15 need to know points about the UK rating downgrade and business finance

On Friday 22nd February Moody’s downgraded the UK economy from AAA to AA1.  The reasons Moody’s gave for the downgrade were that they consider the UK to have a weak economy and is suffering from sluggish growth. The likely effects of the downgrade are: The pound will drop, which means our imports will cost more.  […]

Economic update Feb 2013: what does it mean for your business strategy?

To assist in the planning of your business finance strategy, we have produced this report summarising recent data produced in January/February 2013 by four respected commentators on the UK economy: The Office for National Statistics, BDO, the CBI and Markit/CIPS. ONS Index of Construction December 2012       The estimated total volume of construction output in […]

Business strategy 101 – Business funding update – February 2013

The Bank of England’s ‘Trends in Lending’ report, published on 21st January shows business funding options remain hard to come by for SMEs. The underlying message from the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013 is that Finance for the SME sector remains elusive and, as a consequence, demand is subdued.  Let’s take a […]

Autumn Statement 2012 – No room to move?

The Chancellor finds himself in a very difficult position, not just because he is scrabbling around to create an environment in which the economy can grow, but more importantly – in my opinion – he actually has very little power to make meaningful and sustainable changes. In the ultimate democracies (one of which we thankfully […]