CONTACT USWelcome to this week’s addition of SASDA’s Blumin Brilliant Business Blog. Loads of business news to report from the ‘Blumin Brilliant Business Blog’ this week so let’s dive straight in:
More Problems for Far East Car Giant
All the talk this week has been about the news that Toyota is set to recall more vehicles over issues with braking systems, compounding issues already raised over problems with accelerator pedals across a wide range of the car giant’s models. The story is widely reported, shown here on the bbc website, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8473789.stm
Change in Paternity Rights Set to Hit North East Business
The Press & Journal website’s Gillian Bell provides comment on proposed changes that will see men given the right to up to six months paternity leave, three of those months paid. The change will be a massive leap from the current two week entitlement. Reaction to the news has been mixed, with the impact on small businesses a primary concern for local leaders. What do you think? Is this a good move to give Dads more freedom in their jobs? Or another layer of needless regulation from the state?
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1582120?UserKey
Ex Dragon Dishes out the Business Know How
The region took the benefit of ex-dragon Douglas Richard’s business know how with a series of workshops. Reported in nebusiness.co.uk and featured widely elsewhere in the press the events were organised by Finance Tree, the University of Newcastle and Together with O², and was sponsored by Newcastle law firm Ward Hadaway, Newcastle Science City and Access to Finance. Read the story here.
Positive Signs for Small Firms
A bit of good news was reported in the Journal by Karen Dent, highlighting statistic suggesting that many small firms had grown more than they expected last year. The survey included over 300 firms from the North East and was presented at the launch of the Chance to Change event, scheduled for the 22nd of Feb. The event aims to encourage people to take on the mantle of running their own business, perhaps from a redundancy situation or similar. This seems to be an exciting new initiative, and combined with Durham County Council’s BE Enterprising Scheme should be a step in the right direction. The story is widely reported, but can be viewed here;
RDA or no RDA? That’s the Question
More political rumblings about the future of Regional Development Agencies are underway with the Conservatives changing their tune a little. It was only a matter of weeks ago that the ‘Blumin Brilliant Business Blog’ commented on Doug Richard’s comments that RDAs need to be completely dismantled. Mr. Richard is the chief enterprise advisor for the shadow government, which may or not be soon to be the ruling party? Speculation I know. The Northern Echo reports that the party’s stance on this has changed somewhat, and with One North East being one of the largest RDA’s in the country this could be really important for the businesses in the area, especially come the spring (or summer depending on when we go to the polls.) Businesses need support and they need investment. There needs to be a structure to deal with that support, so perhaps a system of benchmarking what is good with these organisations is preferable to dismantling them altogether. Read the full story here.
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/features/4885251.Dangerous_dithering/
Durham County Council is also currently undertaking a review of all of the business support services available to you as small business owners and managers, so the Blumin Brilliant Business Blog will keep you updated on the results of that review.
Sasda is safe and secure.
