Business and Economics

New research commissioned by American Express has quantified the social and community value of shopping in small independent shops ahead of this year’s Small Business Saturday on 6th December. The results showed that small shops across the country are providing £537 million worth of added-value services and going above and beyond for their customers and local communities. This equates to £3,058 worth of time donated each year by the average small shop. The most common examples cited were checking in...

In London, achieving healthy work/life balance can be a tricky prospect. According to the HSE, 39 per cent of all work related illnesses in 2013-14 were caused by work stress, depression or anxiety which can cause early burnout. A recent change in UK legislation has extended the right to request flexible working hours to all employees, who now have the right to request to adjust their schedules according to their needs. This could allow them to work from home part time, stagger...

A new report has revealed a cultural change in banks may take a generation, with the cost of poor culture far exceeding previous estimates. British retail banks and building societies have paid out at least £38.5 billion in fines and redress for customers over the last 15 years, with at least £27 billion of that due to the mis-selling of PPI. Poor culture also resulted in poor customer service, with banks have receiving 20.8 million complaints between 2008 and the first half of 2014, and 25 million between 2006 and...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Guardian and Observer readers have just voted Newcastle the best city in the UK. Well there is even more good news; Tyneside is becoming an ever popular choice for businesses taking up office space. Instant Offices sees the city of Newcastle as a prominent growing hub for UK businesses. With university graduates choosing to stay in the bustling city rather than migrate to London, and organisations such as NE1 lobbying for business growth and securing...

By J T Coombes    www.globalmagnacarta.com    @GMagnaCarta Many years ago I had a bank manager as a next door neighbour. He was a lovely man, a bit like Captain Mainwaring in Dad’s Army, who cared about people but without the pomposity. After he retired we began to see the closure of bank branches and the centralisation of banking services. When I asked his view on these changes he said that we were now witnessing the end of banking in...

London is a hub of roller-coaster house prices, new research has revealed, with the cost of a house per square foot varying by hundreds of pounds across the boroughs. Property buyers searching around Hounslow can expect to pay just £338 per square foot on average, while those with their hearts set on a home in Kensington and Chelsea should prepare to shell out £1,008 per square foot, reveals national housing and regeneration specialist, Keepmoat. Comparing Kensington and Chelsea and Hounslow...

Open-office plans are all the rage today. As companies occupy old warehouses with big open spaces the notion of having everything in the open has become quite appealing, and it can also make good business sense. Rather than having everyone stuffed into cubicles and behind office doors, open-office spaces have been found to be conductive to a creative environment and ripe for collaboration and a free exchange of ideas. One survey found 81 per cent of respondents said they believed...

This week is Road Safety Week and to commemorate the occasion Trusted Dealers has launched a new resource that breaks down nearly a decade and a half of figures about road safety in the UK – including accident rates, motoring offences, number of vehicles on the roads and traffic police levels. Data Drive uses official statistics taken from between 2000 and 2013, divided into four areas related to road safety. This information is displayed as a line graph that shows the rise and...

By Jack Peat, Editor of The London Economic  I'm not one to blow my own trumpet, but I've long championed the use of more natural tonics as spirit mixers. For years on end I'd watch punters muse over which overpriced gin to taste from behind a bar only for them to ask for a sugar heavy, artificially flavoured Schweppes mixer to overpower it. Philistines, I thought, but it's their cash, not mine. Thankfully, this weekend I found long awaited solace...