Scottish Business Briefing - Friday 3 July, 2009

Published on Friday 3 July 2009 09:14

WELCOME to scotsman.com's Scottish Business Briefing. Every morning we bring you a comprehensive round-up of all news affecting business in Scotland today.

ECONOMY

Scots planning system a 'barrier to economic growth'

SMALL businesses have warned that the Scottish planning system is hampering their growth after new figures revealed lengthening delays in the time taken to process applications (Scotsman). The Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland issued the warning after figures from Audit Scotland showed that only 43.6 per cent of non-householder planning applications were dealt with within two months in the year 2007-8. In England, around three quarters of applications were processed within the same time period. The current situation north of the Border is even worse than it was two years ago, when 44.6 per cent of applications were dealt with within two months.

Read all today's economics news from scotsman.com

ENERGY & UTILITIES

'Rogue broker' blamed for oil spike

The startling spike in oil prices to their highest level this year on Tuesday was caused by a rogue broker who placed a massive bet in the Brent oil market, triggering almost $10m (€7m) of losses for his company (FT). PVM Oil Associates, the world's largest over-the-counter oil brokerage, said on Thursday it had been the "victim of unauthorised trading". The privately owned company said that as a result of the unauthorised trades it had been forced to close substantial volumes of futures contracts at a loss.

Read all today's energy and utilities news from scotsman.com

FOOD, DRINK & AGRICULTURE

Belhaven profits fizzing, but public spending cuts 'a cloud'

CUTS in public spending are a "dark cloud" over the recession-defying success of Belhaven, the head of the pubs and brewing company has warned. Belhaven, which owns more than 330 pubs across Scotland, yesterday reported record operating profit in the year to 3 May, of 30.2 million, up 11.9 per cent on the previous year (Scotsman). The figures for Scotland were well ahead of the performance of Belhaven's parent company, Greene King, south of the Border.

Read all today's food, drink and agriculture news from scotsman.com

INDUSTRY

Murphy says new deal will keep Clyde working for next 15 years

AN AGREEMENT to be signed within weeks will help ensure defence work for the Clyde for the next 15 years, Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy has claimed (Scotsman). With fears over the future of two of the Clyde's last remaining shipbuilding yards, Mr Murphy announced yesterday that their futures may be secured with work on a new generation of frigates. A secret memo that emerged this week raised concerns that once the giant aircraft carrier contract came to an end in 2014, warship builder BVT's Scotstoun yard in Glasgow could close due to a lack of orders.And there are worries too about BVT's Govan yard. Between them, the two yards have adependent workforce of 4,000. However, after a meeting with BVT yesterday Mr Murphy said the "terms of business agreement" between the Ministry of Defence and warship builder BVT would offer "real assurance" for future jobs

Hopes of swift recovery in construction industry are dashed

HOPES of a recovery in the construction industry were dashed yesterday as new economic data showed that activity in June fell back from May's 13-month high (Scotsman). Experts said the drop fuelled fears that the country was in the grip of a "W-shaped" recession – with peaks and troughs before the downturn ends. Yesterday's report from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (Cips) showed that purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) registered 44.5 in June – a marked drop on the 45.9 shown in May and still well below the no-change figure of 50.

Read all today's industry news from scotsman.com

TECHNOLOGY

ITI energy could lose 4m on flagship battery project

The Intermediary Technology Institutes scheme is involved in renewed controversy, with the programme set to incur hefty losses on a flagship battery project and facing a claim for unfair dismissal and victimisation from a former director (Herald). The energy arm of the commercialisation programme could lose around 4m after the American firm that bought the Plurion battery programme failed to make a deferred payment for the bulk of the purchase price that was due on July 1. The company concerned, Applied Intellectual Capital, had originally been due to make the payment to ITI energy in February.

Read all today's technology news from scotsman.com

Scotsman Business Club

Get to the heart of the issues affecting Scottish business at www.scotsman.com/businessclub. Features include blogs from The Scotsman's formidable team of business writers - including Bill Jamieson, Martin Flanagan, Peter MacMahon and Scott Reid, a diary of forthcoming company announcements and networking events and video interviews with leading business experts covering a wide range of useful topics."