Employers get £500m per year break to hire under-21s December 5, 2013 FIRMS hiring young workers will not have to pay national insurance contributions, the chancellor said yesterday, cutting the cost of taking on the employees. The charge, which can be up to 13.8 per cent, will be cancelled for employees below the age of 21 and earning below the higher threshold of £813 per week. It [...]
UK tipped for faster growth to end the year December 4, 2013 THE UK economy is on track to grow by an impressive one per cent in the final three months of the year, analysts said yesterday. A leading survey of Britain’s services sector fell below expectations but still pointed to strong expansion in the industry. Markit’s latest purchasing managers’ index (PMI) recorded a headline level of [...]
Forecast points to £3bn in gifts from Osborne December 3, 2013 AS CHANCELLOR George Osborne’s Autumn Statement draws nearer, a new report today lays out what is expected from the Treasury. EY’s Item Club are the latest group to suggest Osborne’s giveaways will run to around £3bn, projecting that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will slash the UK’s borrowing forecast to £110bn. This would mean [...]
Foreign firms rush to buy up UK businesses December 3, 2013 THE ECONOMIC recovery is making the UK an increasingly attractive investment destination for overseas firms, analysts said yesterday, as official data showed a sharp rise in foreign firms buying UK businesses. In the third quarter 46 UK firms were acquired by overseas buyers, a rise of 39 per cent on the previous three-month period. The figure is also [...]
City A.M.’s bumper Autumn Statement preview December 3, 2013 As chancellor George Osborne gets set to unveil this year's Autumn statement on Thursday, we've pulled together all the expected announcements, and what others are hoping for. Ladbrokes have 11/5 odds on the speech to run for 45 to 50 minutes (it's scheduled to start at 11.15am). You'll get 6/4 odds on the speech running [...]
UK exports to pick up as rich world recovers December 1, 2013 BRITAIN will increase its sales to traditional trading partners in the rich world over the next decade, reversing the trend of recent years, according to forecasts out today from EY’s Item Club. Sales to China and Brazil will start to slow down as the market matures, but will still see healthy growth. But despite the [...]
City Moves for 28 November 2013 | Who’s switching jobs November 27, 2013 Harrington Cooper The fund distribution firm has appointed Henry Foster as sales manager in its discretionary sales team. He joins from Neptune Investment Management. Foster has also held roles at Citigroup Asset Management and Western Asset Management. MassMutual Gary Smith has been appointed head of sovereign wealth funds and official institutions for MassMutual’s asset management [...]
Global business flocking to UK after reforms November 25, 2013 AS MANY as 60 multinational companies are predicted to shift their headquarters to the UK over the next 18 months, according to new research from accountancy firm EY. EY says it is now working with 60 companies that wish to relocate global and regional head offices to the UK by the middle of 2015. That number [...]
Businesses warned of changing attitudes to online data privacy November 24, 2013 CONSUMERS are becoming increasingly cautious about the data they share with companies following the increasing number of high profile data breaches, according to research from EY. Over the next five to 10 years changing attitudes around personal data could see companies restricted from collecting data that drives advertising business models used by Google and Facebook. [...]
EY to snap up rival KPMG’s Danish arm… November 20, 2013 THE DANISH arm of KPMG announced yesterday that it is to be merged into EY’s global operations, a major victory for the firm formerly known as Ernst & Young over its big four rival. Jesper Koefoed, head of KPMG’s branch in Denmark said that the organisation’s strong local market position would be beneficial in combination [...]