Archive for August, 2009

Questions of Cash: ‘Loan error left my bathroom in a shed’: The Independent

 
Q. My husband and I applied for a further advance on our mortgage with the Nationwide earlier this year. The fee for this was taken from our account on 25 April. The advance was to allow us to replace one of our bathrooms, pay for a new car under the scrappage scheme, and clear our [...]

Saving energy - earning money: Belfast Telegraph

 
Changing times need new approaches to markets and products. That is a lesson that has been learnt and applied well by Unicorn Inter Ltd.
 
Unicorn is an established business, having started in 1991 and with operations both in Banbridge and Dundalk. But when the company realised its customers were beginning to hit hard times, it responded [...]

Wired for growth: Belfast Telegraph

 
Lir-Med has big ambitions. The Craigavon company may only have half a dozen staff now, but it intends to employ 50 workers within three years. By this time, according to its business plan, its initial £1m turnover will have jumped at least five-fold.
 
These aspirations are backed by the knowledge that the year-old company has launched [...]

Feeding frenzy: Belfast Telegraph

 
Ever noticed how difficult it is for dogs and cats to eat from their feeding bowls?  Jane Grant did, which is why the Londonderry woman is now chief executive of Hugx – suppliers of high quality bowls that cater for the needs of the pet.
 
Far more people will quickly become aware of the Hugx product, [...]

Doing it for the ‘craic’: Belfast Telegraph

 
A business called Craic Design could only be Irish. It is the idea of John Kennedy, who went to school in Bangor and now spends much of his time commuting between Belfast and Dublin.
 
But sole trader Kennedy put his commuting time to good use – he used it to write one of the biggest selling [...]

Councils get ready for IFRS: Public Eye

 
With the adoption of ‘fair value’ widely blamed for the collapse of the financial markets, no one would sensibly argue that moving to IFRS is a simple matter. While the NHS and central government are now completing their move to international accounting standards, the adoption of IFRS remains a daunting task for local government – [...]

Pressure on for council CFOs: Public Eye

 
Financial pressures on local authorities have been acute in recent months – and show no sign of abating. Increased costs from fuel and food inflation, more children taken into care following the ‘Baby P case’ and higher recession-related spending have combined in a double whammy with reductions in investment income, planning fees, car parking charges [...]

Foundation trusts - success or failure?: Health Service Review

 
Foundation trusts are now five years old. In their first year, just 10 of the best performing NHS trusts converted to foundation status. Now there are 117 foundation trusts: more than half the acute and mental health trusts eligible to convert have done so. But have the Government’s enormous expectations that greater independence would lead [...]

Health PFI: Going somewhere?: Health Service Review

 
There were fears that the NHS could have been one of the main losers from the near collapse of the Private Finance Initiative. Over the last 12 years, some £12bn of new NHS capital projects have been commissioned through the PFI. But with the credit crunch and implosion of some of the banks most closely [...]

A Question of Money: ‘How do I protect myself from fraud?’: Belfast Telegraph

 
A Question of Money
 
Q. I see that details of 130 million credit and debit cards have been stolen in the United States. I am scared that my bank and card accounts will be defrauded. How can I protect myself?
 
A. There is nothing you can do to prevent your details being stolen from the database [...]