The FSB has called on politicians to stop playing politics when it comes to the economic recovery and formulate a realistic plan to help small businesses grow.

People Per Hour recently surveyed 9,000 businesses about their usage of freelancers and discovered that the number of businesses using flexible workers has risen by 68% in the last 12 months.

Umbrella company contractors may be interested to learn that HMRC only yielded slightly over £200,000 last year from their enquiries into the IR35 status of self-employed workers.

Red tape is putting a lot of organisations off investing in the UK, according to recent research from BDO.

The private sector is now using nearly as many interims as it did before the recession, according to the Interim Management Association.

Umbrella contractors might like to know that Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury, has said HMRC is to strengthen the size of its team tackling tax avoidance and evasion by adding more than 2,000 additional tax inspectors this autumn.

After last week’s disappointing jobs statistics showed that youth unemployment is still increasing, the REC has called on the business community to become involved in proactive initiatives such as the Youth Employment Charter.

Results from the latest Manpower Employment Outlook survey suggest that there is a North/South divide among UK employers when it comes to hiring confidence.

According to recent research by Orange, small businesses are asking all of their employees, including support staff, to come up with ideas for growing the business.

Umbrella company contractors and small business owners could be relieved to learn that HMRC intends to improve the level of service it supplies to taxpayers.

New data suggests that the UK’s small business owners are leading the country towards economic recovery.

Female umbrella contractors might be interested to learn that Scottish recruiters believe the shortage of women working in the engineering, maths, science and technology sectors could be detrimental to the country’s economy.