As the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee starts it’s meeting today, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is calling for an interest rate cut to save millions of UK small businesses.

A recent poll by the FSB revealed that almost 1.5 million small businesses risk going bust, with unemployment figures expected to rise as a result.

According to the poll, 75 per cent of FSB members would welcome interest rate cuts, where a third of respondents said they would have to close their business if the current credit crises continued. More than half of respondents said they had experienced reduced trade in the last two months

Nearly 40 per cent of respondents said they had felt less optimistic about the future in the last two months, and round 20 per cent had already been forced to cut staff, while 32 per cent were considering it.

The average speed of broadband is dropping, according to new research from broadband analysts broadband.co.uk

"Average download speeds UK wide peaked at 3.6Mbps in July 2008, since then the average has dropped every month and is now almost 10% lower at 3.3Mbps" Says Edd Dawson from broadband.co.uk.

The results came from thousands of broadband speed tests on the broadband.co.uk, taken by ordinary UK broadband users during October 2008.

"Not surprisingly we are seeing the biggest drops during the evening peak time slots where the average speed has now dropped below 3Mbps for the first time since March 2008. We suspect that the increased use of media streaming services such as BBC iPlayer are a significant factor in these results" added Dawson.

One in ten small firms can no longer afford to run their business, according to new research from RSA, experts in small business insurance.

The research revealed that the credit crunch has forced approximately 470, 000 small and medium sized businesses (SME’s) into a position where they can no longer afford to operate.

The research illustrates the difficulties for small businesses in coping with the economic climate, showing that 81% of employers have experienced rising costs from suppliers, 56% of which have had to pass these costs on to consumers.

VOIP – or ‘Voice Over Internet Protocol’, is becoming a standard feature in many homes and offices around the globe. While its popularity is rising however, this technology is not for everyone. When compared to a fixed line or mobile phone, VOIP brings with it an arguably equal number of benefits and disadvantages, the most significant of which are outlined below.  

Advantages of VOIP

Cost

Arguably the biggest advantage of using VOIP is the potential for cost savings. Essentially, the technology allows you to make calls from one computer to another, anywhere in the world, for free.

Calls may also be made to landlines and mobiles using VOIP. These calls will usually incur a charge, but even this will generally be much cheaper than calls made via your regular phone service. Long distance calls from VOIP systems to phones are usually charged at flat rates, and some VOIP providers will allow you to select your own area code. This does not have to be the area you are actually calling from, but could instead be the location that you are making a lot of international calls to.

High Street banks have been urged by Prime Minister Gordon Brown to accept the offer of £4 billion of EU money to make credit more easily available to small businesses.

Mr Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling say the money, which would come from the European Investment Bank (EIB), could have a significant impact on struggling small businesses if it were to be passed on as loans.

Business groups called for assurances that small and medium sized businesses would receive their share of the money, as they have recently suffered at the hands of reduced credit and increased interest rates from lenders.

EIB officials warned that the money available to UK SMEs would depend entirely on how much of the cash UK banks applied for. A total of £24 billion is on offer over the next four years, and any EU state may apply for a share of the fund.