Business news - 23 September
These business newsletters
are produced by a member of the Growth & Enterprise team at Exeter City Council. They cover
different topic areas such as local business initiatives, new developments,
business issues, and economic statistics.
In this business
bulletin we look at The Insurance Act 2015, Ikea, Business Boost, Exeter City Futures, a great opportunity for SMEs to take on a University of Exeter intern, and the Jobsfair next week.
Keep informed by following
@InvestInExeter
This new piece of legislation came into force on 12 August
2016 and has been described as “the
biggest reform to insurance contract law in more than a century”.
If you missed the coverage of this, now would be a good time to
check out the detail.
The aim of this legislation is to remove rules that no
longer reflect good commercial practice.
The Government believes that the benefits to UK companies over the next
10 years will exceed £100m because of lower litigation and transaction costs.
Some of the main principles that underpin the change are important. For example, when obtaining insurance
cover previously, business owners were required to disclose anything that might
influence an insurer in deciding whether to accept the risk and at what premium. Failure to do so would render the policy void
– as if it had never existed. Disclosure is still important but the new
law has introduced a ‘duty of fair presentation’. This ruling allows for
businesses who have failed to disclose something (and where that failure has
not been deliberate or reckless) to claim against the policy. In such a
circumstance, the remedy available to the business will depend on what the insurer
would have done had the full information been available when the policy was
taken out.
From now on – you will need to gather and collect more
data, and maintain a full audit trail, to record all the information that you disclose
to your insurers.
We do not have room here to go into more detail on all the
elements that have changed and your future responsibilities but do check out
the websites below:
Complete rules under the new
legislation - http://bit.ly/2cqBuIl
Pinsent Masons LLP's useful summary (copyright) - http://bit.ly/1P55qEg
Image copyright Express & Echo
The arrival of an Exeter IKEA has been long awaited but those in the know were not seriously worried about any change of mind as IKEA are known to only work on one or two superstores at a time. They already had their hands full elsewhere in the country.
A spokesperson for the Swedish company told the Express & Echo earlier this month:
"We are happy to confirm we are pushing ahead with all the remaining applications needed to construct the IKEA store. The applications will be submitted to Exeter City Council in the next few weeks, starting with the ground works and followed by the detailed design of the building."
The new store is to be built near the Sandy Park rugby stadium.
 Anna and husband Jose were looking to take over a popular tourist business in a renowned beauty spot in East Devon, but wanted to make sure they did everything ‘above board’ particularly with regard to legislation.
They said:
“We both attended the Business Boost Enterprise Club which allowed us to talk through our questions with the adviser on matters such as tax, and share ideas on marketing with other new businesses. Once we started trading, our Business Boost adviser came out and visited us on site and gave us one to one advice on profit margins, tax, even waste disposal, and all the other things that are worrying for a new business.
Business Boost has given us the support and reassurance we needed, when we needed it and we would recommend the professional service to all businesses.”
If you are starting up a new business (or have done so within the last 3 years) in or surrounding Exeter and would like business advice or would be interested in attending IT courses, give Business Boost a call. This service is funded by Exeter City Council, East Devon District Council, Mid Devon and Teignbridge Councils. This means that it is free to the end user.
More information: www.businessboost.org.uk Tel: 0800 592 872
|
 |
Exeter
City Futures is proud to sponsor Exeter’s inaugural Tech Exeter Conference on
Sunday 8 October. Tech Exeter’s one-day conference at University
of Exeter’s Business School, will cover a range of topics with speakers from the digital and
technological field across the South West and beyond.
Exeter
City Futures will be there on the day. Come and say "Hello", meet the team and
discover more about who they are, how they work and their aims for Exeter’s future.
They look forward to meeting you!
On the
18 October, Exeter City Futures’s Head of Innovation, Liz
O’Driscoll, will be speaking at Venturefest SW. Liz will present challenges for
innovators alongside introducing Exeter City Futures Urban Impact Accelerator,
an intensive start-up programme for entrepreneurs.
Venturefest SW is a flagship
event for innovators, entrepreneurs and investors in the technology sector.
Held at Sandy Park, Exeter, it will bring together hundreds of talented small
enterprise innovators and entrepreneurs from across Devon, Cornwall and
Somerset along with investors on the lookout for emerging talent. This is the
first time a Venturefest event, part of a national network supported by
Innovate UK, has been held in the region. Exeter City Council is sponsoring Venturefest SW.
More information: www.exetercityfutures.com
More small and
medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are pessimistic about the future than positive
for the first time in four years, according to the
Federation of Small Business’ recent survey. Concerns about domestic economy
are not dampening small companies aspirations though, with 55%,
planning to grow.
BBC Business News, 22nd
September 2016.
Some good news - the University of Exeter, in conjunction with Santander
Universities, is pleased to announce this year’s funding to help local SMEs
grow. They are able to offer companies up to £1,500 to help with the cost of
employing Exeter students on a part-time basis, or graduates to work for a
business full-time.
Mark Homans, Regional Manager SW,
Santander Universities, said, “We are very happy to be helping the South West
business community again this year. Not only does this programme stimulate
economic growth in the region, but it offers local firms the opportunity to
access the talent coming out of university - Exeter being a fantastic example of
this."
As sustainability is a key career aspiration for many
students at the University of Exeter, they are particularly interested in talking
to companies who would like to employ their trained Green Consultants. These students have
learnt how to carry out energy, water, waste, travel and carbon audits, as well
as work on other sustainability change projects. To complete the programme,
students need to undertake a week’s paid internship with a local company, which
will be fully-funded by the University.
Jo McCreedie, Employer Liaison Officer,
University of Exeter said, “Last year we helped place 326 students and
graduates with companies in Devon, including working here at the University.
Employer feedback tells us our interns do a fantastic job for local business:
97% of employers surveyed said they would recommend our service and recruit
again through the University of Exeter Internship Team. “
To
find out more about how your business could benefit from employing interns from
the University of Exeter, please contact Jo McCreedie, J.McCreedie@exeter.ac.uk on 01392 722617.
 |
|
Exciting Jobsfair at Exeter Library on Thursday, 29 September 9.00am - 12.00pm
It is not too late for employers, especially those in the Retail & Hospitality sectors, to be involved.
Please contact Exeter Jobcentre on 01392 474886 or exeter.employerteam@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
|
|
Patent Rules are changing on 1 October 2016 and 6 April 2017.
To find out more, check out http://bit.ly/2cceHuV
Image: Heath Robinson's Railway Signal Invention - "an intelligent method of overcoming difficulties of taking one's own photograph" or How to take a selfie in 1920!
|
|
 |
|
