High-energy industries hit by carbon price floor March 24, 2011 ENERGY policy changes introduced in the Budget will heap costs on energy-intensive industries, pressure groups warned yesterday. Energy-intensive manufacturers of products such as steel, glass and paper will see their costs soar as the carbon price floor rises from £16 per tonne of CO2 today to £30/tonne by 2020. Jeremy Nicholson, director of the Energy [...]
CWW tanks after warning on its profits March 24, 2011 CABLE & Wireless Worldwide’s (CWW) shares plummeted more than 14 per cent to 54.2p yesterday after shocking the market with a profit warning. It downgraded its expectations for core earnings next year on weaker-than-expected demand for voice services and anticipated lower prices for data services. It said it does not expect to increase its Ebitda [...]
A useful but schizophrenic package March 23, 2011 SOME of the early reaction yesterday was that this was a slightly boring, forgettable Budget. Nonsense. It was far-ranging: radical in parts, brilliant at times, occasionally awful, way too political and often quite surprising. It wasn’t quite the Budget for growth that George Osborne should have delivered: populism all too often got the better of [...]
A political Budget in Gordon Brown’s mould March 23, 2011 GEORGE Osborne added the two most eye catching measures to his Budget at the very last minute. We know this because the Office for Budget Responsibility said it learned of the 2p cut in corporation tax and the 1p cut in fuel duty too late to consider their effects on its economic forecasts. Always the [...]
Oil explorers rage at 32pc North Sea tax March 23, 2011 NORTH SEA oil firms were left aghast by the chancellor’s surprise tax hike on offshore fuel explorations yesterday, which has been imposed immediately to fund the fuel duty cut. North Sea-focused oil explorers saw their shares hammered by the news yesterday that an existing levy on profits from UK production will rise from 20 to [...]
Carbon floor hits power firms March 23, 2011 GEORGE Osborne slapped a minimum price on carbon emissions permits in yesterday’s Budget, which is set to hammer energy producers which rely on fossil fuels and add up to £17 a year to home energy bills by 2016. The carbon price floor will force power generators to pay at least £16 per tonne of carbon [...]
Budget Special March 23, 2011 THE CBI The UK’s top business lobbying organisation. It aims to influence government policy on a wide range of business matters. DIRECTOR GENERAL JOHN CRIDLAND “The chancellor has made clear the UK is open for business. The extra 1p cut in corporation tax will help firms increase investment. Meanwhile, significant changes to entrepreneurs’ taxation will [...]
FTSE 100 breaks its winning streak as risk appetite wanes March 22, 2011 BRITAIN’S top share index fell yesterday, snapping a three-session rally, as further airstrikes against Libya and disruption caused by the earthquake in Japan dented investors’ appetite for risk. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was 23.38 points lower, or down 0.4 per cent, at 5,762.71, having rallied 2.9 per cent over the three previous [...]
Libya ceasefire soothes markets March 18, 2011 A ceasefire by Colonel Gaddafi’s forces in Libya has helped energy companies and spurred the markets on to a positive close, with the FTSE 100 closing 0.4 per cent up at 5,718.13. Political news dominated the day as G7 governments pulled together to support Japan’s efforts to stabilise its currency the yen. Central banks intervened [...]
Japan races to cool unstable nuclear plants March 16, 2011 OPERATORS of the quake-crippled nuclear plant in Japan said they would try again yesterday to use military helicopters to douse overheating reactors, as US officials warned of a rising risk of a catastrophic radiation leak from spent fuel rods. Japan had earlier called off helicopters attempting to pour water on its exposed nuclear reactors at [...]