Government first-class travel up December 6, 2009 The government’s Insolvency Service has more than trebled its spending on first-class rail travel over the past two years, the Conservatives claim. The Tories said the agency spent £600,265 on first-class rail travel in 2008-09, compared with £174,618 in 2006-07. Spending on first-class tickets rose to 45 per cent of all rail travel expenditure, from [...]
1,000 bankers quit RBS after bonus bust-up December 6, 2009 MORE than 1,000 of Royal Bank of Scotland’s top bankers have defected after the increasingly bitter row over bonuses at the group, City A.M. can confirm, fuelling fears that the clampdown on remuneration will damage its chances of being able to deliver value to shareholders in the future. Although a healthy staff turnover is usual [...]
Gartmore covers its 400m IPO one week before listing December 6, 2009 ASSET management house Gartmore has covered its £400m initial public offering (IPO) after the first week of bookbuilding, indicating strong support from institutional investors. Sources close to the deal told City A.M. the offering had been covered since Friday afternoon. Gartmore is expected to price its shares at between 250p and 330p on Thursday, valuing [...]
Car makers call for VAT freeze December 6, 2009 The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders will today call on the government to keep VAT at 15 per cent into 2010; to encourage commercial vehicle purchases by maintaining and increasing the enhanced writing-down allowance to 60 per cent; and to reconsider lifting the expensive car cap (£80,000) in the company car tax regime.
Bank to boost 5 note circulation December 6, 2009 The Bank of England is ready to press banks to increase the availability of £5 notes in their cash machines after conducting two trial projects. It asked high street bank HSBC and supermarket J Sainsbury to issue more £5 notes, and feedback from HSBC showed the case for stocking cash machine networks with fivers was [...]
Japan to guarantee airline loan December 6, 2009 The Japanese government is to guarantee 700bn yen (£4.7bn) in loans and other funds from financial institutions to carrier Japan Airlines, which is on the brink of bankruptcy. Funding will come from an extra budget for the fiscal year to March, set to be approved this week. The move is designed to keep JAL from [...]
Battle lines drawn for pre budget report December 6, 2009 CHANCELLOR Alistair Darling faces his toughest week yet at the helm of the Treasury as he prepares to deliver the 2009 Pre-Budget Report (PBR) to Parliament on Wednesday. He is likely to downgrade his forecast for 2009 GDP – admitting the UKshrank much more than he predicted – but City economists expect him to hold [...]
Business group says nothing should be untouched by cuts December 6, 2009 Britain’s fiscal position is unsustainable, the British Chambers of Commerce has warned, saying there should be no “holy cows” when it comes to making spending cuts in the pre-budget report. The business organisation said reform of the public sector must be the “cornerstone of a credible plan to reduce spending”, and urged the government to [...]
Tax rebate could ease UK out of recession December 6, 2009 A short-term tax rebate would help the UK out of recession, a report out today from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) think-tank will say. Ahead of Wednesday’s pre-Budget report, NIESR claimed a rebate of around one per cent of GDP would boost economic growth by 0.2 per cent next year. It [...]
WHAT ARE YOU EXPECTING FROM THE PRE-BUDGET REPORT? December 6, 2009 MICHAEL SAUNDERS CITIGROUPThis would be a good time to detail a phased fiscal consolidation for the next few years. However we do not expect this to happen in the PBR. Fiscal policy in the PBR will aim to reinforce Labour’s pre-election political strategy, rather than to re-establish fiscal sustainability.SIMON HAYES BARCLAYS CAPITALThe report provides the [...]