Wonderful Wefinda weekly news - Week ended 26 November 2010

Getting back to business – the good news
Speaking at an event in Belfast, Andrew Sentance, an external member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee highlighted reasons to be optimistic about the recovery. Apparently businesses started to climb out of the recession earlier than expected and this, combined with a lower rate of company failure than forecast, means businesses are in a strong position to take advantage of the opportunities now available through new growth and a competitive pound.

Irish Bail out
The Irish Bail out was agreed on Sunday 28th with €85billion in the total package. The UK is in for a fair share of this, partly because of the historic links between our countries and partly because Ireland is a net importer of British goods and services.

Immigration cap
The government announced its immigration cap for next year with 21,700 skilled workers to be allowed to enter this country from outside the EU, down by 6,000 from the last limit. There are some exceptions such as those earning more than £40,000 who move into the UK to take up posts with international companies. There is no limit on the number of migrants from EU countries and these still make up around a third of all migrants.

Red tape costs £100 billion
With businesses gearing up for recovery it might be worth taking a look at your internal processes. Many firms have tried to save costs by taking reporting jobs out of specialist departments such as HR and Accounts and devolving them to mainstream staff. A survey by Keboko shows that time sheets and reporting now costs the average worker 37 days a year, time that could be saved by system changes and cutting down on unnecessary reports.

So, what do we have to look forward to?
On Monday the Chancellor, George Osborne, makes his autumn statement to the House of Commons at 3.30pm. He is expected to respond to the revised economic forecasts being published by the Office for Budget Responsibility at 1pm the same day. Following the statement there will be a debate on the regulation of Independent Financial Advisers. Elsewhere there are select committee meetings including the Business Innovation and Skills committee looking at government assistance to Industry on Tuesday.

The latest tube strike is on Monday leading to delays in transporting people and goods around London. Allow extra time for travel to meetings and check contingency plans in case staff can work from home.

And finally
Whilst campaigns to remove Muzak from lifts and public places continue, the Japanese have turned to classical music to improve the taste of their food. Apparently Mozart adds extra sweetness when played to ripening bananas whilst noodles, saki, miso and soy sauce all benefit from having classical music played whilst they are being made.