Business News Articles

Mortgage lending rises 24%
Mortgage lending increased to £11.5bn in March, a rise of 24% from February, according to data released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). However, total mortgage lending in the first three months of the year is still substantially lower than in the last quarter of 2009. "Despite the increase in activity late last year and a subsequent fall early this year - due to the end of the sta... more

Economic recovery ‘dismal’ in 2010
The UK economy will only grow by a maximum of 1% in 2010, according to a leading financial forecaster. The Ernst & Young ITEM Club - which uses the Treasury's economic model for its forecasts - has said that the immediate prospects for the UK were "dismal". Figures released by the government on Thursday will confirm how much the government borrowed in the financial year and quarterly figures... more

SME owners ‘risking their health’
Over a third of small business owners are working over 50 hours a week and 15% are putting in excess of 65 hours, according to data released by Abbey and Alliance & Leicester Business Banking. The research also shows that business owners who work the longest hours are most likely to put their work before their health. More than four in ten small business owners who work between 50 and 60 hou... more

SME bosses concentrate on growth
Small and medium-sized business bosses have doubled the amount of time they are spending trying to grow their company, according to data released by Vodafone. With two thirds of SME owners positively changing the way they work the average boss now spends almost a third of their working week solely on planning and delivering growth against the 13% they spent towards the end of 2009. Research ... more

Lord Sugar donates £400,000 to Labour
Lord Sugar has announced that he has donated £400,000 to the Labour Party. The star of The Apprentice - who was given a peerage last year by Gordon Brown - said that the donation would help Labour with their campaign costs. Sugar's latest payment was welcomed by the Labour Party, which is having difficulty paying for its general election campaign. It is estimated that the Conservatives are ... more

Only 10% of SMES planning for recovery
Small businesses have not done enough to put post-recession recovery plans in place, according to a new report from the Open University Business School. The report revealed that only 10% of small firms have put together a plan for the recovery and that those businesses with a plan were most confident about their immediate prospects. "Just under a third of business owners with no plan in plac... more

Tax status sparks Dragons' Den row
Weeks before filming of the latest series of Dragons' Den commences there has been a major argument between Duncan Bannatyne and James Caan. Bannatyne has taken issue with Pakistan-born James Caan's non-domiciled resident tax status and has stated that he will not invest with any Dragon that does the show using offshore companies. The Scot - who has an estimated fortune of £300m - has a com... more

Retail sales rise 6.6%
UK retail sales increased 6.6% in March compared to the same month last year, according to data released by the British Retail Consortium (BRC). The BRC's survey covered the period from 28 February to 3 April, and thus included Good Friday and Easter Saturday of the Easter weekend unlike the survey for March carried out in 2009. The inclusion of Easter meant that food and drink sales showed ... more

Business confidence hits four-year high
Business confidence has jumped to its highest level in four years, according to data released by BDO Stoy Hayward. BDO's Business Trends survey shows that both confidence and output are back at pre-recession levels. However, the report warns that a significant increase in investment in the private sector is needed to sustain the recovery otherwise business confidence could falter. "The ec... more

Bad management ‘stifling UK growth’
Incompetent managers are holding back the UK's recovery, according to the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). The CMI's research showed that 47% of employees say they have left a job due to bad management, while 49% say they would take a pay cut to work with a better manager. "Britain is suffering because our managers and leaders are simply not up to scratch. We need to put pressure on pol... more