UK appoints regulator to protect grocery suppliers
A new UK Government adjudicator tasked with enforcing better treatment of UK supermarket suppliers was formally established yesterday, with powers to launch investigations and hand out fines to retailers. The Groceries Code Adjudicator, Christine Tacon, former managing director of the Co-operative, will receive complaints and arbitrate disputes between food suppliers and the UK’s 10 supermarket chains with a turnover greater than £1bn. Retailers found to be breaking the Groceries Supply Code – which covers buyer abuses, such as arbitrary retrospective changes to supply agreements and payment delays – could be forced to publish apologies or receive fines. Moves towards the establishment of the adjudicator began following a 2008 Competition Commission investigation into supermarket supply chain relations. (Financial Times*, Guardian)
Corporate Reputation
Payday lenders summoned to government summit
Payday lenders in the UK have been called to a Government summit to discuss "widespread irresponsible lending", as the £2bn industry braces for an inquiry by the competition watchdog. Payday loan companies, financial regulators and debt charities will attend the meeting with the Government's consumer minister next week, to discuss whether more regulation is needed to protect borrowers. The Office of Fair Trading is expected to opt for a referral to the Competition Commission, after it found serious problems in the market for high-cost, short-term loans in a report this year, including irresponsible lending and breaches of the law that had caused "misery and hardship for many borrowers". In March 2013 it gave 50 leading payday lenders 12 weeks to reform their practices or facing losing their credit licences. (Guardian)
Environment
EU reaches deal on 2020 auto emissions law
The European Union reached a compromise deal late Monday that will slash carbon emissions from all new cars beginning in 2020. The deal would ensure all new cars manufactured in 2020 and beyond would emit no more than 95 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre. The agreement is yet to be ratified by EU member states. Each manufacturer will have an individual target for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, under the rules outlined in the agreement. Germany had sought to delay the emissions rules in an effort to protect its luxury car makers, such as BMW and Daimler, which would see their costs increase and profit margin margins shrink under the stricter new rules. (Reuters, Environmental Leader)
India planning wind-farm tax break revival
India plans to revive tax breaks for wind farms after the size of the market fell by 47 percent following the expiry of the programme in the last fiscal year. This meant that India toppled from its place as the world’s third-biggest market causing turbine orders to stall for local manufacturers such as Suzlon Energy Ltd. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has proposed to reintroduce tax depreciation benefits for wind-farm owners and increase an alternate generation-based subsidy. Wind project investors will be able to claim the benefits retroactively from 1 April 2012 should the tax breaks be revived, officials have said. (Bloomberg)
Reporting
Green Investment Bank spend reaches £635m in first year
The Green Investment Bank (GIB) invested £635m in low carbon projects during its first year of operation, leveraging £1.6bn of private investment, the institution's first annual report has revealed. The bank was set up to to invest in four priority sectors, namely offshore wind, energy efficiency, waste-to-energy, and waste recycling. The largest single investments during the reporting period to March 2013 were the £125m made available to the Green Deal energy efficiency scheme and £100m to help Drax power station convert to biomass. The GIB report estimates that its 11 transactions prior to March this year reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 2.5 million tonnes, the equivalent of taking a million cars off the UK's roads. (Business Green)
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