Category: News

As one banking organisation celebrates the 350th anniversary of the cheque, another is deciding when to kill it off as a method of payment.

On Monday, London based business leaders attended a function at the Bank of England Museum, 350 years to the day since the first cheque was signed. The reception was organised by the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company, which has commemorated the occasion in a report charting the life and times of the preferred method of payment for small businesses. However amid the celebrations, the Forum of Private Business (FPB) is warning that the Payments Council is preparing a ‘roadmap’ that is likely to decide when the cheque will be abolished.

The Government’s decision last month to restructure its investment in the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and NatWest will see the creation of a £3billion fund to help boost lending to small business which will be split into 12 regional tranches of £250 million each has been widely welcomed.

Disruption caused by the heavy snowfall could cost UK businesses more than £1.2bn, business groups have estimated. The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said that 20% of the UK’s working population, or 6.4 million people, would not make it to work. South-east England has the worst snow it has seen for 18 years, causing all London buses to be pulled from service and the closure of Heathrow runways. Trading on the London Stock Exchange was thinner than normal.

Businesses striving towards equal opportunities should focus more on outcomes than processes, according to a United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) Think Tank event.

Speakers at “Quality and Equality – Standards for A Modern Society” concluded that progress on equality will only be made if companies and regulators alike focussed more on what they needed to achieve rather than methodology. There was consensus that accreditation is a good way to drive behaviour, whilst regulation should only be used to prevent harm.

BBC Dragons Theo Paphitis and Deborah Meaden face losses after green haulier JPM Eco Logistics called in the administrators.

The pair invested £100,000 for a 40pc stake in the Oldham firm, which ran its fleet of nine Volvo trucks on bio-diesel, after directors Jerry Mantalvanos and Paul Merker appeared on the Dragons’ Den show in 2007.

Leading business organisations have given a guarded response to the government’s £11bn loan guarantee package with many voicing the opinion that it ‘did not go far enough’ to help businesses starved of credit.

The employers’ organisation, the CBI, said certain important companies needed to refinance £100bn of credit facilities this year. "The scale of the problem goes well beyond what the government has announced today. The sense of living on borrowed time is palpable," the CBI’s director-general, Richard Lambert, said.

A third of small businesses surveyed in the Forum of Private Business’s (FPB’s) latest Referendum poll of members actively sought finance during the last quarter of 2008. However, despite the Government’s high-profile bail-out and pressure on banks from the FPB, almost half were either partially or completely rejected by UK lenders.

Entrepreneur Peter Jones, famous for his appearances on TV’s Dragons’ Den, is among the business people rewarded for their achievements by the Queen in her New Year’s Honours List.

More small firms are planning to take an extended Christmas break than at any time in 16 years, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has said.

From a survey of its members, the FSB estimates that 10% or 500,000 are planning to close for two weeks over the festive period.

The FSB says the main motivation for the move is to save money.

FSB official Stephen Alambritis said the firms were following the decisions of carmakers such as Land Rover.

‘Reduced bills’

"By closing down for the full two weeks, small firms are looking to save a bit of cash though reduced electricity and fuel bills," he said.

Representatives from the UK’s banks and business groups met government officials yesterday to discuss the impact of the economic downturn on small businesses. At the meeting of the Small Business Finance Forum, the Forum of Private Business (FPB) presented the latest findings of its economic downturn panel of member-firms, whose owners are being surveyed every fortnight to present a true picture of market conditions and lending restrictions for small firms.

HSBC has announced a new £1bn loan fund for its small business customers as recession leaves firms struggling to meet day-to-day running costs.

Many of its rivals are constraining lending while they nurse their balance sheets back to health, and HSBC hopes to seize the opportunity to find profitable business in the midst of the downturn.

The Government has reaffirmed its commitment to developing the nation’s skills with the launch of an innovative new trial to develop Apprenticeship Expansion Programmes aimed at increasing current apprenticeship numbers to fill existing skills gaps. The trials, delivered through the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) will provide participating employers with access to funds of more than £10 million over the next three years, in a bid to increase the number of available Apprenticeship vacancies.

Small business owners are wary of the Chancellor’s efforts to help them, believing the longer-term costs of Alistair Darling’s Pre Budget Report outweigh the supposed benefits. A resounding majority reject the government’s assistance because of fears that the Chancellor’s generosity will come back to bite them.

An online research programme by Trends Research for us at Business Matters magazine immediately after the Pre Budget Report gathered the opinions of 816 leaders of small and medium sized businesses to a package of measures designed to help them survive the recession.

Lord Mandelson says he is concerned about the "alarming" treatment of small businesses by some bank managers.

The business secretary welcomed Royal Bank of Scotland’s announcement that it would freeze overdraft charges for small firms until the end of next year.

But he said there was concern some banks were summarily changing the terms of loans to small firms.

As Britain’s small and medium-sized businesses battle harder than ever to stay profitable new research has revealed that ‘spouse power’ is providing companies with 230 million unpaid hours every month – a contribution worth some £72 billion per year to the UK economy.