Treasury wields the axe on an extra £1.5bn of spending July 5, 2010 THE government scrapped a further £1.5bn of unfunded spending commitments yesterday, as it continued to wield the axe on years of Whitehall waste. There was never any funding in place for any of the projects, but the former government claimed under spending on other commitments would provide the cash. Treasury officials said the government had [...]
Clegg performs his first U-turn July 5, 2010 NICK?Clegg yesterday performed the first major U-turn of the coalition government, after he rewrote plans that would have made it harder to force the government to call a general election. Under his previous proposals, a majority of 55 per cent would be needed to dissolve parliament.?That will now rise even further to 66 per cent. [...]
School building scheme halted July 5, 2010 EDUCATION secretary Michael Gove today confirmed a freeze of the schools building programme as part of his proposed £3.5bn cuts to education spending. The plans will mean that 715 building projects are not carried out and 123 academy schemes are to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, hitting mostly marginal constituencies. Gove called the Building [...]
Botched ballot saves BT from strike action July 5, 2010 BT escaped its first strike in 23 years after its workers’ union botched a vital ballot. The Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) was convinced it had secured enough votes to organise a walk out later this summer, with BT scrabbling to provide cover for maintenance work and even planning to draft in management to answer the [...]
No compensation for B&B investors July 5, 2010 The Treasury does not have to pay compensation to former shareholders of buy-to-let lender Bradford & Bingley (B&B), an independent valuer said yesterday. B&B, a leading buy-to-let mortgage provider that was hit by a sharp rise in funding costs during the financial crisis, was taken into public ownership in September 2008 and its shares were [...]
Global survey shows two thirds of firms putting off fund raising July 5, 2010 ECONOMIC uncertainty and currency volatility mean nearly two thirds of companies around the world will hold off raising capital for the next two years, according to a survey by RBC Capital Markets. Around 62 per cent of the 440 senior financial and non-financial executives surveyed said they would not be calling on fresh funding, suggesting [...]
Services in doldrums due to activity slump July 5, 2010 ACTIVITY in the services sector across the major developed markets continued to slow in June, according to leading surveys of the sector published yesterday. In the UK, business activity rose at its slowest rate since August 2009, according to the Markit/CIPS purchasing managers’ index (PMI). The headline PMI fell to 54.4 in June, down from [...]
UK economy still grew in the second quarter, says BCC July 5, 2010 THE UK economy continued to grow in the second quarter of the year, boosted by a strong performance in the manufacturing sector, according to the quarterly survey from the British Chambers of Commerce published today. The BCC said that most manufacturing balances showed relatively strong increases and in some cases were back to pre-recession levels. [...]
IOD: One L of a recovery lies ahead for British economy July 5, 2010 WEAK growth over the coming quarters will produce an L-shaped recovery in Britain, according the latest economic forecasts from the Institute of Directors (IOD). The IOD estimates that the British economy will only manage to grow by 0.9 per cent in 2010 and then by 1.8 per cent in 2011. This is weaker than the [...]
Top economic forecaster Martin Weale to join Bank’s rate-setting committee July 5, 2010 LEADING economist Martin Weale has been appointed as an external member of the?Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) by chancellor George Osborne. The director of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (Niesr) will join the MPC in time for the August rate-setting meeting and the forecast round leading up to it, the [...]
