Business News Articles

Job vacancies at lowest level for a decade
Job vacancies and appointments have fallen to their lowest levels for over a decade, according to a survey of more than 400 recruitment and employment consultancies. The survey was conducted by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and consultants KPMG and found that job vacancies are at their lowest levels since 1997. “The terrible news from the equity markets and the broader... more

Bank of England cuts base rates by 1.5%
The Bank of England has slashed interest rates to 3% in a surprise move to revive the UK economy. Many analysts had been predicting a 0.5% cut with business groups calling for a 1% fall in rates. ... more

Free branding guide from Design Council
The Design Council has produced a free guide to help small businesses use branding to increase their turnover. Based on research with small businesses and the design industry, the guide includes step-by-step advice, real-life examples and ideas that other small businesses can learn from and put into practice. The guide can be downloaded from the Council's website and covers exactly what bran... more

Demand for London office space falls
New property developments in London have decreased by more than a half in the last year, but the capital is still facing a rise in empty office space. According to a report by property consultancy Drivers Jonas, the number of new developments in the capital has fallen from 46 this time last year to just 17 in the last six months. Despite the slow down in production more than 12m square feet ... more

Franchisor launches new business
An entrepreneur who has already built up one successful franchise operation has launched another venture. Freddie Rayner built Time for You into a one of the country’s leading domestic cleaning franchises over a six-year period and is now inviting other entrepreneurs to buy into his No More Mites business. ... more

Franchise company recognised at national awards
The National Franchise Academy have been recognised at the National Training Awards - the first time that a specialist franchise trainer has won an award at the event. The awards, held on November the 1st, are a government sponsored initiative designed to celebrate the very best in training and development. The National Franchise Academy had to go through four rigorous rounds of assessment b... more

Second independent utility supplier closes
ndependent electricity supplier BizzEnengy, supplier to over 40,000 small and medium sized enterprises has entered administration. Centrina, the owners of British Gas, have bought the company for £3.5 m in cash. Although they claim that customers will be largely unaffected, the closure of another independent supplier is being seen as a blow to small businesses. BizzEnergy was founded in 200... more

Businesses using less electricity
Electricity consumption in the UK has dropped significantly in the last two months, according to figures released by the National Grid. Due to the credit crunch and escalating utility bills demand for electricity in September and October was 3.5% lower than the same two months in 2007. The recent failure of two independent utility firms that supplied SMEs, Electicity4Business and Bizz Energy... more

Record number of employers contact legal advice line
Insurance group Allianz has reported record numbers of calls from employers to their legal hotline to ask for advice on redundancy issues. The helpline, Lawphone, is receiving 70 to 80 calls a day from employers seeking advice on what they can legally do to cut costs in the current economic climate. "Some 60% of calls during the three months to the end of September were about employment issu... more

FSB calls for interest rate cut
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is calling for an interest rate cut to help the 1.5m small businesses at risk of closure. In a recent FSB poll of almost 5,000 small business owners over 75% backed interest rate cuts. The poll also revealed that over 50% recorded a decrease in trade in the last two months and nearly 70% of small businesses had either put a freeze on hiring or were co... more