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Stephen Falder, business development director and deputy chairman of Manchester-based technologist Byotrol, has acquired a further 50,000 shares in the company at 22.075 pence per share through a pension scheme of which he is both a trustee and a beneficiary. Falder's holding now equates to 10.97 per cent of the issued ordinary share capital of the business. 
Caborn calls for Tote sale Former sport minister Richard Caborn has urged the government to end the uncertainty over the future of Wigan-based state-owned bookmaker the Tote to stop the "haemorrhaging" of staff. Speaking at a Parliamentary debate, he called for the chain of 540 betting shops to be sold on the open market, either as a whole or in packages, and for the rest of the pool betting business to break off and be run by a body to be known as the New Tote Trust. Caborn tried and failed to sell the group during his six years in office and admitted that he'd "dropped a clanger" over the bungled sale. Yesterday the Tote reported that annual profit was up 3.1 per cent to £163.6m in the year to 31 March, despite experiencing a "very difficult year".
The Northwest Regional Development Agency has announced a £75m fund that will support rural areas. The funding is being made available through the Rural Development Programme for England, jointly funded by DEFRA and the European Union. A total of £38m will be invested in improving the competitiveness of farming and forestry, while £37m will go to increasing the diversity of the rural economy. Around £25m of the above funds will be directed through local action groups.
Knowledge reigns supreme The Work Foundation says the north-south divide is no more. Its How Can Cities Thrive in the Changing Economy report published today shows that 11 UK cities, including Manchester and Liverpool, have increased productivity by over 70 per cent in the decade from 1995 to 2005, a time in which new jobs in knowledge-intensive industries outnumbered those in other sectors by 12 to 1. The report warns that those cities over-reliant on financial services will suffer in the credit crunch.
TIF will aid low-paid, says AGMA In its latest gambit in the battle to win support for its Transport Innovation Fund bid The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities has declared the benefits to low-paid workers in the city region. Mindful perhaps of claims that workers can ill afford congestion charging, AGMA leader Lord Peter Smith, said: "It is the lowest paid workers who are being hit the hardest by rising fuel and ever increasing costs of running cars. And it is they who most need new and improved public transport systems so that they can access their jobs efficiently. The TIF package will create the highest benefit for those who have no cars and who cannot afford to run their cars in the future. We are determined to offer a real alternative to the rising costs of car travel.
Stobart to rework Carlisle plans Andrew Tinkler, chief executive of Stobart Group, has said that he will take two to three weeks to put together a fresh planning application for the redevelopment of Carlisle Airport, after chairing crisis talks on Monday. The plans to invest upward of £25m and run freight and passenger services into the site were cleared locally but were called in for a public inquiry in June, leading Tinkler to withdraw the plans. Tinkler said he needs to "work out what the government wants from us".
GB remains upbeat GB Group, the Chester-based identity management group, has issued a trading update ahead of its AGM today. Revenue has increased 57 percent to £5.75m from £3.67m over the same period last year. The company said it remains confident, having climbed to a pre-tax profit of £41,000 for the quarter compared to a first-quarter loss of £665,000 last year.
UCLAN incubator recognised The University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) has come second nationally for the number of graduate start-up businesses in the latest Higher Education - Business and Community Interaction survey. Following investment in business incubation facilities located in the Media Factory building UCLAN is currently nurturing over 250 new and emerging business, providing them with business mentoring, advice clinics and networking opportunities along with office space and administrative support.
Liverpool developer Vermont has secured a 20-year agreement with US hotel giant Ramada to manage and operate 66 apartments at the third phase of its £100m Liverpool waterfront scheme, Sefton Street: The Quarter. Corinthia Hotels International, the European joint venture partner of Ramada, will operate the units as apartment-suites alongside the four-star Ramada Plaza hotel already being built. The units are within The Tower element of the scheme. Vermont reports 83 per cent of the 187 phase-one apartments as sold.
Ener-g takes green energy to London Salford-based green energy company Ener-g has equipped a community heating system in one of London's landmark regeneration projects. Stratford Eye, a mixed tenure development of offices and apartments overlooking the Olympics site in East London, will harness Ener-g's tri-generation technology to create its own cooling, heating and electricity. The equipment will reduce the 19-storey building's C02 emissions by approximately 93 tonnes per annum - equivalent to the environmental benefits of a 36-hectare forest containing 14,000 trees.
Opportunists enter market but business still slow There are crumbs of comfort in the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors' latest monthly housing market survey. The average number of transactions per surveyor in the North West rose slightly in June, although the national picture remained depressed as the mortgage market showed no signs of revival. But surveyors report that some buy-to-let investors are entering the market to take advantage of rising rents and equally that âpredatory buyers' are looking to bargain for reductions in a falling market.
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