James Mills is a web developer in the North East of England and founder of Refresh Teesside »
Mike Hughes is the Head of Business for the Evening Gazette. He will be blogging on all matters of importance to Teesside businesses - and some that are just worth knowing »
Jez Davison, business writer at the Evening Gazette, is a regular blogger on all things business - particularly finance, entrepreneurship and the state of the Teesside economy » 
Karen McLauchlan is the Evening Gazette's deputy business and features editor - with special interest in all things industry, property and arts related » 
Jeremy Middleton is a venture capitalist and the co-founder of FTSE-200 company HomeServe » 
Deloitte, which has 23 offices across the UK including Newcastle, is among the country's leading professional services firms » 
ClimateNE & Climate Change Schools Project support the move to a low-carbon, resilient economy and help businesses avoid risk and realise commercial opportunities. Posts by Jen Atkinson, Krista McKinzey and Harriet Thew » March 2010 Archives
Rock numbers very encouraging
- Tags:
- Gary Hoffman
- Northern Rock
Posted by on March 10, 2010 8:59 AM
I have just come off the phone from a conference call with Northern Rock chief executive Gary Hoffman, and it's fair to say he is in an upbeat mood about the bank's annual results announced this morning.
The bank has comprehensively beaten targets set down by the Government for its performance during 2009 by some ã500m on an underlying basis.
The headline figure of a pre-tax loss of ã257m is also a huge step forward following the ã1.4bn loss made in 2008.
Inevitably much of the commentary on these results will focus on the bonuses paid to staff.
The vast majority of the bank's workers will get payments of around ã3,000 but Mr Hoffman rightly points out that to confuse these with the enormous sums being paid to investment bankers is misleading.
The average member of staff at the Rock earns less than ã25,000. It is surely right that they are rewarded in a relatively modest way for helping the Rock smash its targets in an impressive fashion,
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Businesses enter new age of austerity
- Tags:
- banks
- dividend payments
- recession
Posted by on March 11, 2010 11:48 AM
The plight of the UK plc has been highlighted in booming bold, letters by news that dividend payments from UK companies fell by a whopping ã10bn last year.
UK companies paid out ã56.9bn in dividends in 2009 - 15% less than in 2008 - with investors in the banking sector the worst impacted as the financial crisis wrought havoc.
Continue reading "Businesses enter new age of austerity" »
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Why Tees Valley should worry about Greece
- Tags:
- budget deficit
- Euro
- Greece
Posted by on March 11, 2010 11:53 AM
Tees Valley and Greece may lie about 1,500 miles apart but tales of their economic suffering are eerily similar.
Both have been caught up in a much wider problem that will be hard for them to escape.
Continue reading "Why Tees Valley should worry about Greece" »
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Don't rule out foreign investment
Posted by on March 16, 2010 11:05 AM
The recent mothballing of the Teesside Cast Products plant in Redcar told a wistful tale of the state of British industry.
The decision, which has left 1,600 people out of work, was taken thousands of miles away at the HQ of TCP's Indian owner, Tata.
The long drawn-out episode left people questioning the wisdom of foreign ownership on the grounds that Teesside could no longer control its own destiny.
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Employers want quality, not quantity
Posted by on March 23, 2010 10:20 AM
The Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) has taken fearful stick for urging the Government to end its 50% target for participation in higher education.
But why the furore when raising standards rather than numbers should have been ministers' primary aim from day one?
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Budget bore provides little clarity for business
Posted by on March 30, 2010 9:28 AM
Alistair Darling's eagerly awaited Budget was significant more for its omissions than its headlines.
The dreary set of statements were reeled off with the enthusiasm of a condemned man who knows his time on Threadneedle Street could be up.
Continue reading "Budget bore provides little clarity for business" »
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