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Top story
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Mandelson: RDAs have big role to play in recovery
Business minister Peter Mandelson told a high-level group of North West business leaders at the Lowry Centre at Salford Quays this morning that local councils and regional development agencies can work with business to aid the economy, but warned quangos and initiatives not to overlap. “You have to make sure the array of regional, subregional and local bodies, and partnerships add clear value and don’t translate into a lack of coherence and a diversion of energy,” he said. Speaking on the day the Cabinet are meeting in Liverpool, Mandelson also listened to business concerns from the group including the lack of bank funding for regeneration schemes, where investment from banks has dried up. He encouraged local council leaders – Sir Richard Leese of Manchester and Susan Williams of Trafford were present - to work on a tax-efficient scheme for local authority mortgages. Other issues Mandelson jotted down on his yellow pad included support for the car industry, public sector efficiency, payment terms, Manchester’s transport improvements and tax breaks for founders of technology businesses.
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Deals
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Funding boost for city’s games companies
Three Liverpool-based games companies have secured £10,000 of funding after successfully pitching their ideas at a workshop organised by creative and digital media organisation Northwest Vision and Media. The businesses – Catalyst, Citrus Suite and Onteca – have three months to develop their ideas before pitching them again to executives at Sony in the hope of selling their ideas to the industry. Two other North West companies, Manchester-based UCAN TV and The Game Creators from Bollington near Macclesfield, were also successful in their bid for funding. The Get In The Game workshop was launched to help independent games companies learn what practices should be employed when trying to sell a game idea. 
Pump action in Bootle
Sulzer Pumps, which manufactures pump packages and spare parts and repairs for the oil and gas and power sectors, has received a £550,000 grant from the Northwest Regional Development Agency that will allow it to create a plant in Bootle and create 45 jobs. With its Leeds site operating close to maximum capacity, the company sought a site elsewhere in the UK to allow it to expand by taking on the staff and site of the former Rolls-Royce facility at Atlantic Park.
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Business
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Rates cut to 1.5 per cent
Interest rates have been cut by 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent as the Monetary Policy Committee looks to further support the UK economy through recession. The cut means that rates are at their lowest level since the Bank of England was founded in 1964. Andy Brown, managing director at Liverpool-based consultancy The Delivery Practice, said: “The Chancellor is predicting that the economy will shrink by no more than 1.4 per cent. If that were to move to 3 per cent, as some predict, then deflation will be a serious risk. I think the bank had scope to make a full 1 per cent cut to head off this threat and re-inflate the economy. Consumers and businesses need the support that they deserve.”
Liverpool success inspires new cultural prize
Culture secretary Andy Burnham has unveiled plans for UK cities to compete for the title of British Capital of Culture to build on the success of Liverpool 08. The title would be awarded every four years and the winner would be tasked with organising a year-long arts and cultural programme. It would also have the chance to host events normally confined to London such as the Turner Prize, the Brit Awards and the Baftas. In a speech at the University of Liverpool last night, Burnham said the plans were “inspired by Liverpool” and would create a “worthy legacy”. Phil Redmond has now been invited to chair a group to assess the feasibility of the plans in time for the first competition, to be held in 2011.
New £35m start-up fund announced
Local authorities are being encouraged to top up funding for a Business Start Up programme announced today by business secretary Lord Mandelson. The scheme, to run be by Business Link Northwest, will support start-ups through specialist advisers who will provide support, advice and training. The funding for the programme includes £26.6m from the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and £8.4m from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) - a total of £35m over five years from April 2009. Local authorities can also add to the programme by coming forward with extra funding, Mandelson said.
Mando retains web account
Liverpool-based web developer Mando Group has retained its account with sector support body Professional Liverpool. Work will begin on developing a new website for the organisation, which represents the city’s financial and professional services sector, to help boost its member base and improve overall functionality. Once completed it will allow registered users to view event information, book online and search for relevant professional service organisations in the region.
Union to fight Tulip closure
More than 300 jobs could be lost at meat processing company Tulip Foods in Bromborough after its parent company announced plans to close the site. Danish-owned Tulip International said a 90-day consultation period with staff is under way as it looks to cut costs by moving production to other sites in Kings Lynn, Norfolk and Boston, Lincolnshire. Tulip, whose brands include Danepak, Stagg Chilli and Spam, moved to the £12.5m site in 1998 after relocating from two sites in New Brighton and Moreton. Unite, the UK’s biggest union, said it was “angry, bitter and devastated” by the decision and added that it would do “everything in its power” to fight the proposals.
Counting the cost of West Coast woes
The problems on the West Coast mainline over the past three days may have cost businesses £38m, according to the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC). BCC director-general David Frost said: “There is no excuse for the huge amount of chaos this rushed upgrade to the West Coast Mainline has caused travellers.” The work on the mainline that links the North West to London and the South East has cost Network Rail £9bn. There have been three problems with overhead power lines since the weekend at Watford, Bletchley and Wembley.
Guilford takes FPB chair
Noel Guilford has taken over as chairman of the Forum for Private Business (FPB), the Knutsford-based national small business lobbyist. A former regional chairman of the Institute of Directors, Guilford has been acting chairman of the FPB since June 2008 and is managing partner of Chester-based accountancy and management consultancy Guilford Consulting.
Recession boosts long-hours culture
There are 466,000 people in the North West working unpaid overtime, according to a report by the TUC released this morning. The average amount of overtime per person stands at six hours and 42 minutes, which would cost employers £4,484 a year per person and have a total cost to the region of more than £2bn. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said that “while some of this is due to the long-hours culture that still dogs too many British workplaces, the recession will now be making many people scared of losing their job in the year ahead and joining the ever-growing dole-queue”.
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Property
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Kenmore does fourth deal in Knowsley
Property group Kenmore has announced the letting of a 7,417 sq ft office unit at Puma Court in Knowlsey’s Kings Business Park to engineering and construction giant Balfour Beatty. The business has taken the space on a new ten-year lease, with a five-year break option, and has agreed a stepped rent starting at £14 per sq ft and rising to £15.50 per sq ft by the fifth year. Kenmore has now let two and sold two of the five units it bought at the seven-unit Puma Court scheme.
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And finally...
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New Insider out this week
The January 2009 issue of Insider features the North West Top 500 companies, an invaluable reference tool for the year ahead. Michael Taylor interviews Stuart Chambers, the globe-trotting chief executive of Nippon Sheet Glass, the Japanese glass giant that took over Pilkington, while the region’s lawyers are ranked and we catch up with anti-TIF figurehead and leader of Trafford Council Susan Williams.
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