Chancellor Darling Faces New Crisis Every Week

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, has warned that the current slump in the UK economy is going to be “more profound and long-lasting than people thought”.

Astonishingly, Mr Darling admitted that voters were “p***** off” with his party and that Labour must recover the “zeal” which has seen them win it three successive general elections.

Mr Darling, said to have been handed the poisoned chalice of “chancellor” by the now Prime Minister Gordon Brown, is also quoted as saying hes faced a crisis “every week” since taking office. From the collapse of Northern Rock to the loss of millions of people’s personal details from HM revenue & Customs, Mr Darling has been in office during some of the most difficult times any chancellor has had to face in recent years.

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UK Business Owners Stressed By The Extra Workload

A survey carried out by the Bank of Scotland has revealed that the amount of time UK business owners spend at work has increased over the past 12 months.

In a survey of more than 1,000 senior executives revealed that the majority were spending over 50 hours a week at work, this is up by almost three hours a week from a year earlier. Those surveyed revealed that time at work was likely to increase due to the failing economy and additional work demands.

71 percent of those surveyed revealed that the rise in their working hours has had a detrimental affect on their wellbeing and health, 71 percent reporting a feeling of stress; compared to just 54 percent from a year earlier.

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Barclays Joins The Mortgage Rate Trimming Club

Barclays Bank Plc has anounced it is cutting the repayment rates on some of its mortgage products due to lower wholesale borrowing costs and stiffer competition from other lenders.

The rate on its three-year fixed-rate loans, sold under its Woolwich mortgage brand, was reduced on Friday by 0.28 percentage points.

Loans which make up 60 percent of the value of the underlying property have been cut by Barclays to 5.69 percent and to 6.57 percent for mortgages with a loan-to-value ratio of between 60 and 80 percent.

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Zoom Airlines Closes Down

Zoom Airlines Limited, the company that operates Zoom flights in UK has abruptly announced that it’s suspending its flights indefinitely. The move also affects its sister company, Zoom Airlines, which is based in Canada.

The company offers transatlantic flights as a low cost alternative to the major airlines. Zoom Airlines Limited has its headquarters in West Sussex, England and currently has a staff of 450, including its airport personnel stationed at London Gatwick Airport.

The sealing of Zoom Airlines fate has been blamed on the continuous increases in fuel. As a low cost airline, even a small change of in the price of fuel has a catastrophic effect. Based on their report, the company has spent no less than £15 million for the past 12 months alone. That amount only covers the operation for a mere three airliners. In one year only, the price of the fuel has cost them £85 more per passenger.

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PartyGaming Experiences Slowdown in business

The online poker business, partygaming.com seems to be facing huge competition from websites especially those which accept players from the United States.

Chief Executive, Jim Ryan of PartyGaming, a leading UK Poker Business, said that trading had been little softer than what the company had calculated. The first half results of PartyGaming have been over shadowed by the drop in number of people playing the online poker game.

The London Stock Exchange listed company had not expected these results but now they are caught up in doldrums. Till August 25^th the gross daily revenue (on average basis) was $1.6 million per day. and around 51,000 people play poker on the site every day.

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Team GB Gives Consumers The Feel Good Factor

Great Britain finished fourth in the medal table at the recent Olympics in China but who would have thought that the athletes performances would have helped the stumbling economy?

China’s economy got a natural boost due to hosting the Olympics and, thanks to a record haul of medals, even the British market seems to be feeling the positive vibe.

The recent dip in the price of petrol, combined with the holiday season and the performance by team GB at the Olympics, considered to be better than any of their performances in last one century, have all combined to give a boost to consumer moral for the month of August. These aren’t guesses or optimistic prayers, this is the result of a survey conducted which revealed such statistics.

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UK Householders Set For A Cold Winter

Business Secretary John Hutton, in an interview with the telegraph said that consumers must accept that higher fuel prices are here to stay.

The UK business secretary said that although some households would struggle to pay their heating bills this winter, the huge price hikes imposed by some of the energy companies were reasonable in the circumstances.

Hutton said, “the era of cheap energy is over. The question is how are we going to adjust to that and what sort of help can we provide to those who are going to struggle the most,” Hutton said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

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The Co-op Brings Automated Financial Services To A Supermarket Near You

In an effort to extend their availability to customers in the UK, the Co-Operative Group, one of the largest financial firms in the country will be placing finance based kiosks in local supermarkets.

These kiosks or “Co-Operative Bank Contact Points” will be established in large supermarkets in some of the major cities.

The financial firm aims to conduct trials in Brighton and Nottingham to test the feasibility of such a venture and if the reaction of customers is favourable, Co-Operative Group will be adding more than 250 kiosks in different cities by 2009.

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People Opt For Public Transport Amid Rising Fuel Costs

The impact of rising inflation due in part to the hike in fuel prices can easily be seen in the UK, where there has been a marked increase in passengers using public transportation services.

Tough financial conditions have forced more people to choose buses and other means of public transport, thus saving the money they would have spent on private cars and high petrol and diesel prices.

One of the major public transport operator is UK has revealed that they have noticed a substantial increase in passenger numbers since the first quarter of the year. The operator said, “the continuous hikes in fuel prices have encouraged using public means of transport”.

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Henderson Group Shoves Off To Ireland To Enjoy Better Tax Efficiency

One of the largest financial firms in UK, the Henderson Group, is making strategic moves in their corporate structure to help cut the tax required by the UK government.

In an effort to reduce its corporate tax burden Henderson will be establishing a new company in Ireland. This will help reduce the companies tax liability to just 20 percent from 28 percent. Henderson is just one of the many companies in the UK looking for different strategies in corporate structure to avoid the burden of UK corporation tax.

The exodus of companies continues, even though the UK has reduced corporate taxes from 30 percent to 28 percent in April of this year.

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