Weekly update from CNSRP - week commencing 4th February 2019. SpaceHub Sutherland: The SHS team were in the Kyle Community Centre in Tongue for the first of a planned weekly presence in the area on Wednesdays between 1000 to 1300 hrs to allow people to meet with the project team.
The proposals are based on themes which emerged from weeks of consultation with staff, communities, groups and partners. The themes focus on Efficiencies, Income generation, Redesign and a flexible Workforce.
HMRC publishes the employer bulletin 6 times a year, giving employers and agents the latest information on topics and issues that may affect them. You can download and read the employer bulletin on screen or print it off.
GMB Scotland yesterday Friday 8 February 2019 welcomed the withdrawal of planned reforms which would have resulted in cuts to terms and conditions of Scottish Ambulance Service and NHS staff. Proposals by the NHS Scottish Terms and Conditions Committee (STAC) to the utilisation and application of Time Off In Lieu (TOIL) would have seen the value of accrued TOIL not taken automatically after three months devalued from time and half to plain time.
North Highland College. Saturday 9th February 2019..
The Highland Council's Environmental Health team currently allocates significant resource to facilitate Highland based food manufacturer's trade with EU and non-EU countries. This work can be split into two categories; statutory and non-statutory.
Two reports out today show that the increase in life expectancy that has shown steady progress in Scotland since the Second World War, has now stalled and that health inequalities have worsened. In the past seven years, Scotland has seen the slowest growth in life expectancy, since at least the late 1970s and death rates have now begun to rise for people living in our poorest areas.
Growing economic links between Canada and Scotland will be strengthened through a new Scottish Government office in Ottawa. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon hosted a Scotland is Now reception in Canada's capital city to officially launch the new office and to launch the global marketing campaign to a Canadian audience for the first time.
Labour MSP Rhoda Grant is warning train passengers not to expect a two hour and 45 minute journey time on the Highland Main Line anytime soon. Scottish Government Transport Minister, Michael Matheson, has stated the quicker journey time is now ‘a long-term aspiration' despite a commitment made by Alex Salmond, the then First Minister, in August 2008, to reduce train journey times between Inverness and Edinburgh to at least two hours 45 minutes by 2012.
Prospect has confirmed arrangements for balloting air traffic controllers at Highlands and Islands Airports Limited on industrial action. The ballot will open on 11 February and close on 1 March.
The era of the ‘amateur' landlord may be at an end according to Scottish accountants and business advisors French Duncan. This year will see further erosion of the tax benefits of being a landlord and by 2020 there will be few financial incentives left for landlords.
£713,000 to increase community resilience. Communities across Scotland will benefit from more than £700,000 additional funding to improve flood protection.
FORT WILLIAM, Dingwall & Highland Marts, (February, 7th) sold 388 sheep of all classes. Lambs (240) averaged £50.67 and sold to £80 gross for a pen of Lleyn crosses from Steall, Fort William.
Higher wholesale costs push up default and pre-payment price caps from April 2019. From 1 April, the levels of the default tariff price cap will increase by £117 and pre-payment meter cap by £106 to reflect higher costs Customers on default deals are still better off - Ofgem analysis suggests that without the default tariff cap they could be overcharged by £75-£100 a year.
Scottish businesses owners remain "hostile to the idea of Brexit", accountants and financial advisers French Duncan have said after a new survey showed two thirds of Scottish businesses don't believe they will benefit from Brexit. Just over eight per cent of businesses said they thought their business would benefit from Brexit, while a quarter didn’t know.
The number of restaurants in Scotland going bust last year increased by 86.3% according to new analysis of the sector by leading accountants and business advisers French Duncan LLP. The firm has analysed official Insolvency Service statistics and found that annual restaurant failures increased from 73 in 2017 to 136 in 2018 which is equivalent to one restaurant going bust every three days.
Scottish business owners are warned that mandatory pension contributions are increasing by 3% in April and action is needed immediately according to leading accountants and business advisors French Duncan LLP. From 6th April 2019, where employers make the minimum 3% contribution then employees must make 5% in pension auto-enrolment contributions to ensure the minimum 8% total contribution is met.
The number of Scottish firms failing in 2018 rose 21.2% according to analysis of the latest figures by accountants and business advisers French Duncan LLP. The latest Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB) figures (AiB uses financial year so their current statistics show the period from October to December as the third quarter whereas we are using the calendar year) show that 945 Scottish firms failed during 2018 compared with 780 the previous year.
The latest statistics from Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB) highlight a 10% rise in bankruptcies with an overall increase in Scottish personal insolvencies continuing to be driven by growth in the protected trust deed (PTD) market. In the third quarter of 2018-19 covering the period 1 October to 31 December there were 1,981 PTDs in the third quarter of 2018-19, an increase of 23.8% on the same quarter last year.
Less Favoured Areas loan scheme confirmed. Up to £57 million will be injected into some of Scotland's most remote and rural communities, Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing has confirmed.
