Business News Articles

Barclays offer £500,000 to entrepreneurs
Barclays bank is offering the UK's most promising entrepreneurs a share of £500,000 to help take their business to the next level. The competition will award an equal share of £500,000 in cash to each of the ten freshest business ideas in the UK. It comes after research by Barclays showed that small to medium enterprises are expected to create two million new jobs for the economy over the comin... more

Economic recovery will be ‘sluggish’
Economists have warned that the UK’s economic recovery will be much slower than the government predicts and will be ‘sluggish.’ The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and economists at the Ernst & Young ITEM Club have both warned that the government's current forecasts for growth are too optimistic. The government forecasts growth of 1.25% this year and 3.5% for 2011. Th... more

Small firms warned over cyber crime
Small and medium sized businesses are not equipped to deal with the level of cyber crime in the UK, according to an industry round table. With blind faith in technology encouraging victims to fall foul to cyber crime, a change in social culture is fundamentally needed. Small firms need to constantly refresh their knowledge and stay on top of technology to combat the external threats from pro... more

Railway signal staff vote to strike
Railway signal workers have voted in favor of strike action over job loses, according to the Rail Maritime and Transport union (RMT). The strikes threaten disruption to rail travel in the coming weeks, including over the Easter weekend. The RMT said 54% of its members backed strikes, with 77% supporting industrial action short of a strike. A spokesman for the RMT leader Bob Crow said the uni... more

Business lending declines by £6.5bn
Lending to businesses declined in January at the fastest annual rate since records began more than a decade ago, according to figures released by the Bank of England. The flow of net lending fell £6.5bn in the first month of the year - nearly twice as fast as in December. Lenders have claimed that there is no change in the availability of finance but businesses are seeking to reduce debt le... more

Kompass launch revamped website
Small business owners have been reminded that leading business to business website Kompass have relaunched their website. Visitors to the new site will experience an improved interface with subscribers benefiting from many new and improved advanced features and from a much improved advanced search facilities with new options for selecting the targeted data for their specific needs "Kompass h... more

Male staff allay new paternity leave fears
Only 18% of male workers say they would take off all the proposed six-month maternity leave, according to a survey by YouGov. New paternity legislation enabling new mothers to transfer the second half of their year-long maternity leave to the father is proposed to come into effect next year. This has led to fears among small business owners that they would lose male members of staff. However... more

BA: 65% of flights will run this weekend
British Airways have said that 65% of flights will run during the strike action this weekend due to the training of extra staff. BA commented that the number of staff offering to step in as temporary cabin crew has increased so it is able to reinstate some previously cancelled long-haul and short-haul flights. "I am delighted by the numbers of cabin crew who have been getting in touch with u... more

Car production rises 62%
UK car production rose by 62% in February compared to the same month last year, according to figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). This is the fourth month in succession that car output has seen a year-on-year rise. The weakness of the pound helping exporters has been cited as a contributing factor to this increase. This continued rise in car production i... more

Delta’s Manchester-New York JFK flight returns
Small business owners have been reminded that Delta will be restarting its Manchester-New York JFK service on the 2nd of May 2010. The airline recently announced that it would be temporarily suspending its service between Manchester and New York JFK from the 7th of January 2010, due to a decline in demand after the holiday season. However, the daily flight will be back form the 16th of May, in ... more