No tax cuts for the middle class for the next five years, warns Chief Secretary

By Mailonline ReporterLast updated at 5:45 PM on 29th August 2010

Middle-class Britain may be forced to wait at least five years before taxes come down, the Coalition Government warned last night.
In a grim forecast, Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander signalled that putting the public finances back in order was the priority.
In an interview with The Observer, the Liberal Democrat appeared to dismiss the prospect of net tax cuts before the next general election, planned for 2015.

In a grim forecast, Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander signalled that putting the public finances back in order was the priority

‘I think the tax burden is necessary as a significant contribution to getting the country’s finances in order,” he said.
‘So it will have to stay at that level for quite some time.
Asked whether a reduction in the overall tax burden was possible once the country’s books were in order, he added: ‘You are asking me to take decisions for five years down the line now and I am not going to do that.’
His remarks fuelled fears that the new 50p top rate of income tax for those on more than £150,000 will stay in place and that middle-class living standards will be under pressure for years to come.
Mr Alexander, Chancellor George Osborne’s deputy, said he wanted to “rebalance” the tax system, however, so that people on lower incomes pay less tax as an incentive for them to find and stay in work.
That suggests that higher earners would have little respite from tax to look forward to until 2015.
‘The plan we set out is to rebalance the tax system,’ Mr Alexander said.
‘We need the tax revenues from the taxes we are putting up to help us reduce the deficit.’
His comments will disappoint those hoping that massive cuts across Whitehall to deal with the £155billion deficit will create the conditions for tax cuts within a few years.
Departments were ordered to draw up plans for spending cuts of up to 40% ahead of this October’s comprehensive spending review.
But Tory backbencher Philip Davies said: ‘We all understand that we have to get the deficit down. However, you start economic growth by having lower levels of taxation.’

Read more

Dana tries to buy time over hostile KNOC move

By Daily Mail ReporterLast updated at 10:26 PM on 27th August 2010

Dana Petroleum executed a shrewd manoeuvre in a bid to buy more time for its defence against a hostile £18-per-share bid from KNOC, but is just ‘delaying the inevitable’.
Amid half-year results showing a 274 per cent increase in pre-tax profits to £82million, Dana (up 4p to 1,810p) declined to offer new information on its proposed £240million deal for North Sea assets from Canada’s Suncor.
The move means the state-backed Korean firm, which has details of the transaction after looking through Dana’s books, has insider knowledge not available to other shareholders.

Strong results: Dana Petroleum reported a 274 per cent hike in half-year pre-tax profits to £82million

Its advantage over fellow shareholders prohibits KNOC from buying shares on the open market to push the level of support it has from shareholders above 50 per cent.
 

Read more

Bloomsbury hoping for Harry Potter magic after profits fall 48 per cent

By Mail Online ReporterLast updated at 3:16 PM on 26th August 2010

Work of magic: Harry Potter is one of Bloomsbury’s best-sellers

Bloomsbury, the publisher of the much heralded Harry Potter series of Novels by J. K. Rowling, is hoping that the re-release of the boy wizard’s books will help boost after interim profits fell 48 per cent.The relaunch of the Harry Potter series to tie in with the keenly-awaited movie of the final book would help drive a stronger second half after interim profits fell 48 per cent.
The group reported pre-tax profits of £949,000 against profits of £1.8 million a year earlier, although it said underlying earnings rose 8 per cent.
Its second half is traditionally a stronger period and Bloomsbury said a number of releases were in the pipeline, with the release of the Harry Potter books in new jackets in November, as well as a repackaged Wombles series and Man Booker Prize-listed novel The Finkler Question.
It also revealed a recent deal to digitise and publish Sir Winston Churchill’s papers in electronic form.
Bloomsbury said the half-year results were dragged lower by a tough second quarter, dominated by uncertainties surrounding the general election and emergency Budget.But it enjoyed a buoyant opening three months and said sales overall rose 4.2 per cent thanks in part to the success of Ben Macintyre’s best-seller spy story Operation Mincemeat.
Revenues rose 12.6 per cent in the UK, largely as a result of its takeover of professional and academic publisher Tottel last year.
 

The group revealed plans for further expansion, saying it was looking to make further acquisitions in “strategically important areas”.
It is also launching in Australia next January to target a market it describes as “one of the most exciting and innovative”.
Bloomsbury already has operations in North America and Continental Europe, where performance was mixed in the half-year.
Revenues rose 2.3 per cent in the US, but plunged 34 per cent in Europe.

Read more

Two-year degree courses could be used to save money in coalition plans to shake up higher eduction

By
Tim Shipman
Last updated at 12:01 PM on 15th July 2010

Cuts: University students could study for two years instead of threeStudents will be offered two-year degrees and encouraged to live with their parents while at university under plans to be outlined by Business Secretary Vince Cable today.The Liberal Democrat Cabinet minister, who has responsibility for universities, will outline plans including more part-time courses to save money on higher education.Under plans to encourage the less well-off to apply for places, Mr Cable is expected to urge students to attend universities near where they live.He says a radical shake-up of university life is needed if the Government is to balance the nation’s books and eliminate the deficit.He will argue that condensing three-year degrees into two years will help cut the cost of tuition and maintenance fees for a generation of poor students.Living at home would reduce the need for students to pay for accommodation and cut living costs dramatically.To give students more options, Mr Cable is expected to grant a green light to a wave of new private universities across 14the country, providing local lectures and teaching for degrees offered by traditional universities.The plans, described as ‘back to the future’ by one government source, will return Britain to the days when English and Welsh universities founded between 1849 and 1949 offered University of London external degrees, before they received charters to award qualifications of their own.

Downing Street confirmed that the Government was considering plans to cut costs and ensure that higher education promotes social mobility.David Cameron’s spokesman said: ‘We are looking at the funding of universities and university places. What we want to do is make sure that we support those people who want to go to university.’The coalition agreement says we want to support people of all backgrounds and support social mobility.’Mr Cable is also expected to signal that ministers are looking at the proposals for students to pay a graduate tax decades after they finish university, as an alternative to higher tuition fees.
University funding issues are the subject of a review by Lord Browne, which reports back this autumn. He is expected to recommend lifting the £3,225-a-year cap on tuition fees.Dr Terence Kealey, vice-chancellor of the private Buckingham University, the first in the UK to offer a standard two-year academic degree, said: ‘In future, instead of a gap year, people may work for two years and then take a two-year degree when they are a bit older.’The advantage is that they are earning in year three. Two years is a very cost-effective option.’Chiefs at elite universities yesterday warned that the Government should be prepared to let some universities close to protect Britain’s ‘world-class’ research institutions.Malcolm Grant, head of University College London, urged ministers to slash student places at ‘pile it high, sell it cheap’ universities, rather than see the best institutions suffer from spending cuts.

Share this article:

Read more

Osborne increases VAT rate to 20%

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

Osborne: “The years of debt and spending made this unavoidable”

VAT is to rise from 17.5% to 20% in January after George Osborne unveiled the biggest package of tax increases and spending cuts in a generation.

Read more

EMI owner Hands in last-ditch bid to pay loans

By
Jon Rees
Last updated at 10:17 PM on 1st May 2010

Financier Guy Hands told fellow investors in EMI in 2007 that the music company would be hugely profitable by now, according to documents seen by Financial Mail. But as he faces a deadline of next week to tell his bank whether he can make repayments on a £2.6 billion loan, the predictions from that document may come back to haunt him. Hands is seeking the support of investors for another round of fundraising to help him meet his bank agreements. The documents reveal that Hands told investors that EMI’s profits before interest and other charges would reach £452 million in 2009. In fact, while EMI’s profits reached £298 million for the year, after interest and other charges they plunged to a £1.75 billion loss. Hands expected revenue to top £1.8 billion. It stood at £1.5 billion.

Signed up: Coldplay are among the bands on EMI’s books, but Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones have left

The predictions were made in September 2007, shortly after his investment firm Terra Firma acquired EMI for £4.2 billion, including the £2.6 loan from Citigroup. It was at the peak of the boom.

Read more

Administrators seize £850,000 of art from property adviser Pierre Rolin

By Rowena Mason and Richard Fletcher






Published: 6:41AM BST 06 Apr 2010

The former head of property at Credit Suisse saw his company, Strategic Real
Estate Advisors, or StratReal, placed into administration in November, after
losing the business of the single Gulf investor.

The billionaire Middle Eastern family, whose business generated 95pc of
StratReal’s revenue, has since raised the alarm about potential
irregularities.

Insolvency experts from Shipleys examining StratReal’s books have now launched
an investigation into its transactions over the last six years, including
loans to Mr Rolin.

Read more

Babcock set to bag VT Group with 735p a share bid

By Amy Wilson, City Reporter (Defence)


Published: 10:19PM GMT 22 Mar 2010







Babcock International Group



VT Group

The offer, which is understood to have the backing of VT’s board, is expected
to come as soon as Tuesday. The bid, which is made up of 0.701 Babcock
shares per VT share and the remainder in cash, is worth around 735p based on
Babcock’s closing share price of 532½p on Monday.

Based on Babcock’s share price of 554p on Feb 12, before its takeover plans
were made public, the offer is worth 750p per VT share, the price the VT
board and some large shareholders were understood to be holding out for.

The shares component of the offer has stayed the same since Babcock’s earlier
approaches, with the company now offering a bigger cash sweetener to woo
VT’s board and investors.

Read more

UK set to undershoot £178bn borrowing forecast

The Government may reveal some pre-election giveaways at next week’s Budget
after new figures showed the Treasury is set to undershoot its borrowing
forecasts for the year.

Alistair Darling said in December he expected to borrow £178 billion to
balance Britain’s books in the year to April, but official data out today
shows that the Treasury borrowed less than expected in February, leading
economists to suggest that the Chancellor could have around £5 billion extra
to play with.

Jonathan Loynes, European economist at Capital Economics, said: “He now looks
likely to have a little wriggle room in the Budget to either cut borrowing
or fund a few pre-election sweeteners – we suspect that he will choose the
latter.

Read more

Babcock still in hunt for VT in spite of share pressure

By Amy Wilson

Published: 10:34PM GMT 07 Mar 2010

Insiders said Babcock could afford to fund a deal, despite the pressure on its
cash-and-shares offer after the drop in its share price. At the end of last
week, Babcock was worth £1.2bn, following a 6pc fall in its shares since its
interest in VT was made public. VT, by contrast, edged ahead to close the
week worth £1.23bn. The company’s shares climbed after a takeover became
more likely and VT dropped its own bid for support service group Mouchel.

Shareholders in both companies say Babcock’s examination of VT’s books could
turn up cost synergies of close to £50m, doubling Babcock’s estimate of £27m
of savings when it first announced an offer last month. VT quickly rejected
that approach, worth 634p a share, and then turned down a raised bid of
between 680p and 715p a share, which values the company at £1.3bn.

Read more

Next Page »