wefinda weekly small business news (week ended 10th September 2010)

Businesses breathed a sigh of relief this week at the Bank of England’s decision to hold base rates for a further month. However, with mixed reports on the housing front and weak economic reports, the prospect for a double dip recession hasn’t gone away completely. Analysts are generally predicting a long slow climb out of recession combined with high unemployment as the most likely future.

In our news of the 6 August we highlighted the responsibility that all businesses have to recycle their waste. Now Defra reports that in the last year there have been 2,500 prosecutions for fly-tipping with 116,500 warning letters issued. Given the rise in the number firms offering to take away and recycle business waste, this 20% increase in prosecutions over the previous year is surprising.

With further postal strikes threatened in response to the Government’s plan to privatise the Royal Mail, now may be the time for businesses to review their postal options. Check out the Wefinda guide to Courier services for advice.

A report by the Payments council shows that we are turning away from cash and cheques and towards debit cards. In the three months to June, withdrawals from cash machines fell by 3.2% compared to the same period last year whilst cheque use fell by 10%. This compares to a 12.4% rise in the use of debit cards and a massive 67% rise in the use of faster payments (the same day transfer system between banks). With cheques on course to be phased out by 2018, any business looking to upgrade its accounting or banking systems would be advised to search for a cheque-less solution.

So what do we have to look forward to? In Parliament there is a debate on Tuesday on apprenticeships and skills whilst at the same time there is a select committee hearing on Local Enterprise Partnerships. On Thursday we look forward to questions in the house on energy and climate change. This should be a lively debate following Prince Charles’ recent comments that he found the views of climate change sceptics “extraordinary”.

The Tour of Britain starts on 11 September and finishes in London on the 18th. With international riders from 17 teams taking part and special events along the way the race is well worth a cheer.

And finally, with all the doom and gloom about and dire predictions on pensions, it is good to hear of one pensioner who is not short of cash. Police in Germany were called to investigate a possible scam operation only to find out it was a pensioner celebrating his retirement by giving away Euros to passers by.