Blog Posts: August 2009

A couple of stories have broken this week suggesting that the calls for transparency in the banking sector are going unheeded. The first appeared in the Times on Monday and concerned the resurrection of the practice adopted by banks in the last recession of selling repossessed properties to their own subsidiaries to avoid having to mark down their value by selling in the open market. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article6807490.ece You can.... (read more...)

I am sure that all buyers (and most sellers) will want to make sure that goods sold are of satisfactory quality and do the job intended. But what is the remedy when things go wrong, for example the steel supplied is not up to the job, the cattle food makes the cattle ill, the computer does not live up to its billing, or the machinery keeps breaking down? Sale of goods law provides remedies for buyers where the goods are not of "satisfactory quality". A recent High Court case conf.... (read more...)

Under 18s are canny at using all means to try and buy alcohol. Often this involves fake or borrowed identification documents such as passports and driving licences. Many pub and other retail outlets are adpting a policy of confiscation of ID and sending it to the relevant authority such as the Passport Office or DVLA. Some Police forces positively encourage confiscation and have a procedure for dealing with the ID. This is proving an effective deterrent where used, as word quickly gets around .... (read more...)

There’s a new feeling in the air in certain quarters – one of optimism – and I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s feeling it. For those of us who follow all the research statistics about SMEs and the recession, this summer has been full of conflicting news. There have been many days where the good news statistics were evenly balanced by the bad news statistics. It looked like green shoots had germinated but would they grow or can we expect them to whither in th.... (read more...)

As businesses continue to struggle at the moment, there’s been a recent increase in the number of SMEs who are making Directors redundant. It can often make sense: if a company’s activities have shrunk, with fewer sales and a reduced workforce, it can now appear too top heavy and under performing directors might be at risk. Handling a Director redundancy can be much more complicated however than making a staff member redundant as we explain in the more detailed article on Director Re.... (read more...)

It is estimated that the first serious wave of Swine Flu will hit the UK between August and November this year with the cities being affected more than the countryside. This means that approximately 12% of the workforce nationally is likely to catch it during this period. The impact on SMEs is likely to be particularly severe. The problem is that it spreads easily from person to person, which is likely to mean that, once it takes hold in a particular workplace, far more than the 12% average coul.... (read more...)

The Credit Crunch is inevitably contributing to a delay in payment to businesses, particularly vulnerable SMEs. Money owed to small businesses shot up by 40% from £18.6 billion in 2007, to £25.9 billion in 2008, according to Bacs. And who knows where the figure is at this time, no doubt substantailly higher. This attack on cash flow is probably the biggest single cause of company failure. For example Barclays state that more than 750 companies failed in the South East in 2008 due t.... (read more...)