Business

The decline narrative misses what is actually happening on British high streets: a slow substitution of retail floorspace for services, food and housing.

Late payment works as an interest-free loan from small suppliers to large customers. It is a leading cause of avoidable insolvency and remarkably resistant to legislation.

British manufacturers are shortening supply chains. The activity coming back is high-value and low-headcount, which is why it is easy to miss in the employment data.

A decade of collapses and accounting scandals reshaped how British boards think about audit quality, internal control and the real limits of the non-executive model.