August 2014

ACS has welcomed new evidence from Citizens Advice on small business energy contracts, and has renewed its call on Ofgem to ensure that all energy companies adhere to the same standards. 

The survey from Citizens Advice reports that 46% of small businesses are concerned about their electricity bills, compared with 16% who were worried about access to finance. 

ACS research conducted last year revealed that 88% of retailers believe that further regulation of suppliers is necessary for a fairer marketplace. 

ACS has called on its members to support the Home Office’s Commercial Victimisation Survey, which provides crucial information to Government on how businesses in England and Wales are affected by crime.

ACS has responded to the 2015 Manifesto published by the All Party Group on Alcohol Misuse.

The Group, which is a forum for MPs and Peers sympathetic to the policy objectives of alcohol health campaigners, has set out a ten point wish list of measures they would like to see imposed by the next Government. It includes minimum unit pricing, health warnings on alcohol labels and new powers for Councils to prevent the opening of new off licences.

ACS has called for Government to scrap plans to impose a cap on the size of business that is eligible for compensation under the Riot Damages Act. 

The Riot Damages Act that was used to assess compensation during the 2011 riots was originally published in 1886.

A couple of interesting statistics have come to light in the past week that are relevant to ACS’s long running campaign on effective town centre first planning policy. The first was broadcast as part of a Dispatches programme that aired last week on the fate of the big four supermarkets. They commissioned Glenigans to look at what had happened to supermarkets' plans to invest in new stores.