Category: Opinion

Mark Garnier, Member of Parliament for Wyre Forest, has joined others in writing the book: Banking 2020 – A Vision for the Future. Here in an extract he looks at the relationship banks have with SMEs

Between 5 and 15 new banks will be created in the next 3 to 5 years, predicts Metro Bank founder and former Chairman Anthony Thomson

Are you a small business and feeling in the money? If so, you are in surprisingly good company. Anthony Browne, chief executive of the British Bankers’ Association, joins us and says that there is an astonishing – but almost unnoticed – thing happening among SMEs.

Gary Cattermole is the co-founder and director of The Survey Initiative, a leading staff survey provider specialising in employee engagement. Here he explains how technology can create stress for employees and undermine years of employee engagement…

Youth unemployment is a hot topic at present, and rightly so given that the costs on the national economy are enormous: lost income tax revenues, higher welfare payments, lower consumer spending power and increased healthcare costs for stress and mental illness are costing the UK billions of pounds.

Government backed schemes that provide much needed finance for SME’s should favour proven or potential exporters according to William Chase – the founder of the multinational Tyrrells crisp empire and owner of the single estate Chase Distillery in Herefordshire.

Deregulation might not inspire roars of excitement but it is a cause of concern for every business in the country. Regulation imposes a huge cost on small businesses but are Government attempts to deregulate – and specifically the ‘One In Two Out’ policy – anything more than just rhetoric?

The right attitude to work and a strong set of basic skills remain the top two wishes of employers when it comes to hiring new recruits. This is according to a new survey of our members on employment and skills, which revealed 63% of employers rate a positive attitude to work as the key requirement, with around half noting the importance of basic skills.

Much has been said in recent months about Britain’s export situation and the benefit exporting brings to the economy as a whole. Clearly the Eurozone crisis has had a significant dampening effect on the UK economy. Yet leading international payments specialist Smart Currency Business is quick to point out that it has not been without its share of positive side effects, most notably the rebalancing of British exports currently underway.

In the city of gold called Dubai, where size matters, the teams were sent on a scavenger hunt. In the shadow of the Dubai skyline the two teams were sent on a wild goose chase with cash. But through a failure to listen and some suspected chauvinism one team failed and another drank cocktails in relief.

This weeks episode had all the emotion and angst of Kramer vs Kramer only it was Bovine vs Bovine.

A recent RBS study of diversity in business and commercial banking found that a third of women said the type of aggressive business behaviour seen on TV shows such as Dragons’ Den and The Apprentice is putting them off. We asked Vanessa Vallely, author & entrepreneur, to look at this problem.