Other UK News In Brief

Appeal Follows Murder In Forest Hill

Detectives are appealing for witnesses following a murder in Forest Hill, South London.

Police were called to Mayow Road at around 2am on Wednesday, 9 February, to reports of a disturbance. Officers and London Ambulance Service attended the scene. On arrival emergency services found an injured man inside the property. The victim, aged in his forties, was pronounced dead at the scene. Police are awaiting formal identification and confirmation that next of kin have been informed. A post-mortem will be arranged in due course. The death is being treated as murder and detectives from the MPS Homicide and Specialist Crime Command are investigating.

Banking Statement 'A Good Step', Says Cable

Commenting on the recent banking statement Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "The agreement is a good step forward for British business. Banks have made a commitment, with independent monitoring, to increase credit to UK firms and especially to small and medium sized enterprise. Tougher mandatory disclosure rules covering the top eight executives outside to the board will give the UK the most transparent financial regime in the world, while linking executive pay to lending gives businesses a crucial assurance that bank executives have a stake in the real economy. This is part of an ongoing process of reform of the banking sector. We are in no way pre-judging the big structural questions being addressed by the Independent Commission on Banking, including competition and the structure of banks."

New Support For Exporters

Four new schemes will be created to help exporters get access to credit and insure themselves against risk, and one existing scheme will be extended, the Government have announced. They believe rising exports will be crucial to securing economic growth and is taking steps to help UK firms compete internationally. The new schemes will be: The Export Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme established by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, offering export finance valued up to £1m to SMEs; ECGD will launch the Export Working Capital Scheme for those not eligible for the Export EFG, offering export finance worth over £1m; Bond Support Scheme offered by Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD), under which the Government will share risk with lending banks on the issue of contract bonds; and ECGD will support banks offering foreign exchange hedging contracts to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by sharing credit risk. In addition, ECGD will extend its existing short term export insurance to cover a broader range of exporters, including SMEs. In March the Bond Support Scheme will be available from banks and the extended Export Insurance Policy direct from ECGD. The other three measures are each expected to launch in April.

(BMcN/GK)