest rate cut more likely.

NatWest has just told brokers it will also be increasing mortgage rates tomorrow, the Money blog can reveal following on from HSBC's announcement (see 12.05pm post).

New customers will see hikes of between 0.10 and 0.15 percentage points while for existing customers it's between 0.15 and 0.20.

These are on two and five-year fixed deals.

Speaking to Newspage, Justin Moy, managing director at EHF Mortgages, said: "Today, yet another major high street lender has pushed rates further out of reach of borrowers. 

"NatWest may be following the rest of the mainstream lenders but the collective reaction from lenders to higher swap rates will inevitably kill off all those improvements everyone worked hard for in January this year. 

"Right now, it feels like 2023 is happening all over again. Someone has pressed the mortgage rewind button."

Santander, Coventry and TSB have all raised rates this week - though today Halifax went against the grain and announced some cuts from Friday . It's not clear by how much.

As discussed earlier, swap rates - which dictate how much it costs to offer mortgages - have been creeping up, and lenders are passing this on.

There is a feeling markets may have got carried away with expectations of an early base rate cut this year - leading mortgage rates to fall. What seems to be happening now is a readjustment, with forecasts for a base rate cut having shifted back from May to June.

Four people have been arrested in police raids by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). 

Three residences in Merseyside and Greater Manchester were raided this week as the SFO announced an investigation into Signature Group, which had a portfolio of hotels in Liverpool before it went into administration in 2020. 

When it collapsed, it had losses of up to £140m. 

The business had attracted over a thousand British and international investors to redevelop iconic landmarks such as Belfast's Scottish Mutual Building and the Coal Exchange in Cardiff, the SFO said. 

Signature Group bought up predominantly historic buildings in the UK to be redeveloped into luxury hotels, residential apartments and office spaces. 

Investors either loaned money to Signature Group or bought a hotel room, apartment or office space in one of the group's properties, with promised returns on their investment of between 8% and 15%.

Among the properties in its portfolio was a cruise liner marketed as a "flotel" that would be moored off Canary Wharf in London and travel to Ibiza. 

Nick Ephgrave QPM, director of the SFO, said: "The scheme offered attractive returns and used much-loved local landmarks to lure investors.

 "We have people up and down the country left out of pocket, and buildings left derelict at the centre of our cities."

Fish and chips could be at risk after Russia pulled out of a long-standing deal with the UK.

A 1956 agreement that allows British boats to fish in the Barents Sea has been ripped up, in the latest sign of growing tensions between Moscow and the West.

The fishing deal was signed by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, but Russian politicians have now claimed it was never in the national interest.

Last year, Sky News reported that up to 40% of cod and haddock consumed in the UK comes from Russia and Russian territory - with Moscow accused of "weaponising food".

Read more on this story here ...

HSBC has announced it will reprice its mortgage rates upwards from tomorrow - following similar moves by Santander, Coventry and TSB this week.

The lender hasn't revealed how much rates are going up but the Money blog understands it will affect existing and new residential customers across all the main loan-to-value and fixed-term categories.

HSBC is the last major lender with a sub 4% deal - this now appears likely to go.

The apparent reason for these increases is that swap rates - which dictate how much it costs lenders to offer mortgages - have been creeping up.

We've got some reaction from the industry.

Ashley Thomas, director at Magni Finance, told Newspage: "HSBC hiking rates is yet another hammer blow to Britain's beleaguered property market. 2024 started on a high but those days now feel like a distant memory as more lenders reprice upwards."

This sentiment was echoed by Michelle Lawson, director at Lawson Financial, who told Newspage: "Another one bites the dust. We have returned to uncertain times in the mortgage and property market. Hopefully things will settle down soon as the property industry is such a trigger for so many others. The yo-yoing is no good for anyone."

David Hollingworth, associate director at L&C Mortgages, offered a more sanguine view, telling the Money blog...

"This could feel like a retrograde step for borrowers but it is a far cry from the very rapid and steep increases that we saw post mini-budget and again last summer.  

"Market rates aren't skyrocketing in the same way that would force a sharp and significant rise in borrowing costs but it is enough that lenders are having to adjust in the face of higher funding costs. 

"I expect there will still be plenty of jockeying for position as the market remains extremely competitive but in the short term we may still see more movement in mortgage rates."

Offering advice to prospective borrowers, Mr Hollingworth said: "For now at least, anyone that was holding off in the hope of further cuts may want to reassess their position."

The supermarket has urgently recalled various cookies over fears they could contain metal. 

Lidl yesterday issued a warning over three of its Tower Gate cookie varieties. 

But it extended it today to include more Tower Gate products, as well as a McEnnedy product. 

Here is the full list of cookies being recalled: 

  • Tower Gate Half Coated Chocolate Chunk Cookies 200g, best before 6 December 2024
  • Tower Gate Half Coated Fruit & Nut Cookies 200g, best before 6 December 2024
  • McEnnedy American Way Nougatelli 175g, 10 December 2024
  • Tower Gate Soft Baked Cookies Lemon 210g, 13 December 2024
  • Tower Gate Chocolate Chip Cookies 150g, 14 December 2024

Lidl has issued point of sale notices in its stores, according to the Food Standards Agency.

Customers have been told not to eat these products and to return them to the store for a full refund. 

Security experts have urged Android users to delete five apps from their phones immediately over fears they are infected with malware. 

Samsung Galaxy phones are particularly at risk from the nasty bug called Anatsa, which is a banking trojan. 

It is capable of performing actions on a victim's phone without them knowing, including taking money from their bank account. 

The apps, which had been available on the Google Play Store, are: 

  • Phone Cleaner – File Explorer
  • PDF Viewer – File Explorer
  • PDF Reader – Viewer & Editor
  • Phone Cleaner: File Explorer
  • PDF Reader: File Manager

Experts at security company Threat Fabric said the apps pose a "critical" threat to Android users. 

"A unique aspect of this dropper was its malicious code, specifically targeting Samsung devices," the company said in a statement.

"The malicious AccessibilityService was tailored to interact with the UI [user interface] elements of Samsung devices, meaning only Samsung users were impacted in this phase of the campaign. 

"This suggests that the threat actors initially developed and tested their code exclusively for Samsung devices."

The apps have now been removed from the store, but you should check your device to make sure you don't have them downloaded already because you could be at risk. 

A Google spokesperson told news sites: "All of the apps identified in the report have been removed from Google Play. Android users are automatically protected against known versions of this malware by Google Play Protect, which is on by default on Android devices with Google Play Services.

"Google Play Protect can warn users or block apps known to exhibit malicious behaviour, even when those apps come from sources outside of Play."

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  • Business and self-employed

Apply for a Start Up Loan for your business

Apply for a government-backed Start Up Loan of £500 to £25,000 to start or grow your business.

Unlike a business loan, this is an unsecured personal loan. You’ll need to pass a credit check.

You’ll get free support and guidance to help write your business plan, and successful applicants get up to 12 months of free mentoring.

Start now on the Start Up Loans website

Before you start

To apply for the loan all of the following must apply:

  • you live in the UK
  • you’re 18 or over
  • you have (or plan to start) a UK-based business that’s been fully trading for less than 36 months

Fees and repayment

Start Up Loans are government-backed and charge a fixed interest rate of 6% per year.

You can repay the loan over a period of 1 to 5 years. There’s no application fee and no early repayment fee.

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  1. UK Export Finance: Business Plan 2017 to 2020

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  3. Business Plan Template Uk Gov 3 Things You Didn’t Know About Business

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COMMENTS

  1. Write a business plan

    A business plan is a written document that describes your business. It covers objectives, strategies, sales, marketing and financial forecasts. A business plan helps you to: clarify your...

  2. Growing your business: Plan for growth

    Marketing strategy Growth Hubs (local business support) Steps to help grow your business - finding finance, mentors, increasing sales and developing products and services

  3. Business Plan 2022 to 2025

    Business Plan 2022 to 2025 Published 31 August 2022 Applies to England and Wales Contents 1. Foreword 2. Deliver an improved speed of service for our customers 3. The impact of this plan 4....

  4. PDF Business Plan 2021-22

    Business Plan 2021-22 Contents Non-Executive Chair's Introduction ................. 03 Chief Executive's foreword .............................. 04 01: Who we are and what we do...

  5. Help to start-up

    3. Get help with tax. If you're starting a business, you'll need to understand what tax you may have to pay. Check out the guidance, which covers some helpful topics below. 4. Check your finance options. You could be eligible for a government backed Start Up Loan of £500 to £25,000 to start or grow your business.

  6. Stage 7: business plan

    Guidance Stage 7: business plan Published 28 March 2017 Contents 1. Overview Why develop a business plan? Business plan structure Intended outcomes/outputs Lessons learnt and critical...

  7. PDF Corporate and Business Plans Corporate & Business Plans

    LLE is the UK Government programme to replace the current, fragmented offer to Student Finance England customers studying in FE or HE undergraduate, part-time or full-time courses, with a new, single, streamlined system of student finance. SLC is the Department's key delivery partner and is actively co-designing the policy and implementation plan

  8. PDF Valuation Office Agency Business Plan 2021-22

    Our business rate and council tax valuations underpin around £60 billion of taxation, so our work is vital in funding local public services. We also make a critical contribution to the financial wellbeing of national Government and the delivery of other public services. This business plan sets out our priorities and targets for this financial ...

  9. How to write a business plan and business plan template

    Sam Bromley 10 November 2022 It's important to know how to write a business plan, because it helps you answer questions about your business and recognise potential obstacles before you set it up properly. Our guide explains more, plus you can download a free business plan template too.

  10. PDF Annual Business Plan 2021-22

    2021- 22 Contents Chief Executive's Foreword After a remarkable year - in which SLC processed more applications and paid more students than ever before while the vast majority of colleagues pivoted...

  11. How to start a business in the UK: 9 essential steps

    Table of contents. Establish a solid business idea. Conduct research on your idea. Create a business plan. Register your business. Organise your finances and funding. Insure your business. Equip your business with the right tools. Develop a marketing plan.

  12. Example business plans

    by jezbooker 25 November 2019 Where can I find an example of a business plan? If you're preparing to write your first business plan and are looking for some useful resources and advice on what elements to include you have come to the right page. It is essential to have a realistic, working business plan when you're starting up a business.

  13. Essential guide to writing a business plan

    Writing a business plan helps you think about what you are doing. The plan sets out your strategy and action plan for the next one to three years, or sometimes longer. As part of the process, you set concrete objectives and plan how you will achieve them. Writing a business plan helps you focus and develop your ideas.

  14. House of Commons Annual Corporate Business Plans

    Publications Strategy and business planning House of Commons Annual Corporate Business Plans House of Commons Annual Corporate Business Plans House of Commons Annual Business Plans from 2007 onwards are available below: Corporate Business Plan 2023/24 Corporate Business Plan 2022/23 Corporate Business Plan 2021/22 Corporate Business Plan 2020/21

  15. 4.2 Create your business plan

    4.2 Create your business plan Share Are you ready to write your co-op's business plan? We provide advice on the best approach, links to a template plan, and a brief overview of each section you might need to include. It's worth understanding that all business plans are different - like all businesses are different.

  16. Prudential Regulation Authority Business Plan 2023/24

    The 2023/24 Business Plan sets out the workplan for each of our strategic priorities to support the delivery of the PRA's strategy, together with an overview of the PRA's budget for 2023/24. Maintain and build on the safety and soundness of the banking and insurance sectors, and ensure continuing resilience. Be at the forefront of ...

  17. To revive Britain from recession the next government must get growth

    UK needs ambitious green plan to keep up with allies, says Labour frontbencher 22 Jan 2024 Reeves says fiscal picture 'very different' from when Labour made £28bn green pledge

  18. Writing a business plan

    When writing a business plan you should include: your company's details. an executive summary. information about your business and management team. information about your products, services and your market. financial information. what finance you're looking for. You can find a template business plan on the Business Gateway website.

  19. How To Write A Business Plan: Step-By-Step Guide

    But to help you through it, we'll guide you through the business plan section by section, telling you what it's about, what you need to include, and examples to give you the right idea. Right, let's get started. 1. Executive summary. One of the first things we need to cover in our guide to how to write a business plan is the executive ...

  20. Business Plan Template

    A Business Plan is a written document that describes your core business objectives and how you plan to achieve them over a set period of time. It is designed to help you, and others, understand how you plan to generate money and make your business sustainable.

  21. Spring Budget Must Set Out Strategic Economic Plan To ...

    Spring Budget Must Set Out Strategic Economic Plan To Restore Business Confidence. 20 February 2024, London - The London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has today called on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to address four key issues in the upcoming Spring Budget in order to restore stability and supercharge productivity and growth.

  22. Tory former business secretary criticises successors 'abandoning

    Greg Clark, with Peter Mandelson and Vince Cable, said UK must be 'more active' in approach to industry A former Conservative business secretary has criticised his successors for abandoning ...

  23. UK ministers in court again over net zero plans

    Friends of the Earth dismisses government's revised climate action plan as a 'pipe dream' UK ministers are facing court for a second time over plans to meet legally binding climate targets ...

  24. Government finances show big surplus in January

    The government finances showed a large surplus last month, more than double the surplus last January. The surplus - the difference between spending and tax income - rose to £16.7bn in January ...

  25. Public sector finances, UK

    Since our Public sector finances, UK: March 2023 bulletin published on 25 April 2023, we have reduced our estimate of borrowing for the 12 months to March 2023 (financial year ending (FYE) 2023) by £10.5 billion, from £139.2 billion to £128.7 billion. This was £2.4 billion more borrowing than in the previous financial year (FYE 2022).

  26. Post Office scandal victims set to be cleared by new law

    Post Office victims set to be cleared under new law. Hundreds of people wrongly convicted in the Post Office scandal are set to have their names cleared after the government set out plans for new ...

  27. Money latest: Hidden tax on British workers leads to huge rise in

    UK government finances saw a record surplus in January due in part to a big rise in income tax receipts, with more Britons forced into paying tax. Read this and more in the Money blog, your place ...

  28. Apply for a Start Up Loan for your business

    Apply for a government-backed Start Up Loan of £500 to £25,000 to start or grow your business. Unlike a business loan, this is an unsecured personal loan. You'll need to pass a credit check....

  29. Gov Co Uk Business Plan

    4.7 (3244 reviews) Gov Co Uk Business Plan, Cover Letter For Network Support Technician, How To Write A Letter For Every Occasion, Literature Review About Smoking Cigarettes, Dissertation Philo Le Travail Rend Il Libre, Resume Event Planning Objective, Resume And Salary Requirements Template. Gov Co Uk Business Plan -.