Legal reforms unveiled last month could see civil cases brought by suppliers and contractors processed more quickly and at lower costs.

Brought in on April 26, the Woolf report will particularly affect SMEs and will increase the power of judges to set timescales, control costs and direct parties towards mediation, arbitration and other forms of alternative dispute resolution.

British industry could save £450 million a year, and help the environment, by using “simple and straightforward green fleet management”, John Reid, minister for transport, told companies last week.

Steve Brown Financial Times Prentice Hall £24.99 An entire chapter is devoted to inventory and buyer-supplier relationships in Brown’s book, which argues that many companies fail to become “lean”, “agile” and “world class” (aspirations familiar to purchasers) because they forget the role that manufacturing plays in business strategy.

Britain can look forward to massive disruption in water supplies if the government does not take measures to counter the effects of climate change, according to the water industry trade body Water UK.