Big Microsoft Changes Coming: What Worcestershire Businesses Need to Know

If your business in Worcester, Malvern, Evesham, Droitwich or anywhere across Worcestershire runs on Microsoft 365 (the chances are it does) there are some significant changes coming that you really need to know about. We're talking price increases, product retirements, new AI features, and a wave of updates that will affect how your team works every single day. Here's our simple breakdown of everything that's happening, and what you should do about it.

Microsoft 365 Price Rises Are Coming on 1 July 2026

Let's start with the headline everyone's talking about. From 1 July 2026, Microsoft is increasing prices across a wide range of its Microsoft 365 commercial plans. The increases vary by plan but are broadly in the range of 4–10% for most business and enterprise tiers, with some lower-tier licences seeing increases of up to 33%.

Here's what that means in practice for the plans most commonly used by UK SMEs:

• Microsoft 365 Business Basic: increases approximately 4%.

• Microsoft 365 Business Standard: increases approximately 4%.

• Microsoft 365 Business Premium: no change and staying the same price.

• Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 (enterprise): increases in the 5–10% range.

  
  

The interesting headline here is that Business Premium is not going up. That actually closes the price gap significantly between Standard and Premium, and for many businesses it changes the value equation considerably, since Premium includes significantly better security features including Microsoft Defender and Intune device management.

Does the Increase Affect You Immediately?

Not necessarily. If you're on an existing annual subscription, you'll stay on your current pricing until your next renewal date after 1 July. However, any new licences or new subscriptions created on or after 1 July will be charged at the higher rates. The deadline to lock in current pricing on new subscriptions is 30 June 2026, so if you've been thinking about adding users or upgrading, now is the time to act.

Our advice for Worcester and Worcestershire businesses: dig out your renewal date now. If it falls in the next few months, it's worth reviewing whether your current plan still makes sense before you roll into renewal at the higher price. Our managed IT support team can review your licensing at no obligation, as we do this regularly for clients across Worcester, Malvern, Droitwich and Bromsgrove.

Standalone SharePoint and OneDrive Plans Are Being Retired

From 1 June 2026, Microsoft stopped selling standalone SharePoint Online Plan 1, Plan 2, and OneDrive for Business Plan 1 and Plan 2 as separate products. If you or anyone on your team currently has one of these standalone licences, you'll need to transition to a full Microsoft 365 suite - such as Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium, or an Enterprise plan - to maintain continuity.

This affects more businesses than you might expect. It's not uncommon for companies to have picked up a standalone SharePoint or OneDrive licence at some point for a specific user or project. If that's you, now is the time to sort it out rather than have it cause a disruption further down the line.

Copilot Is Getting Smarter and More Integrated

If you've been watching Microsoft Copilot from the sidelines, June 2026 is a significant month for new features rolling out across the platform. Here's what's arriving that's actually useful for everyday business users:

Copilot in PowerPoint Gets Practical New Skills

Three genuinely useful one-click skills have just rolled out: 'Review this presentation' gives slide-by-slide suggestions to improve structure and clarity; 'Visualise this slide' transforms text-heavy slides into better visuals; and 'Prepare for Questions' analyses your deck and flags where you might get challenged. If you do client presentations or board reports, these are worth trying.

Copilot in Teams Can Now Find Meetings by Topic

Arriving in June, Copilot will be able to search your past Teams meetings by topic or keyword, pulling from meeting notes, chat and transcripts. If you've ever spent 20 minutes hunting through your calendar trying to remember which meeting a decision was made in, this will save you real time.

A Redesigned SharePoint Experience

SharePoint is getting a significant visual and functional refresh: a new app bar, redesigned navigation, and improved content discovery. It's rolling out gradually through June and July. For businesses that use SharePoint as their internal intranet or document hub, it's worth a look, and it's also where Copilot's ability to create and edit pages using AI is becoming increasingly powerful for Copilot licence holders.

What This Means for Your IT Budget and Planning

Taken together, these changes make June 2026 an important moment for any Worcester or Worcestershire business to review its Microsoft 365 setup. Here's a quick checklist of questions to ask yourself:

1. When does our Microsoft 365 subscription renew? If it's in the next six months, now is the time to review, not at renewal when you're under time pressure.

2. Are we on the right plan? With Business Premium now the same price as it was relative to Standard, it may be worth upgrading for the added security features alone.

3. Do we have any standalone SharePoint or OneDrive licences that need migrating? Check with your IT team or ask us.

4. Are we actually using what we're paying for? Many businesses are paying for Microsoft 365 features they've never switched on. A licensing review often reveals quick wins.

5. Is Copilot worth it for us? With AI features becoming more practical and integrated, it's a legitimate business conversation to have, and our AI consultancy service can help you assess the real-world ROI honestly, without the hype.

Managed IT Support for Worcester & Worcestershire Businesses

Keeping on top of Microsoft's constant stream of changes, pricing updates, and feature rollouts is exactly the kind of thing that our managed IT support service takes off your plate. As your dedicated local IT team, we monitor these announcements so you don't have to and we flag anything that affects your business proactively, before it becomes a problem.

Wavetree is ISO 27001 certified, based in Cheltenham, and provides managed IT support, cybersecurity, UK cloud hosting, and AI consultancy to businesses across Worcester, Worcestershire, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Swindon and Wiltshire. We're real people who pick up the phone, not a faceless call centre or an automated helpdesk. We know your setup, we know your business, and we're here when you need us.

If you'd like us to take a look at your Microsoft 365 licensing ahead of the July changes, or if you simply want to talk through what any of this means for your business, give us a call on 01242 820854 or drop us a message via the website. We're happy to help.