[They would say that, wouldn't they?] Trade Associations Of The Week

1. From the BBC:

Councils spent £90m repairing 1.7 million potholes across England and Wales last year, a survey suggests. But it will still take more than a decade to clear the backlog, says the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) report...

However, the AIA report suggested two-thirds of local authorities had been unable to make good damage caused by the cold weather of 2010-11, despite the emergency funding and a milder winter this year. It said the number of complaints to local authorities from the public about the condition of roads increased by 10% last year.

AIA chairman Alan Mackenzie said: "Severe winter weather would not, in itself, produce a plague of potholes on well-maintained roads. "These disastrous figures result from decades of underfunding and enforced short-term planning."

2. From City AM


ENDING the zombie business crisis plaguing the economy would be a cheap and easy way to boost growth, the UK’s top turnaround group argued last night, urging George Osborne to push banks to take the plunge on bad debts and write off the thousands of firms that have no hope of recovery...

The Institute for Turnaround (IfT) says big banks are best placed to judge which firms have a future and should embark on an intensive review of at-risk companies, pulling loans from those that cannot recover and offering extra support to those who can...

"The [taxpayer-funded] taskforce could begin by adjudicating in situations where struggling firms have been in business support with their banks for over two years – that amounts to hundreds of firms in the state-backed banks alone," she told City A.M. "Those without a future could be humanely run down; those that are viable in the long term could be supported and turned around. This is about supporting firms so they can attract investment, increase pay, create sustainable jobs – currently we are wasting potential, and it is holding back the UK’s productivity."

Bonus right at the end of the article:

... RBS rejected the idea it should review struggling businesses rapidly. "If someone’s running a firm and they’re paying their bills, paying their interest charges, and employing people then we can’t just run in and say we don’t think you’re very good," said corporate banking boss Chris Sullivan.

3. And the post would not be complete without a "We own land, give us money!", would it? From Retail Week:

Landlords have slammed the "growing underhand practice" of insolvency practices such as pre-pack administrations that they say siphons "tens of millions of pounds out of pensioners’ savings into the pockets of private investors profiting from retail failure...

The BPF has criticised pre-pack administrations, where the terms of the sale are "kept deliberately vague". It said landlords are pressurised to give concessions on existing leases of profitable stores "often under threat that if concessions are not given then that landlord’s property will not feature in the sale".

"The result on profitable stores is simply to transfer profits from pensioners’ savings in property to the new buyers of the business, often private investors," the BPF said. "Another consequence is that it puts rival successful retailers at a disadvantage. This reinforces failure, rather than promoting more successful retailers," the BPF added.

Bonus points for using "thrifty pensioners" as a human shield there, you greedy bastard. Twice. If you're worried about "rival successful retailers" being at a disadvantage, well just drop their rents a bit, FFS.