The Queen’s Speech: Recall, pensions and heroism June 4, 2014 Small business bill If a big bank turns down a small firm’s loan application, they will have to refer it on to other lenders. Zero-hours contracts can no longer include an exclusivity clause that ban workers from taking several such jobs. Tax-free childcare will be extended to under-12s from 2015 in a bid to make [...]
UK mega pensions aren’t a bad idea – if government can resist destroying them June 3, 2014 IN THE Queen’s Speech today, the government is likely to give the go-ahead for large pension schemes along Dutch lines. Such collective defined contribution schemes have many advantages. They allow managers to pursue return targets without giving guarantees. Risks can be shared between generations and costs can be kept down as a result of economies [...]
Standard Life’s shares dip after pension change June 2, 2014 FURTHER changes to the pensions market, expected to be announced by the government in the Queen’s speech tomorrow, caused Standard Life shares to dip by nearly 1.7 per cent yesterday. News that ministers are to legalise collective pension schemes similar to those seen in Holland and Canada has caused unease, after warnings of risks associated [...]
Britain beware: How the Dutch pension system pits young against old June 2, 2014 IN TOMORROW’s Queen’s Speech, the government is expected to include the “Collective Defined Contribution” model (CDC) of the Dutch pension system in a forthcoming Pensions Bill. Pensions minister Steve Webb is right to consider it a strong model. But he must also be careful not to repeat the Dutch system’s mistakes, and should ensure that [...]
The week in brief June 1, 2014 Twitter and Omnicom sign mobile ad deal Omnicom struck a $230m (£137.5m) mobile ad deal with Twitter last week, reportedly securing the media agency fixed ad rates, preferential inventory access, early information on new formats from Twitter, and an eventual integration of the two firm’s programmatic mobile ad exchanges. The agreement follows on from a [...]
Labour pension plan won’t help the lowest paid May 29, 2014 LABOUR’S plan to overhaul the pensions industry has come under fire after it emerged that those on low incomes could stand to benefit by as little as £10 per year. The proposal, announced yesterday, could see the threshold for automatic enrolment into the workplace pension scheme lowered from its current level of £10,000 to the [...]
Why Labour’s pension revolution is a bit of a damp squib May 29, 2014 Labour launched a pensions taskforce today, alongside plans to look at broadening the scope of the workplace pension scheme. Shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves outlined plans for the task force, headed by professor Dr David Blake of Cass Business School and set up with key industry backers and policy experts, to encourage people [...]
EU elections: Who should you vote for if you’re in the City May 21, 2014 Britain goes to the polls tomorrow to vote in the European elections, but who should those in the City vote for? Here, a representative of each of the four main parties, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Labour and Ukip, give their view on why you should vote for them. Why the City should vote Labour in [...]
All about insight May 18, 2014 Liam Ward-Proud talks to All Response Media’s Colin Gillespie Founded in 1995, All Response Media is now widely seen as the UK’s leading customer acquisition agency. Colin Gillespie, its chief strategy officer, was one of its co-founders. He talks to Morning Wire about digital, and what media agencies will look like in the future. How [...]
The week in brief May 18, 2014 Social media and the World Cup With the start of the World Cup now less than a month away, Twitter and Facebook have released guides to help advertisers make the most of the tournament’s enormous audience pull. Facebook is developing a new tool to target specific fan groups. Twitter, meanwhile, emphasised the importance of the [...]