“The whole team at TopCashBack is delighted and honoured to be named the fifth fastest growing private company in the UK. To be ranked above many household names is a fantastic achievement and a credit to all of the staff here at TopCashBack.

TopCashBack is the UK’s Number 1 Free Cashback Website
Over 3,200 merchants (retailers and product/service providers) pay a referral commission for purchases made on their websites via topcashback.co.uk; but rather than keep this commission, TopCashBack passes 100% straight back to the customer as ‘cashback’, and gives everyone a 1% bonus (at least) from its own pockets on top.

TopCashBack’s fundamental aim is to help all UK consumers save as much money as possible on their online shopping.

Established in 2005 TopCashBack has an ethos of ‘fair play’ and has gone from strength-to-strength with a membership in excess of one million.

Adam Bullock continues:

“The business has grown rapidly in Uttoxeter and Bolton over the last three years; so much so that six months ago we expanded into the capital and established an office in London. Since our incarnation six years ago we have been careful to ensure that we stick to our core values of providing the best cashback rates, excellent customer service and effective use of technology to create a streamlined operation.

“The most remarkable aspect of being listed in the Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 for us is that, we see this as just the start of the growth curve. With less than two percent of the UK population signed up to save money through us, there’s no reason why this growth trend won’t continue as millions more consumers realise just how much they can save on their online shopping by using TopCashBack. With tomorrow being Mega Monday and everyone now getting into the full swing of their Christmas shopping, we hope many more shoppers take advantage of our free money-saving service.”

Statistics from BusinessFunding.co.uk’s database – which tracks over 1,000 UK business funding sources – show the number of public sector-backed funding sources available to companies has shrunk by at least a quarter in the last year alone, and the number of grant schemes has shrunk by a similarly large amount.

Its key finding is that of the 286 public sector-backed funds it was tracking a year ago, 80 (28.0%) have since closed, with the North West particularly badly hit.

Similarly, on grant funding: of the 250 grant funding sources tracked that were active a year ago, 64 (25.6%) have closed. Here, nationwide schemes and those targeted at the South have been relatively protected, whereas those targeted specifically at the Midlands have fared badly.

With spending cuts progressing apace across a wide variety of business funding sources, this trend looks set to continue.

The research extends across the gamut of the BusinessFunding.co.uk database, which tracks the activity of over 1,000 funding sources, including almost all of the major equity investor organisations (venture capital funds and business angel networks) and hundreds of business lenders (from general business loan providers to specialist providers like invoice discounters).

With the evident decline of public sector and grant funders, UK start-ups and SMEs must diversify the range of options they look to when seeking funding.

The good news is that a wide variety of less-well-known funding sources do exist, from specialists such as asset-backed lenders and business cash advancers and from more traditional equity investors. According to BusinessFunding.co.uk’s research, these equity investors have provided funding over £500m into UK companies so far this year.

The BusinessFunding.co.uk website aims to help those businesses looking for funding but unsure as to their options find funders who are prepared to assist them.

Dr Stephen Bence, Founder and Director of

BusinessFunding.co.uk, says: “We were often being asked to compile lists of properly-qualified funding sources for a particular project or company. We found these tasks incredibly time-consuming because the information could not be found in one place – not to mention the complexity of the funders’ eligibility criteria.

“This is our solution to that problem: a comprehensive and detailed database of funding sources coupled with an easy-to-use online tool to help direct businesses towards the sources of funding and finance that are most suitable for them”.

Launch partners for BusinessFunding.co.uk include: Baker Noel Chartered Accountants, the legal firm Vincent Sykes & Higham, the Public Relations firm Presswire and the digital search agency Red or Blue.

A spokesperson for the consultancy PensionsFirst today suggested that assets held by benefit schemes of FTSE 100 companies have increased by 29 billion GBP’s over the past eight months, while liabilities have fallen 25 billion GBP’s.

Though this has decreased the funding deficit by 54 billion GBP’s to 80 billion GBP’s as investments in higher risk assets such as stocks, private equity or hedge funds, paid off, the report warns that the schemes are missing the chance to “de-risk” and could repeat the mistakes of 2008 when companies failed to capitalise on an increase in growth before the turmoil of the current financial crisis kicked in.

Benjamin Reid, Chief Executive at PensionsFirst commented:

“It is worrying to think that many (schemes) are leaving themselves open to this happening again” .

This failure to act may have a knock on effect that means companies may have to make up the shortfall, which in turn means a decrease in profits.

2010 The Financial Year in Review is presented by money.co.uk, who have gathered together the key financial and economical news stories from the year into monthly headlines that can be clicked on to display each news story in full.

It is a stunning presentation so visit the money.co.uk website to view.

Getting into debt has become an integral part of growing up it appears and we must all have witnessed at some time or other the heartbreak that this awful addiction has inflicted upon family members and people that we know.

The surprise is that it continues unabated, our ‘must have it now society’ is fuelled by easy borrowing and credit cards despite the banks making it more difficult to do so.

There is also no longer any stigma attached to the process of being made bankrupt and the consequences thereafter, it is almost seen as part and parcel of the deal, made all the easier in recent times by companies specialising in this area who can rid personal debts at the click of a finger while lining their own pockets.

The credit crunch has only served to highlight the problem that has been growing year on year for decades and it is quite scary seeing the details from this infographic and wondering what the future holds for a nation that is unable to pay its way out of debt.

Infographic by Money Debt & Credit

• We would like to thank the charity Credit Action for their help with core statistics

British Weather Services hold a daily historic database of UK weather for over 250 UK and Irish weather stations. The database provides details on all aspects of weather, from air temperature and wind speeds through to snow depths and sunshine.

Senor Risk Meteorologist Jim Dale says, “For every drop of rain or flake of snow, for every fall and rise in temperature there is a commensurate rise and fall in the demand and supply of the UK’s good and services.  It’s our job to provide to companies big and small the very telling figures that link the weather numbers with what actually went on re performance.”

While it is difficult to argue that adverse weather conditions in late November and December would have impacted on UK plc, there are two sides to every story as Jim Dale explains;

“Where there is a weather loser there tends to be a weather winner on the opposite end of the fence, so construction and high street shops may have had it bad for example, but retailers selling cold weather items such as winter clothing, motor factors and comfort foods would have done well out of the ice and snow, not to mention warm and inviting indoor shopping centres, many of which boasted record footfall figures during the period.  Indeed, recent financial reports from some of our biggest companies indicate a mixed pattern of returns, precisely what we would expect to see during a lengthy period of extreme weather.”

British Weather Services, who also have insurance related schemes that protect firms against extreme events, suggest that the weather can only be partially responsible for the GDP fall, given that October and most of November were reasonably benign weather-wise.

Jim finishes by saying “It is far too convenient for George Osborne to lump everything on to the back of weather and not to take into consideration the many nuances of weather impact.  George Osborne is guessing, he doesn’t really know and he’s using the poor weather as a shield – very much akin to companies who year in year out do nothing about weather mitigation and use the same excuse.  He should know better but sadly doesn’t.”

The information is supplied by money.co.uk and clearly illustrates how the rich and poor divide in the UK could be set to increase dramatically as various groups face up to the possibility of losing up to 20% of their income.

While some groups stand to suffer a loss in their income others could actually benefit from the cuts.

UK Debt

While the export of goods and services has increased by 2.2%, imports have risen only by 0.7%, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported. A noticeable deceleration has been observed in the government and housing spending as well, followed by a sluggish 0.3% household expenditure growth that is even slower than the 0.7% household expenditure growth in the second quarter of 2010.

The experts expect the economic slowdown to persist in the coming months due to sluggish consumer spending. The impact of government cost cuttings, threatened job security and rising financial crisis in Europe is expected to attain prominence by the end of 2010, with a further dip in the growth rates. The UK economic growth seems to go down to about 0.4% in the fourth quarter.

However, on the whole, the UK economic scenario looks a little better, with an overall growth that increased by 2.8% when compared to the growth figures of the last year.

According to the British Chamber of Commerce, the recent growth figures confirm that presently the UK economy is more stable than it was thought to be. The latest figures reveal that the economic recovery is on-going. However, the country is awaiting the effects of the hard deficit-curtailment actions that the government is all set to implement in the coming year.

This means that Nando’s now owns and operates nearly 300 restaurants across the United Kingdom. Over 200 of these are the Nando’s chicken outlets, while about sixty are the previously Clapham run Gourmet Burger fast food locations. The acquisition of Clapham also means the induction of a Greek food chain, several overseas restaurants and more. This brings their total number of employees to over 8,000.

This merger is no surprise to those that have tracked the interactions of Nando’s and other groups. Nando’s was already a strong investor in CHG, owning a full quarter of the shares in the company. The lunge forward is not an unexpected merger; it is simply Nando’s move toward owning the entire company rather than a large chunk of it.

There are no dissenting voices screaming about the merger. In fact, the entire deal has the full backing of the Clapham board of directors. That includes David Page, a fast food giant with a large stake in CHG, who was once the owner of Pizza Express.

CHG was not selling in a period of loss, however, which bodes well for all those involved. The company made over a million pounds in profit over their last fiscal year. However, the volatility of the market, as well as increased pressures from consumers looking for the lowest prices, have created an incentive to team up with another powerhouse.

They aren’t the only ones. Other major groups, including Wagamama and RG, are currently seeking buyers. While buyers are gladly becoming plump on these fast foods, it seems the companies themselves are slimming down and tightening their belts.

Britain’s first new high street banking group since the 19th century will open its doors on Thursday promising a return to traditional banking practises from its ultra modern premises.

The flagship branch is the first of twelve planned openings across Greater London during the next two years, with premises in Borehamwood and Fulham Broadway already being fitted out in readiness for October launches.

Despite the promise of traditional banking values, Metro Bank opening hours are straight out of the 21st century and the branches will open at 8am until late and also at weekends.

John Wriglesworth, Moneyexpert and Immediate Financial, comments:

“Metro Bank’s launch is excellent news for the retail financial services sector as well as ordinary consumers.    People will be given more choice on the high street and we should see additional competitive deals which will spur other banks and building societies into offering similar – and potentially even better – products.   The banking sector – which has been shaken over the last couple of years – will also take heart from a new entrant with ambitious plans for the future.”