Latest News
7/11/2024
How The Trump Presidency Might Change The Global Economy
Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 election - and his threat to impose tariffs on all imports to the United States - highlights an important problem for the global economy. The US is a technological powerhouse, spending more than any other country on research and development and winning more Nobel prizes in the last five years than every other country combined.
7/11/2024
Seven-year Sanction For Middlesbrough Electrician Who Abused Covid Loans
Self-employed electrician abused Government's Covid support scheme. Shaun David Dixon claimed two separate Bounce Back Loans in two consecutive months He overstated his turnover to claim an extra £16,250 he was not entitled to Dixon is now subject to seven years of bankruptcy restrictions which prevent him running a company and borrowing money without declaring the sanctions An electrician from Middlesbrough is subject to seven years of stringent bankruptcy restrictions after claiming two Covid Bounce Back Loans and overstating his turnover to gain £16,250 more than he was entitled to.7/11/2024
Government's Experimental AI Chatbot To Help People Set Up Small Businesses And Find Support
Thousands of small businesses across the country will be able to get help and advice through the UK government's generative AI chatbot. GOV.UK Chat, the government's experimental chatbot, will be trialled by up to 15,000 business users as it enters the next stage of testing.
7/11/2024
Council Launches New Tenant Participation And Engagement Strategy 2024-2029
The Housing and Property Committee met on Wednesday 6 November 2024 and approved the Tenant Participation & Engagement Strategy 2024-2029. Members heard from both tenant representatives and Officers about the ongoing engagement and collaborative work within communities across Highland.7/11/2024
£32m For Four Independent Social And Economic Research Centres
This investment will go to four independent research centres funded by UKRI and ESRC to address a variety of important social and economic topics. This includes a new centre that will focus on mitigating the effects of, and finding solutions to, the health impacts of the climate crisis.7/11/2024
Hemp Licence Burdens To Be Cut Back To Help Grow UK Economy
Hemp to be made easier for farmers to grow as licence burdens reformed. Reforms to current hemp licence regulations are set to be introduced, making it easier for regulated farmers to grow the crop and maximise its economic potential.
7/11/2024
SAE Working With Biggest Names In Sector Towards Delivery Of The Next Phase Of The Meygen Project
Further to the announcement by Proteus Marine Renewables (PMR) that it has signed an MoU with SKF Marine and GE Vernova's Power Conversion business (the "Alliance"), setting out a framework for the supply of tidal turbine generation systems (TTGS) to developers of tidal arrays for commercial, multi-megawatt tidal stream projects. SAE is pleased to announce that it is working with the Alliance, which comprises the biggest names in the tidal sector, towards bringing about the next phase of SAE's MeyGen project.7/11/2024
Tidal Power Has Potential To Address Energy Challenges Faced By Scottish Coastal Communities
A more creative approach to using power generated locally by tidal energy projects could help businesses and homes around Scotland's coastline become less reliant on expensive and polluting oil and diesel sources of power, by removing the need to wait for greater grid capacity, according to a new study. The report identifies a range of opportunities to help coastal communities access cleaner, and potentially cheaper energy, and was carried out by the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) and the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult on behalf of Crown Estate Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
6/11/2024
Report Retailers Selling Vapes To Underagers - Highland Council Trading Standards Find 1 In 3 Retailers Selling Vapes To Under 18s
Highland Council's Trading Standards team is reporting worrying findings from the age restricted product test purchase programme it carried out over the last six months. During the most recent exercise, premises in Skye, Easter Ross, Inverness, Badenoch and Strathspey were test purchased for cigarettes and vapes using volunteers under 18 years of age.6/11/2024
Mother Chooses To Go South To Give Birth - Lack Of Local Services Played A Part
After she decided to terminate her first pregnancy due to Omphalocele, a condition where the baby's organs are outside of the body, she was worried about potentially having to travel more than two and a half hours to Inverness. Her partner is a crofter and as her due date fell in-between lambing season, she was worried about not having enough people around her in the far north.6/11/2024
Common Good Funds In Caithness Expenditure - Quarter 2 Monitoring
On 11 November 2024 the Caithness Area Committee will discuss several papers. Thurso and Northwest Caithness Ward Discretionary Budget applications approved 1 April 2024 - 30 September 2024 The Committee is asked to note that the following Thurso and Northwest Caithness Ward Discretionary Budget applications have been approved for the period 1 April 2024 to 30 September 2024:.6/11/2024
Police - Area Performance Report to Caithness Area Committee on 11 November
A report by the police to the Caithness area committee on 11 November will allow councillors to discuss a range of issues. Chief Inspector Calum Smith - Area Commander (North Highland Area Command) sets out the crime related figures up to June 2024.6/11/2024
Covid Fraudster Forced To Sell Flat And BMW To Pay Back Funds
Bounce Back Loan fraudster pays back money he fraudulently received in full. Sameer Saeed fraudulently secured a £50,000 Covid Bounce Back Loan in 2020 by exaggerating the turnover of his Digital Business Box Ltd business.6/11/2024
England - Investors, Developers, And Local And National Government Leaders Unite To Drive Forward Ambitions To Create 1.5 Million Homes Across This Parliament
Leaders from over 375 institutions meet with the aim of creating new partnerships to increase scale of housebuilding and regeneration across England. Over 375 leaders from domestic and international institutional investors, developers, housebuilders, regeneration specialists, housing associations, and Combined and Local Authorities met in London yesterday (4 November) with the aim of creating new partnerships that will significantly increase the scale of housebuilding and urban regeneration that is needed across England.6/11/2024
£1.2 Million To Boost Rural Transport In The UK
Winning projects use the latest innovations to help meet the unique transport needs of people who live in rural areas. eight projects awarded £150,000 each to better connect rural communities winning projects include digital tools that support patients and staff to travel to NHS hospitals funding will enhance travel for rural residents, while delivering greener transport technologies People living in rural areas could benefit from smoother and more frequent transport, thanks to government funding announced today (6 November 2025).6/11/2024
Delivering On Pledges To Children With Additional Support Needs
A new report sets out the progress made to improve the educational experiences of children and young people with additional support needs (ASN) in schools across Scotland, with more than 40 actions completed thus far. Measures adopted since publication of the independent Morgan Review in 2020 include directly involving children, young people and their families in decisions around additional support for learning (ASL).6/11/2024
Doom Spending - Why Brits Are Joining In On A Reckless Spending Spiral
Spending rashly to cheer ourselves up is nothing new but it's recently escalated among US millennials and Gen Zs. As negative political and economic news escalates on both sides of the Pond, doom spending is on the rise among Brits as well, says the home delivery expert Parcelhero.6/11/2024
New failure to prevent fraud guidance published
New corporate criminal offence will hold large organisations to account if they profit from fraud. Today we've published guidance that will provide organisations with important advice on the new corporate criminal offence of ‘failure to prevent fraud', helping make sure they are taking action to prevent fraud.6/11/2024
Media Merger Laws To Be Modernised For The Digital Age
Culture Secretary outlines plans to modernise the UK media mergers regime. Proposal would extend powers to call in media mergers to online news sites and news magazines.6/11/2024
