Following a number of staff strikes spread over several locations between the 7th August to the 10th August, it has been announced further strikes will be going ahead by workers of Royal Mail from today.
This second phase of strikes is set to run for a week from today, 17th August to next Monday, 24th August. As with the first set of strikes, various locations will be affected on certain days. According to the BCB the following strike schedule is to take place:
17 August: London, Coventry, Leamington Spa, Nottingham, Stoke-on-Trent
19 August: Birmingham, Coventry, London, Essex, Peterborough, Bristol, Leeds
20 August: Peterborough
21 August: Peterborough, Kings Lynn
22 August: Boston, Carrickfergus
24 August: Skegness, Huntingdon
The strikes are in protest of proposed modernisation suggestions put forward by Royal Mail, which include cutting jobs and other measures to combat electronic media.
The Bank of England has released their quarterly Inflation Report, a document that summaries the UK’s financial progress over that period. The report warns that 2010 will be “fragile” for the economy in the UK in terms of recovering from the recession that is currently upon the nation.
Despite the Bank recently adding an additional £50bn of new money in to circulation in an attempt to boost a turnaround in the current downwards spiral, the Banks governor Mervyn King has stated that more is needed, they “estimate…a further £50bn” will be needed to try and boost the overall economic growth.
The Lloyds Banking Group, which is the largest bank in the UK following their merger with struggling HBOS in January, has posted huge losses of around £4bn in the first six months of 2009.
The significant loss figure is being attributed to spiralling debts that were absorbed by Lloyds from HBOS after the takeover of the bank. The actual cause is thought to be because Lloyds have had to write-down a large number of the HBOS assets as their value has either depreciated or was less than originally estimated.
Lloyds Banking Group is 43% state-owned after they accepted a sum of money during their takeover of HBOS, which brought up to £10.7bn of debt from the bank, which was facing serious financial diffculties at the time.
Office seating, now why would I be talking about Office Seating well recently there was a small but controversial case i the American News that caught my eye as somebody was stealing office chairs and tables from a global size company which had on a weekly basis five or 6 office swaps or moves and the gentleman responsible for moving the equipment, tables and chairs always seemed to slightly damage a table or chair every tome there was a move. As the company was so big they didn’t notice the odd extra item being ordered in a week.
This wasn’t noticed until a new man started who was responsible for all purchasing for the company but he took his job to the next level by monitoring everything from car hire to pencil purchases. After six months in to the job and getting the monthly spend down by a quarter of a million he noticed that the biggest outlay was on office furniture, in particular office seating. The new man decided to spend some of the budget he saved on trying to work out why hos company budget was being spent every month on office seating. What the private investigator found was the office removals bloke had been stealing and selling the furniture. Sounds trivial but the thief mad over $500,000. Not a bad rap.
Energy performance certificates are all over the news and Internet recently, they are so much in the news that people are starting to use them as a every day word such as E P C and other variations. The term refers to a certificate you need when trying to sell your home. Here are the rules
“Energy Performance Certificate - new rules This bit is important because under new regulations, from October 1st 2008, you - the homeowner - are responsible for the Energy Performance Certificate. So you need to check your estate agent doesn’t trip-up and potentially land you both with a £200 fine, per instance! From October 1st 2008, an Energy Performance Certificate must now be available:
when the property is viewed;
when written information is provided on request;
before contracts are exchanged.
Sales particulars: Displaying the Energy Performance Certificate
As a minimum, the asset ratings graphs (see top picture) from your EPC must be included within the sales particulars (including electronic) if they contain two or more of the following:
A photograph of the building or any room inside the building
A floor plan of the building
A description of the size of the rooms in the building.
Advertising
With window cards and newspaper adverts you are not legally obliged to include the rating graphs, although the Government suggests it would be good practice to do so if they contain any two of the above items.
Commissioned
By ‘commissioned’, the Government means all documents - including the EPC - within your HIP must have been ordered with a commitment to pay. There should also be an expectation that all documents will be made available within 28 days. If they are not (unlikely in most cases), the person responsible for marketing your home must make reasonable efforts to obtain them as soon as possible, or risk pain of penalty (see below). From 31st December 2008 a Home Information Pack must be available from the time it is first placed on the market (subject to Govt review) - This date ends the transition period allowing Hips only to be commissioned before marketing commences.
Enforcement penalty fine (£200)
If you - or your estate agent - is responsible for actively marketing your home, there is pain in store for not obtaining a HIP: £200 penalty fine (repeatable for each day). The EPC, however, is solely the homeowners responsibility; although it would be a daft estate agent that attempts to market a home without an EPC in the HIP because they too would kop for a fine. Estate agents are automatically reported to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) too; with continued naughtiness leading to a banning order.”
Personally I think the whole thing is another way the government is making money and probably putting thousands of pounds worth of claims into there own greedy pockets through the expenses claims that there has been massive uproar over. What do you think of E P C’ s? Technically the information that i given will either make your house more salable or not, as if you are given a rating of F or G then your house will have a high running cost when it comes to things like heating.
Service Lifts are always appearing in the news whether they are a major feature in a new building or a major floor in a new building i.e. breaking down or in need of servicing. There are obviously lots of different types of lift like, good lifts, platform lifts, trolley lifts but you never hear of these type needing servicing in the news.
Most service lifts are found in Hotels, restaurants, hospitals and retail stores but you will find the odd one in industrial complexes or building sites.
The main players in the service lift industry are the usual suspects like stannah and Pickering’s but its well worth shopping around if your looking for a bargain as with the current recession lots of companies are doing special deals for the always required lifts for buildings.
Most service lifts are hydraulic and require a machine room which requires maintenance on a quarterly basis, these regular sessions normally come automatically from the company you buy the lift from.
Make sure you ask about thi when buying it.
Self Cert Mortgages are designed to save money and there are M I L L I O N S of companies offering the options to have a Self Cert Mortgages. What is a self cert mortgage, well it is a mortgage that the lender sets up not based on your earnings but on the value of the property in relation to its value continuing to rise as it probably has done over the 2 or 3 years. There are plenty of benefits like they are so quick to set up and you don’t have to wait around for references or wage slips also the lender doesn’t have to count on differing factors like commission or bonuses. Why not have a look into one of these types of mortgages next time your remortgaging or moving house. I know I will be. The only down side is you will need to have the deposit that the arranger needs readily available. If you don’t have this then you have no chance of getting this type of mortgage.
Direct Mail has been in the news recently with one or two major players that have been competing for the quickest and best methods of getting mail directly to your final goal as quick as possible. Now the main players in the industry like Royal mail and UPS are trying to dominate the whole industry but there are thousands of firms that do Direct Mail and they seem to be offering a lot better deals than the major players like cheaper costs or faster delivery times with a money back guarantee if they don’t get it there in the allocated time. I will always use these sort of companies if I need something delivering and its a absolute cert that I need it there, for instance by the next day before 12. Why would anyone use a company like Royal mail if there cant offer the same guarantees and charge more for it, so my recommendation would be look around if you need Direct Mail.
The regional final winners of the 2008 NE Business awards were announced recently at an awards ceremony at Hardwick Hall on April 30th. The NE Business awards are sponsored by the Newcastle Journal and the Evening Gazette. These awards are becoming more and more popular in the North East as businesses struggle to command a share of the market due to the current economic conditions. The awards celebrate North East innovation and creativity and are designed to improve the business prospects of the entrants by raising their profile. This is done by highlighting the success of the entrants and focusing on their achievements in the business world.
The winner of the overall prize for company of the year went to Tracerco from Billingham who provide diagnostic services and measurement solutions to process industry. A notable award for Internet and ICT went to Bean Bag Bazaar from Cramlington who stated as a small business selling bean bags to eventually having to upsize to a large warehouse outlet on Easter Park. The employer of the year went to Cummins from Darlington who manufacture engines.
These awards come as a welcome break from the current doom and gloom surrounding the business world and are sure to carry on their successful promotion of deserved business achievements in the future.
The UK customers’ love for eating at McDonalds has not waned despite cash crunch and gloomy economic conditions. McDonalds UK, posted strong growth in its first quarter sales, as lovers of chain’s fast food continued flocking to its restaurants in large numbers to have bites of Big Macs and newer ranges of food, even during recession.
According to McDonalds’ UK chief executive, Steve Easterbrook, the UK restaurants registered strong single digit growth in the first quarter ending March 31.
The fast food chain’s US parent reported global sales increase of 4.3% over the period, despite one day’s less trading in month of February this year. The first quarter profits of the company jumped by 4% to £979.5 million.
Operating income of the world’s largest chain of fast food restaurants rose 1% in constant currencies with France, the UK and Russia leading the way. Easterbrook claimed that growth in the UK sales was achieved during times when informal eating out market has remained static. He also added that the UK’s growth in sales as well as customer count was higher than Europe’s average, which confirmed that company was able to build market share as a result of investments it is making in the business.
In the first quarter, McDonalds UK added a 99p meat and bun combo, Mayo Chicken, chicken wraps and new burgers to its menu.
at great prices.