Dear readers,
welcome to Basement Talk, Leasing Life’s monthly diary
page, filled with the latest gossip and insight on the less visible
aspects of the asset finance industry
Go deeper with GlobalData
Leasing and the Bin
Society
David Cameron’s Big Society
initiative has come under fire as sceptics claim that the phrase is
just a pretty way to describe the gutting of local
government.
The leasing industry,
however, is stepping up to the plate, by finding ways to help
borough councils save dosh.
The council of Hinckley and
Bosworth in rural Leicestershire is reportedly expecting to save
£250,000 (€293,000) over the next year, due to signing a mass
leasing deal for all of its refuse trucks.
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By GlobalDataThe savings are a welcome
relief: as a result of cuts announced last month, the borough
council will need to find a total of £1.6m in savings by April
2013, on a net revenue budget of around £11.5m a year.
Mike Brymer, the council’s
pleasingly-named chief officer for street scene services, said that
he believed the vehicles would save cash by making collections more
efficiently, picking up more materials and travelling fewer miles.
Top marks to the Bin Society.
Headline
act
To the Grosvenor, for the
Finance and Leasing Association’s annual dinner, where it was so
packed that tables even needed to be put on the balcony in the
Great Room.
FLA chairman Chris Sutton’s
speech touched on the many initiatives that the FLA has put energy
into during the past year: the Fraud Intelligence Sharing Scheme;
public sector leasing; and financing a low carbon
economy.
While the FLA may wish for
asset finance to be higher up the nation’s economic agenda, the
chosen speaker for the night, Michael Portillo, knows the perils of
being in the headlines.
The former press secretary to
Margaret Thatcher, who famously lost his Enfield Southgate seat in
the 1997 election, found that some of his youthful exuberance came
back to haunt him a few years after this defeat.
He found himself at the sharp
end of arguably one the Sun’s finest headlines for a generation: “I
had gay sex in past, but I never slept with Peter
Lilley.”
When it comes to publicity,
be careful what you wish for.
Party time . . . but
not yet
Crédit Agricole Leasing &
Factoring (CAL&F) is not yet happy with its customer
satisfaction rating, and is taking steps to increase its popularity
at home.
The lessor has just launched
its first advertising campaign since merging the leasing and
factoring businesses last year.
In the press, on the internet
and in TV and radio programmes, CAL&F claims that 84% of its
customers would recommend the company – the result of questioning
1,300 account holders in the summer of 2010.
As part of the promotion, the
company says it will throw a party only when it reaches
100%.
As every service provider knows, 100% satisfaction is hard
to achieve. Basement Talk won’t be holding its breath…
