Category: Business

PM in Brussels to argue his case for reform

08:23 Thursday 17th December 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: European leaders look set to maintain their firm opposition to some of David Cameron’s demands for changes to Britain’s relationship with the EU. The Prime Minister will come head-to-head with his European counterparts later at a summit in Brussels. Mr Cameron wants the UK to remain in a reformed EU, but he’s ruling nothing out if his objectives are turned down. Our Europe correspondent Gavin Lee has more details.
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Funding award for Cambridge Big Data developer

08:22 Tuesday 6th October 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: Have you heard of the Internet of Things? This is when everyday objects are connected to each other using web connections. It means that they’re able to collect and share data. So for example you could set your house lights to come on for just before you get home at night. And some people say that the potential benefits for all of this data are enormous. So for example you could take data from vans to look at where and when the most traffic occurs, which could then mean smarter scheduling, so companies could cut their fuel use, congestion could go down and in turn accidents could drop. There is one problem though with this. Most databases don’t have the storage space or processing speeds to manage the huge amount of data that can be collected. But a Cambridge-based company called Geospock thinks it might have the solution, by looking at the ultimate data storage unit, the human brain. Steve Marsh joins me now, the founder of Geospock. Morning Steve.
STEVE MARSH: Good morning. How are you doing?
DOTTY MCLEOD: yes. Fine thank you. So the Internet of Things. Exactly what is the vision with that first of all?
STEVE MARSH: I think it’s the overarching goal that by collecting data from everyday objects we can get better contextual understanding of the world around us, and then so improve it.
DOTTY MCLEOD: And you’ve been awarded £3.5 million worth of funding to bring something to market. What exactly are you aiming for?
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Government incentivises Chinese involvement in UK nuclear

17:48 Monday 21st September 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: Britain’s first new nuclear power station in nearly twenty years appears to be a step closer. The Chancellor has announced the UK will guarantee a £2 billion deal to try to secure Chinese investment in the new Hinkley Point power plant in Somerset. George Osborne made the announcement on a visit to Beijing.
GEORGE OSBORNE: I think it’s a partnership that’s good for both countries. We get secure reliable low-carbon electricity for decades to come, without drawing on vast sums of taxpayers’ money. And China gets a great investment opportunity.
CHRIS MANN: A French energy firm EDF is leading the project. The Government has a lready guaranteed a minimum price, some argue a very high price, for the electricity it will generate at Hinkley. But the company can’t afford the £24 billion price tag by itself, and it’s so far struggled to find financial partners. That’s why the Government has now stepped in to guarantee part of the cost. Stephen Tindale is a climate and energy consultant. He reckons that the proposed reactor is a poor design.
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BBC aims to engage with local media

07:57 Monday 7th September 2015

DOTTY MCLEOD: The BBC is to offer content to local newspapers, and allow rival shows to be seen on its iPlayer catch-up service. These are some of the plans that will be proposed by the BBC’s Director General Tony Hall in a speech this morning on the BBC’s future. Media commentator Steve Hewlett has more details.
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Changing the High Street

07:28 Thursday 3rd September 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: There’s further signs of improvement in the health of the UK high streets. New figures show another small year-on-year fall in the overall number of empty shops, but there’s been a sharp increase in the number of shops lying empty for more than three years. These figures come from the Local Data Company. The Director there is Matthew Hopkinson.
MATTHEW HOPKINSON: Having been empty for three years and with a balance between online and shopping in store, we know that they’re no longer required. So now’s the time that the Government and local authorities and landlords need to make a decision and change them, either back into workplaces, or into residential, or indeed knock them down.
DOTTY MCLEOD: Nationally nearly 10,000 shops have been unoccupied since 2012. Dr Tim Denison is Director of Retail Intelligence at IPSOS Retail Performance. He says the problem is oversupply. In other words there’s more units available than demand requires.
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Election debates – new platform plan from broadsheet alliance

17:38 Wednesday 11th March 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS BERROW: Ed Miliband and David Cameron have traded personal insults in a bitter Commons exchange over the proposed General Election TV debates. The Prime Minister says his rival is ‘weak and despicable’. The Labour Leader says his opponent is ‘weak and a bully.’ So are we anywhere nearer to getting these debates on TV? Well I’m joined by our Political Correspondent Paul Rowley. Paul, what do you make of all of this?
PAUL ROWLEY: I have to confess Chris, in more than a quarter of a century at Westminster, I can’t think of a Prime Minister’s Question Time that had so much political invective, so much venom, so much nastiness. David Cameron accused Ed Miliband of being ‘weak and despicable’. Ed Miliband said the Prime Minister was ‘useless’, ‘pathetic’, ‘a bully’ and ‘a chicken’. Have a listen to this, which is pretty X-certificate..
(TAPE)
DAVID CAMERON: The truth is he’s weak and despicable, and wants to crawl to power in Alec Salmond’s pocket. (CHEERS)
ED MILIBAND: Mr. Speaker. If he’s so confident, if he’s so confident, why is he chickening out of the debate with me? (FURTHER CHEERS)
(LIVE)
PAUL ROWLEY: All of which suggests one thing Chris I think, there’s an election in two months time, there’s all to play for, and our politicians are getting decidedly edgy.
CHRIS BERROW: So the big question is, will these debates actually take place?
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Council v contractor over busway repair bill

17:38 Tuesday 7th October 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: The bid to recoup the costs of repairs to Cambridgeshire’s Guided Busway will cost £30 million and take three years to complete. But engineers say defects on the Busway must be repaired if the route is to remain safe. The big question of course is who will pay the bill. Councillors say it should be the contractors who built it. Today they voted to take legal action against Bam Nuttall, but legal action of course doesn’t come cheap. Look East reporter Ben Bland went along to the meeting.
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Neil Darwin and Ed Goodman on wage cuts at Monarch Airlines

09:22 Thursday 25th September 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: Would you take a pay cut if it meant keeping your job? Well staff at Monarch Airlines have agreed to that. They’re going to take a 30% slice off their pay packet to secure the future of the airline. Well earlier this week the struggling company said it was in talks to secure future funding. It’s Chief Executive warned though there are further hurdles to overcome. Employees voted overwhelmingly in favour of the pay cut. Let’s talk to Ed Goodman. He runs the Cambridge Business Lounge, a business he recently started. And he also mentors startup companies. Ed morning.
ED GOODMAN: Good morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: Are there any companies out there you know of that have done similar things?
ED GOODMAN: No there aren’t. I think it’s a very brave decision for the employees to undertake, although in the wake of Monarch announcing 1,000 job cuts only a month ago, I think that probably explains why it was an overwhelming majority that said yes to this. I myself took a pay cut when I moved from one job to another job a few years ago. But the decision was made primarily on two factors, firstly for me that actually the work was one that was going to be more enjoyable, more fulfilling, but most importantly I wouldn’t have done that if I couldn’t have afforded to have done that at the same time.
PAUL STAINTON: Right. OK. So you’ve been in a sort of similar position. Neil Darwin is with us as well. He’s the Director for Enterprise and Skills at the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Enterprise Partnership. You need to get an acronym for that. Morning Neil.
NEIL DARWIN: Morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: Have you ever heard of this? Any local companies that you know of that have gone this far? We’ve heard of companies changing terms and conditions, haven’t we, to keep people in jobs.
NEIL DARWIN: Absolutely. Locally no, but I’ve shouted out across the office this morning, and someone said that their brother-in-law’s done it in Ireland. So it does happen.
PAUL STAINTON: Obviously keeping jobs at all costs is the way to go. People need to be in work. But 30%, that’s a large sum, isn’t it, out of your pay packet.
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