Business to Business News

Immigration from central and east Europe is in decline according to recent figures. The number of people arriving in the UK from these countries declined by a third in the 12 months up until June last year – 68,000 people, compared to around 100,000 in the previous 12 months.

Other related figures include the number of asylum seekers, which have been fewer in the last three months of 2009 compared to the same period in the previous year.

Deportations and unauthorised migrants who left voluntarily were 64,750 in the year, which is about 3,000 fewer.

However, the number of people seeking British citizenship increased by about a third.

In a sign of economic stability returning, the price of oil has been rising steadily recently, suggesting the recession may be easing slightly. US light crude was up 48 cents last Monday, after peaking at $74.81 during the day, which is the highest price since October 2008.

Meanwhile, Brent crude oil rose by 7 cents to close on $74.26 on Monday, 24 August, which reinforces the growing strength once again in the oil industry.

Oil analyst, Edward Meir, backs this positive growth up by saying he believes “We could now easily move towards the $80 mark” if the market continues to remain optimistic.

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.

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.

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.

The world’s largest contract caterer, Compass, is reported to have made half yearly profits much ahead of expectations. Strong demand from global healthcare and education organisations for its services coupled with weakening of pound helped it in delivering profitability.

Compass, operating in 55 countries, informed that fall in its UK business was more than offset by the buoyant revenue growth in Australia, North America and other countries. The UK business was down due to decline in corporate hospitality in leisure sectors and automotive industry.

According to its group chief executive, Richard Cousins, the UK sales were affected largely due to suspension of operations by the automotive industry, its major customer in the UK and the snow fall in February. He added that Compass signed a landmark 10 years deal worth £500 million with Jockey Club, the operators of 14 UK racecourses, to provide food services and still had good prospects of new global business.

Compass is expecting its like-for-like sales, organic and new business growth to touch 2.5% over 6 months to March, 31. Its underlying revenue in healthcare, education and remote site sector is performing robustly.

Compass is expecting favourable impact of £70 million on its operating profits due to weakening of sterling against dollar, although its overall UK revenues are expected to decline by 4%. It is also expecting operating margins to improve 50 basis points, as a result of strong performance by all its 4 regions over the half year.

A leading economic group has reported that Government’s much maligned offer of temporary cut in VAT has proved successful in stimulating consumer spending.

The Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) has acknowledged that official retail sales figures of last 3 months provide strong evidence that VAT reduction is working well.

The introduction of VAT cut on December 2008 has given immediate boost to retail sales, informed Douglas McWilliams, chief executive, CEBR.

Annual retail sales growth was up from 1.6% in November to 2.6% in December. It accelerated further in January and came down marginally to 2% in February.

According to Mc Williams, CEBR’s economic models point out that sales growth would have dropped to zero by February had VAT concessions not been introduced in December. Retailers’ turnover grew by £2.1 billion during 3 months of VAT cut, which will be in force only till January 2010.

PM Darling’s proposal for VAT reduction was opposed by the political rivals and bitterly criticised by leading retailers. Chief executive of Next, Simon Wolfson had repeatedly complained that VAT cut was not helping his business, but according to CEBR, it enabled retail sales to grow continuously even during worst economic conditions in the UK since 1980.

The biggest property companies of the UK and retail groups, including Land Securities, British Land, Topshop-owner Arcadia, have decided to call a truce on their battle over rent and service charges.

Landlords of over half of all shopping centres in the UK, including Westfield, Land Securities and Capital and Regional will draw a plan that will provide a lifeline to store groups, which are struggling for survival in the prevailing economic downturn.

The move is aimed at reducing retailers’ service charges by 20% that will save tens of millions of pounds in retailers’ bills. This will also save number of chains from going into administration.

In a fierce war of words, retailers had alleged landlords of demanding very high quarterly rents and charging unjustified service charges. But in a significant deviation from rigid stand, landlords are now ready to outline ten-point checklist to minimise retailers’ costs.

The truce was brought about by Francis Salway, president of the British Property Federation and chief executive of Land Securities, Liz Peace, chief executive of BPF and retailers including Arcadia owner, Sir Philip Green. Salway described this as a big step forward which showed what could be achieved through dialogue.

Under existing service charge system, extra costs incurred by the landlords can be effectively passed on to retailers. According to new system retailers will be able to save money in ten areas from waste management costs to security and procurement of third party services.

This is the second major relief for retailers in a week. The Treasury had backed down on 5% hike in Business Rates a few days ago.

The UK economy seems to be improving as the confidence of business is showing improvement, the pace of house price downturn is moderating and credit crunch is slowly easing.

The encouraging news led to sterling nearing $1.5 mark again. It was also most buoyant week for FTSE 100 in last many years, boosted by G20 summit and improvement signs in economy.

The CBI and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (Cips) both stated that managers were anticipating improvements in credit and orders. Cips acknowledged that service sector was still shrinking, but the speed of decline was moderating for the fourth consecutive month after reaching the lowest in November.

Cips surveys in construction and manufacturing also found relatively brighter developments this week. This confidence build up is leading indicator of improvement in future economic activity.

Despite all these encouraging signs, employment outlook is still grim. The survey reveals strongest contraction of staff strength in 13 years of available data.

Based on feed back from its members, CBI has indicated that credit crunch is easing. According to chief economic adviser, McCafferty, even if companies are not stating that credit availability is improving, the severity of operations interruptions is not as bad as it was 3 months ago.

The Government’s extension of support to banking sector and easing of monetary policy has started impacting the situation positively.