Does a retiring small business owner have to pay redundancy to their staff?

My neighbours run a small business, it is NOT a limited company. The husband is 65 now and starting to find the physical work difficult, The wife is keen for him to retire so that he can take it easier and they can enjoy themselves before his age catches up with him. However he is worried that if he retires now their savings will be wiped out by paying their other staff redundancy money as this will add up to over �20k. Therefore he feels that he will need to keep working for a few more years in order to save more money. If they give their employees a lot of notice, say over a year, that they will cease to trade on a certain date, do they still need to pay them redundancy money? This would give them plenty of time to find other jobs, and they could leave before the day trading ceased if they wished. My neighbours are lovely people and would be glad to pay the staff if they could afford it but as things stand it will be a real struggle.