Reuters:

Families are facing a “cost of living” crisis which will persist for years to come, Labour leader Ed Miliband said on Monday.

Miliband said the expectation that the next generation would always do better than the last was now under threat at a time of rising inflation and growing wage inequality.

Looking at potential remedies, Miliband said that the banking system should be reformed to support business and a range of ownership structures should be considered when the state sells its stakes in high street banks.

The Labour leader accused the coalition government of making things worse for families with children by decisions such as pushing up VAT sales tax and changes to tax credits.

“The crunch will be felt first and worst by low and middle income families, particularly those with children,” Miliband said.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/02/28/uk-britain-labour-idUKTRE71R3NK20110228

TechWatch:

You can’t put a price on many things. The steadfast loyalty of a friend, a Van Gogh masterpiece, a pot noodle…

No, wait. It’s not that you can’t put a price on a pot noodle, it’s that you shouldn’t. Even giving them away free is too expensive.

Snack-food digressions aside, you can apparently put a price on the damage cyber-crime does to the ailing British economy. And that figure is a staggering £27 billion every year.

So consultant firm Detica claims, in research conducted in conjunction with the government’s Office of Cyber-security. £27 billion is lost due to Intellectual Property theft and industrial espionage, the report states.

Cyber-crime hits the government itself for around £2.2 billion, and the citizens of the UK for £3.1 billion, but businesses cop for most of the damage – £21 billion. IP theft represents some £9 billion of that, and espionage £7.6 billion.

The hardest hit industries are the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors, electronics, chemicals and IT.

http://www.techwatch.co.uk/2011/02/17/cyber-crime-costs-uk-economy-27-billion-per-year/

eGov Monitor:

Youth unemployment in Britain is a serious concern as it reached a record high of 965,000 in the last quarter of 2010, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) earlier today.

Number of young people out of work rose by 66,000 in the three months to the end of December 2010, taking the rate up to 20.5%.  The overall unemployment numbers rose by 44,000 to 2.49 Million during the same period.

“This mini-recession in the labour market as a whole is turning into a major crisis for young people,” said Ian Brinkley Director at the Work Foundation.

“Young people’s employment will not recover significantly until employers start hiring them again in significant numbers and that depends on the overall state of the economy. But in the meantime, the government needs to look again at levels of support for young people through temporary employment programmes and encouraging more apprenticeships and paid intern placements.

http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/40775

BBC news:

The UK Consumer Prices Index (CPI) annual inflation rate rose to 4% in January, up from 3.7% in December, as the effects of the VAT rise were felt.

Higher oil prices also meant inflation remained well above the 2% target.

Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation – which includes mortgage interest payments – rose to 5.1% from 4.8%.

The CPI figure is the highest since November 2008, and will put pressure on the Bank of England to lift interest rates to curb accelerating inflation.

The CPI measure has now been one percentage point or more above target for 14 months.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12462901

Business Week:

European ministers face a potential flare-up in the euro’s debt crisis when they meet Monday as investors increasingly worry they might not deliver on their promise of a comprehensive solution.

Finance chiefs from the 17 euro countries are meeting in Brussels afternoon. Their last get-together in mid-January had been characterized by relative calm in bond markets, after November and December had seen emergency meetings to agree a bailout for Ireland and keep the crisis from spreading to Portugal or Spain.

But hopes that a promised overhaul of the crisis strategy will prevent some countries from having to default on part of their massive debts — as many economists expect — dimmed earlier this month, when European leaders fought over yet another proposal on how to tackle the crisis.

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9LCGPQG0.htm

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They have a selection of vacancies and are looking forward to hearing from anybody who feels they can join this exciting new company.

Take a look at their web site here: Bournemouth Jobs

The Bank of England has once again voted to hold the base rate at 0.5%, meaning we have now faced almost two years in a record-low interest rate environment.

With inflation expected to soar above 4% when next week’s official figures are announced, there has been growing support for a hike sooner rather than later.

Indeed, the minutes from last month’s rate-setting meeting revealed that two of the nine members had voted for a hike.

Source: MSN Money

From the BBC:

The government says it will increase the levy on bank profits to £2.5bn this year – raising an extra £800m.

The change would usually be set out in next month’s Budget.

But BBC business editor Robert Peston said the Chancellor had “concluded that the banks are in better shape than he thought less than two months ago, when he announced that a smaller levy would apply in the current year”.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12389416

Scotsman.com:

Medium-term prospects for the British economy may have improved after a report today pointed to faster productivity growth in three quarters of the UK’s “regions”.

Research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) suggests that productivity, or output per worker, is set to accelerate in nine out of the 12 regions between now and 2015 compared with 1998-2008.

The biggest increase in productivity growth is forecast for Wales, rising from an annual rate of just 0.6 per cent to 1.5 per cent. Other regions where a substantial improvement is expected include Yorkshire and Humberside and the West Midlands.

Less significant rises are forecast for Scotland, where output growth is predicted to nudge up from an already robust 1.3 per cent to 1.4 per cent, Northern Ireland and the north-east of England.

Read More: http://business.scotsman.com/business/Productivity-boost-for-UK39s-ailing.6712579.jp

From Citywire:

The data on the services sector, which accounts for around three quarters of the economy, rebounded sharply from December’s lows and hinted at some reasonably solid growth.

There was a similarly upbeat picture in the construction and manufacturing surveys. Manufacturing has been one area of the economy that has been consistently strong for a few months now. But before anyone gets too carried away thinking this may be a re-birth of industry, we need to remember that the sector shrank more than the others during the recession.

And if, as some data suggests, the sector has been bolstered by a weak pound then the renewed talk of interest rate increases in the months ahead is another cause for concern. Higher rates mean a stronger pound which could hobble the sector going forward.