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Gas prices are predicted to keep falling in the coming weeks to less than 17p/therm by September. Prices reached record highs in April this year - with prices on the spot market reaching 24p/therm - but falling demand is expected to bring rates down.

Payment guide for SMEs

The Better Payment Practice Group (BPPG) has devised a 12-step collection process for small to medium-sized enterprises to avoid late payment. The guidance is a response to a study of more than 1,000 firms by the Credit Management Research Centre. It found that less than half of invoices for businesses in manufacturing, wholesale and financial services are paid on time.

Stand up and be counted

It is the duty of an accountant to expose corruption. The profession must make a stand and confront the issue

Court deal is PFI first

A consortium led by support services company Amey will build and run court facilities in south-west England in the next 25 years in a groundbreaking private finance initiative (PFI) deal. This is the first PFI deal to involve more than one department, including the Lord Chancellor’s Department. The £32 million deal includes court facilities in Bristol and Worle.

Trade Association Forum

Institute of Management

Coping with devaluation

Q: How can you best manage contracts in an environment where devaluation has occurred and foreign currency is in short supply? At the moment, this is causing big problems for my company in Zimbabwe. Some suppliers are asking for frequent price increases,

‘Biggest’ UK green deal

Scotland’s largest public sector procurement agency, the Authorities Buying Consortium, is to buy 112GW hours of renewable energy from ScottishPower. It claims that the two-year deal is the single biggest purchase of green energy in the UK.

Siemens contract signed

German supplier Siemens is to supply 785 rail carriages for South West Trains in a massive £1 billion contract with Stagecoach. Siemens will build the units in Düsseldorf and Vienna. Most of the carriages will replace SWT’s “slam-door” units, while 200 of them will be used on new Waterloo-Windsor and Woking-Basingstoke services.

UK firms increase spend

UK businesses will spend 74 per cent more on e-commerce this year than in 2000, according to a survey conducted for Computer Weekly magazine. It predicted that e-commerce spending is heading towards £4 billion or 6 per cent of total IT spend after more than doubling in 2000. The report predicts that businesses with fewer than 5,000 employees will double spending this year.