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Liverpool businesses are better placed to withstand an economic downturn according to Lloyds TSB's regional heavyweight Dave Allanson. He made the comments last night at the launch of the bank's large corporate team in the city, which has been installed to target businesses with turnovers between £15m and £100m. "It was always our plan to come to Liverpool and we believe that people here want to be looked after by local banks," said Allanson. "We believe Liverpool will be more resilient than other areas of the region during a downturn - you've got a lot of owner-managed businesses here who have seen tough times before." The new team will be led by relationship director Paul Hoarty, who has joined from Bank of Ireland. He said: "This is a fantastic opportunity. How many times does a top-four bank open a new office?" Answers on a postcard please. 
Shanks for the memories Shanks Waste Management has sold its Liverpool-based commercial waste business to Veolia Environmental Services for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition includes a 2.5-acre site with a licensed waste transfer station and sees London-based Veolia expand its presence in the North West following the recent acquisition of C & C Recycling in Bury and this week's acquisition of another Liverpool company, Albion Distillation Services. Veolia chief executive Jean Dominique Mallet said the location complements its other service centres and it is now well placed for further expansion in the region.
Barratt to close Chester office In yet another sign of the times for the property market, housebuilder Barratt Developments has announced plans to close its Chester office as the company looks to cut 1,000 jobs across the UK. The business will also shut an office Sheffield and merge a further eight divisions into four, reducing its total number of divisions from 32 to 26. It is thought that a consultation plan has now begun with staff on the job losses as it looks to reduce total headcount from 6,700 to 5,700 once the cutbacks are complete.
Major investment in fire stations Merseyside is set to benefit from seven new fire stations after The Department for Communities and Local Government confirmed it has given the go-ahead for a £66.4m programme to build 16 new fire stations across the North West. The facilities, to be built under the North West Fire and Rescue Service PFI project, will replace ageing and poorly located stations in Belle Vale, Birkenhead, Bootle/Netherton, Formby, Kirkdale, Newton le Willows and Southport. Fire Minister Parmjit Dhanda said: "It's important that we have modern fire stations based at the heart of our communities, ones that welcome the public as well as keeping them safe." The nine other stations will be based in Cumbria and Lancashire.
CBRE completes Irving Rice deal CB Richard Ellis, the world's largest property consultancy, has continued its policy of acquiring agencies in regional cities with the purchase of Liverpool practice Irving Rice, which was set up in 1994 by Nick Rice and Malcolm Irving and has an eight-strong team. Earlier this year CBRE bought Leeds and Birmingham office specialist GSD and it acquired North West industrial practice DGI Davis George in April 2007.
A helping Hand for art A new art gallery opens in Liverpool today that will showcase and sell the work of emerging and established local and international contemporary artists. Founded by former FACT director Ceri Hand, The Ceri Hand Gallery is based on Cotton Street and aims to support artists through publishing, commissioning new work on and offsite, attending art fairs and securing them opportunities at other galleries. Its first exhibition, called These Living Walls of Jet, is to be opened with a VIP event today before it is opened to the public tomorrow.
Anyone who gets a deal done in the current climate deserves due recognition. Liverpool communications provider Nemesis Networks is set for ambitious growth after securing a total of £290,000 this week from Alliance Fund Managers, private equity and staff. Based in Netherton, it provides an integrated IT, carrier and telephony service to customers throughout the UK. Turnover last year reached £1m and it is expected to reach £2.7m next year.
View from the nationals "Rome is burning and something must be done." Sounds disastrous doesn't it? These are the words of Martin Sinker, a campaigner against overdevelopment in Alderley Edge. The Times swooped on Cheshire to look at plucky villagers fighting the slack application of planning law, which in Alderley and Prestbury means footballers pulling down big old houses and replacing them with bigger new ones. Of course, there was no crass, ostentatious wealth in Alderley until those beastly oikish footballers turned up.
Canapé won't pay Insider was particularly pleased with the Lancashire hotpot scoffed at the Crowne Plaza’s buffet lunch for the Merseyside Innovation Awards. But the dessert was a little disappointing – almost anyone can fashion a sickly sweet desert from a meringue nest, some cream and some melted chocolate. But the hotel really came up trumps for this week’s Canapé won’t pay top choice at the British Council for Offices awards. Rule number one of business dinners “Thou shalt serve rack of lamb” was broken by offering a thoroughly respectable roast duckling. The veggie option looked like beans on toast, but who really cares about that?
Thinking big quote of the week "Oil at $140 a barrel looks frightening, but it means $14bn is being made a day in the Middle East, creating great liquidity in the global market. That is the engine of recovery and it is tomorrow's opportunity." Former Conservative chairman Steven Norris explains how the downturn/blip/recession is really nothing to worry about in the greater scheme of things.
Stating the obvious quote of the week "Our research supports the notion that the tightening of business credit is forcing businesses to look around for other ways of raising funds." Thanks to Debbie Bell, regional director for Venture Finance for those words of wisdom. But worry not - NatWest, LloydsTSB and Barclays, (to name but three but you can insert the name of most banks), have all told Insider in the last fortnight that they are "open for business". As if they'd say anything else.
Skive alive The "British business is losing x billion pounds a year because" story that gets trotted out for every summer footy tournament received a tarting up this week by Liverpool-based Employersafe, which forecast the nation grinding to a halt for Andy Murray vs Rafael Nadal. "Long lunches, a meeting near the employee's home and a doctor's appointment are likely to be the top three excuses," we were told. In the end the match took place in the evening - are lunches getting longer or something?
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