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news opinion
It’s all back. The football season; new television programmes rather than repeats; rain and, best of all, work ...
After a summer where email bouncebacks and ’out of office’ messages dominated your Inboxes, it’s nice to welcome people back to business – as we all prepare for Q4 2014.
Have you noticed that the summer slowdown now lasts about six weeks? Couple that with a month for Christmas, a fortnight for Easter and numerous long Bank Holiday weekends, and you would be right in thinking that the average UK business person is on a slowdown for about a quarter of the working year.
It’s hard to remember when it all started. There was a time when a fortnight in the summer, three days at Christmas and a couple at Easter constituted holiday. Nowadays, you can’t move in town centres in August for parents having quality time with their children, even outside their prescribed annual leave.
No-one wants to begrudge people enjoying time off, or companies that have extended their holiday allowances from four to five weeks or more – particularly as the working day appears to have got longer at many businesses.
And we all recognise that many business people take their work with them, answering business emails by the pool or while queuing for the cinema.
But if you think it ’bad’ here – for many people read that as ’good’ – the UK lags a long way behind other parts of Europe when it comes to time off. In the UK we get about 28 days of annual leave and statutory public holidays. In Italy and Sweden it’s 36, and in Russia it’s 40.
So, while it can be frustrating trying to do business in the summer months in England, think how many desks must be empty in Moscow ... ?
David Murray Publisher
www.businessmag.co.uk
Landmark deal to kick off 220-acre development
International property consultant CBRE, working alongside Burton Property on behalf of Greencore Group plc and other landowners, has completed the sale of 220 acres in Littlehampton for a new major mixed-use development.
Known as Hampton Park, the site has been acquired by Persimmon Homes, the UK’s leading house builder. It will comprise a major northerly extension of the town and was granted outline planning permission two years ago. The site currently accommodates almost 500,000 sq m of glasshouses and numerous other commercial units.
The current planning consent permits the development of over 1,200 new homes, up to 20% of which will be affordable housing, together with in excess of 13,000 sq m of retail, commercial, community and leisure uses as
well as major highway upgrades including the construction of the southerly part of the Lyminster bypass.
CBRE senior director Mark Budden said: “This project has been many years in the making and Persimmon Homes’ purchase will
now enable the development to commence. There has been much local support for this landmark site, which will bring essential new road infrastructure and inward investment to the town, and has the potential to bring hundreds of new jobs to the area.“
Going up with the region’s airports
Southampton Airport is one of three airports put up for sale by Heathrow Airports Holdings (HAH), while neighbouring Bournemouth Airport is set to benefit from infrastructure improvements following Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership being awarded £23 million in government grants.
HAH, formerly BAA, has placed Southampton, Glasgow and Aberdeen Airports on the market and says it is working towards completing a deal by the end of the year.
Ian Girling, Dorset Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO,
has welcomed the news of funding to boost transport links for Bournemouth Airport. Both Hampshire Chamber and Dorset Chamber have strong and ever- growing links, and value the air connections throughout the Solent region.
Girling said: “Local airports are crucial, both from a domestic and business perspective. International trade is becoming increasingly important and is helping to drive commerce in Dorset and the wider area.
“It is vital that business people are able to travel abroad easily and affordably.
“Convenient local airports with good transport links are also incredibly important to draw domestic and foreign visitors.“
Busiest summer yet
This year Southampton Airport has experienced its busiest July in seven years, with an impressive 192,353 passengers travelling through the airport – a 1.9% increase on July last year and the largest number since 2007. Passengers flocked to the airport to fly to sun-drenched destinations in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy, despite the glorious weather in the UK.
@TheBusinessMag Business THE M A GA ZINE TM
In the October 2014 issue of The Business Magazine
• The Legal 500/Law SE • Women in Business Awards • Christmas Hospitality • Banking • Commercial Property
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THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – SEPTEMBER 2014
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