UK consumers reining in spending on entertainment and leisure
May 31, 2008
British firms that depend on consumer spending have witnessed their profitability fall to a record low in a decade. This is another sign that the economic slowdown is worsening. Profitability at consumer-facing firms within the services sector that make up the major share of the UK economy fell to minus 39pc in the past three months. This fact was revealed in a survey of the Confederation of British Industry.
The value and volume of business of consumer-facing firms that includes everything from cinemas and gyms to bars and restaurants was weaker in the past three months since November 2001. CBI’s chief economic adviser Ian McCafferty stated: “Services sector companies are worried about their business prospects because consumers are reining in spending on entertainment, eating out and leisure, while professionals offering services like property, law and accountancy have witnessed their profits flatten off as costs continue to increase strongly.” The findings echo the latest the Chartered Institute for Purchasing and Supply research report into the sector that noticed services were almost stagnating in April.
UK’s prison health services need support
May 30, 2008
Mental health services in the UK prisons are not getting the attention and the investment that they badly need for providing adequate care. Research has shown that £300 a year is spent on mental health care of a prisoner, just a third of the amount spent on those with acute problems in the community.
The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health and Lincoln University team has identified regional variations in spending after analysing available NHS figures. Responsibility for prison healthcare (across England and Wales) was passed to the NHS in 2006 from the Prison Health Service, to bring it up to the standards provided to the general public.
According to experts, over 90 per cent of prisoners suffer from some type of mental health problem, which is four times the rate in the general public. Also, the risk of a prisoner committing suicide is almost seven times higher than normal. Sean Duggan of the Sainsbury Centre stated: “Many in-reach teams are struggling to provide a decent service owing to inadequate funding; we need a major boost in spending, especially in those areas, which are falling behind (on this count).”
The government under pressure to rethink proposed hike in taxes on polluting cars
May 30, 2008
The UK government is under intense pressure from hauliers and also its own MPs to change its mind on measures, which threaten to increase the driving cost. The Labour MPs state that ‘poorer’ motorists will suffer most from the intended plan to hike road taxes on heavily polluting cars. Apparently, road hauliers are also angered that fuel duty is set to increase by 2p this autumn. However, environment minister Joan Ruddock stated, the government could not (afford to) lose sight of the environment agenda even while she sympathised with motorists.
The MPs state they are worried about the potential impact of a proposed change in vehicle excise duty that will see drivers paying more for heavily polluting cars registered since the 2001 end. Already 35 Labour MPs have signed a motion that calls on the Treasury to rethink about the retrospective elements of the policy.
They want to caution the chancellor that the government could well lose votes over the issue when Parliament returns next week. According to MP for Wolverhampton South West, Rob Marris, medium-sized family cars, depending on the type of engine and the of emissions, could be hit very hard.
The cost of next year’s season tickets at Premier League clubs goes up
May 29, 2008
The cost of next year’s season tickets at Premier League clubs has gone up by 8 per cent, more than double the rate of consumer price inflation, the BBC Research reveals.
The average mid-priced season ticket cost has increased to £590. Presently, Premier League clubs are gaining from television revenues that have increased sharply. However, that has not stopped a majority of them from imposing quite a substantial increase in their season ticket costs. That average hides significant variations. Sunderland have raised prices at the Stadium of Light’s north stand by almost 22 per cent, whereas Portsmouth’s prices are rising up by 17.5 per cent. On the other hand, Chelsea have opted to impose no hike at all.
Sunderland can fairly claim that a typical season ticket (at £445) is still cheaper than Chelsea’s £790 even after the big increase. Many fans of champions Manchester United are already complaining about hefty price rise since the MU was taken over by American owners. A season ticket in the upper east stand will cost £665, a 6 per cent increase on last season.
Spreading awareness and ensuring security of the new faster payments system
May 29, 2008
Currently, phone and Internet payments make up just about 2 per cent of all payments in the UK banking system; standing orders make up another 9 per cent. The new Faster Payments Service will change the scenario, and will ultimately ensure cash transfers happen within a single day. Only 5 per cent of transactions will be processed as ‘faster’ payments, to begin with.
The new system was proposed nearly three years ago. The plan came into being after an agreement between the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and Banking industry body Apacs in 2005 to agree that the existing procedures need to be improved.
The latest figures indicated that online banking was becoming more popular than telephone banking. However, a recent survey of 3,000 people showed 70 per cent of people in the UK hardly knew about the faster payments system.
Apart from spreading awareness about the system, the banks want to make sure that it is reliable and secure. Apacs chief executive Paul Smee, stated: “The challenge of achieving this certainly cannot be underestimated. There is no room for error since it will become an integral part of the UK’s economic infrastructure.”
A new law to shield consumers against rogue traders and to protect their interests
May 28, 2008
A new law looking to shield consumers against rogue traders and to protect their interests has come into effect in the UK. The new legal provision is aimed at tackling everything from bogus closing down sales to aggressive sales tactics by rogue builders.
About 31 specific practices will be banned, and the wider idea of to trade fairly is to avoid the requirement for a fresh law to cover every new scam. Fortune-tellers and astrologers are among those most affected by the rules that need them to mention that their services are for ‘entertainment only’.
In fact, it will be binding on all businesses to trade fairly for the first time in the country. The new law represents a major boost to consumer protection, for vulnerable people who are often targeted by rogue traders The National Consumer Council’s Carl Belgrove stated the new rules would be a welcome move after 20 years of campaigning.
Unlike in Ireland, the law does not extend so far as letting disgruntled customers to seek compensation when businesses are perceived to treat them unfairly.
Steve McQueen’s Hunger wins the Camera d’Or prize at Cannes
May 28, 2008
Steve McQueen’s debut movie Hunger, about IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands’ last few days, has been honoured with the Camera d’Or prize at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. The award is given out to first-time film-makers each year. It was given to McQueen this year by US actor Dennis Hopper. McQueen told the festival’s closing ceremony, “This film is about people in a situation of extreme pressure and also what people do and what we do.”
The film stars Michael Fassbender as Sands; he died aged 27 in 1981. There was this fellow named Bobby Sands whose image appeared on television with a number underneath it. The actor had to go on a strict diet for portraying Sands, who starved for 66 days to be recognised as a political prisoner. The film is yet to have a UK release date.
McQueen told the BBC he was inspired by the memory of seeing Sands on television news when he was 11. McQueen won the Turner Prize (1999) for a collection of films that comprised a Buster Keaton-style silent movie stunt.
Incompetent school staff a ‘social justice issue’, says the Schools Minister
May 28, 2008
Every school has on its roll at least one bad teacher; this is what the UK Schools Minister has conceded. Jim Knight stated that incompetent school staff can undermine the education of thousands of students over the course of their careers. He emphasised it is a ‘social justice issue’ to make sure that all teachers are ‘up to the job’, and that those failing should be urged to switch to a different career.
This statement comes just weeks after the body that upholds standards in teaching stated there were almost 24,000 incompetent teachers in England’s schools. However, Mr Knight argued there was no substantial evidence to back up these claims. He added: “If you speak to anybody about their experience in school and ask them whether there was a teacher who perhaps should have been doing something else, every one of us would probably say, yeah, we remember that teacher. “What we need to do is be able to work out a way of helping those either achieve what they came into teaching for (the moral purpose of helping every child achieve the full potential), or assisting them move on to try out something they will be better at.”
Children suffering from hearing and vision problems to get more support in schools
May 27, 2008
Children facing hearing and vision problems will be provided with more support in schools in England, according to Schools Minister Andrew Adonis. This will comprise extra large-print text books and more sign language. Presently, only 8 to 12 per cent of texts books text books for GCSE pupils are available in Braille or large print. “It is vital that sensory impairments do not prove to be a barrier to learning,” stated Lord Adonis. “Children facing visual impairments and hearing difficulties do have the same right to a quality education as everyone else.
The schools minister added: “Parents with deaf children need to be made aware of the sign language options that are open to them and also helped to make informed choices. We need to share the expertise of schools, colleges, which make use of British Sign Language with mainstream services.” The aim is to make it easier for such children to access sign language and to have the necessary learning resources.
The Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) indicates that there is less than one qualified interpreter for every hundred users of British Sign Language. The initiative will release £800,000 to encourage greater usage of British Sign Language in schools.
Public sector workers putting in more hours at work than those in private sector, concludes a research
May 27, 2008
Almost one in every two public sector workers is made to do regular unpaid overtime, which is almost equivalent to the contribution made by hundreds of thousands of extra staff, according to researchers who also claim that they have found the first conclusive proof of a public service ethos.
Workers at public bodies or charities, according to the research, are much more likely to exceed their official working or paid hours than are those people doing the same types of jobs in commercial institutions, states a research team of the Centre for Market & Public Organisation.
In a study of over 4,000 workers in the education, social care and health sectors, the team at the University of Bristol found that 46 per cent of those employed by NGOs did unpaid overtime as compared to mere 29 per cent of those employed in private firms in the same sectors or domains. And those workers who did unpaid overtime also put in more extra hours, an average nine hours 35 minutes every week in comparison to just eight hours 20 minutes by employees of private companies. These differences alone are saving public sector employers in health, social care and education sectors the financial burden of employing 60,000 more staff. The research is just published in the journal Research in Public Policy.
