Lloyds Banking Group to stop selling Payment Protection Insurance

Consumer Revenge site MoneySavingExpert.com has just learned Lloyds Banking Group (including Halifax) has stopped selling Payment Protection Insurance on all its loans, credit cards and mortgages. Instead it will simply hand out a generic leaflet about PPI with such products.

When the site asked the bank about this, all the Lloyds spokesperson would confirm was…

“Lloyds Banking Group stopped selling PPI from Friday, 23 July across all brands. The group does not expect this move to have an impact on income and the group will continue to receive income from existing policies.”

Martin Lewis, creator of MoneySavingExpert.com, comments:

“This is a quite astonishing move. This insurance, which has been scandalously missold for years leaving many consumers in misery, is estimated to be worth up to five billion pounds a year for the industry.

“Frankly we’re jumping for joy at this news, and hope the other big banks follow suit. The product itself isn’t bad, it can provide useful protection to people if they’re sick or lose their jobs as it covers their repayments, but people should go to competitive standalone insurers rather than banks. That’s because they sell it at four or five times over the odds, often without checking suitability, meaning many have been duped into paying a hidden £1,000+ extra on policies that are worthless for them.

“To all those who’ve got or had one of these policies – even on a now paid off loan – I’d urgently suggest you check it’s suitable, we’ve had over 900,000 template letters for PPI reclaiming downloaded and countless millions paid back, you may be eligible for serious money.”

For more see www.moneysavingexpert.com/lloydsppi Free help in reclaiming and template letters at www.moneysavingexpert.com/ppi

Lloyds Banking Group to stop selling Payment Protection Insurance is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

Isle of Wight Steam Railway to be in

Televised Finals of

The National Lottery Awards 2010

Railway Project Tops ‘Best Heritage Projects’ Category!

The Isle of Wight Steam Railway has won a place in the Final of the National Lottery Awards, and now goes through to the final round of voting with the chance of winning the top award in the Best Heritage Project category. The winner will be announced during a live BBC1 television programme, currently scheduled for the evening of Saturday 4^th September.

Working under the project title ‘Isle of Wight Railway Restoration’, the Havenstreet-based steam line reached the Final by topping the Heritage Projects category in the semi-finals against nine other Lottery-funded projects from around the country. To win the top award the Railway must now receive the most votes in a new nationwide public vote from 26^th July to 13^th August. Votes already cast in the semi-finals will not count in the Final, so the Railway is seeking major public support to ensure it flies the flag for the Isle of Wight and for Heritage Railways, by asking people to vote for ‘Isle of Wight Railway Restoration’ when voting opens on 26^th July.

Steve Oates, Chairman of The Isle of Wight Steam Railway, says: “Our heritage railway has a unique collection of historic steam locomotives, Victorian and Edwardian carriages, and other rare rolling stock, all of which are recognised to be of national importance. Lottery funding is so vital to us; it has helped us to secure a fascinating piece of Island railway history, and to ensure we can continue to restore, preserve and operate these unique railway vehicles for future generations to enjoy. We’re really hoping the public gets behind us to vote as it would be a real boost to get national recognition for the work that we do.”

The public can vote for ‘Isle of Wight Railway Restoration’ from Monday 26th July until Friday 13^th August online at www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards. A telephone voting line will also be available. The project in each category with the highest number of votes will receive a £2,000 cash prize to spend on their project.

Isle of Wight Steam Railway to be in Televised Finals of The National Lottery Awards 2010 is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

FSB WELCOMES MOVES TO REDUCE REGULATORY BURDEN

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has welcomed the Coalition Government’s launch of the ‘Your Freedom’ website. The website, which aims to give the public the chance to nominate the laws they would like to see abolished, is also asking which regulations should be removed to make running a business easier.

A third (33%) of small business owners said that regulation was the biggest barrier to growth in 2009, and the FSB has set up its own portal to encourage member feedback on what regulation they would like to see removed.

The announcement was made on the same day that a new Cabinet committee with the job of reducing the heavy burden of red tape on business, chaired by Business Secretary Vince Cable, met for the first time.

Ken Moon, Chairman of the FSB’s Wessex Region, said: “We welcome this initiative giving business owners the chance to comment on existing regulation and legislation and make suggestions for change. We urge our members to log on to the website to help reduce the bureaucracy they face. Red tape and excessive legislation have been holding back small businesses for too long and our members consistently tell us this is a barrier to their growth.

There have been similar initiatives from previous administrations and we hope that the Coalition Government will listen to the needs of the 4.8 million small businesses in the UK.”

This site gives allows people to submit, comment on, or vote for ideas that will inform government policy with the chance that some proposals could end up making it into bills brought before Parliament to change the law. The site is:www.yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk

FSB WELCOMES MOVES TO REDUCE REGULATORY BURDEN is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

LAUNCH OF FSB’s SMALL BUSINESS FRIENDLY AWARDS 2010

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight has launched this year’s bid to find the best small business friendly initiatives undertaken by the region’s local authorities. The Small Business Friendly Awards 2010 has three categories and councils are being encouraged to enter as many categories as they wish.

The launch took place at Botleigh Grange Hotel, Botley with representatives from Councils across  the region attending. Introducing the awards Regional Chairman, Ken Moon, told the mix of Council Leaders and Economic Development Officers that the inaugural awards in 2009 had been a resounding success and had uncovered some excellent work undertaken by local councils to support small businesses in their areas.

Mr Moon said: “The FSB looks to the region’s local authorities to help create the environment for small businesses to survive and thrive. We are keen to recognise any organisation that has gone above and beyond to achieve this. The Small Business Friendly Awards scheme shows all local authorities in the UK the best examples of services and high levels of support that this region’s small businesses receive from their councils.”

The three categories are:

• Best Small Business Friendly Procurement Policy
• Best Small Business Friendly Programme or Campaign
• Best All Round Small Business Friendliness

The Councils have until 2 August to submit their entries and the winners will be announced in late September.

“The FSB has worked very hard to create and maintain a good working relationship with local authorities and these awards are a further initiative to recognise in public, the efforts made to encourage and improve local economic regeneration within the small business sector,” added Mr Moon

More information is available at http://www.fsb.org.uk.

LAUNCH OF FSB’s SMALL BUSINESS FRIENDLY AWARDS 2010 is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

Hovertravel launches HoverFest

Hovertravel, the fastest way to the Isle of Wight, is launching the HoverFest, in association with Galaxy 100-106, ready for the festival goers travelling to the island.

On both Thursday 10 June and Friday 11 June, Hovertravel will host two afternoons of live DJ mixes supplied by Galaxy 100-106 between the hours of 12pm and 6pm. Travellers can enjoy the music at the Southsea terminal as well as onboard the hovercraft. DJ’s performing on the days will be Galaxy’s 100-106’s Ben Glover, Sparky and Gillies.

Neil Chapman, Managing Director of Hovertravel, said: “Visitors to The Isle of Wight festival often choose Hovertravel because we are the quickest way to travel to the island. This year to get the party started even faster we are launching the HoverFest to add to the excitement and help get our customers in the mood for the big event.”

Hovertravel launches HoverFest is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

90% happy to deal in black economy – huge challenge for new govt Poll of over 10,000 shows most will pay in cash to help others evade tax

In a massive poll on consumer revenge site MoneySavingExpert.com, 87% of people said they would happily pay in cash to get a discount, even if the person told them it was for criminal tax evasion.

Among that group, around a quarter said they would use it as an opportunity to haggle for an even larger discount.

This comes at a time when the new administration faces a huge job to cut the £156 billion budget deficit. Earlier this week, the coalition announced £6.2 billion of cuts to public spending.

The question asked was: “What would you do if a builder / masseuse / cleaner / plumber / market stall holder or anyone else offered you a 15% discount because ‘it’s better in my pocket than in the taxman’s'?”

Of the 11,285 who responded…

• 65% would take the discount
• 22% would haggle and ask for a bigger discount
• 10% would refuse it
• 3% would report it as tax fraud

Martin Lewis, MoneySavingExpert.com creator, says:

“Mention the black economy and people think of countries like Greece or the developing world – yet this is proof illicit transactions probably worth billions happen in the UK too. This is a real challenge for the new government’s austerity drive. While increasing tax take is important, most don’t see putting some cash in a back pocket as too bad, so a crackdown is likely to be highly unpopular.

“Even amongst the small number who’d refuse to take part in the transaction, some commented it was because they’d explicitly been told it was for tax evasion, and had it been left unsaid it wouldn’t have been a problem. It’s interesting to note, as a society, there seems to be an acceptable historic tradition of paying someone ‘tax-free’ while coming down hard on those who play with the benefits system. Actually, they’re two sides of the same coin.

Take a look at www.moneysavingexpert.com

MoneySavingExpert.com is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

Consumer revenge website MoneySavingExpert.com and parenting site Mumsnet have joined forces to shove financial education back on the curriculum after it was killed off the ‘Children, Schools & Families Bill’ as a victim of last-minute pre-election legislation jostling.

With over 10m unique users a month combined, the sites today launch www.financialeducationpetition.com. Parents and those let down by their own financial education are urged to use it to send a robust message to those chomping to be the new PM to ensure the next generation isn’t left in the financial mire.

It’s predicted 10,000s will sign, showing the wealth of feeling that this is too important to be allowed to drift into nothingness – and the parties need to reappraise their priorities. In a recent poll of over 8,000 people, 97% supported financial education in schools, while 3% believed it is a job for parents (see notes to editors).

Shockingly, the reason it fell was nothing to do with financial education, but that the parties couldn’t agree over the parental ‘opt-out’ of sex education, part of the same Bill. Had that not happened, financial education was due to become statutory as part of Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE) lessons in September 2011.

Martin Lewis, creator of MoneySavingExpert.com, comments:

“We’re a nation that educates our youth into debt when they go to university, but never educates them about debt. Yet the entire system was all about to change. Things were getting in place for compulsory financial education starting in September 2011 – the DCFS was nicely geared up, last month it even held a conference for teachers on how to teach it. I spoke there alongside Ed Balls, and everyone was excited at the prospect.

“Now it’s been scuppered, yet financial education is an absolute necessity. Enough is enough, we’re now calling on our future Prime Minster to confirm that, whatever happens, they won’t ruin the work that’s been done and leave financial education sitting in detention like a naughty school child.”

Justine Roberts, creator of Mumsnet, says:

“In an ideal world, children would get this kind of information from their parents, but that presupposes a good working financial knowledge in every home in the UK. Mumsnetters are a realistic bunch; they agree we need financial education to be taught in schools to make sure every child gets a good grounding in the basics.”

Chris Tapp from money education charity Credit Action, says:

“For too long we’ve allowed our young people to set off into the complex world of personal finance without giving the education they need to cope. It’s like we’ve been sending out people to drive without first giving them instruction and then being shocked when they crash. It’s a no-brainer, everybody needs to manage money and use financial products wisely and I wholeheartedly support this call to the next government – whatever colour it may be – to ensure that giving every child the opportunity to learn about finance is of the upmost priority after the election.

MoneySavingExpert.com is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

‘Time for a Positive Vote’

Conservative Candidate for the Isle of Wight, Andrew Turner, today called on Islanders to cast a positive vote for clear leadership of the country next Thursday as all parties enter the final week of campaigning tomorrow.

Mr Turner who is campaigning for re-election as the Island’s MP said he was finding that most messages put out by candidates had been positive. However he was disappointed that there had clearly been some doorstep campaigning calling for people simply to register a protest vote here on the Island about national issues.

Mr Turner said,

“As well as a vote for the Island’s representative in Parliament, this is an election for the Government of the United Kingdom, probably the most important one for a generation.  We are in uncharted economic territory and our country needs clear leadership in order to cut our historic levels of debt.  There has been financial meltdown and panic in Greece as their debt was downgraded to ‘junk’ status yesterday.  We simply must avoid a similar fate.  It is imperative that we have a clear result next Thursday and ‘protest votes’ across the country may affect that.”

Speaking about more local issues Mr Turner said :

“I am standing on my record of the last nine years as the Island’s MP.  My record of working locally with people of all political persuasions, and of none, is well known and well-received.  Working with a Conservative government I will be a strong voice for the Island and our needs will not be overlooked.”

Heather Humby, Independent Councillor for Sandown said:

“I have been an independent councillor for over 25 years and I have seen MPs come and go – both good and bad!  Andrew Turner does an excellent job and works with everybody for the good of our Island.  These are difficult economic times and we need strong national leadership. Andrew’s knowledge and experience is invaluable to the Island.”

ANDREW TURNER Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for the Isle of Wight is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

THE FEDERATION OF SMALL BUSINESSES – WESSEX REGION

The Mill at Gordleton near Lymington is the venue for this year’s Summer Networking Dinner being organised by the New Forest Branch of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). The evening begins at 7pm on Tuesday 18th May and will mix business and pleasure in a relaxing atmosphere. The cost of attending is £29-50 which includes a three-course dinner. Booking is essential. For full details contact Lorna Wills at the FSB Regional Office on 01425 280821

Chairman of the New Forest Branch, Rob Dewing, said: “This is a popular event and is open to FSB members and guests from across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The main purpose of the evening is a networking event and to maximise the networking experience members will change tables between each course so that they meet as many people as possible and make new business contacts. The Mill at Gordleton is run by an FSB member and we are looking forward to sampling the award-winning cuisine and hospitality.

SUMMER NETWORKING DINNER IN LYMINGTON is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

In a speech to the House of Commons last night, Andrew Turner MP criticised the Budget, which sets out the Government’s plans for taxes and public spending.

Mr Turnerreminded the Government that the British people, British business and International markets are all crying out for concrete plans to reduce Britain’s economic deficit.  He expressed his concern that the Budget lacks credible measures to address public debt and contains big tax increases for hard-working families.

Mr Turner said:

“The Chancellor was content simply to make projections, when he should have been detailing plans, and to talk vaguely about an end point instead of precisely focusing on how we will get there.”

Britain’s national debt will hit an unprecedented £1.3 trillion by 2014-15, which is more than double the level of just a year ago and amounts to more than £50,000 per household.

Mr Turner said:

“If we do not quickly get a handle on this, our triple A credit rating will be downgraded, investors will lose confidence and the recovery will stall, if not worse. This situation will not just sort itself out, it will not just evaporate and it cannot be left for future Governments or future generations to sort out; it is our moral duty to begin reducing the deficit now, and that requires action from the Government today.”

The Budget has been called a “tax raid on the middle class.”  Indeed, Income tax will increase by stealth for 30 million people, since both the basic and higher rate thresholds have been frozen. This will mean £96 a year more for a couple who both work. A single pensioner on an average income will be more than £110 worse off as a result of Labour’s tax grabs.  National Insurance will be hiked for workers and for firms. This jobs tax will discourage businesses from hiring staff, cut people’s pay packets, and mean anyone earning £20,000 a year or more will be worse off.

Mr Turner said:

“When we look below the surface, we see that the Chancellor utterly ducked making the tough decisions in the best interest of the country and instead chose to penalise the overwhelming majority of hard-working people.”

Mr Turner added:

“The Budget was the Government’s unique opportunity to reassure the markets, secure the recovery and, most importantly, to help the British people.  They have comprehensively failed in every respect.  Indeed, it is nonsensical to expect the same Government who caused the problem on the one hand to offer an effective solution on the other.  So, we need an alternative.  If we do not get a grip now on tackling the continued implications of the economic crisis, it will be superseded by a social crisis that will make the recession look like small change.”

The full text of Andrew Turner’s speech can be found at:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmhansrd/cm100329/debtext/100329-0016.htm#10032940000141

Island MP speaks out against Budget failure is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

A conversation between the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and well-known inventor, Trevor Baylis, led to Mr Baylis suggesting the setting up of a room to protect Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of small businesses or entrepreneurs. The idea was taken up and now the ‘Baylis Breakout Room’ has been opened at the Winchester Business School and FSB Officers were there to lend their support.

Every business holds Intellectual Assets (IA) – these consist of both intellectual property and ‘know-how’. IAs are fast becoming recognised as potential ‘Intellectual Property Rights’ (IPR) which are the legal rights given to a business to enable it to block or control the use of the IAs by others.

Chairman of the Southampton Branch, Alan Chatfield, said: “The FSB is very proud to support the newly opened Baylis Breakout Room. Many businesses begin with a spark of imagination followed by a lot of hard work but small firms or budding entrepreneurs can often jeopardise their Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) through unwitting disclosure for example, in semi-public conversations, or through disclosure to advisors or backers during business negotiations. This new room can offer invaluable help to prevent this.”

It is possible to protect IPR through various agreements, such as a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA, a confidentiality agreement). NDAs are a legal contract between at least two parties that outline confidential material, knowledge, or information, and create a confidential relationship between the parties to protect any type of confidential and proprietary information or trade secrets. As such, an NDA protects non-public business information.

“This room will enable inventors and entrepreneurs to protect their IAs during discussions with business advisors, enabling their conversations to be recorded, as video and audio, and NDAs signed and witnessed by camera,” added Mr Chatfield

FSB SUPPORTER OF ROOM FOR ENTREPRENEURS is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

Budget action on basic bank accounts desperately needed Almost two million people still don’t have access to a current account

Banks are expected to be forced to offer all customers a basic current account at the very least in Wednesday’s Budget.

Despite claims by the banks that ‘everybody can have a bank account’, many consumers complain they are unable to get any account facility when they apply, due to poor credit ratings or because they have not been resident in the UK for long enough.

Often, providers give application forms for standard accounts to those with poor credit scores and, if rejected, they are often left without any facility rather than being given a basic account instead.

One MoneySavingExpert.com forum user reported: “At first I was refused an account because of adverse credit history … they had tried to open me a top level account complete with overdraft.” There are also numerous instances of customers being rejected for basic bank accounts.

This leaves 1.75 million people unable to carry out transactions that many take for granted.

Martin Lewis, MoneySavingExpert.com creator, comments:

“These government plans for a universal service obligation are long overdue. However, that’ll require legislation, and with an election due, that means ‘plans’ is the operative word.

“While banks have been offering basic bank accounts for a long time, their application process indicates they don’t really want to offer them.

“Go into some branches, and say you’ve a poor credit score, and you’ll often just be given a normal application form. Then rejection ensues and instead of saying ‘try applying for a basic account’ you’re allowed to walk out unbanked. MoneySavingExpert.com

“Banks can’t have it both ways. Basic bank accounts were brought in as a sop to offset political pressure for banking for all. But if banks are promising current accounts for all they need to deliver – hopefully tomorrow will be a step forward.”

About MoneySavingExpert.com: Consumer revenge website MoneySavingExpert.com is a free to use consumer finance help resource. The aim of the site is simple: showing people how to save money on anything and everything and fight back against big companies profiteering. Set up five years ago, for just £100, its no advertising, free to use, ethical stance quickly made it the UK’s biggest independent money website according to internet ranking site Alexa.com and number 1 “Business and Finance – Business Information” site according to Hitwise. It currently has over 4,000,000 people opted in to receive its weekly Martin’s money tips e-mail, and over 8,000,000 unique monthly users of the site who visit over 15,000,000 times a month and receives more than 900 million hits per month.

MoneySavingExpert.com is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

FSB RESPONSE TO CHANCELLOR’S BUDGET 2010

In the last Budget speech before the country goes to the polls, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) welcomed help for small businesses but is disappointed that the Chancellor is proceeding with the proposed hike in National Insurance Contributions (NICs).

The FSB was pleased with the announcement to take 345,000 small businesses in England out of the business rates system. Business rates are the third highest outlay for small businesses and this proposal will come as a huge relief to small businesses on the high street. This measure comes after a concerted FSB campaign to help businesses and local communities.

The FSB has been critical of the banks and their lending criteria and looks forward to the introduction of the new credit adjudicator giving small businesses the opportunity to appeal against a decision by the bank to reject a loan application. More competition for the high street clearers has been a long time coming.

Many small businesses were very concerned about proposals to increase fuel duty in one fell swoop by three pence per litre. The proposal to phase in the increase will be of some help but the FSB remains concerned at the one penny per litre increase due next month.

The FSB worked very closely with the Glover Review on public procurement and the Chancellors announcement to direct more public sector contracts towards SMEs will be a boost that must be directed at the smallest of businesses, namely those micro-businesses employing less than 10 people.

Giving small businesses time to pay their tax bills has always been a wise move. The extra time businesses get on this aspect of their enterprise allows them to survive and grow. The extension to the scheme for the whole of the next Parliament is good news.

In 2008, the FSB called for and was successful in getting the Entrepreneurs Relief. This means that entrepreneurs making gains of up to £1 million will only face a Capital Gains Tax of 10 per cent as opposed to the general 18 per cent rate. Proposals to increase the threshold to £2 million should see serial entrepreneurship rise.

The FSB continued to express concern at the proposed increase in NICs. FSB research clearly shows that this come at a cost of 57,000 jobs to the economy.

Ken Moon, Chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses’ Wessex Region, said: “There is some welcome news in the budget on helping to improve small businesses cash-flow but we are disappointed that the call to not increase National Insurance Contributions (NICs) has not been heeded as this will be bad for job creation. We are concerned that through continuing plans to increase NICs and not introducing a NICs holiday to firms employing less than 50 staff who take on more employees, it will increase pressure on struggling firms meaning they will not be able to take on additional staff. FSB and CEBR research shows that the one per cent increase would cost 57,000 jobs in the UK. It is a tax on jobs which will do nothing to aid economic growth.

“We do welcome the proposals to increase the Small Business Rate Relief threshold as this will help those small firms in England whose cash-flow in hindered by big tax bills. A third of FSB members have said that business rates are the biggest taxation obstacle to growth and today’s announcement will go far to help firms, especially local shops and businesses.

“The FSB welcomes the Government’s commitment to get the bank’s lending to small businesses but feels the targets will have little impact if the banks do not begin to offer more affordable finance. The Government must now put pressure on the banks to lend affordable finance to small businesses so they can get on with the job in hand. The role of the new credit adjudicator will be key in this regard and the FSB looks forward to working with this new institution.

FSB RESPONSE TO CHANCELLOR’S BUDGET 2010 is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

The Budget – Business Link will produce summary for business

Businesses keen to find out how the 2010 Budget affects them are encouraged to visit www.businesslink.gov.uk/budget on 24th March 2010. Once the Chancellor has delivered his Budget speech, a summary of key points will be created specifically for businesses and published on the Business Link website. It will outline the main changes and how they will impact upon businesses.

Business Link’s Deborah Wyatt said, ‘People who view the key points from the 2010 Budget on the Business Link website will also have the advantage of being able to link through to further authoritative information from Government on general topics such as tax, employing people, sales and marketing, and international trade.’

Business Link, the free business advice and support service, funded by Government, provides advice and information to help you start, maintain and grow your business.

The full summary of the 2010 Budget will be available at www.businesslink.gov.uk/budget.

The Budget – Business Link will produce summary for business is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

From April, businesses, communities and householders will be encouraged to generate small scale low carbon electricity for the national grid.  Those who invest in energy generating technologies such as wind turbines and solar panels will be paid for the electricity generated through index linked feed-in tariffs and save on bills.  For example, power from solar panels could earn £900 and save £140 on the household energy bill.  The scheme will be administered by Ofgem.

Business Link’s Deborah Wyatt, ‘Many businesses would like to introduce environmentally responsible practices. Business Link offer specific support and training to businesses that sell environmental and sustainable products and services to residential and commercial premises, working with Enviroskills.

The feed-in tariffs offer clear financial benefits to anyone considering installing renewable energy generating technologies.  This in turn will make premises more sustainable.’

Deborah added, ‘Business Link is keen to hear from local entrepreneurs who would like to take advantage of the new feed-in tariffs and can supply low carbon energy solutions to households, so that we can help them to understand how they and their customers can sign up for the scheme.  For those who wish to expand their skills within this sector we can identify and recommend subsidised Enviroskills courses.’

The Department of Energy and Climate Change has also published plans to be the first country to incentivise renewable heat generation at all scales. This will come into effect in April 2011 and guarantee payments for those who install technologies such as ground source heat pumps, biomass boilers and air source heat pumps.

Under the proposed tariffs the installation of a ground source heat pump in an average semi-detached house with adequate insulation levels could be rewarded with £1,000 a year and lead to savings of £200 per year if used instead of heating oil.

The heat incentive could help thousands of consumers who are off the gas network lower their fuel bills and gain a cash reward for installing a heating supply run by renewable energy.  Details of funding for the scheme will be published in the 2010 Budget.

For more information about the feed-in tariffs, call 0845 600 9 006 or visit www.businesslink.gov.uk/southeast

Clean energy cash back for businesses and households which generate low carbon electricity is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS AND STUDENT PLACEMENTS

Winchester Business School is the venue for a business breakfast being organised by the Southampton Branch of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and to be held on Friday 9^th April.  Neil Marriott, Dean of the Winchester Business School, will offer an insight into the future of business and how student placements can make a difference. The meeting starts at 7.00am and costs £9.50 to attend, including a full-English Breakfast.

Alan Chatfield, Chairman of the FSB’s Southampton Branch, said: “Many business owners are unaware of the services that local universities can offer to them. This presentation will explain what can be gained and will focus in particular on student placements.”

The Winchester Business School is a supporter of FSB events in the Wessex Region and offers a range of projects in support of businesses in the region.

To book a place contact Lorna Wills on 01425 280821 or by email lorna.wills@fsb.org.uk

THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS AND STUDENT PLACEMENTS is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk