The UK’s financial sector is continuing its recovery from the banking crisis
The UK’s banking sector is growing at its fastest rate since before the financial crisis, a new industry-wide survey suggests.
More than a third of UK banks increased their business volumes over the last three months compared with just 9% who saw volumes fall.
That shows the strongest growth in the banking sector since June 2007.
The research was conducted by the CBI and the accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Overall profitability of the banking sector also increased for the fifth quarter in a row.
Several major UK banks have reported big increases in profits so far this year.
“While the banks are broadly in good shape, business is still constrained by the economic environment”
Andrew Gray UK banking leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers
HSBC saw its profit for the first half of the year double to £7bn, while Barclays saw its profits for the first six months rise 44% to nearly £4bn.
But commenting on the results of the survey, the CBI’s chief economic adviser Ian McCafferty said that despite continued profit rises, the growth in the banking sector was still slower than he had hoped for.
Looking forward, he said that new banking regulations and low economic growth could hurt the industry.
“There is ongoing concern that prospective regulation may hold back business expansion in the coming year,” he said.
“But financial services firms have become more worried that weak levels of demand will dampen growth prospects.”
Andrew Gray, UK banking leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers, agreed that the performance of the wider UK economy was a concern.
“While the banks are broadly in good shape, business is still constrained by the economic environment.”
According to forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the UK is expected to grow by 1.2% this year and 2.3% in 2011.
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For some patients, regular hospital beds are not strong enough to take their weight
Hospitals in Scotland have invested thousands of pounds into purchasing specialist beds which can take patients weighing up to 78 stone.
A Freedom of Information request by the Press Association revealed that seven NHS boards had spent more than £154,000 since 2008 on the “bariatric beds”.
At least five health boards have also spent thousands hiring beds for patients weighing more than 50 stone.
It is understood the beds are more commonly needed as obesity rates rise.
“These beds are for patients with a range of conditions and not exclusively for overweight patients”
NHS Lanarkshire statement
NHS Fife confirmed it had bought three bariatric beds for people weighing up to 78 stone in February 2009 at a cost of £24,000 for all three.
The health board said: “The beds were purchased as NHS Fife has seen a rise in the number of obese patients being admitted.”
Since January 2008 the health board rented two beds, which could cater for a weight of up to 78 stone, at a cost of £2,500 in 2008 and £1,200 in 2010 for patients.
The board’s “regular profiling” beds can take up to 39 stones in weight and there are approximately 200 in use.
In the last three financial years, NHS Grampian spent £62,751, excluding VAT, on bariatric beds with a safe working load of 70 stone.
The health board said it had a total of 12 specialist beds, catering for a “safe working load” of 70 stone, in operation.
NHS Western Isles invested £19,387.50 in March this year for a bariatric bed that could take a weight up to 60 stone.
NHS Forth Valley leased four bariatric beds for patients weighing up to 39 stone at a cost of £50,376 between April 2008 and March this year.
Rates of obesity are increasing in the UK
NHS Shetland, NHS Highland, NHS Orkney and NHS Tayside also said they spent thousands of pounds buying bariatric beds since January 2008.
NHS Orkney also said 3.5-man hours were spent repairing the bariatric bed they had bought.
Asked whether the bed was damaged by obese and overweight patients, NHS Orkney said: “For general breakdowns we do not record if the equipment was broken due to overweight or obese patients.”
NHS Dumfries and Galloway and NHS Ayrshire and Arran said the highest weight beds could take in the health board was 71 stone.
Most health boards said patients weighing more than 50 stone or over would not have to pay for the hire of their own bed, if one had to be rented.
Bed replacement
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which has beds that can cater for people weighing up to 65 stone, said it hired beds to support a weight up to 78 stone, when needed.
The health board said it did not have systems in place to collect information on exactly how much it spent on hiring or buying “bariatric beds” since 2008.
A statement said: “At present specialist beds are generally hired rather than purchased as required, ie whenever bariatric patients are admitted or discharged.”
NHS Lanarkshire said it embarked on a “general” bed replacement programme between 2007 and 2009 to improve and modernise their beds at a cost in the region of £940,000, plus VAT, including four beds with the capacity to take patients up to 72 stone.
It added: “It is important to note that we do not have beds specifically for bariatric patients. These beds are for patients with a range of conditions and not exclusively for overweight patients.”
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Logan Gregson was taken to hospital with critical injuries, but later died
The mother of a six-year-old boy killed in a crash in Greater Manchester has paid tribute to her son who “had the best scowl and the dirtiest laugh”.
Logan Gregson was riding his bike in Gloucester Crescent in Hindley, near Wigan, on Saturday when he was involved in a collision with a Ford Maverick.
He suffered serious injuries and was taken to Wigan Royal Infirmary, where he later died.
His mother, Adele Gregson, said: “Logan ‘Our Logi’ was the centre of my world.”
In a statement, she said: “I will so deeply miss my cheeky, smart loveable son.
“He had the best scowl and the dirtiest laugh that infected everyone.”
She also thanked hospital staff who tried to save her son.
Greater Manchester Police have appealed for witnesses to the crash which happened at about 1345 BST on Saturday.
No-one else was injured in the crash.
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Thousands of new homes in the West Bank have already been planned
Israel’s prime minister has urged Jewish settlers to show restraint, as the end of a 10-month ban on construction in the West Bank nears.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments came as West Bank settlers prepared to resume building if no deal was reached.
Palestinians have said they could leave recently resumed peace talks if the construction freeze is not extended.
Israel’s defence minister has said there is a “50-50” chance of reaching a deal with Palestinians on the issue.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls on the residents of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and all political players to display restraint and responsibility today and further along the way, exactly as they displayed restraint and responsibility during the 10 months when construction was suspended,” a statement from the Israeli PM’s office said.
Jewish settlers are poised to begin building at a number of sites across the West Bank to mark the end of the moratorium on new construction which was imposed last November.
Although the freeze is generally accepted to expire at midnight, Jewish settlers say they will start building at sunset – 1529 GMT.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak is returning home from the UN in New York, where he has been leading Israel’s negotiating team.
Speaking to the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall, he said he was heading back to Israel to try to convince members of the Israeli government of the need for a compromise but that he was not confident of success.
Israel says the settlements are no bar to talks, but US negotiators have been working intensively to secure a deal.
Mr Barak was more upbeat on the prospects for the peace talks, which resumed in September after a 20-month hiatus.
Ehud Barak was Israeli prime minister when President Bill Clinton sought to make Middle East peace
“I think the chance of achieving a mutual agreed understanding about the moratorium is 50/50,” he told the BBC. “I think the chances of having a peace process is much higher.”
“I hope it will not be blocked by this moratorium issue and that we will sail full engines forwards [to] substantial negotiations and agreement.”
In a speech on Saturday to the United Nations General Assembly, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said Israel must choose between peace and the continuation of Jewish settlements.
Palestinians were willing and ready to reach a comprehensive and just peace agreement with Israel, Mr Abbas told the assembly, declaring that their “wounded hands” carried an olive branch to the Israelis.
But Mr Abbas stopped short of publicly threatening to withdraw from talks with Israel if the moratorium on new West Bank construction is not extended.
In an interview published in the Arabic al-Hayat newspaper on Sunday, Mr Abbas was quoted as saying said if settlement construction resumed he would not call off talks but rather take the issue to a forum of the Arab League.
Despite this, if Mr Abbas flinches first and offers a compromise, for many Palestinians this will reinforce his reputation as a weak leader, says the BBC’s Jon Donnison, in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
Israel’s 10-month freeze on West Bank settlement-building expires at midnight local time on Sunday (2200 GMT). The moratorium freeze has never applied to East Jerusalem settlements.
It is estimated that about 2,000 housing units in the West Bank already have approval and settler leaders say they plan to resume construction as soon as possible.
“Our policy now is to resume a natural pace of building,” said Naftali Bennett, director general of the settlers’ organisation, the Yesha council.
They are backed by right-wing politicians including members of the Likud party, headed by Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
One Likud MP, Danny Danon is expected to attend a symbolic ground-breaking ceremony at the settlement of Revava on Sunday.
In recent weeks, settlers there have erected new temporary homes on the hillside overlooking the Palestinian village, Deir Istiya, angering local people.
“The most crucial thing is settlements, for me and the majority of Palestinians,” says mayor of Deir Istiya, Nazmi Salman. “All Palestinians know [there will be] no peace with settlements.”
Correspondents say any resumption of construction is likely to be small in scale, as most projects will require approval from Israel’s defence ministry.
On Thursday, US President Barack Obama urged Israel to extend its moratorium, saying it had “made a difference on the ground, and improved the atmosphere for talks”.
Nearly half a million Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They are held to be illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.
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