A group of top influencers have urged the Bank of England to investigate if high carbon investments endanger UK finances.
Archive for the ‘Business Articles’ Category
So, running out of time and ideas for Christmas presents? How about a gift card?
QUT consumer expert Dr Gary Mortimer said once you could only buy gift cards for high-end department stores or jewellery. Now, everything from holidays, music, bridge climbs, petrol and even fast food can be purchased with them.
“This Christmas Australians will spend about $1.5 billion on gift cards and the annual spend is up to $6 billion,” he said.
He said while they’re convenient for the buyer and enable recipients to shop at sales and get more value for money they’re not without their problems and he questions their fairness.
“Gift cards are cash,” he said.
“If you drop one in the car park or it gets lost in the mail, it’s gone for good.
Tags: Gift, Gift Cards
DO YOU have a great business based in Cheshire? Then enter the High Sheriffs Awards for Enterprise 2011. The Awards offer thousands of pounds worth of prizes, with the winners announced at a presentation evening at the University of Chester campus on March 29. Guests include business leaders, judges and the finalists. This years guest speaker is Dr Pete Waterman OBE, DL who is the most successful British producer-songwriter in pop history, an author, DJ, Pop Idol judge, television presenter and lifelong entrepreneur. The Awards were introduced in 2006 by the then High Sheriff of Cheshire, David Briggs MBE, to recognise outstanding achievement by enterprises in Cheshire.
Tags: 2011, Enterprise 2011, High Sheriff
The most important thing that people should consider when they try to rent out a house or building, is what kind of tenant will be appropriate. The way to solve this problem is to hire a good agent who will not only check residents, but ensure that the building itself is maintained in good condition. Also with tenanthunter.com finding a tenant is easier for people who are stuck in a leasing agreement and need another tenant who can take over this lease. Read more…
Tags: finding a tenant
At Day 2 of COP 17, South Africa launched it’s master-plan for green jobs, merging the green agenda with the red (socio-economic); the Green Economy Accord (GEA) has an ambitious but welcomed target of just over a quarter of a million new jobs, green jobs in a green energy manufactoring sector from energy production to green productsto green-agri-business with the aim to reduce carbon emissions.
In the immediate term, there was a risk of a money drought for Australian banks, NAB CEO Cameron Clyne told today’s QUT Business Leaders’ Forum at Brisbane’s Hilton Hotel.
“Money is very tight out there at the moment,” he said.
“The funding markets are very, very constrained at the moment. And as each day goes on there is a real funding concern for Australian banks.”
Mr Clyne also spoke about the award-winning NAB ‘break up’ campaign launched on 14 February this year.
Tags: Banks
HELP for businesses and traders in the current economic downturn is an ongoing priority for Cheshire West and Chester Council, deputy leader Cllr Les Ford (Con) has confirmed. Cllr Ford was replying to a question from Cllr Paul Dolan (Lab) at a meeting of the full council. Commenting on steps being taken by the government, Cllr Dolan asked if the council had assessed the proportion of businesses and traders who were facing serious cash flow problems, planning to reduce staff or close down or who were unable to access bank loans. Cllr Dolan asked what measures or support the council could offer or enable to bring relief to local businesses and traders. Cllr Ford said there was no firm information on the number of local businesses and traders who were being significantly affected by the economic situation but added:Helping our local business community is an ongoing priority for the council. During this difficult time we have been placing increased emphasis on providing support and assistance. Action was being taken to ensure that small businesses claimed the national rate relief they were entitled to and the council was also taking a more lenient approach than it had in the past to the payment of business rates. These were required to be paid in 10 monthly instalments however in view of the current economic climate we are routinely extending this to 12 instalments where businesses are struggling in order to help our business community during this difficult time. Where further action was unavoidable to protect the councils interests, the authority was extending repayments into the next financial year if that would help to maintain the business. Economic development specialists were engaging with existing businesses and were looking to provide ongoing support and advice. This included new initiatives with a small business grant scheme for businesses starting up or in the first three months of trading, one to one business advice for those facing difficulties, drop ins with business advisers for businesses wishing to start up and a new Shop Doctor initiative aimed at retailers in key centres to support increased footfall and profitability. The council was also working with the University of Chester to provide a one-stop shop for business advice and support through European funding and offered a redundancy support team which could help companies making or considering redundancies through retraining, skills development and benefits advice. It has recession support advice on its website.
Tags: Businesses, Cheshire West, Chester Council
Harvard professor and political adviser Jeffrey Sachs advised that the governments handing over of $1bn (725m) to Anglo Irish bondholders was not a good decision. Sachs delivered his comments at the second annual Kilkenomics, a combination of economic and comedic punditry.
Thomas Molloy of The Independent reports that Sachs, the youngest economics professor to ever be tenured at Harvard, went on to say that a decision to stop payments to Anglo Irish bondholders who purchased risky bonds was not like breaching a contract.
Sachs also offered some commentary on the G20 Summit that was held in Cannes, France.
Tags: Anglo Irish, Harvard Professor, Irish
By DEREK GATOPOULOS and ELENA BECATOROS
Associated Press
ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou survived a confidence vote early Saturday, calming a vicious revolt in his Socialist party with an emotional pledge to step aside if necessary and seek a cross-party government lasting four months to safeguard a new European debt agreement.
Papandreou won the critical parliamentary confidence motion 153-145 after a week of drama in Athens that horrified Greeces European partners, spooked global markets and overshadowed the Group of 20 summit in the French resort of Cannes.
The threat of a Greek default or exit from the common euro currency has worsened the continents debt crisis, which is already struggling under bailouts for Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, who warned that the debt-ridden country still faced “mortal danger,” said the new government would last until the end of February.
But conservative opposition leader Antonis Samaras demanded immediate elections.
Tags: Confidence Vote, Vote