On November 10th 2011, HSBC announced it will be participating in the Government’s Regional Growth Fund (RGF), and initiative to support businesses that are recruiting. The £25 million which HSBC will receive from the fund will be used to support English small and medium sized businesses to hire new employees, and purchase assets such as … Read more
Finance News
Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, has urged the government to set incentives for banks to boost the amount of lending to cash-tight small and medium sizes businesses. King has been questioned by members of the parliament’s Treasury Select Committee on the central bank’s decision to buy only gilts, rather than other assets … Read more
A preliminary survey of the European leasing market in 2010 by Leaseurope – the trade association representing the automotive rental industry – has shown that new leasing has increased on the continent by 4.9%, raising the total new volume of leased amounts to €227 billion. This is an increase from €209 billion in 2009. Such … Read more
New business owners will be benefiting from a pilot scheme by the HMRC to offer ‘telephone education’ in order to help advise them on the requirements of filing tax for a business. In HMRC’s own words, they will be calling and offering “…to talk them through some of the main things they need to know … Read more
A report has been released by Leaseurope, the trade association representing the European leasing and automotive rental industries in conjunction with expert economic consultancy Oxford Economics. Based on a survey held in July 2011, the report analyses the use of leasing amongst small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Europe. Across 8 countries and 9 industrial … Read more
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) on Tuesday 29th November published an updated UK economy forecast. The Chancellor, George Osborne, later that afternoon responded to the forecast inside the House of Commons. Osborne re-iterated that the forecast did not predict another recession for Britain, but that they had lowered the short term growth prospects. He … Read more
An article in the Financial Times was released recently which revealed that banks had approved fewer mortgages in September than in August, and also reduced the lending to businesses. The article claims that during the recession lending to small companies and households dropped significantly, and has remained low since. Read the full article on the … Read more
With the banks continued reluctance to lend, despite what seems any amount of government help, companies in all sectors are going to have to start taking a lateral look at their funding. Often companies completely overlook the benefits of equipment leasing that will complement existing bank facilities especially in the current climate. Mark Johnson, Director … Read more
The global economy is on the verge of a new and deeper jobs recession that may ignite social unrest, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has warned. It will take at least five years for employment in advanced economies to return to pre-crisis levels, it said. The ILO also noted that in 45 of the 118 … Read more
The number of UK SMEs who expect the majority of their turnover to come from international trade is set to more than double (from 5% to 12%) by 2021. According to new research from HSBC these international growth aspirations are motivating UK businesses to re-shape their recruitment plans and the skill set of current staff. … Read more