Archive for June, 2008
Co-ownership solution to unaffordable housing: Co-operative News
The Paul Gosling column
Inflated house prices lie at the heart of the global banking crisis. Despite newspaper headlines talking glibly of bank debts caused by foolhardy ’sub-prime lending’, the truth is more complex and disturbing according to a lively debate amongst community development activists in the United States.
We might assume from the papers that it is [...]
Eco-towns or bust: Co-operative News
The Paul Gosling Column
The Government has set itself stiff targets for building new homes and reducing carbon emissions. It has pledged to build three million new homes by 2020, while reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 60% - and possibly 80% - by 2050. Potentially the targets are in serious conflict – which helps to explain [...]
Letter from Ireland: Accounting & Business
Letter from Ireland
by Paul Gosling
A trickle threatens to become a flood. Shire Pharmaceuticals made news in April as the first FTSE 100 company to move its tax residency to Dublin – jumping out of Britain’s 28% corporation tax net, into Ireland’s more hospitable 12.5% tax rate. Shire was persuaded not just by the headline CT [...]
Accounting news: Accounting & Business
Accounting & Business June 2008
News Despatch
FRC repeats warning of a Big Four collapse
A collapse of a Big Four firm remains the biggest risk to the effective functioning of the audit market, the UK’s Financial Reporting Council has warned.
As part of the ongoing implementation of recommendations from the Market Participants’ Group to improve audit [...]
Questions of cash: Beware fake emails: The Independent
Questions of cash: Beware fake emails that demand money
By Paul Gosling
Saturday, 14 June 2008
Q. Ever since typing my name into Google out of idle curiosity, I have been receiving emails from it demanding money or it will stop my ads. I do not have any ads, but its emails are non-reply and attempts to contact [...]
NI ministers change seats: Public Finance
NI ministers change seats
by Paul Gosling
Ian Paisley’s retirement as Northern Ireland first minister and leader of the Democratic Unionists has
led to a ministerial reshuffle of DUP Executive ministers.
The new DUP leader and first minister is Peter Robinson, who has removed one DUP minister and moved all his other Executive ministers. Edwin Poots has been [...]
An imposing environment: Public Finance
An imposing environment
Local authorities are operating in a legal environment that is imposing more responsibilities and demands on them. Councils must pay special attention to the Corporate Manslaughter Act and the Civil Contingencies Act.
Corporate Manslaughter Act
The Corporate Manslaughter and Criminal Homicide Act came into force in April across the UK and makes it much more [...]
Mutual option proves contentious for London boroughs: Public Finance
Mutual option proves contentious for London boroughs
by Paul Gosling
Self-help, mutual insurance style, has been a long standing feature of local government. Municipal Mutual dominated the market for councils’ insurance market for most of the last century – until it collapsed in the 1990s. Now a group of London boroughs has gone ‘back to the future’ [...]
Councils face a new future in Northern Ireland: Local Government Chronicle
Councils face a new future in Northern Ireland
by Paul Gosling
Local government has played a central role in the modern history of Northern Ireland – but not an honourable one. The failings of local authorities in the 1960s were a major factor in the onset of the Troubles, in which over 3,700 people died. So the [...]
Taking stock of funding options: Local Government Chronicle
Taking stock of funding options
By Paul Gosling
Local government administration of pension funds is strictly regulated. But does this drive councils’ pension fund committees to concentrate on what the regulations tell them to do, at the expense of the big picture?
A recent survey by fund advisors Mercer found that almost half of European companies’ pension funds [...]
