The CBI study revealed that 47 percent of the retailers surveyed reported higher sales this year compared with the same period in 2011, while only 17 percent saw a decrease. The balance is 30 percent, which far exceeds the forecast of 7 per cent and is the highest since June, when spending was boosted by the extra bank holiday for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
The retailers surveyed were also confident that sales would remain strong in November and in the run up to Christmas, as this is always a busy time in the shops.
The fall in inflation has eased pressures on family budgets, so households are a little more willing to spend and, according to the survey clothes stores and furniture and carpet outlets led the increase in sales. Also, clothing posted its first year-on-year sales growth in three months, while supermarkets also reported the sixth consecutive annual increase in volumes.
However, retailers said that trade was still poor for the time of year, although with a balance of -7 points between good and disappointing, the result was still the least negative since April.
The survey came in the wake of data last week showing that the UK emerged from recession in the third quarter and added to the view that the Bank of England may not increase asset purchases under its quantitative easing programme next week.
The publication of the survey results had a marked effect on sterling, which rose 0.3 percent against the dollar to $1.6082, edging closer to last week’s high of $1.6144.
For more information, please contact Glazers, Chartered Accountants London or visit www.glazers.co.uk
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( 3 / 698 )In a bid to raise private investment to improve the country’s road infrastructure, the Government is to consider a two-tier Vehicle Excise Duty (VED), with a lower rate for those avoiding motorways and other main routes.
However, the proposal has yet to be considered by Prime Minister David Cameron, who launched a review on how roads could be owned and paid for in March of this year.
Mr Cameron asked the Treasury and Department for Transport to conduct a feasibility study and this particular plan would use cameras with number plate recognition technology, which would catch motorway users who had not paid the higher rate of tax.
The study comes amid concerns that receipts for VED, usually known as road tax, could fall, as motorists switch to more environmentally-friendly vehicles, that qualify for lower rates of tax, while hybrid cars registered in or after March 2001 are exempt from road tax altogether.
The Office for Budget Responsibility has predicted that road tax receipts could fall from 0.4 percent as a percentage of GDP in 2010-11, to only 0.1 percent by 2029-30.
In addition, European regulations aimed at reducing carbon emissions from new cars and improvements in technology are expected to lead to a higher proportion of cars qualifying for the lower bands of VED in the future.
Other options being considered by the Government include making the tax a one-off charge on new vehicles at the time of purchase, or changes to the duty’s payment bands.
However, a spokesman for the Department of Transport has said that the Government will not implement tolls on existing road capacity and has no plans to replace existing motoring taxes with pay-as-you-go road charging.
For more information, please contact Glazers, Chartered Accountants London or visit www.glazers.co.uk
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( 3 / 700 )Lending to businesses will be at its lowest level since 2006, falling by 4.6 percent to £429bn this year, the fourth consecutive annual decline, with small businesses bearing the brunt, according to a recent report.
Having said that, the rate of decline has been slower this year than last, when lending dropped by 6.1 percent, and there have been signs of recovery in the financial sector that should have a positive impact going forward.
The British Bankers Association (BBA) said last week that lending to non-financial businesses showed a £1bn drop in September, while there was a 7.7 percent fall in loans and overdrafts.
In addition, the announcement of the Government’s proposed business bank is not being seen as the antidote to lending woes by the forecasters, as the fear is that it would merely replace the loans already being made.
There are also concerns that the amount of finance available through the business bank is inadequate, as the proposed figure of £10bn would mean that the bank would run out of funds within six months.
According to the Bank of England, high street banks lent £44.2bn to businesses in the first quarter of 2012, but 38 percent of applications were rejected. However, to bring the rejection rate down to the pre-crisis level of 11 percent, it has been suggested that an extra £19bn of funds are needed.
Small businesses are also sceptical about the Government’s Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS), which was designed to allow banks to borrow from the Bank of England at preferential rates and then pass these rates on to small businesses and homeowners.
However, the fear is that the banks will use the funds to build up their own capital reserves and still only lend to ‘safe bets’, leaving the majority of small businesses needing finance.
For more information, please contact Glazers, Chartered Accountants London or visit www.glazers.co.uk
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( 3.1 / 796 )According to the Future Homes Commission, a body set up by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), up to 300,000 homes could be built every year in the UK by using council pension funds.
The proposal entails pooling some of the assets in the largest 15 local government pension schemes to provide a £10bn housing fund, which would lead to economic growth and lead to the creation of tens of thousands of jobs without touching a penny of government money.
The year-long study, created by the Commission, has been met with approval by Housing Minister Mark Prisk, who described the proposals as innovative and interesting.
A similar approach to the one proposed is already being pioneered by Manchester City Council, which is working with the Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) to build 244 homes.
The city council will release land into the joint venture at fair market valuation and GMPF will inject £25m to pay for building work. Both partners will then receive a capital payment on the sale of houses and an annual revenue return.
Describing the current housing market as “dysfunctional”, Chair of the Commission, Sir John Banham, has said that local government could become the leader of new development by using their assets and powers to create the type of mature, sustainable, mixed tenure communities that Britain needs and that institutional and international investors want to invest in
The Commission’s report, called Building the Homes and Communities Britain Needs, looks at various ways of building high quality, affordable housing in the UK.
Other proposals include greater use of brownfield land for development, greater focus on the design of homes, and a more pro-active role by local councils.
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( 3 / 707 )The business information site that has replaced the Business Link and DirectGov websites and which aims to provide "simpler, clearer and faster" access to government services, has been slammed by users within days of its launch last week.
GOV.UK has been accused of displaying incorrect and misleading information, such as about the requirements needed to start a limited company, and has been described as looking as if it had been “produced by an amateur”.
The no-frills site is part of an overhaul carried out by the Government Digital Service (GDS), a new team within the Cabinet Office and the main reason for the change has been cost. The site is the first major full platform release by the GDS.
The closure of the other sites is the first stage in a three-stage transition to consolidate all government websites on to a single domain. The second and third stages involve the transition of 24 government departments and a handful of agencies/non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) by March 2013, and then of the remaining agencies/NDPBs by March 2014.
Apparently the cost of maintaining the existing contracts for Directgov and Business Link would have been £36m, which did not include the costs of individual departmental websites, estimated at a further £50m to £70m a year. The Government has said that it would have been impossible to support that level of costs “in times of austerity”.
Users of GOV.UK can get information on any government-related topic, from crime, justice and the law, to tools and guidance for business and even on Citizenship and life in the UK.
However, the main critics so far have come from the world of business, with users of UK Business Forums, an online advice forum for people new to the business world, saying that some of the content on the business section is incorrect.
For more information, please contact Glazers, Chartered Accountants London or visit www.glazers.co.uk
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