Good morning and welcome to your Morning Briefing for Wednesday 5 August 2026. Lack of business protection may be fuelling UK business declineAt the start of 2025, there were 5.7 million private sector businesses in the UK, including 5.64 million small businesses with 0 to 49 employees. This figure has reduced by 8% in the last 12 months with only 78,650 businesses added and 83,195 businesses removed from the UK business register. Aon has launched its new Future DB full-service solution, designed to help well-funded UK defined benefit (DB) pension schemes implement their endgames quickly. “As pension schemes close in on their desired destination, the ability to automatically align investment strategy with endgame scenarios is a powerful tool,” said Maria Johannessen, head of UK investment at Aon.