One of the most important was the announcement of a Pensions Bill, which will introduce a single-tier pension of £144 a week and will bring forward to 2026 the date at which the retirement ages rises to 67.
The Bill also makes provision to continually review the retirement age in light of the increase in people's life expectancy and will make it a legal requirement for the pensions regulator to consider minimising the economic impact pension provision has on a company that provides it for its employees.
Also included in the speech were a Deregulation Bill designed to axe red tape for businesses, an Intellectual Property Bill, a Water Bill to unleash competition and an exemption from health and safety laws for the self-employed whose work activities pose no potential risk.
The speech also promised to deliver a raft of measures announced in the Chancellor’s March Budget, from the £2,000 National Insurance allowance for small firms to the Help to Build scheme.
However, many business leaders were less than impressed with the Speech, with the Chief Executive of the Forum o Private Business calling it the “most insignificant Queen’s Speech for business for a number of years”.
Having said that, head of the British Chamber of Commerce, John Longworth, said that ministers seem to have got the message from business that when it comes to new legislation, “less is more”.
While the Director General of the IoD, Simon Walker, said that the Deregulation Bill is a missed opportunity, which will do little to cut back red tape for employers and nothing to tackle the problem of EU regulation.
For more information, please contact Glazers, Chartered Accountants London or visit www.glazers.co.uk
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( 2.8 / 559 )Sales of new cars were nearly 15 per cent higher last month than during the same period last year according to data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), giving the best April results for the industry since 2008.
Car sales have been rising steadily in the UK over the past year, even when the economy has not been performing so well, which is mainly due to attractive finance deals and wider market factors making car buying favourable to motorists.
The increase in sales has also been supported by the private sector, where sales were up by 32.3 per cent in the month. However, the rest of Europe has not performed so well, with a 10 per cent drop recorded across all the other European Unions countries during March, marking the 18th consecutive month of decline.
The SMMT revised up its full-year sales forecast to 2.106 million units, a 3 per cent increase on 2012 volumes. In January it predicted full-year sales of 2.057 million.
Car sales in the UK have also been boosted by high fuel prices, which have encouraged motorists to buy more fuel-efficient cars to save money on running costs.
This approach was evident in April's best-selling models, all small cars, with Ford's Fiesta coming top, with 8,083 being sold in April, followed by Vauxhall's Corsa and then Ford's Focus, which sold 5,944.
The industry body also said that petrol-fuelled cars have seen their market share climb in the first four months of 2013, supported by increased demand for small cars.
The mini segment of the industry continued to post the best growth in April while the supermini remained the largest segment, the data confirmed.
For more information, please contact Glazers, Chartered Accountants London or visit www.glazers.co.uk
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( 3 / 540 )According to the Government‘s new financial adviser Lawrence Tomlinson, the banks in this country are responsible for sluggish economic growth by ‘financially raping’ small businesses as they try to restore their own crippled balance sheets.
Mr Tomlinson, who has been given the title of “entrepreneur in residence” at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), said that the bank’s behaviour has been endangering small firms and questions how we can have allowed this to happen.
The UK’s four biggest banks, which together make up 85 per cent of the lending to small firms “are not interested in lending”, according to the entrepreneur, who has built up a £500m business empire since the age of 23.
With his first bank loan, worth around £1m at today’s rates, Mr Tomlinson bought his first care home and then went on to diversify into motor racing, software, construction and chemicals through his LNT group.
He says that he had to invest £15million of his own money in the group in 2009 after RBS reduced its loan term because the construction sector was deemed a risk. LNT completed a £100million refinancing deal in April with five banks, including RBS, but that it had taken nearly three years to arrange.
However, he has praised some of the Government’s measures aimed at making finance more accessible to smaller firms, such as the Bank of England’s Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) and the plan for the state-owned Business Bank.
In reply to Mr Tomlinson’s remarks, the British Bankers’ Association said that the issue is about small firms not applying for finance, not that the banks are not lending. However, the entrepreneur said that firms are not applying for finance, as they believe they will be turned down.
For more information, please contact Glazers, Chartered Accountants London or visit www.glazers.co.uk
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( 2.9 / 556 )On the back of bleak economic news for the Eurozone for April, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced yesterday (May 2nd) that it was lowering its benchmark interest rate from 0.75 per cent to the historic low of 0.5 per cent in a bid to boost the area’s economic health.
It was the first time in 10 months that the Bank has cut the rate and was in response to a drop in Eurozone inflation, which is well below its target level.
President of the ECB Mario Draghi also promised to provide as much liquidity as the banks in the single-currency blog need well into next year and to help smaller companies get access to credit.
In addition, Mr Draghi said that the Bank is prepared to cut interest rates even lower, should the economic conditions in the Eurozone make it necessary; adding that the Bank is “technically ready” for negative deposit rates.
The cut in interest rates lowers the costs for troubled banks that have taken emergency loans from the ECB, and could help them repair their finances so they can improve lending. However, it is not certain that the cut will have much of an impact.
One consequence however has been that yields on 10-year German Bunds fell to an all-time low of 1.16 per cent within hours of the announcement, signalling the risk of a deflationary crisis and a slide towards outright depression.
The ECB has also been criticised for doing too little, too late, with one commentator remarking that it is like opening the windows in a convertible when the top is down.
However, Mr Draghi is convinced that the Bank’s forecast that economic recovery will take hold later this year is correct.
For more information, please contact Glazers, Chartered Accountants London or visit www.glazers.co.uk
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( 3 / 519 )Following on the heels of deals signed with Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, the Government has announced that it has signed deals with Bermuda and other overseas territories, including the British Virgin Island and Anguilla, in regard to sharing tax information.
Under the agreements, the financial authorities within each country will be required to pass on data, including names, date of birth, along with details of inward and outward financial transactions.
The data is set to be shared with not only the UK tax authorities; but also with tax authorities in France, Germany, Italy and Spain – all of whom have agreed, in June 2012, to work together to combat tax evasion.
The UK government has made fighting tax evasion a priority while it chairs the G8 group of advanced economies this year and it will host a meeting of finance ministers later this month (May).
Meanwhile, the United States has been in a lengthy dispute with Switzerland over the latter's bank secrecy rules, while the European Union also has turned up pressure on Austria and Luxembourg. However, Austria has accused Britain and the United States of shielding their own tax havens.
With governments in most advanced economies short of tax revenue after the financial crisis, pressure has been growing on small territories with big banking sectors to lift bank secrecy and do more to combat tax dodging and money laundering.
The deals with Jersey, Guernsey and the Channel Islands were welcomed at the time by the Tax Justice campaign group, although it said that the true test would be whether the ownership of companies and trusts would also be revealed.
For more information, please contact Glazers, Chartered Accountants London or visit www.glazers.co.uk
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