Coalition plans £2,000 voucher for childcare January 7, 2013 A PLEDGE to drive down the cost of childcare for working parents is at the heart of today’s relaunch of the coalition. Policies could include a flat-rate childcare voucher paid through the tax system, worth up to £2,000 per child, and allowing childminders to look after more children. Details were vague last night but the [...]
What the other papers say this morning January 7, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Terra Firma plans to sell Odeon chain Terra Firma, the private equity fund founded by Guy Hands, is planning to sell assets this year that are likely to include Odeon & UCI group, the European cinema chain, which could raise more than £1bn. The plan is a bid to return cash to backers. [...]
Jobs crisis as City hiring falls to record low January 7, 2013 CITY job vacancies plunged to new lows last year as incoming regulations took their toll on financial services firms, making 2012 a worse year for job seekers than even the height of the credit crunch, recruiters Astbury Marsden revealed today. Just 35,115 new jobs were advertised last year, down 35 per cent on the 54,025 [...]
Vodafone faced with $2.5bn tax demand from Indian authorities January 7, 2013 VODAFONE’S tax dispute with the Indian government has escalated, with the country’s authorities repeating calls for the telecoms giant to pay $2.5bn (£1.6bn) India claims it is owed. The company said this weekend that Indian tax authorities had sent a reminder to Vodafone, demanding it pay the sum, relating to 2007’s purchase of Hutchison Whampoa’s [...]
Anglo-American closes in on Cutifani as next chief executive January 7, 2013 THE world’s largest platinum miner Anglo American is on the verge of appointing the head of gold miner AngloGold Ashanti Mark Cutifani as its new chief executive. It is understood Cutifani, who has led South African AngloGold since 2007, is leading a pack of candidates to the fill the role left vacant after current chief [...]
London’s taxes are bailing out the rest of high-spend Britain January 7, 2013 TAXES paid in London and the Southeast are paying for benefits and public spending in the rest of Britain to the tune of more than £10bn per year, according to new figures out yesterday from analysts at Oxford Economics. In the tax year 2010-11, London and the Southeast paid a total of £10.4bn more in [...]
Child benefit for better off ending today January 7, 2013 THE GOVERNMENT yesterday acknowledged today’s child benefit changes are not perfect, but insisted removing the handouts for high earners is still a step in the right direction. Any household with at least one person earning over £50,000 will lose some of its child benefit, with those on more than £60,000 seeing the cash stopped completely. [...]
Republicans to rule out fresh tax hikes in US January 7, 2013 US SENATE minority leader Mitch McConnell yesterday ruled out raising tax revenues again on top of the tax hike on the wealthy in the fiscal cliff deal, and said the full focus must now be on spending cuts. “The tax issue is finished, over, completed,” the Kentucky Republican said on US television’s ABC network. “That’s [...]
Sony Music and BMG team up to bid for Universal’s Parlophone January 7, 2013 SONY Music and BMG have joined forces to bid for Parlophone and other EMI assets being sold by Vivendi’s Universal Music Group. The pair are understood to have agreed to bid jointly to increase their chances of winning the highly sought-after assets over other suitors. If their bid is successful, they will then split the [...]
Labour forces Commons vote on future of the UK pub industry January 7, 2013 THE LABOUR party will this week demand action to save Britain’s pubs from closure after scheduling a House of Commons debate on the issue. Shadow pubs minister Toby Perkins will use Wednesday’s opposition day debate to call for action against large landlords, known as “pubcos”, that are accused of abusing their control over thousands of [...]
