SMEs paying more for loans than a year ago

According to an article on the BBC website, many SMEs are struggling to meet the banks’ stringent and restrictive lending criteria and, to top it all off, are also paying more in fees and charges than a year ago.

The annual survey carried out by the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) shows that lending is down sharply from nearly £20bn in the mid-2000′s, to just under £7bn today. And, with many financial institutions simply withdrawing from the commercial lending market entirely, their members are finding it very difficult to place business on behalf of clients. Read more…

Rise of the PC support call scam

Thanks to Simon Hooper for letting us know about a very convincing support-desk scam that is hitting British computer users. Full details of the scam are described in an article on the PC Pro website but it seems that a team of fraudsters, calling themselves “The Nerd Support”, are cold-calling users and telling them that Microsoft has detected a virus on their PC. They then persuade their victim to download remote-assistance software so they can confirm the presence of the virus before reassuring them they can get rid of it – for a fee of £185. The website victims are directed to for downloading the software is very convincing, carrying official-looking logos such as “Microsoft Registered Partner” and reassuring visitors that it has been verified by McAfee Site Advisor as a site that’s passed its “intensive daily security scan” that tests for “dangerous sites, phishing, and other online dangers”. And, to complete the picture of respectability, they even have a legitimate London phone number, although these can be bought from internet phone companies for as little as £4 per month, meaning you don’t even need to be in the UK, let alone London, to be contactable on an 0203 number. Indeed, from PC Pro’s own investigations they believe the fraudsters are operating from offices “closer to Bombay than Brixton”. Unfortunately, despite a growing number of victims, none of the UK consumer protection agencies or even Microsoft have been able to close the scam down so it looks like this one could be around for some time.

Have you registered your Carbon Reduction Commitment yet?

Don’t forget that if your organisation has any half-hourly electricity meters that were in use in 2008 the deadline for registering under the new CRC scheme is 30th September 2010. Failure to do so will lead to a £500 fine per unregistered meter. If this applies to you, you might think this means you have over a month to get your paperwork completed, however, the scheme’s administrators have indicated that they will be checking the identities of all applicants before registering them under the scheme and that this will add at least two weeks to the application procedure Read more…

What a load of rubbish!

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a blog about the cost of complying with – or rather failing to comply with – packaging waste legislation. Now, following on the same theme, Andrew Roclawski has posted an article on his blog about the rising cost of landfill tax. With the price per tonne due to increase by an inflation-busting £8 every year for the foreseeable future this is a significant cost that will impact on the profitability of every organisation, public or private, disposing of waste to landfill sites. Andrew, who before joining Auditel spent many years in the building and waste management industries, has some useful insights into the issues this rising cost will force companies to address over the coming years and has included a ‘hot cost saving tip’ for anybody whose business produces clinical waste.

Auditel vs the Brokers – how our consultants can add real value to your business

David Gray (no, not the one with the guitar!) has been an Auditel consultant since 2008 and, like us at head office and a number of his colleagues, is a keen blogger. I keep a close eye on all the blogs posted by the Auditel network as they’re an excellent source of ideas and information but David’s latest post – The Auditel difference – really caught my eye as it clearly illustrates the very real difference between the long-term cost management service provided by an Auditel consultant and the short-term cost-cutting service provided by energy brokers. A highly recommended read.

Auditel consultant gets on his bike to help heroes

Well done to Auditel consultant Laurence Fitch who has entered the first ever ‘Lexus Great British Bike Ride’ to raise money for a number of charities, including ‘Help for Heroes’. The four-day bike ride, which takes place 1st – 4^th September 2010 between Lands End and Twickenham, will be the first in a series of annual events aiming to raise £1.5 million for charity over the next five years and is designed for all cycling enthusiasts, sportsmen and women, who want to take on a real challenge and raise some much appreciated funds.

As Laurence, who spent 14 years in the RAF, says: Read more…

Auditel achieve massive savings for local councils

One of our consultants, Jack Pokoj, dropped me an email yesterday after seeing my posting from Monday pop up on his Twitter account. He’s already working on a number of energy cost and purchase management projects for local authorities, sponsored by the regional improvement and efficiency partnership. So far he’s achieved annual savings of £235,000 for two councils with more still to come on a 3rd project.

Businesses face 26% energy bill rise

The Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne, gave his first annual energy statement to Parliament yesterday. In his statement he predicted sharp energy price rises for UK businesses over the next 10 years as a result of various policies aimed at cutting the UK’s Co2 temissions.  Scary stuff! According to Mr Huhne, “The era of cheap, abundant energy is over. We must find smart ways of making energy go further, and value it for the costly resource it is, not take it for granted.”

Source: BBC News online

How to cut procurement costs in the public sector

Thanks to Simon Beechinor for drawing my attention to this article on the Telegraph website, which talks about some of the pitfalls the public sector should try to avoid in delivering the £6.3bn spending cuts the government has pledged for 2010/11. Interestingly, as Simon points out on his own blog, Auditel’s Total Cost of Purchase model addresses and provides solutions for all the key issues raised in the article. Mr Maude and Mr Alexander, we await your call!

The real cost of packaging waste

One of our consultants, Terry Crouch, has been doing some waste management work for a client recently and as a result came across an article about another local company that fell foul of the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007 following a routine Environment Agency visit. These oblige any company with an annual turnover in excess of £2 million and handling more than 50 tonnes of wood, aluminium, steel, cardboard or plastic packaging waste a year to register with the Enviroment Agency or an approved compliance scheme. Each year, they must also provide evidence of payment for recovery and recycling of a specified proportion of their packaging.  And the real cost of these obligations? Well, this company was fined a total of £23,000 for not meeting them! Of course, Terry’s client won’t have this problem as he’ll ensure all the paperwork and bureacracy is in order as an integral part of his management service.