wefinda wonderful weekly news (week ended 23 July 2010)

Top of the news for last week was the announcement that the UK’s GDP rose by 1.1% in the second quarter of this year. Following an increase of 0.3% in the first quarter, the rise took most analysts by surprise. Within the overall figure, the picture is still mixed. Business, services & finance rose by 1.3%; distribution, hotels and restaurants by 0.7%; whilst transport, storage and communication fell by 0.7%. Among other areas, manufacturing rose by 1% whilst power & water fell by 1.6%. Whilst the climb out of recession is good news, if the statistics continue the upward trend the prospect of a rise in interest rates becomes nearer.

Last week the government launched the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS). This has been set up to completely review all taxes and come up with a simplified framework. For businesses the OTS has been asked to come up with a report by Budget day 2011 which will simplify SME taxes. This will include a review of IR35, the regulations governing whether a worker can be treated as self-employed or an employee.

From time to time we see stories in the press wondering about what the EU actually does for us and whether our contributions are justified. Usually all we hear are the headline stories or the silly summer stories but we don’t often find out about the background work that goes on. The EU does put a lot of money into funding for research and ICT is one of the areas that is benefiting. For all of you involved in ICT, the EU has launched a call for proposals that will result in projects worth €1.2 billion launching in 2011. The proposals are based around 'ICT for Energy Efficient Buildings', 'ICT for the Fully Electric Vehicle' and 'ICT for Factories of the Future'. Full information is available on the EU web site.


So what do we have to look forward to in the coming week? Well in Parliament the MPS will be packing their suitcases and heading off on their holidays. Parliament goes into recess on Wednesday until 6 September so journalists can now look forward to a summer of “who is running the country” stories.

And finally, at Wefinda we don’t just put suppliers and potential clients in touch with each other; we love to celebrate business success. Share your good news or funny business stories with us and we’ll put the best ones in our weekly news articles. We may even include our favourite in our monthly newsletter which is e-mailed to tens of thousands of businesses. E-mail us on mail@wefinda.co.uk with a brief outline of the story and a contact name and phone number in case we need clarification