Business News Articles

Interest rates held again at 0.5%
The Bank of England has held interest rates at the historic low of 0.5% and announced no new changes to its quantitative easing programme. The bank first cut interest rates to 0.5% in March in an attempt to boost the UK economy, and it is widely expected that the rate will not be increased until at least the second quarter of 2010. An extra injection of £25bn was made to the quantitative ea... more

Rise in NIC is ‘tax on employment’
Chancellor Alistair Darling's increase in National Insurance Contributions in the Pre-Budget Report is a ‘tax on employment', according to the Forum of Private Business (FPB). The chancellor announced yesterday that National Insurance Contributions would rise by an extra 0.5%. This is on top of existing plans for a 0.5% rise, meaning that businesses effectively face a 1% increase. "This ta... more

Darling: economy will contract 4.75%
In his pre-budget report Alistair Darling has said that the economy will contract by 4.75% in 2009 compared with his Budget estimate in April of 3.5%. However, he insisted that the economy would start growing by the end of the year and next year would grow by between 1% and 1.5%. He also warned that further support from the government was needed while the recovery remained fragile. The chanc... more

Consumer confidence still high
UK consumer confidence remained at the same high level last month as it did in October, according to the latest survey from the Nationwide. The Nationwide's index held steady at 73 - the same level as in October. The index hit a record low in January this year when it dropped to just 45 points. "Confidence remained stable for a second consecutive month in November, suggesting that consumer s... more

Bosses not motivating staff
Small business owners have been warned that their staff do not know what their objectives are for next year and are not feeling motivated, according to a report by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS). The BIS report revealed that only 25% of staff have had objectives for 2010 clearly communicated to them and a further third do not even know if a vision for their business' fu... more

Retail sales growth slows
Retailers in the UK experienced weaker growth in sales values in November compared to October, according to data released by the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Like-for-like sales grew 1.8% compared with November 2008, when sales were poor as the financial crisis hammered consumer confidence. However, this figure is much lower than the 3.8% gain that the sector experienced in October. "Con... more

Jobs outlook slowly improving
Business owners expect to stop cutting staff for the first time in a year in the first quarter of 2010, according to data released by recruitment firm Manpower. The company's quarterly employment outlook survey showed that a net balance of 0% of firms planned to cut jobs in the first three months of 2010, up from -1% in the last survey. Despite only two sections - finance and business servic... more

House prices rise 1.4%
House prices have increased for the fifth month in succession, according to data released by the Halifax. The survey by the mortgage lender revealed that prices went up by 1.4% in November, meaning that the average price of a UK home is now £167,664. This is a decrease of 1.6% from the same month last year, but house prices have risen 4.2% since the start of the year. "The recovery in house... more

Gov court foreign banks to lend to SMEs
Foreign banks have been asked to provide billions of pounds in loans to small and medium-sized businesses in the UK at a secret meeting with chancellor Alistair Darling and business secretary Lord Mandelson. It is alleged that the government lobbied senior executives from Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase and BNP Paribas in an attempt to get them to participate in a government fund ... more

SMEs not claiming £61bn worth of VAT
A quarter of small and medium-sized businesses are missing out on VAT reclaims due to sloppy expense practices, according to data released by fuelGenie. The calculations by fuelGenie show that on average, a VAT-registered company with five vehicles could reclaim around £1,000 for petrol per year, meaning that they are losing out on at least £250. "During times of economic difficulty, one o... more