£35 million to be invested in creating 23,000 jobs in the North West

Whilst speaking to business leaders at Salford's Lowry arts centre during, as part of the Labour Cabinet’s tour around the UK, Lord Peter Mandelson has today approved a £35m programme to support new businesses in the North West, with the aim of creating 23,000 jobs over the next five years, as reported by the MEN. The start-up programme will be run through Business Link Northwest, the region's business support gateway. The programme’s funding is coming from the Northwest Regional Development Agency (£26.6m) and the European Regional Development Fund (£8.4m). The programme aims to create some 12,700 new businesses and 23,000 jobs in the North West.

According to the BBC Mandelson said, “We cannot and must not fail now to invest in our future…We will not repeat the mistakes made in previous recessions of retrenchment - stop-go policies in public investment have reduced Britain's competitiveness over many decades”.

The MEN added that he said, “This new funding will help entrepreneurs in the north west to get new enterprises off the ground and access the support they need to grow and flourish. Nurturing and protecting start-ups and young businesses through this downturn will lead us into the upturn that will follow”.

Therefore Mandelson has made a clear message regarding his views on how to turn the current economic downturn into an upturn: We need to invest in the future, rather than sit back and wait for the economic downturn to end.

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Oldham Chronicle Business Awards

The Oldham Chronicle today launched the ‘One Oldham Business Awards’, to take place in March 2009, in conjunction with Oldham Council, and the Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest Business Banking’ sponsorship. The awards aim to find the ‘cream’ of the business community in Oldham, in order to reward and celebrate their achievements. Between now and February the Chronicle will publish an entry form for each of the 8 categories available. The 8 categories will be:

• Business of the Year
• Start-Up Business
• Businessman of the Year
• Businesswoman of the Year
• Innovation and Design
• Young Entrepreneur
• Retailer of the Year
• Small Business of the Year

To enter you will need to download a form here and send it to the address on the Oldham Chronicle Business website.

For those wishing to attend what should be a memorable evening, tickets cost £35 per head, or tables of 10 are available for £400, for which you also get an advertisement in the programme.
God luck to all entrants!!

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Review of Ofcom Telecoms Report Q1 2008

Ofcom have released their telecoms report for the first 3 months in 2008. The report aims to highlight emerging trends in the UK telecoms sector, in order to generate a greater understanding of the sector amongst consumers and businesses alike. As stated on the Ofcom website, the main trends in fixed lines and calls, internet, and mobile phones, were as follows:

Fixed

• BT’s market share of fixed calls and access revenues fell to under 60% for the first time in Q1 2008.
• Total call volumes were unchanged at 38 billion minutes during the period as a result of growth in call volumes from indirect operators offsetting a decline in call volumes from other operators.

Internet

• The total number of residential and SME broadband connections increased by almost 600,000 to 16.2 million in Q1 2008, with BT’s retail market share being unchanged at 26.5%.
• The number of people using mobile broadband, via 3G mobile USB modems or ‘dongles’, has increased. Around 6% of all UK internet access is done through mobile broadband.

Mobile

• Total mobile revenue across the four mobile operators declined by 1.6% in during the quarter, due to a fall in revenue from calls and other charges.
• Total mobile call volumes declined slightly (0.23%) during the quarter while messaging volumes increased by 8%.
• Contract subscribers grew by 1.9% in Q1 2008 compared to a 1.3% decline in prepay subscribers.

In relation to business users:

• The total telecoms revenue from UK businesses increased by 6% during 2007, but fixed voice business services declined by 3%, and SMEs are tending to use residential internet connections rather than business.
• The total volume of fixed line business calls fell by 6% in 2007, some 26% lower than in 2002, with many businesses using mobile phones and VoIP instead.
• The total number of fixed business lines and ISDN channels increased in 2007, due to more larger businesses using ISDN 30 channels to route voice calls.

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