Boxing Clever
Boxing Clever is the title of two articles in September’s edition of Modern Railways magazine. They detail the works being done to upgrade the major freight lines of Felixstowe to Nuneaton and Southampton to Birmingham, so that they can take the larger 9 ft 6 in high containers (boxes) from the ports to and from industrial centres. In times of austerity and climate change, it is interesting to see how these projects which will cut out hundreds of thousands of lorry journeys are being carried out and managed using some very innovative solutions. So much so,m that it appears that the second project might be £10m under its £70.7m budget.
It is an example of very good project management and shows how by spending money wisely to remove freight bottle-necks is to the good of us all. You could argue for instance that Felixstowe to Nuneaton enhancement might be the equivalent of adding extra capacity to the A14, which is a road, that really can’t be widened too easily, as the Orwell bridge was only built for two lanes each way.
I particularly liked the way that the 1847 Southampton Tunnel was made larger. Rather than use the traditional approach and closing the tunnel for two to three months, as they did when they upgraded Ipswich Tunnel, they did it a track at a time closing for only three weekends and over Christmas 2009, saving a year on the project.
It is my belief that we can save a lot of money on infrastructure projects, like roads, railways, hospitals ands schools by thinking things through with a great deal more innovation, enterprise and by borrowing good and proven ideas and methods from other countries and industries.
Would a Private Firm Ever Buy Anything with Something Like PFI?
It’s grim reading about the problems the NHS is facing over bloated PFI deals.
No-one with any sense would ever have locked themsaelves into such deals. I’m sure people like Tesco have probably used design, build and maintain for stores and depots, but they wouldn’t have ended up paying six times the cost of the building. They’d have also used standard designs to save building costs. I bet each hospital is very different.
The problem is not with PFI, but with the politicians, civil servants and administrators, who pushed these deal through. In a banana republic, I would be smelling the pungent smell of bungs, bribery and favours. But here it’s just bad economics and incompetence. And who was in charge of the country’s finance at the time? So add this to a list of his big mistakes, like pensions, banks, renewing Trident etc. Gordon Brown must rank as the worst Prime Minister any country in Europe has ever had. let lone the UK!
Are Redundancies Responsible for a Surge in New Companies?
This was posed by Robert Watts in today’s Sunday Times, but I can’t find it on-line. Is this because The Times are restricting what they put on-line?
But it’s not even mentioned in othe web sites, that we are now having a real surge in new company registrations.
But this is understandable as recessions are one of the best times to start a business, as companies are trying to outsource goods and services, there is a good supply of quality people, machinery, premises and other things available. Often from companies that have gone bust! We started Metier in the depth of a recession and you can’t say, that that wasn’t a success!
The only problem with this recession, is the attitude of the banks, but then, it would appear that many are using redundancy money as seed capital for their businesses.
Annuity Rules to be Scrapped
You save all your life and create an adequate pension pot and then at 75, you have to turn it into an annuity, ehich in many cases would be like using twenty pound notes to keep warm in winter. But now the government has stated that it will abolish this rule according to the BBC.
The government has outlined its plans to scrap the long-standing compulsory deadline for people buying an annuity.
Present rules state that those with a personal or company money purchase pension must buy an annuity once they hit the age of 75.
In the Budget, the government changed this age from 75 to 77, and now it has outlined plans to abolish the deadline.
I’ll believe it when and if I get to 80. Remember that this change will mean all those commissions and charges that insurance companies and pension funds will lose. They’ll try all they can to stop the rule changes. After all government needs their services like the rest of us.
Hotel Chocolat
It has just been announced on the local news, that Hotel Chocolat is expanding and creating 250 new jobs in Huntingdon and at its chocolate factory in St. Lucia. I checked their web site to see if they do gluten-free, as I am partial to the occassional bit of chocolate. Now that Cadbury’s have been taken over by Kraft, I worry that their products will end up contaminated by wheat maltodextrin to save money. I just can’t take the chance and so I was pleased to see that Hotel Chocolat have a gluten-free page on their web site.
I have sent a comment to Hotel Chocolat to query the level of gluten, as they say the odd contamination might happen.
I am a coeliac and also I monitor a Yahoo group for others. I haven’t tried your gluten-free products, but some coeliacs won’t as they are very sensitive to gluten. I myself am not, but I do react to wheat maltodextrin. What’s wrong with Demerara sugar? I think you may find that there is a lot of demand for a simple guaranteed gluten-free product, especially since G&B are now part of Kraft and US companies seem to have a fetish for wheat maltodextrin.
I shall await their reply.
what is interesting, is how they have raised the money for the expansion. They have raised it from their tasting club and will pay the interest in chocolate, as described here in The Telegraph.That sounds a model, that might work with a lot of food and drink products, especially where you are dealing with a specific group of people like coeliacs.
An Advantage for the Zopa Borrower
I recently had an e-mail from Zopa, asking if I’d mind if one of my borrowers could change their repayment day, as they had changed jobs and now got their salary on a different day of the month.
How civilised? And of course I had no reason at all to object.
I wonder how Big Bank plc would have responded to the same request! They would probably have charged you for the privilege!
It all illustrates how banking will change in the next few years, driven by innovators like Zopa.
Is 20% VAT Fair?
There has been a lot of fuss about raising VAT to 20%. I‘m in favour though
- Most countries in Europe have a rate of 20% or over.
- There is no VAT on food, so perhaps instead of eating out all te time, it’s time to learn to cook. After all, there are masses of books and programs on the television. There is no VAT on books.
- There is VAT on fuel, so change your driving hsbits and use less. This a good thing as we will cut carbon emmissions. Osborne should have raised fuel taxes substantially, though!
- There is VAT On building work, so perhaps it’s the time to learn to do things yourself.
- There is VAT on consumer goods, such as telvisions, but then do you really need a four metre screen. I suppose it goves a better picture for those who watch Royle Family style with endless cans of lager. As large screen TVs use a lot of energy, there is a special case for taxing the larger screens heavily. But you can always buy one before next January. It could be argued that as virtually all consumer goods are imported , that a drop in demand would be a good thing.
- But my main reason for liking VAT is that everybody pays a bit. Remember that because of pension and income tax changes, many people will have a little bit more to spend.
A Budget To Create Jobs in an Unexpected Way?
One of the provisions in the budget is that if you start a business outside of the South East, you will get a discount of up to £5,000 on NIC for each of the first ten employees.
This is very generous compared to other parts of Europe, such as France and The Netherlands, where social costs are a big cost of starting a business. Remember that over the last twenty years, the French have been one of the larger groups to move to the UK.
So will it mean that entrepreneurs will look favourably on the UK, as a plsce to start a new business, especially as UK income tax is lower than many places in Europe. For instance we have a tax allowance of £7,400 before we pay tax.
The more I look at this measure, it sticks out as a very good idea. It will be interested to see what the rules are and how they are interpreted.
But just imagine, you are something like an Australian or American software company, who needs a European support office. Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle or Manchester, all of which possess good air links to the rest of Europe, must have moved several steps up the list of where to site that office.
Zopa Rates Around the Election
Let’s assume that this election without a full outcome has put a lot of instability into the money markets. According to all the commentators it should. But then those traders in the City are in business to make money in the short-term and not place money for the greater good in the long-term.
So is there a real measure of what real people think about finance?
I lend money on Zopa, which is a peer-to-peer lending site. I’m not interested in short-term gains, but sensible and safe long-term growth. I get about 5.5% before tax taking everything into account. It’s also fun and a bit like gambling without the risk.
So how has Zopa performed over the last few weeks? And specifically what have their rates done?
Zopa Rates 2010 – 11th May 2010
If you look at the rates, the pattern appears to be very similar to the last few months. There has been a slight upward trend of rates, with a squiggle around the turn of the month. The latter is because most Zopa loans pay around the beginning of the month and this affects the rate as most investors reinvest their returned payments.
So does this mean that most Zopa users have just been carrying on as normal and letting the lunatics in Westminster and the City get on with their high-profile nonsense?
I shall report on this in about seven days time, as I think it will still be nice and stable despite the politics.
The Anonymous Widower 