Today, the Swedish Presidency of the EU is launched. Now Sweden is in the driving seat of the world’s largest integrated economy with nearly half a billion citizens.
“It’s going to be a very exciting six months, but the task before us is not an easy one. I’m looking forward to tackling the autumn’s challenges [...]

Steelmaker Corus is cutting more than 2,000  jobs at UK plants including Teesside, Scunthorpe and Rotherham.
Around 2,045 jobs are at risk, some 1,500 of these are in the company’s production facilities: about 800 at the engineering steels sites, mainly Rotherham and Stocksbridge; about 370 in Corus Tubes in the UK and the Netherlands, and about [...]

Talks between union officials and contractors at the Lindsey oil refinery are set to take place today.
The ongoing dispute over the firing of around 900 workers at the Lincolnshire-based oil refinery has led to an organised protest by union officials and refinery workers outside the gates of the refinery today.
The workers were fired last week [...]

Around 900 workers at the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire have been sacked, following a series of wildcat strikes.
The workers were constructing a new plant at the oil refinery, when around 1,200 walked out in protest over the loss of 51 jobs. The workers claimed that the refineries owner, Total, had broken an agreement not [...]

Consumers purchased nearly a quarter (32 per cent) fewer new cars with dealer finance through car showrooms in April 2009 compared with April 2008, the latest statistics from the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA) show. In the first four months of 2009, the volume of sales was down by 28 per cent compared to the [...]

Phones 4U billionaire John Caudwell is considering bidding for vanmaker LDV, according to the Mail on Sunday.
Birmingham-based LDV entered administration last week after a failed rescue bid by Malaysian company, Weststar.
Mr Caudwell who made his fortune when he sold Caudwell Group telecoms at the top of the market in 2006 for £1.46 billion, is believed [...]

Strikes at an oil refinery in North Lincolshire enter their third day today as talks between business leaders and employees broke down.
The unofficial strike action began at Lindsey Oil Refinery on Saturday as in protest over the loss of 51 jobs, cut by a sub-contractor while another employer on the site was hiring workers.
About 1,200 [...]

Lookers, one of the UK’s largest car dealership groups, has secured new funding worth £210 million with its existing lender to April 2012.
Lookers made loss before tax £14.9 million in 2008, compared to a pre-tax profit of £23 million in 2007. Revenue increased to £1.78 billion compared to £1.68 billion in 2007.
Commenting on the results, [...]

New Advisory Fuel Rates have been published by HM Revenue and Customs and come into force on July 1, although they can be used immediately if employers wish to implement them.
Advisory Fuel Rates apply where employers reimburse employees for business travel in their company cars, or require employees to repay the cost of fuel used [...]

The average price of unleaded petrol hit the £1 a litre mark again over the weekend- the first time since October 2008- according to latest figures from PetrolPrices.com.
Unleaded has shot up 15.6 per cent since the beginning of the year, when unleaded was just 86.1 pence per litre. This increase adds around £7.50 to the [...]