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Page 16 November 2026 AD SALES 01204 478812 BUSINESS TO ADVERTISE CALL 01204 478812 £ THE multi-billion cost of zero hours changes will damage the UK jobs market, the Federa- tion of Small Businesses (FSB) has warned. It says the government’s Impact Assessment of its proposed changes to the rules around zero hours contracts shows that busi- nesses will bear heavy costs, with the risk of pushing up unemploy- ment and narrowing pathways into the workforce. Commenting on the assess- ment, which suggests a £3billion cost to businesses from zero hours reforms, Tina McKenzie, interim national chair of the FSB, said: “The new government risks the same old soaring unemployment if it carries on the same old chaotic approach to employment reform. “With more than 150,000 fewer people on payrolls than when Labour came to power, small busi- nesses have been hoping that the new government would follow the Prime Minister’s lead and start a more positive conversation with businesses – not sneaking out a multi-billion-pound cost to busi- ness without even bothering to quantify the number of people who will be left out of work claiming benefits as a result of policies that make no sense. “The government needs to recog- nise that employers having people on their books – without guaran- teeing a set number of hours – is part and parcel of how many peo- ple enter work.” She added: “If the new govern- ment is going to be able to look those seeking work in the eye, it needs to pause these wrong-headed reforms before they damage work- places, workers, and those out of work. Ministers should take politi- cal ownership to find a positive-sum solution. Small businesses are keen to give the new government a chance, but not to allow the last jobs horror show to repeat itself.” BURY and Bolton law firm Clough & Willis has strength- ened its Residential Property teamwith the appointment of Adele Tatters. Adele is an experienced sen- ior conveyancer with more than 25 years’ specialist experience across all aspects of residential property work. Her background spans sales, purchases, transfers of equity and remortgages, with particular focus on complex matters such as new builds, new leases and shared ownership. She joins Clough & Willis after 13 years working predominantly remotely within large corporate organisations, including a decade as a title lawyer at Simplify Group. Adele has also headed up both the Technical Specialist Team and the New Build Title Team for MyHomeMove’s Manchester branch, maintaining relation- ships with major housebuilders including Taylor Wimpey and BDW Group. Lorraine Stratton-Webb, partner and head of residential property at Clough & Willis, said: “Adele brings a great combination of deep technical knowledge, hands-on experience with complex matters, and a passion for developing oth- ers. Her arrival strengthens our conveyancing offering and rein- forces our commitment to deliver- ing high-quality, personal service to clients across the region.” MILLIONS of self-employed people are being left without the simple, effective route into retirement saving enjoyed by employees. That is the stark conclusion of a new thought leadership report from the Society of Pension Pro- fessionals (SPP). ‘The Missing Millions: Rethink- ing Pension Policy for the Self-Em- ployed’ calls for a fundamental look at how the UK helps people who work for themselves build financial security for later life. It says Automatic Enrolment has transformed pension saving for employees by making saving the default. However, the self-employed have largely been left to navigate retirement planning alone. They are left to decide whether to save, find a pension, choose investments and work out how much they can afford, often while managing unpredictable income and fluctu- ating cash flow. The result is a stark ‘participa- tion gap’. The current Pensions Commission’s interim report found that just four per cent of wholly self-employed workers are cur- rently saving into a pension. The paper argues that this is not simply a question of individual choice or financial capability. It is a design problem which the SPP says is like an obstacle course for the self-employed compared to an escalator for employees. There is no equivalent work- place default, no employer contri- bution and no payroll mechanism to make saving effortless. Fixed monthly contributions can also sit uneasily alongside the ‘lumpy’ income patterns of freelancers, sole traders, contractors and busi- ness owners. And the challenge extends beyond sole traders. Around three-quarters of UK private New arrival for property team Specialist experience: Adele Tatters Celebrating a decade of growth Milestone: PM+M’s Jill Morris and Rosie Cooper with Nick Brown, Ian Hayes, and David Smith fromMunro Greenhalgh Insurance Brokers ACCOUNTANCY, business advi- sory and financial planning group PM+M celebrated the tenth anniversary of its Bury office opening with a drinks reception attended by clients, contacts and colleagues. Since launching in 2016 at Waterfold Business Park with a team of seven, its Bury team has grown to more than 25 special- ists through sustained local and regional recruitment. It now has dedicated teams covering cloud accounting, audit, personal tax, and accounts and advi- sory services. The firm sponsors Bury FC, remains a long-standing supporter of Bury Hospice and also sponsors Bolton’s Beer Festival. Jill Morris, partner and head of the office, said: “Over the past ten years, we’ve grown our team, expanded our services and deepened our roots across Greater Manchester. This anniver- sary is a celebration of our people, our clients and the partnerships that have shaped our journey, and we’re excited for what comes next.” NAVIGATING PENSION OBSTACLE COURSE as diverse as the self-employed. The priority should instead be to build a system that combines the behavioural power of defaults with the flexibility required by self-em- ployed workers. Martin Willis, chair of the SPP’s Self-employment Working Group, said: “We cannot expect a modern, flexible workforce to thrive in a pension system designed around a traditional payroll. The challenge now is to remove the obstacle course fac- ing the self-employed and create a simpler, more flexible route to retirement saving.” Warning over cost of zero hours reform sector businesses have no employ- ees other than their owners, creat- ing a huge cohort of micro-business owners who can fall outside the practical benefits of the workplace pension system. The SPP sets out a range of potential solutions, including: ● Using the tax system to cre- ate a default route into pen- sion saving. ● Developing flexible ‘autosave’ models through banks, account- ancy platforms and other intermediaries, allowing contri- butions to reflect actual income and cash flow. ● Creating or extending default pension arrangements for the self-employed, potentially using existing DC master trusts or a state-backed scheme. ● Using behavioural prompts, micro-saving and targeted sup- port to make voluntary saving simpler and more accessible. ● Exploring whether Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) could eventually provide the self-employed with a straight- forward route to turning pension savings into retirement income. ● Making existing pension saving easier to continue when people move from employment into self-employment. SPP stresses that there is no single solution for a workforce