Pendraken Plans for 2020!

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Hydrogen is a far better alternative to petrol or diesel power, refuelling time is about the same as filling a conventional car and range is around 300 to 400 moles.

Martin,
If the average mole is 12cm, 3-400 moles would only be 36 to 48m!! 

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Will - anorak (it';s too bad for a coat )

[Leon]

Just to update on this, I've had an interesting chat with our legal bod on some of this today.  Essentially the government have been caught out by the uptake on the 'Furlough' scheme and were never expecting this kind of response.  They'd estimated 20% of UK businesses would need to use it but the interest they've seen so far is much higher, over 50% in many sectors.  This almost triples the original projected cost to the government.

As a result, there's going to be a lot of investigation after the fact and the word is that a lot of companies are going to be audited by the government to see whether their claim was genuine.  Businesses will need to show that their sales/income had dropped sufficiently to justify furloughing the staff.  If your sales have dropped by 20% but you furloughed 50% of your staff, then there'll be an audit conducted.  The same will happen if your sales have increased but you've still furloughed workers.

In our case, if a workplace were to shut down without needing to or being forced to, they could have to pay back all or some of the furlough grants that they would receive over this period.

[Chad]

Interesting. In my years in different types of industry I found that there is not necessarily a direct relationship between a drop in sales and a reduction in staffing. It can vary very much with the type of industry and the labour structure within the industry.

[Leon]

Interesting. In my years in different types of industry I found that there is not necessarily a direct relationship between a drop in sales and a reduction in staffing. It can vary very much with the type of industry and the labour structure within the industry.

Definitely, our sales bounce up and down and it doesn't have much correlation on staffing hours.  Mainly due to the third-party stuff we stock which isn't labour-intensive and can be grabbed off a shelf and posted out. 

I guess that's why the government will conduct the audits to see if the need to furlough was genuine or if those businesses were looking for a bit of a payout.

[Steve J]

Interesting info Leon. My old company has furloughed most of the staff, with about 25% at risk of redundancy in a few months. In the design business most jobs have been put on hold or simply dried up, so they have no option, which is sad.

[mmcv]

Yeah I'm surprised the government underestimated how many would take it up as every company is having to batten down the hatches and rethink how they operate. While some companies can absorb the losses, most can't, so it's no surprise so many are turning to this as a reasonable option. It's currently causing some anxiety in my own company as they've said it's likely to happen along with temporary wage reductions to those who remain.

[hammurabi70]

Just to update on this, I've had an interesting chat with our legal bod on some of this today.  Essentially the government have been caught out by the uptake on the 'Furlough' scheme and were never expecting this kind of response.  They'd estimated 20% of UK businesses would need to use it but the interest they've seen so far is much higher, over 50% in many sectors.  This almost triples the original projected cost to the government.

Yeah I'm surprised the government underestimated how many would take it up as every company is having to batten down the hatches and rethink how they operate. While some companies can absorb the losses, most can't, so it's no surprise so many are turning to this as a reasonable option. It's currently causing some anxiety in my own company as they've said it's likely to happen along with temporary wage reductions to those who remain.

I am not surprised.  The government / civil service has increasingly shown how it lives in its own Westminster bubble.  When I visited Bulgaria about 10 years ago our hosts showed us abandoned homes and villages with just some elderly residents.  Since accession to the European Union the country had lost 20% of its population to Western Europe. The government at Westminster thought that a few thousand might come to the UK after Bulgaria joined in 2007.  In the UK there are over 100,000 Bulgarians and there was only unrestricted movement from 2014.  What do you expect young people to do when faced with limited opportunities at home and low wages as against moving to another country for work where the pay is double and career development has many more options?

The UN says Bulgaria is actually the world's fastest shrinking nation, with its current population of about 7 million people expected to dwindle to 5.4 million by 2050 and 3.9 million by the end of the century. 2 million expats and 7.2 million still in the home country.

With all but essential economic activity halted many businesses will be faced with critical funding issues within a few weeks.  People in Westminster seldom seem to understand the real issues people face.

[Matt J]

I furloughed staff last week and we are now going through the procedures and guidance to make sure our claim is watertight. Like Leon says HMRC are going to be going through this with a fine tooth comb and can still look at this in 7 years time. We've had most of our orders cancelled and had real issues getting stock from our global supply base, so for us it was a no brainer.

[John Cook]

I worked in the MoD when I was a soldier and later, after a quarter of a century in uniform, for 18 years as a civil servant.  I never noticed a 'bubble', only hard working, ordinary, people trying to implement government policy under ever increasing constrains of budget and staff cuts.  

[T13A]

Hi

I worked in the MoD when I was a soldier and later, after a quarter of a century in uniform, for 18 years as a civil servant.  I never noticed a 'bubble', only hard working, ordinary, people trying to implement government policy under ever increasing constrains of budget and staff cuts. 

Hear, hear! Me to, 36 years soldier and MoD Civil servant.

Cheers Paul

[DHautpol]

Also speaking as a recently retired civil servant after nearly 44 years service, I can't say I was ever aware of a "bubble" mentality either.  It's a perception I feel is promoted by cheap journalism with stories such as the current round of "why isn't the Foreign Office doing more to get X, Y or Z group of British tourists back to UK".  Such articles conveniently forget that the FO is roughly only 2,000 strong to cover the whole globe and that, even if the airlines could be persuaded to fly to these countries, most countries have closed their airspaces and this doesn't even begin to address the question of what persuaded these people that it was a good idea to go half way around the globe to stroke lhamas, or whatever, in the current climate.   

The "furlough" arrangement will be a lifeline to many small companies but, as with any such scheme, there will likely be a cynical minority who will see it as a way of maintaining their bottom line by shrugging off costs on to the taxpayer.

[Orcs]

On the news yesterday they were referring to 100.000 national still in Spain. Surely these are people who have decided for whatever reason to domicile in Spain as permanent residents. As such our Government should not be held responsible for bring them back to the UK. They don't live here. 

[Elliesdad]

On the news yesterday they were referring to 100.000 national still in Spain. Surely these are people who have decided for whatever reason to domicile in Spain as permanent residents. As such our Government should not be held responsible for bring them back to the UK. They don't live here. 

There was some guy on BBC Breakfast TV a couple of weeks ago, griping about how he had lived in Spain for 20+ years but now he couldn't get any help/advice from the U.K. Government.
I did yell back at the TV (OK, I know this doesn't work and the person on the telly cannot hear me, but that fact still doesn't stop me) that perhaps the U.K. Government are concentrating their efforts on helping the most/largest number of its citizens.
And that someone living in Spain for over two decades and presumably paying no U.K. tax is unlikely to be high on the government's list of priorities.

G

[Orcs]

There was some guy on BBC Breakfast TV a couple of weeks ago, griping about how he had lived in Spain for 20+ years but now he couldn't get any help/advice from the U.K. Government.
I did yell back at the TV (OK, I know this doesn't work and the person on the telly cannot hear me, but that fact still doesn't stop me) that perhaps the U.K. Government are concentrating their efforts on helping the most/largest number of its citizens.
And that someone living in Spain for over two decades and presumably paying no U.K. tax is unlikely to be high on the government's list of priorities.

G