Business news in brief 05/03/2012

New man takes the helm at the IoD

Rosh Engineering managing director Ian Dormer is taking over as chairman of the Institute of Directors.

Neville Bain is standing down after the maximum period of six years at the head of the business organisation.

Dormer built Rosh up from a family business employing three staff when he took over in 1989 to a firm now providing specialist engineering services across the UK and northern Europe.

He said he would use his experience “to drive the ambitious plans the Institute has to support its members over the next five years”.

Women engineering fresh career paths

Women are making more of career opportunities in science, engineering and manufacturing, with an 84 per cent rise in the number of females taking an engineering apprenticeship between 2002 and 2010.

The data, released today by the sector skills council, Semta, compares to growth of 64 per cent among men, as engineering firms turn to apprenticeships to fill a projected skills gap.

But with women taking up only 5 per cent of available places, it will take at least 50 years at the current rate for there to be an equal proportion of male to female apprentices.

Major investment in infrastructure vital

A report from the CBI will today call for improvements to major infrastructure planning in the UK to help accelerate investment and speed up decision-making.

The business group says the UK needs to attract £200 billion of investment in its infrastructure by 2015.

In its report entitled “minor measures, major results”, it urges the UK government to reduce uncertainty at the pre-application stage, simplify the non-planning consent landscape, and introduce more flexibility and a sense of urgency into the system.

Co–op warned over Lloyds branch bid

THE Financial Services Authority has called into question the Co-op’s bid for the 630 branches being sold by Lloyds Banking Group. The watchdog has reportedly told the Co-op it needs to overhaul the way it works, providing a more regulated structure, if it is to take on the branches.

That comes as a blow to Lloyds, which is being forced by the European Commission to sell the branches along with associated accounts and mortgages as a condition of the bailout it received from the British taxpayers during the financial crisis.