Business Secretary Peter Mandelson is expected to announce on Wednesday the UK Government’s intention to launch a £150 million pound investment programme aimed towards small manufacturing companies specializing in areas where high levels of production and engineering skills are emphasized.

The program will be designed to benefit companies involved in high to medium tech manufacturing industries involved in the development of new technologies and designs.

Mandelson’s initiative comes as an extension of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s package to help businesses access venture capital and loans.
Yesterday Mandelson along with Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling met with chief executives of the UK’s leading banks at Downing Street and told them to step up lending for small companies.
Those represented included the Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Barclays Plc.

Veteran British banker Sir Win Bischoff is to become the new chairman of Lloyds Banking Group, taking over the reins in September from Sir Victor Blank who stepped aside after being blamed by investors for Lloyds’ disastrous takeover of HBOS. . The 67-year-old former chairman of Citigroup appointment comes despite objections from some investors who were less than happy about Sir Win’s handling of Citgroup’s problems during the financial turndown.

Europe’s largest short-haul airline Ryanair have announced a strong increase in their first-quarter profits which they attributed largely due to the steep decrease in fuel costs. Despite the fact, Ryanair’s share price fell by nine per cent or 20 pence to close at 400 pence, on warnings that their full-year earnings would be lower because of the need to cut air fares due to extreme competition.

Lower oil prices have affected the profitability of BP in the second quarter, in fact halving from the same period a year ago. This year’s results showed profits of a still commendable £1.9 billion
The results took BP’s half-year profits to around £3.2 billion, down 57% from the same period in 2008.

The situation at National Express, the bus and rail operator ,became even more complicated after their UK based competitor Stagecoach announced that they were in talks with the consortium led by Spain’s Cosmen family and CVC Capital over a possible asset trip operation if the group were successful in their take- over attempt.
Representatives of Stagecoach also hinted that they even consider making a bid of its own for the whole of National Express.
This latest development only strengthens speculation that the board of National Express will reject the takeover approach from the Cosmen and CVC consortium.
News of Stagecoach’s interest sent shares in National Express 6.4 per cent higher in mid-morning trading to 368 pence, while shares in Stagecoach were 2½ pence lower at 135 pence.

As was widely expected, the FTSE 100 failed to extend its winning streak to a record-breaking 12th straight session as profit taking began to set in.
The blue chip index sank 57.3 points, or 1.3 per cent, to 4,528.8,
The FTSE 250 recorded a further reverse this time down 145.70 points to 7,731.16

The pound continued to stutter on Tuesday against the leading currencies.
Pound/US dollar 1.6421
Pound/Euro 1.1591
Pound/Japanese Yen 154.7119
Pound/Swiss Franc 1.7659

The Dow Jones faltered slightly on a flat day’s trading, down 11.79 points to 9096.72 The NASDAQ made another small gain, up 7.62 points to close on 1975.51

Deutsche Bank has reported a 67% rise in quarterly profits, boosted by its investment banking arm.
Germany’s largest bank announced a net profit of £950 million (1.1 billion Euros) for the second quarter of 2009, compared to £550 million (645 million Euros) profit for the same period last year.

Related Websites

• Macau Casino Mogul Adelson Net Worth Drops US$13 Billion Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson saw his net worth...
• To Timeshare or Not To Timeshare? Back some time ago, my fiancee and I were on...
• The joy of Christmas is found in Giving Occasionally, when our pastor is away, he will ask me...

Tags: Alastair Darling, Financial News, Gordon Brown, Goverment, Lord Mandelson, Peter Mandelson, Small Businesses, UK government, UK Small Business

Energy bills both for consumers as well as in the business sector are set to rise steadily and dramatically over the next decade The increases will be driven by increased costs of creating energy at source as a result of the government’s plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions.

This much needed change in direction is estimated to increase the costs of energy in the industrial sector by as much as 17 per cent over the next decade, while the domestic sectors energy costs will rise by no less than eight percent over the same period. Government ministers involved in the environment sector announced their findings as part of a concerted strategy for tackling the threat of climate change and boosting renewable energy.

As in similar situations, there are pluses as well as minuses to contend with. Already some of the UK’s large industrial concerns are threatening that the increased energy costs are liable to cause British manufacturers to be uncompetitive on the global stage. There were also concerns voiced that the government was pinning too much of their hopes on wind power, and not investing enough on creating nuclear power.

A spokesman for the UK government in anticipation of industry’s reactions insisted that they intend to encourage all forms of low-carbon energy production, including nuclear and “clean coal” power stations that capture and store their emissions. Over the next decade, however, the biggest change in energy supply sources the establishment of a renewable energy industry, which is expected to power almost one third of the UK’s electricity, allowing . The government to meet their commitment to the European Union to derive 15 per cent of all Britain’s energy from renewable sources by the year 2020.

The cost of those measures, which will require at least £100 billion of investment over the coming years.

Related Websites

• How to Save Power in Summer Summer is usually synonymous with high electricity costs and as...
• Comprehensive source of incentives for renewable energy. We all know we should be doing more to use...
• Is Clean Coal Really Clean? Not Really... Dear EarthTalk: As I understand it, “clean” coal really isn’t—yet...

Tags: carbon dioxide emissions, Energy Prices, Goverment, UK energy suppliers

The campaign to end child poverty claims that 5.5m children are living close to or beneath the child poverty line in the UK. The campaign to end child poverty staged a rally in London on October 4^th to highlight the growing number of children that have slipped into poverty in the last 2 years. Today, almost one in 3 children lives in poverty in the UK. The government’s target was to end child poverty by 2020, a goal which, considering the pressing economic times we live in looks more like a fantasy that an achievable goal.

In each of the last 2 years, 100,000 more children have slipped below the poverty line. Of the 13.2m children in the UK, 5.6m are not in low income or impoverished families.

The campaign organisers, a coalition of more than 120 UK organisations including Barnardos, UNICEF and the NSPCC marched on Trafalgar square to bring the plight of families and entire communities to the attention of the government. In 174 out of 646 parliamentary constituencies, the majority of children live below the poverty line. Campaign director, Hilary Fisher called the figures “absolutely shocking”.

She said: “There are currently 3,900,000 children in the UK that are classed as actually living in poverty, which impacts on every aspect of a child’s life.

“A child in poverty is 10 times more likely to die in infancy, and five times more likely to die in an accident.

“Adults who lived in poverty as a child are 50 times more likely to develop a restrictive illness such diabetes or bronchitis.”

Ms Fisher said some families could not afford school uniforms, and chose schools for their children based on uniform cost – which was “not acceptable”.

She said: “The government has lifted 600,000 children out of poverty, but 100,000 have gone back for each of the last two years.

“If the government does not allocate £3bn in tax credits and benefits in the next budget, then their plans to reduce child poverty will fail.”

The government’s measures to life working families out of child poverty are not working. A single-wage couple with 2 children would stop getting working tax credit when they earn over £18,500 a year, leaving them just above the poverty line.

Some of the worst affected areas are in Glasgow Ballieston, Central Easterhouse and North Barlarnack where an estimate 98% of children are in families which are in poverty or which are struggling to get by.

The constituencies which are least likely to have child poverty are in Buckingham and Sheffield Halam, which each have 17% of children living below the poverty line.

---

For More information on specific Banks use these links

• Alliance & Leicester
• Barclays
• Capital One
• Child Trust Fund
• First Direct
• HSBC
• Post Office
• Tesco Savings

---

For all the best deals on Current bank account, Business bank accounts, Savings and Mortgage deals visit the number one Independent Bank Compassion site Bank—Accounts

Related Websites

• Should You Pay for Your Child's College Education? Paying for college for yourself or for a child can...
• Help Is On The Way For The Middle Class President Obama in his State of the Union address is...
• Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell Reviewed I don't read many books. In fact, I only read...

Tags: Child Poverty, Goverment, NSPCC, Poverty Line