Business loans fell by record figures in July Business lending fell by the largest amount on record in July after banks wrote off £2.2billion of corporate debt.
Lending contracted by £8.4billion between June and July as banks pulled in their horns amid soaring defaults. The Bank of England figures suggest claims from lenders that they are giving more credit to business customers should be treated with extreme scepticism.

British workers giving employers £1.5bn in unpaid hours a week A national study by the UK’s leading online takeaway site has found that Sheffield is home to the hardest working employees in the country, where employees are giving their companies the equivalent of 1 extra day’s work a week in unpaid labour through missed lunches and staying late.

Birmingham City FC's Karren Brady joins Lord Sugar on The Apprentice Karren Brady, the flamboyant chief executive of Birmingham City FC, is to become one of Lord Sugar's "eyes and ears" on The Apprentice along stalwart Nick Hewer.

Regional super funds get Mandelson backing The Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has intervened in what had become a turf war between the regions and Whitehall will lead to the Treasury signing off one £125m fund proposed by OneNorthEast.

A second £140m fund designed by the North West Regional Development Agency is being revised and will be resubmitted for Treasury approval this week.

Dig deep for broadband if you are out in the country If your business is based in a rural location and you want broadband access then you might find that you are hit with higher charges than your inner city cousins as Stephen Timms, MP for Newham East, who has replaced Lord Carter at the head of the government’s Digital Britain initiative, said that he could not rule out higher charges for broadband subscribers who live in remote areas.

Earlier this year, the Government committed to ensuring that every UK household will have access to broadband at a minimum speed of two megabits per second (2Mbps) by 2012. Today more than 10 per cent of households cannot be provided with that basic level of service, many of them because they are too far from the local telephone exchange - that figure rises to 42 per cent in rural areas.

Sugar left with a sour taste after Letts comments Lord Sugar is threatening to sue the sketch writer and columnist Quentin Letts after Letts described Sugar as being a 'telly peer who doesn’t seem to have an enormous intellect'.

Skype could be cut off for good over dispute Skype might have to shut down because of a dispute over the core technology used to make the internet telephone system work.
EBay, which paid $2.6 billion (£1.6 billion) for the voice-over-the-internet system in 2005, is facing a court battle with the original founders of the company who retained the rights to the technology at the heart of the system.

Caan's war of words as Baylis attacks 'Demeaning' Dragon's Den A war of words has erupted between clockwork radio inventor Trevor Baylis and James Caan, one of the multimillionaires who fronts BBC2's Dragon's Den.
Mr Baylis claimed that the programme was tantamount to "a virtual freak show" that "mocks, bullies and demeans" people like him and "takes pleasure in turning inventors into a laughing stock".

Darling demands to know why banks aren't helping business Alistair Darling has this afternoon demanded to know from the heads of Britain's biggest banks why they are reaping vast interest charges from small businesses when the cost of borrowing to them is so low. The Chancellor summoned to Downing Street the chairmen and chief executives of HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Move The Apprentice to avoid election campaign, says BBC Trust Next year's series of The Apprentice may have to be rescheduled if a general election is called, after the BBC Trust ruled that presenter Lord Sugar's new role as government "enterprise champion" posed a "greater than normal risk to the impartiality, integrity and independence of the BBC".

Businessman Alan Sugar has taken up his controversial seat in the House of Lords The star of TV's The Apprentice, now named Baron Sugar of Clapton, was formerly introduced to his fellow peers on Monday afternoon. Flanked by trade minister Lord Davies and business minister Shriti Vadera, Baron Sugar stood in the House of Lords chamber dressed in a traditional ermine gown.

As the new peer's family watched from a packed public gallery, the Clerk of the House read out the Queen's proclamation. The monarch, he said, would "advance, create and prefer on our trusty and well-beloved friend Sir Alan Sugar the title of the Baron Sugar of Clapton in our London Borough of Hackney."

Regional business excellence rewarded Over 400 business leaders and guests attended The National Business Awards Regional Programme, sponsored by Orange, in London on Tuesday 14th July, to celebrate the success of South of England’s most innovative, ethical and successful businesses.

Nine organisations were duly rewarded including London-based Clearlybusiness, a Barclays company, triumphed with The Orange Best Use of Technology in Business Award for the operational and financial success of its software services for small UK businesses. Octopus Investments, the leading London investment company, won the prestigious Grant Thornton Business of the Year Award.

Threshers fails to deliver for franchisees Some franchisees of the off-licence chain Threshers are suffering a stock crisis and are furious about how its private equity-owned parent, First Quench Group, is running the operation.

Sir Alan Sugar to face Employment Tribunal The 62-year-old, who was appointed the Government's Enterprise Tsar earlier this month, is embroiled in a legal battle with a senior female executive at one of his flagship companies.

Conservatives take Sir Alan Sugar complaint to BBC Trust The Conservative Party is lodging an official complaint with the BBC Trust about Sir Alan Sugar continuing to work on The Apprentice while a government advisor, after appeals to director-general Mark Thompson were rebuffed.

UK recession may have ended in March Britain may have come out of recession more than two months ago, a leading economic think tank has suggested.

Yasmina Siadatan wins The Apprentice Restaurant owner Yasmina Siadatan has won a coveted job with Sir Alan Sugar in the final of The Apprentice, the reality television show in which contenders vie for a £100,000 job with the business tycoon.

Government has failed us say business leaders With many people now calling for a General Election, research conducted by Business Scene, the online business event community, found that 82% of SME business owners believe the Government could and should have done more to help SMEs in this recession. However when asked if a change in Government would make a difference, a third of SME business owners answered ‘yes’, with 29% saying ‘maybe’, but 30% believe the situation would be the same if the Conservatives were in power.

Sir Alan Sugar to become 'Enterprise Tsar' Sir Alan Sugar will take up a job as "Enterprise Tsar' in Gordon Brown's Government, paving the way for a peerage for the British entrepreneur.

The Apprentice final to be screened on Sunday The Apprentice final has been moved from its regular weekday slot to Sunday evening. The conclusion of series five will air on Sunday, June 7 at 9pm on BBC One. The new timeslot means that Sir Alan Sugar's show will not clash with ITV's coverage of an England World Cup qualifier with Andorra.