Exeter Northcott placed into administration
Exeter's Northcott theatre – culture secretary Ben Bradshaw's local – has called in the administrators after trustees were told it was insolvent.
Chairman Geoff Myers said they had "no choice" when presented with the latest financial information. "We took this decision with a heavy heart," he added.
It is the latest setback for the Devon theatre, which most observers had assumed was putting its troubles behind it. In December 2007, soon after being extensively refurbished, Exeter was threatened with having its Arts Council funding cut because its audience was too narrow, but was reprieved at the last minute and had been thought to be doing well, both artistically and at the box office.
It seems that the problem this might might be as mundane as poor accounting practices.
A spokeswoman for Arts Council England said the organisation considered the decision to bring in administrators premature."We have been working with the new management over the last two years to broaden the theatre's programming and increase its audiences," she said.
"Despite this hard work, a legacy of financial problems has recently come to light. The Arts Council has been working with the Northcott's new management to understand the extent of these problems, but this work is not yet complete."
Myers said he had been encouraged by the response of stakeholders such as the city council, Exeter university and ACE. All will do what they can to ensure the Northcott remains a performance venue, he said.
Posted at 07:14PM Mar 02, 2010 by Kelly Board in Insolvency | Comments[0]
57% Of Us Don't Expect a Pay Rise
A new survey is suggesting that more than half of the UK work force is not expecting to receive a pay rise this year. It shows that a huge 16 million of us are expecting to finish the year on the same salary we started with.
The YouGov survey has also shown that a further 9 million are expecting a rise, however they believe it will undercut the rate of inflation.
This would mean that only 3 million (around 11%) are expecting a pay rise substantial enough to improve their financial status.
Amongst the people that do expect to see an increase in salary, teachers, nurses and civil servants are expecting to receive the smallest rise.
More results from the survey show that around a third of UK consumers expect to be worse of financially at the end of this year than they were at the end of last year, whilst worryingly more than 5 million consumers actually have greater expenditure than their income. The majority of these are using overdraft facilities to cover the difference.
Ann Robinson from uSwitch, the company that commissioned the survey has said, "consumers face a double threat - the government is toying with measures such as raising taxes to reduce the public deficit, which will have a direct impact on personal finances,"
"When coupled with lower than anticipated salary increases, it can only mean that we are in for a bumpy ride, and the situation could get worse before it gets better."
The online survey has been conducted throughout February using over 4000 adults.
Posted at 11:22AM Mar 02, 2010 by Marc Stenton in UK Economy News | Comments[0]
