However, the disparity between the highest and lowest paid earners is marked, with the lowest paid 10 percent seeing a rise of only 47 percent, while the rate for the highest paid 10 percent rose by 81 percent.
It would also appear that the gap is widening, as in 1986 the wealthiest earned eight times more than the poorest, while last year they earned 10 times more per hour.
Analysis from the ONS suggests that the introduction of the National Minimum Wage helped the bottom 1 per cent of earners to achieve a real wage increase of 51 percent since 1998. However, during that same period, the top 1 percent of earners have seen their salaries rise by 30 percent.
The data also revealed the highest and lowest paid sectors. Aircraft pilots and flight engineers earned the highest average hourly rate of £44.49 last year, while bar staff and restaurant workers earned the least, at £6.25 per hour. However, these figures do not take into account the rates paid by the self-employed, which can vary enormously.
Over a third of the country’s top earners work in London, where there was also the greatest wage inequality; the top 1 percent was paid 16.2 times more than the lowest earners. The least inequality in hourly rate was found in Wales, where the highest earners were only paid seven times more than the lowest.
For more information, please contact Glazers, Chartered Accountants London or visit www.glazers.co.uk
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( 3 / 475 )New car registrations rose by 12.1 percent in October, with over 151,000 new cars being registered during the month, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
The figures show a 5 percent increase on the same period last year and the SMMT expects that the total figure for registrations this year will top two million, an increase on its July forecast, which was for 1.97 million.
With drivers turning to smaller more fuel-efficient cars the Ford Fiesta remains the country’s best-selling cars, with 8,058 of them being sold in October and nearly 97,000 during the year to date.
Given the rises in petrol prices and higher road taxes for bigger-engined cars, the Mini segment of the market has gown 52 percent over the year, while Superminis have grown 5.8 percent. Between them, these two segments now account for nearly 40 percent of the entire UK car market.
Drivers are also turning to “alternatively fuelled vehicles” (AFVs), such as electric and hybrid cars, in a bid to be more environmentally conscious and to cut costs, as these are free from road tax under a Government incentive scheme. AFV sales soared by almost 39 per cent according to the SMMT.
Despite the figures however, the year-to-date figure is still some 16 percent, or 335,000 units below the 2007, pre-recession volume.
The UK car data is at odds with the rest of Europe, as Ford, which has the largest share of the UK market, recently announcing losses in its European division. In fact, the automotive giant has said that demand for its cars on the continent is the lowest it has been for 20 years.
For more information, please contact Glazers, Chartered Accountants London or visit www.glazers.co.uk
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( 3 / 619 )Business Secretary Vince Cable’s personal campaign to bring in a mansion tax has been given a boost by the support of a group of Tory MPs, who have proposed an increase in council tax on the homes of the wealthy.
According to the Sunday Times, the group of MPs, called the Free Enterprise Group, believe that the plan could raise as much as £650m by imposing a new band of council tax on properties valued at between £1m and £1.2m, with a further new band for properties valued above this amount. The average charge would be £4,000 and £7,000 a year respectively.
Higher council tax bands have always been the likely way of appeasing the Liberal Democrat demand for higher taxes on the wealthy as their price for accepting deeper cuts in welfare.
Chancellor George Osborne has ruled out Vince Cable's preferred option of a mansion tax, partly because it would require an expensive new collection system.
However, last month Dr Cable sent an email to thousands of Lib Dem supporters calling for them to support his campaign to end what he called an “unfair and inefficient” tax system. So far, around 12,000 people have signed up to the campaign.
Under the Business Secretary’s proposals, the owners of properties valued at more than £2m would pay a tax of 1 percent. It is estimated that some 0.5 percent of the highest-priced properties would be hit by the tax.
Supporters of the tax think that it is the fairest way of taxing the very wealthy, as it is impossible to hide a property offshore and Dr Cable also believes that it would stop the forcing up of property prices by wealthy non-dom and non-resident tax dodgers.
However, many Conservatives, including the Chancellor, believe the plan to be the thin end of the wedge in an assault on the assets of the super rich.
For more information, please contact Glazers, Chartered Accountants London or visit www.glazers.co.uk
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( 3 / 593 )According to the latest quarterly SME Trends Survey from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), small and medium-sized manufacturers in the UK saw their export orders decline at the fastest pace since July 2009 in the three months to October.
The survey showed that total new orders fell, reflecting a decline in both domestic orders and export orders. While domestic orders are expected to be flat over the next quarter, demand for exports is expected to fall even further, albeit at a much slower rate.
According to the survey, production fell over the period and the firms surveyed said that margins are being squeezed, with several businesses expected to cut jobs in the coming quarter.
However, even though current results for orders and output are negative, the prospects for the next three months show more stable figures. Output is expected to rise, while orders will most likely remain unchanged.
Elsewhere, figures from finance provider Syscap showed that the Government’s Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS), which was introduced to boost cheaper loans to businesses and consumers, was failing to reach the smaller companies most in need of help.
Interest rates on loans to small businesses rose in the third quarter to 3.85 percent on an average loan under £1m, from 3.76 percent in the second quarter, after FLS was introduced at the beginning of August. In contrast, average interest rates on loans over £20m for large businesses fell to 2.34 percent from 2.48 percent over the same period.
The Federation of Small Businesses said that SMEs are naturally cautious about the way forward after surviving the recession, while access to finance remains a big issue for many of them, as do late payments.
For more information, please contact Glazers, Chartered Accountants London or visit www.glazers.co.uk
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( 3 / 568 )Following a consultation with financial firms, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has announced that, from 2014, the predicted growth rates used to give investors an idea of what their pension pot will be worth when they retire must be considerably lower than they are today.
At the moment, pension companies can use 5 percent, 7 percent or 9 percent on statements when they give projections to savers, with most using the intermediate projection rate of 7 percent. This means that a person in their 20s earning £30,000 a year and saving £2,000 a year in a workplace pension could expect a pension pot on retirement at 68 of £540,000.
However, when using the new 5 percent rate for the same situation, the pot would be valued at just £335,000, which is a drop of 38 percent, although, of course, this is not a loss of actual money, just of expectation.
But the FSA believes that using the lower rate gives savers a more realistic idea of what they can expect to receive on retirement. The new rules also apply to the expected growth of financial products such as endowments and ISAs.
According to the FSA, financial services companies must stop giving savers false impressions of what they might get as returns and have called the current 7 percent rate “inappropriate” given the current economic climate.
Since the financial crisis many pension funds have changed from investing in volatile equities into Government bonds, which give lower yields but are safer, meaning that investment returns have fallen and that the intermediate rate is no longer realistic.
From 2014 the three new rates will be 2 percent, 5 percent and 8 percent, with 5 percent being the new intermediate projection rate.
For more information, please contact Glazers, Chartered Accountants London or visit www.glazers.co.uk
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