Business Month
Enterprise zones not enough to rescue economy: Business Month
Chancellor George Osborne announced in the Budget that 21 new enterprise zones would be created in England, offering up to 100% discounts on council rates, access to new superfast broadband and enhanced capital allowances to promote the manufacturing sector. The devolved governments of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are encouraged to adopt similar policies to [...]
Care home crisis hits Northern Ireland: Business Month
The UK’s largest provider of residential care homes, Southern Cross, is struggling to survive. The company operates 751 care homes across the UK, accommodating about 31,000 residents. Over 20 of these homes are in Northern Ireland – the future of which is now uncertain.
A deal has been done to keep Southern Cross going for [...]
Skills deficit: Business Month
To suggest that Northern Ireland has a skills crisis might sound melodramatic, yet the description is accurate. The word ‘crisis’ often infers a sudden event, an instantaneous problem. By contrast, our skills crisis has been years in the making and reflects, at least in part, a lack of focus on educational attainment and aspiration during [...]
Northern Ireland business news round-up: Business Month
Going up – going down
Cotton prices [going up]
Increased demand for cotton from Chinese manufacturers has pushed up cotton prices to a record high. The United States’ Department of Agriculture has warned that at current levels, world demand will create ‘severe shortages’. The continuing rise in raw material costs is expected to lead to higher high [...]
Investment conference could deliver: Business Month
Some of the world’s largest and best-known companies may invest in Northern Ireland as a result of the forthcoming investment conference in Washington, the US economic envoy Declan Kelly told Business Month in an exclusive interview. It is hoped that the conference will lead to more than a dozen major new investment projects being launched [...]
Not planning for the future: Business Month
The latest high profile attack on Northern Ireland’s planning system came from Ryanair as it pulled out of Belfast City Airport. The airline wants an extension to the runway, enabling it to launch longer flights to European destinations and heavier passenger loads to British airports.
Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary used uncharacteristically restrained language to express his frustrations. [...]
Northern Ireland’s business news: Business Month
Hillary Clinton to host Washington NI conference
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to host a Northern Ireland economic conference in Washington on 19 October. Northern Ireland’s First Minister Peter Robinson, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and enterprise minister Arlene Foster will all attend, along with senior officials from Invest NI.
Representatives of US companies [...]
Getting things right at the top: Business Month
Corporate governance sits at the heart of an organisation’s operations. If the corporate governance is strong and effective, the organisation is also likely to be strong and effective. But if the corporate governance is weak, the organisation will almost certainly be, at best, underperforming.
The evidence for this is clear. All the big corporate failures of [...]
