UK Business News

'inspiring' simon cowell

The Labour Finance and Industry Group, the Labour party’s link to business since 1972, have invited music entrepreneur and X Factor founder Simon Cowell to address and inspire the younger members within their ranks.

Chairman of the Labour Finance and Industry Group Dr. Peter Slowe said, “Simon Cowell is the greatest example of a British Entrepreneur who has made his mark in the Creative Industries, which to my mind is the future for our economy. Less emphasis must now be placed on the Financial Services sector, which is clearly shrinking, and much more emphasis placed on the Creative and Knowledge industries and Technology, which are our future.

No one has proven the influence of the media and the Creative Industries in our lives more than Simon Cowell. He has shown admirable drive and ambition, and we welcome him to motivate our young people, who are thirsty to take up the mantle.”

Culture Secretary, the Rt Hon. Ben Bradshaw is the guest of honour at the Labour Finance and Industry Group Annual Dinner and is expected to speak about the Digital Economy Bill.

The Labour Finance & Industry Group’s Annual Dinner will be held on Tuesday 15 December 2009, at the Reform Rooms in Pall Mall, London.

UK Chancellor Alistair Darling unveiled plans to support new low carbon industries and boost the use of electric vehicles in businesses through lower taxation.

Darling said that the government would scrap taxes on electric company cars for the next five years and announced 100% first year capital allowances for businesses using electric vans.

Company cars account for around 1.1million of the vehicles on the UK roads, only around fifty of those are electric and the new proposals will encourage businesses to look at the options available.

Companies currently pay National Insurance contributions and employees pay income tax based on the cost of the car and the CO2 emissions, electric cars attract a 9% tax while fossil fuelled vehicles range from 10 to 35%.

Darling also announced extra funding for low carbon industries, pledging an investment of £160 million across a range of low carbon public and private projects through existing schemes — along with 90 million pounds earmarked for green European infrastructure schemes.

He also said the government would double its commitment to carbon capture and storage, by supporting four new projects with technology that captures CO2 and stores it underground.

Darling also outlined plans to introduce a scheme to replace 125,000 old and inefficient central heating boilers in homes across the UK with a cash back scheme similar in principle to the car scrappage scheme.

One of the most fiercely debated issues in UK politics over the years has been whether the UK should have joined the Euro-zone when it had the chance to, or indeed should we ever join.

With the current exchange rate it would be worth arguing the case for joining now, but that would only serve to devalue sterling even further than it already is and of course there are far deeper reaching problems to be resolved before it would even be worth considering.

If ever there was a time that I have personally wished for a single currency it has been when conducting business transactions with other countries in Europe, most often dealing with companies in Germany.

When we started out importing goods it was secondary to our main business and my partner and I were content to let our company bank deal with the transactions. While it is hard to find fault the bank have in the past been very slow to transfer money and always with a substantial fee involved.

Something I learned recently is that it is possible to reduce risk against constant fluctuations in exchange rates by using a foreign exchange hedging strategy that enables you to guarantee a worse case rate when purchasing from overseas on a regular basis

There are other options available through foreign exchange brokers that you might consider and one would be to ‘fix’ the rate with a forward contract over an agreed period of time. This would protect you against adverse rate changes but would offer no benefit from improvements in the rate.

As well as making international payments, foreign exchange brokers can also accept payments from customers that you have exported goods to, and in the case of World First they would guarantee the best exchange rate, with a fast and efficient CHAPS payment to your account.

Payment to these overseas companies is now under review as I am convinced that a foreign exchange broker would not only speed up transfers but would save my company money too, with the possibility of further savings through one of the many specialist products.

wetherspoons pub peterborough

There have been many reports relating to the decline in standards of Public Houses across the UK this year and coupled with a fall in trade aided by the financial crisis it has been no surprise to see so many establishments calling time and closing down for good.

Things are slightly different at J D Wetherspoon where the pub operator has announced that it will step up its expansion programme, with the opening of 250 pubs over the next five years.

Along with the new premises Wetherspoon are hoping to create over 10,000 jobs in the UK with new pubs being earmarked in Sheffield, Livingston, Leominster, Otley, New Malden, Liverpool, Haverfordwest and Newcastle.

Wetherspoon reported record sales in the year ending July 2009 and say that they will be investing £250 million to realise their expansion plans in the UK. The group opened 39 pubs in the year to July and is on course for 40 more openings by the same time next year.

Tim Martin, chairman of J D Wetherspoon says: “Our pubs are extremely popular and we wish to build on their success by opening more,”

the co-op

Mutual retailer, the Co-operative Group has today announced that it is prepared to fight like for like with the UK’s top supermarket chains for a share of the public festive season spend, by introducing price cuts and savings that they say are worth £200 million customers.

As the silly season is practically upon us the Co-op has stepped out of the shadows of some of its bigger rivals following recent proposals from Tesco to offer customers savings of £250 million over the Christmas period and rival Asda predicting the most competitive Christmas for a decade.

As well as cutting prices Co-op has another string to its bow for customers by including their first ever triple dividend payment.

Normally Co-op members earn one point for every pound spent in food stores and each year the value of a membership point is determined by how much profit the group makes.

For the last annual payment, the value of a point was set at 2 pence. On this basis, a triple dividend would be worth 6 pence in the pound.