Business

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Three hundred leading economists have said that tax havens serve no useful purpose and only increase inequality. The charity Oxfam organised the open letter and has been released ahead of an anti-corruption summit this week in London. In the letter to world leaders the economists, including the Cambridge economist Ha-Joon Chang, say that tax havens “undoubtedly benefit” rich individuals and multinational corporations, but this benefit is at the expense of the rest of society. The...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Around ten million pounds will be paid to 250 construction workers who had been “blacklisted” by building firms. Construction giants like Sir Robert McAlpine and Balfour Beatty are among the companies who are liable and have agreed to compensate union members who they denied work to. The final payout from the out of court deal by the Unite union on behalf of nearly 800 workers could be as high as £75m once all claims have...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor A new range of British army fighting vehicles will be constructed abroad, even though the PM hailed the £3.5bn deal as a huge boost to UK manufacturing. According to the Mirror, there will be a hundred of the Ajax fighting vehicles will be “fully manufactured and assembled” in Spain, the Ministry of Defence has admitted. The hulls for almost 500 more will be made in Spain before the vehicles are transported to the UK for...

The media is abuzz with the emergence of Finnish technology companies; and they’re markedly different from the norm. There is no doubt that consumers have been crying out for an alternative to traditional banking practices for a long time now, particularly when it comes to things like high remittance fees and transfers. But are FinTech companies bringing about revolution or evolution?   The Argument for Revolution From peer-to-peer lending, to wealth management, to crowd funding – there is nothing that is...

Building your own business from the ground up is a pretty enormous task. You have to be your own manager, your best creative mind, your own accountant. But do you really have to do everything yourself? Wouldn't it be nice if, at the very least, somebody else would take care of where your brainchild can grow up and take its first steps? Today The Office Design Company have shared 7 start-up hubs in London that are worth watching if you’re...

Can’t decide whether to invest in your IT equipment or rent instead? This post talks you through the all-important business considerations you need to make.

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor There have been claims made by a well known anti-corruption campaigner that UK authorities will “always find excuses not to investigate” money laundering. Bill Browder, a former Hedge Fund chief, told MPs that the UK are actually refusing to look at evidence of “dirty” Russian money, that indicate that money is being laundered through our banking system. Browder believes that authorities don’t want “to rock the boat,” even when he filed six complaints linked to...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor The Whitehall appointments watchdog may need a radical overhaul after it was found that two thirds of them who applied to Acoba (Advisory Committee on Business Appointments) since 2008 have ended up in private sector jobs, in the same field they left while they were in Government. This has led to MPs demanding the watchdog is fundamentally changed, as it failed to block a single ex-minister or civil servant from moving into a highly paid...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor A massive leak of documents could see the end of the TTIP trade deal, which includes provisions to allow American corporations to help change European law and also weaken consumer protections. Campaigners hope the leaked pages will bring an end to the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) which has seen strong resistance from both sides of the Atlantic. Many opponents see it as a chance for big business to override the laws of the...