City minister John Glen praises frontline financial services staff for coronavirus efforts April 21, 2020 City minister John Glen has thanked frontline financial services staff for their “vital” role during the coronavirus crisis. In a letter published today, Glen said the services provided by bank branch and contact centre workers will be a “lifeline” to many during the pandemic. He praised the “herculean efforts” to help customers in financial difficulty [...]
Rental moves to drop 25 per cent in 2020 due to coronavirus lockdown April 21, 2020 Rental moves are set to fall by a quarter this year due to the impact of the coronavirus lockdown, according to the latest research. There are around 1.2m moves each year in the UK lettings market, but the number is expected to plummet 25 per cent in 2020 compared to last year. However, demand for [...]
Oxford University’s coronavirus vaccine trials to start Thursday April 21, 2020 A potential coronavirus vaccine being developed at Oxford University will have its first trials on Thursday after receiving £20m in government funding. Health secretary Matt Hancock announced today that the government was funding the trial, along with another out of Imperial College which has been given £22.5m. Hancock said the two teams were “two of [...]
Exclusive: Businesses call for bank-by-bank breakdown of coronavirus lending April 21, 2020 British businesses have called on industry body UK Finance to publish a bank-by-bank breakdown of lending through the coronavirus support scheme, as it emerges that Natwest has so far made roughly half of all loans through the programme. Data from Natwest today showed that as of Sunday evening the group (formerly called RBS) had approved [...]
Furloughed hospitality workers could lose ‘up to 40 per cent’ of wages April 21, 2020 Businesses are seeking legal advice over the government’s job retention scheme amidst fears that millions of furloughed hospitality workers could be denied large chunks of their wages. The scheme – which sees the government pays 80 per cent of wages up to £2,500 a month to furloughed workers – was rolled out yesterday, with 185,000 [...]
Northern Ireland guitar maker Lowden Honoured with Queen’s Award for Enterprise April 21, 2020 | Sponsored County Down-based guitar maker Lowden Guitars has been honoured with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade. Following their recent celebration of 45 years in the business of creating high-quality guitars and the launch of their collaboration with Ed Sheeran on the Sheeran by Lowden brand in early 2019, the outstanding legacy of founder [...]
Queen’s Award for International Trade brings sweet smell of success for SA Designer Parfums April 21, 2020 | Sponsored SA Designer Parfums was founded in 2001 by the Mehta family and has grown from its humble origins to be an innovative force in the world of fine fragrance. It specialises in the manufacturing and distribution of fragrances either owned or operated under license. The current brands in the company portfolio comprise a variety of [...]
Affordable housing industry switching on to Switchee’s innovative data tools April 21, 2020 | Sponsored Switchee is the leading provider of sensor-based analytics to the affordable housing industry. Switchee is proud to have been recognised as an innovative solution to the problems facing housing providers in housing maintenance, customer communication and carbon reduction. Switchee is directly helping to fight fuel poverty affecting the UK’s 3.9 million affordable housing households. By [...]
Mobile messaging experts Esendex succeed with innovative debt collection solution April 21, 2020 | Sponsored Despite the emergence of other communication platforms like WhatsApp, Apple Business Chat, Facebook Messenger and RCS, 28 years after the first simple text message was sent, SMS still holds its own in a world of rapid technological communication advances. It’s a practical, reliable and immediate way of sending appointment reminders, payment alerts and notifications and, [...]
Coronavirus: Billionaire entrepreneur John Caudwell calls on government to extend business support April 21, 2020 Billionaire businessman John Caudwell has called on the government to ramp up its coronavirus support scheme, including underwriting 100 per cent of business loans and extending the job retention scheme. Caudwell, who co-founded Phones4u, said the government must provide 100 per cent loan guarantees to encourage banks to lend to struggling businesses. The government is [...]