According to the head of the International Accounting Standards Board, the world is facing the last chance to introduce a global system of accounting.

Sir David Tweedie made the remarks while speaking in New York to a gathering of analysts. He stated that this was “The last chance”, adding: “The next year is critical, this is it. We can’t kick this tin down the road much longer.” The US is due to make a decision next year on whether to commit itself to full convergence with international standards.

The US still uses US GAAP. Its own national standard setter, FASB, remains without … Continue Reading

According to new research, from Barclays and Kingston University, the UK’s small businesses are pivotal to the economic growth of many regions in the UK.

The Barclays Business Regional Impact Index has revealed that:

• Yorkshire and Humber had the highest proportion of firms making profit
• Enterprises in London, the south-west and Wales make the biggest contribution overall to their regions
• Companies in central England are growing at the fastest rate and creating more jobs at the quickest pace.

Professor Robert Blackburn of the Small Business Research Centre said that the results show how important small firms are to the UK as a whole, he said: … Continue Reading

Yesterday’s cuts will undoubtedly affect all of us in some way or another. As the dust settles, how will these attempts to reduce the deficit affect UK businesses?

It seems public sector employment has been particularly hard hit, with thousands of people potentially losing their jobs. For the private sector, the picture is not quite so bleak. The Government pledged to invest £200m by 2014, to support manufacturing and business development with a focus on ‘high-growth’ businesses.

Other positive news:
• An extra £2bn a year on capital spending
• Focus on education, science and a low carbon economy
• Developments on export and the inward investment … Continue Reading

It seems that the banks are finally waking up to the value of customer relations, with more offering loyalty discounts to borrowers of loans or mortgages who extend banking relationships.

Last week Barclays launched a range of mortgage tracker deals, offering discounts of up to 0.2 percent off standard rates for current account customers, a trend which is also seen at Santander, HSBC, Halifax and the Co-operative Bank.

For the banks this makes perfect sense, if these borrowers also have a current account, lenders are privy to more information about their financial situation – particularly important in difficult economic times.

Those who may … Continue Reading

The Treasury announced yesterday that it will reduce the annual allowance of tax relief for pensions, from £225,000 to £50,000.

In addition, the lifetime allowance for total tax-free pension savings has reduced from £1.8m to £1.5m.

At the moment, the government estimates that 100,000 will be affected – this could potentially double as more people get caught if the annual and lifetime allowances remain frozen and inflation takes off.

Marc Hommel, pensions partner at PwC, said: “While the new tax limits are towards the less onerous end of the ranges previously suggested, substantial numbers of people could still be affected, particularly those … Continue Reading

According to research by BDO, the UK economy is heading back into recession and these plummeting growth forecasts risk derailing the government’s planned spending cuts.

The BDO Optimism Index is an indicator of how UK businesses expect trading to develop over the next two quarters. This has continued to fall from 93.1 in August to 91.6 in September. The scale of the index is such that below 95 represents recessionary conditions – current levels are the lowest since the deepest part of the recession in May 2009.

In addition, the firm’s Business Trends report suggests the UK could be heading for no … Continue Reading

The government’s plans to increases the payments made by public sector workers into their pension pots have been condemned by Unions, which claim these changes amounted to a ‘significant’ pay cut.

According the Unions, the move would leave 6 million nurses, teachers and council workers worse off it retirement. One union leader warned it would lead to ‘French-style’ street protests.

The suggested increase in payments has come about following an inquiry by former Labour minister, Lord Hutton. His recommendations include; raising the retirement age for public employees in the longer term and ending the ‘inherently unfair’ final salary schemes. In addition, Lord … Continue Reading

The announcement of a new investment fund for small businesses has been hinted at today, with suggestions that Britain’s major banks, including Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and the Royal Bank of Scotland are potentially involved.

According to the Telegraph, the fund is expected to grow to at least £250m and could eventually double in size. Pitched as the successor to venture capital firm 3i, the establishment of the new equity fund will be financed by contributions from the UK’s major corporate banks, with each of them expected to put tens of millions of pounds into it every year.

The small business fund … Continue Reading

According to a new survey by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), three-quarters (74 per cent) of its members want public sector cuts to go ahead, with six out of ten members stating that the cuts are necessary because of the size of the public sector deficit.

While budget allocated to private sector businesses also needs to be reduced, participants were of the opinion that Government funding should concentrate on a “fully operational web portal”. Just last week, 63 per cent of FSB members were reported to be unhappy with the speed of their connections.

The FSB has calculated that the … Continue Reading