November 2011
The UAE’s arrival on the world scene has happened at an incredible pace: what in the 1960s was little more than desert coastal villages now has two of the world’s most spectacular cities – Dubai and Abu Dhabi – enjoying a £250bn development boom.
As the number of individual employment rights increases, so does the risk of an employer having to deal with such claims. So how do employers minimise the risk of claims and how do they give themselves the best chance of successfully defending claims?
Employers may be more comfortable with work-based training as it gives them a much better quality of ownership over the course, according to experts.
With the demise of the regional development agencies and business support organisations such as Business Link, is there an opportunity for the Midlands higher education institutions to step into the void and increase their services to business. For many companies universities could offer a real lifeline when it comes to training and up skilling generally. But is the local university always the one that best suits your firm’s needs? Does one size fit all?
It’s that time of year when Christmas Party bookings are made and with the economy slowly recovering, is now the right time to show your appreciation to your staff for working hard during the downturn.
Once you have decided you need to hire a public relations company to get your company’s message out there and to build profile you come to the thorny problem of selecting the right agency to represent you.
After a torrid time of things, the construction sector looked like it may be turning the corner. However, will BSF funding gone, and public spending in general being reigned in, construction has had to look to diversify, as well as look to the future to skill-up.
Leicester is still aiming to attract that elusive big inward investor that would enhance the development work going on throughout the city in a market in which few big moves are happening and competition from other cities is intense.
Major regeneration working is being carried out in the centre of Stafford, with developers such as St Modwen and Stoford busy in the town. We look at what’s happening.
The first round of Enterprise Zones was announced in the Budget this year, with Birmingham and Solihull, the Black Country and Derby and Nottingham LEPs securing Enterprise Zone status. The second round was announced in August with Northampton Waterside, MIRA Technology Park in Hinckley, and Rotherwas Enterprise Zone in Hereford all being successful.
Mixed-use developments have the standard for urban regeneration for more than a decade – houses, shops, offices and leisure providing profitable and sustainable communities that were easy to get past the planners. But has the sum of that winning formula been radically changed by recession, the credit squeeze and falling property prices?
With cuts in the public sector, in terms of organisations and budgets, and the banks’ purse strings still tight what are the options for businesses that are seeking finance for growth? In this feature we look at what is available in terms of grants and loans from funds operating in the region, try to differentiate between the lending policies of the various banks operating in the region and look at alternative funding sources such as asset-based lending.
Has the momentum that was building up in the deals market in the first two quarters of this year been lost in a summer dominated by spending cuts, or has a more favourable taxation climate convinced vendors that now is the time to sell?
Insider’s front pages include the Geoff Blowhard column, the Best of the Blogs, Company News Digest and A quick chat with… It also includes Power of Ten, in which each month we ask ten business leaders from across the Midlands for their personal views on a major topic and how their lives are being affected by it.
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