Scottish house prices up by 5.8%

In the latest four week period available the Scottish average house price has increased by 5.8% to £164,213 and the volume of sales in Scotland has increased by 12.2%.
The map below lets you find out what’s happening to house prices in your area.

You can get the 52 week version of this map at ros.gov.uk. You [...]

Video: Scottish Food Fortnight launches

It’s Scottish Food Fortnight, launched this morning in Dundee by Richard Lochhead, the Rural Affairs Secretary. But what’d the idea behind the event? Will it help the Scottish Government and the industry achieve their ambitious target of increasing the size of Scotland’s food exports from £10bn to £12.5 in about five years?

Video: Making venison dear to our hearts

Scottish Food Fortnight will be officially launched today. But Scotland’s venison producers decided to launch their campaign to persuade us all to eat more of the produce yesterday at the Glengoyne Distillery north of Glasgow. Despite fears that there might be a shortage of deer in the stalking season, there seems to be enough venison [...]

Video: The micro-future of renewables

Scotland has huge sources of renewable energy. But the massive schemes – whether wind, wave or water power -tend to attract opposition from people who don’t want the landscape despoiled. However, with the increasing efficiency of much smaller, micro-schemes, a solution may be at hand. In Glen Lyon in Perthshire, landowners first started using micro-hydro [...]

Scottish house prices up by 5.9%

In the latest four week period available the Scottish average house price has increased by 5.9% to £161,980 and the volume of sales in Scotland has increased by 12.1%.
The map below lets you find out what’s happening to house prices in your area.

You can get the 52 week version of this map at ros.gov.uk. You [...]

BBC DG calls for broadcasters to work together – and takes swipe at Sky

Delivering the MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival, the BBC’s director general, Mark Thompson, said that all the best speeches had anger, “rage if you can mange it” but more importantly a “proper black-hearted villain”.
Most of the audience would have been forgiven for thinking the villain of Thompson’s speech would be James Murdoch, whose [...]

£15,000 ‘Facebook bursary’ for innovative students

t’s not long before the start of the new academic year. A lot of new students – and probably their parents – will be wondering how to fund the next three or four years of relevant, mind-broadening study.
Help for a select few may be at hand from HSBC. It’s launched a search on Facebook [...]

Audio: ‘Every business is struggling and needs to learn’

What does a successful entrepreneur do when she’s made her fortune? Some go on to become serial entrepreneurs but not all. Liz McAreavey moved from Wales to Scotland in her early 20s, settling in Edinburgh. In “le Bistro”, she built up one of Scotland’s most successful catering businesses, with an annual turnover of around £7m. [...]

Scottish house prices up by 5.5%

In the latest four week period available the Scottish average house price has increased by 5.5% to £160,751 and the volume of sales in Scotland has increased by 11.4%.
The map below lets you find out what’s happening to house prices in your area.

You can get the 52 week version of this map at ros.gov.uk. You [...]

Leading Scottish call centre company taken over by French firm

One of Scotland’s leading contact centre companies, beCogent, has been taken over by the French firm, Teleperformance, in a deal said to be worth around £35m. The deal makes the new group the second largest operator of outsourced contact centres in the UK.
Until now, Teleperformance didn’t have any presence in Scotland so it will [...]

Barra among world’s scariest airports – report

hat do Barra, Gibraltar and Guatemala City all have in common?
A website called smartertravel.com has named them all in its top ten of the scariest airports in the world. Given the company it’s with, Barra’s beach landing strip seems mild by comparison. Judge for yourself from the selection.
1. Toncontin International Airport, Honduras [...]

Scottish house prices up by 4.6%

In the latest four week period available the Scottish average house price has increased by 4.6% to £157,435 and the volume of sales in Scotland has increased by 8.1%
The map below lets you find out what’s happening to house prices in your area.

You can get the 52 week version of this map at ros.gov.uk. You [...]

Should we wave goodbye to anonymity and privacy?

man walks into a village shop. “Morning John,” says the shopkeeper. “You’re into old British motorbikes. I’ve just heard somebody in the next village is selling a 1957 BSA A10. It’s supposed to be in great nick as it’s been kept covered in a barn, It just needs a clean.”
“Hmm,” says the man. “Any [...]

Businesses optimistic despite clouds on horizon

here seems to be a sense of optimism in the air for the business community. The amount of activity in the Scottish economy seems to be growing. Exporters report their confidence “leapt” in July. It may a false dawn. After all, there is a Government spending review under way. But the latest surveys don’t reflect [...]

Cube that helps disabled children use music to learn

usic is an important part of a young person’s education. It does more for their development than just the pleasure of playing or performing. It helps with their social skills. It can encourage team work. It can even help develop logic and mathematical skills.
That raises issues for severely disabled children who cannot use traditional [...]

Scottish house prices up by 2.9%

In the latest four week period available the Scottish average house price has increased by 2.9% to £155.261 and the volume of sales in Scotland has increased by 7.6%.
The map below lets you find out what’s happening to house prices in your area.

You can get the 52 week version of this map at ros.gov.uk. You [...]

Never forget

A famous New Yorker magazine cartoon from 1996 showed a pooch sitting in front of a computer with the caption: “In cyberspace, nobody knows you’re a dog.” The suggestion, of course, was that the anonymity of computer communication meant you could pretend to be whoever you wanted to be.
Not any more. Far from being anonymous [...]

Edinburgh’s Tram Project, not all work has stopped

All the headlines about Edinburgh’s Tram Project have been on the problems in the centre of town. Certainly, the dispute over part of the contract with Billfinger Berger has still to be resolved. But that doesn’t mean to say that all work has stopped. It’s continued throughout on the section from Haymarket, out to the [...]

‘Large rise’ in company directors taking illegal loans

New figures suggest there’s been a massive growth in the number of directors taking illegal loans and dividends from their businesses. They come to light when the firm goes bust and insolvency practitioners are called in. But it has serious implications for creditors, especially the tax man.
The problem’s been highlighted by accountancy firm, Wilkins [...]

FSB report calls for radical reform of parental leave

or the past 50 years or so, the question of maternity (and then paternity) leave has provoked often sharp debate. Politicians of the left have tended to promote the idea to encourage “family values”; those on the right have resisted, claiming it would harm business.
The driver for actual reform however has often come from [...]

Opinion: Small businesses key to job creation

strong>By Colin Borland, Federation of Small Businesses
It’s too early to tell if the Westminster government’s strategy of cutting the deficit now to stimulate a private sector led recovery is going to pay off.
Experts are understandably wary about reading too much into the initial signs. The latest UK GDP figures were surprisingly positive, but economists [...]

Work finally begins on EICC extension

t’s been a long time coming. The planning process seems to have gone on for ever. But this morning, work finally began on the extension of the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. It will cost £85 million and take 30 months to complete. But it will provide the city with one of its most flexible venues. [...]

BP needs to change course not just its captain

By: John Knox
It takes time to change the direction of an oil tanker. But the order to alter course was given from the bridge of BP some time ago and nothing seems to have happened. It was supposed to be moving “Beyond Petroleum.” The new captain must now make sure that it does.
Most people – [...]

Property market in emerging economies outperforms UK

People in Britain are strangely obsessed by property. Many of us judge our wealth and well-being on whether the value of our house has risen or fallen by a fraction of a percentage point. This very publication tracks those changes through its carrying the latest figures from the Registers of Scotland.
It’s therefore interesting occasionally to [...]

Scottish house prices up by 1.1%

In the latest four week period available the Scottish average house price has increased by 1.1% to £152,403 and the volume of sales in Scotland has increased by 9.3%.
The map below lets you find out what’s happening to house prices in your area.

You can get the 52 week version of this map at ros.gov.uk. You [...]

Interview with Iain MacMillan on CBI industry survey

CBI Scotland has just published its quarterly Industrial Trends Survey. It shows that output has continued to grow slowly but steadily over the past 12 months. That’s expected to continue for the rest of the year. Exports in particular were up on the previous quarter but demand at home was fairly static. Employment went [...]

Scottish house prices down by 0.5%

In the latest four week period available the Scottish average house price has decreased by -0.5% to £150,487 and the volume of sales in Scotland has increased by 11.3%.
The map below lets you find out what’s happening to house prices in your area.

You can get the 52 week version of this map at ros.gov.uk. You [...]

Interfacing business with academia

A recession can often be the best time for a new business to start or an established one to change direction. But one problem for both is how to turn a good, innovative idea into a profitable product. For the past five years, an organisation called Interface has been helping them do just that.
In many [...]

Offline for 24 hours

By David Bateman
There can be no doubt that the Internet is one of the world’s greatest ever inventions.
It may not be as groundbreaking as the harnessing of electricity by Edison or Guttenberg’s printing press; or have as deep and immediate consequences as Oppenheimer’s atomic bomb; or even be as widely used as the [...]

Are Scots slow on the uptake of technology?

report from networking giant Cisco suggests that people in Scotland have lower expectations of what technology can achieve than those living in the rest of the UK. On almost every question asking their predictions on when activities such as videoconferencing, online voting and watching more television on the internet will be available, the Scots [...]

Scottish house prices up by 0.4%

In the latest four week period available the Scottish average house price has increased by 0.4% to £150,912 and the volume of sales in Scotland has increased by 18.5%.
The map below lets you find out what’s happening to house prices in your area.

You can get the 52 week version of this map at ros.gov.uk. You [...]

Is the Queen a closet techie?

nlikely as it may seem, across the pond the Government of Ontario seems to have discovered an until-now unknown side of the British monarch. She has just been presented with a personalised BlackBerry Bold 9700 because she is “rumoured to be a fan of the Canadian smartphone”.
We’d long wondered what she used to keep [...]

Scottish entrepreneurs pitch in nationwide competition

The Pitch 2010 is a nationwide business competition. Today, the Scottish heat took place at the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh. They were pitching for the chance to go to the London Finals in November and a £50,000 prize. David Calder went along to find out more from one of the organisaters, Dan Martin [...]

Scotland’s average house prices continue to decrease

In the latest four week period available the Scottish average house price has decreased by -0.3% to £151,560 however the volume of sales in Scotland has increased by 6.4%.
The map below lets you find out what’s happening to house prices in your area.

You can get the 52 week version of this map at ros.gov.uk. You [...]

Conflicting messages about Scottish economy

Last week saw conflicting economic news about the Scottish economy. There was the report last week from the Fraser of Allander Institute, claiming that Scotland’s growth and employment is expected to lag behind the rest of the UK because of the spending cuts announced by the government last month.
It believes that Scotland could lose [...]

Scottish business confidence ‘highest in UK’

here are growing signs that business confidence is returning to Scotland. A survey from the Clydesdale Bank suggests that it’s currently the highest in the UK. It comes the day after the Scottish Government released figures show the third successive quarter of growth for exports.
The bank’s business confidence survey found that more than half (56 [...]

Profile: Family firm that breaks the ‘three generation’ rule

amily-owned firms dominate Scotland’s economy. They range from very small businesses to others that are household names. But the consensus view is that most family firms last for three generations. After that, they’re either sold or die as family members lose interest in the project or want to cash in their inheritance.
So what makes [...]

Scottish house prices down by 0.6%

In the latest four week period available the Scottish average house price has decreased by -0.6% to £150,727 however the volume of sales in Scotland has increased by 11.3%.
The map below lets you find out what’s happening to house prices in your area.

You can get the 52 week version of this map at ros.gov.uk. You [...]

Why Gates won’t do a Steve Jobs to save Microsoft

Who do you think runs Microsoft? Unless you’ve been paying really careful attention to corporate technology news over the last couple of years you’ll probably reply: “Bill Gates.” And you’ll be wrong. But Microsoft would dearly love to have him back.
Most of the world still thinks Gates is the boss of Microsoft and the company [...]

VAT up to 20% and public sector pay freezes in Budget

Read the full text of George Osborne’s Budget speech.

In a Budget speech lasting just under an hour, Chancellor George Osborne has unveiled a package of tax increases and budget cuts designed to make the UK “balance its books” by 2016.
He said he would “not hide hard choices from the British People”. 77 per cent of [...]

All sectors wait in trepidation for Osborne’s Budget

Yesterday may have been the longest day – and it must surely have felt like it to those waiting for the Chancellor to deliver his Budget. Hikes in VAT and Capital Gains Tax? New green taxes levied on air travel? A new “bank tax” introduced? Swingeing cuts in the public sector? And on the [...]

Number of Scottish house sales up 13.8%

In the latest four week period available the Scottish average house price has increased by 0.5% to £151,298 as the volume of sales in Scotland also increased by 13.8 %.
The map below lets you find out what’s happening to house prices in your area.

You can get the 52 week version of this map at ros.gov.uk. [...]

Guitar Hero passes the baton to orchestra app

by Kevin Gilmartin
Most of us at some point have fancied ourselves as  something of a musician. Perhaps you took some piano lessons as a child, or maybe you can tease Smoke on the Water out of that guitar you bought years ago and promised yourself you’d learn to play? If, however, you’re like me and [...]

Business centres find silver lining in recession and Icelandic clouds

he recession has proved an unexpected bonus for at least one sector of the economy. Business at Scotland’s business centres has been booming – and it started almost as soon as the rest of the economy began to falter. Even now when commercial property is bouncing back, business centres are predicting healthy growth.
In the [...]

Video: Practical side of design at Glasgow School of Art

This week, the graduates of Glasgow School of Art hold their annual exhibition. While much of the attention usually focuses on what might be described as the “fine arts”, the show also includes a stunning range of work from the Product Design Engineering Course, whose students are often snapped up by potential employers long before [...]

Scotland’s average house prices continue to rise

In the latest four week period available the Scottish average house price has increased by 1.4% to £150,341 as the volume of sales in Scotland also increased by 1.9%.
The map below lets you find out what’s happening to house prices in your area.

You can get the 52 week version of this map at ros.gov.uk. You [...]

Ryanair increase flights from Edinburgh

Ryanair has announced this morning that it’s expanding its operations out of Edinburgh Airport. It’s increasing the number of flights to key destinations, three of them in Spain.
From November, it will have three weekly flights to Alicante and four each to Barcelona, Brussels, Frankfurt and Malaga.
According to Laszlo Tamas, the airline’s Sales & Marketing [...]

Scottish games industry levels up with award nominations

Three of Scotland’s leading computer games companies, have been shortlisted in this year’s Develop Industry Excellence Awards 2010.
The international awards recognise the most talented UK and European games developers for their creativity, teamwork, and innovation.
Realtime Worlds has been nominated for All Points Bulletin, its latest online title, as well as Best Independent Studio. Tag Games [...]

First time buyers still locked out

A report from the housing charity, Shelter Scotland, suggests that would-be first time buyers are still locked out of home ownership. Its annual Affordability Index shows that, despite the impact of the recession on house prices and record low interest rates, becoming a home-owner in Scotland is 75% harder than it was 15 years ago.
The [...]

Waiting for the axe to fall on public sector ads

For advertising agencies these are difficult times as they’re faced with confusing messages about the future of the industry. On the one hand, one leading media buyer has predicted that revenues will soar in the coming year. On the other, agency bosses are waiting for the axe to fall on many public sector marketing budgets.
They [...]

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