Our Business Risk Adviser, Nick Hood is quoted extensively on the challenges facing UK retailers as Hull’s St Stephen’s shopping centre sees its vacancy rates soar. There is no question St Stephen’s is facing a challenging period. With 17 retailers looking to negotiate a new lease, there could be some major changes at the centre. Zara, Dorothy Perkins and Sports Direct are
Ben Stevens reports for Retail Gazette on the tough prospects for many UK retailers. “There will be more casualties going through the summer,” Opus Restructuring’s business risk advisor at Nick Hood told City AM. “A lot of stakeholders are now thinking there’s been a really fundamental change and I think the trigger for it is business rates. There is clearly
City AM retail reporter, Helen Cahill reports that a triple-blow of tax hikes, rising costs and a squeeze on consumer spending is threatening to wipe out thousands of British retailers, with a string of familiar high street names expected to fall into administration this year. Nick Hood, a business risk adviser at Opus Restructuring, said between five and 10 high-street names
Concern at the rapidly escalating social care crisis in the UK has been growing for some time. This prompted emergency financial assistance from the Treasury in this month’s Budget. Nick Hood, the Business Risk Adviser at Opus has been working with the BBC for many months to provide financial analysis of one part of the social care system, the domiciliary sector.
The parlous financial state of the UK’s domiciliary care sector has been the subject of increasing debate and public concern since government austerity measures began to bite into local authority budgets and as the largest by far cost component for most domiciliary care providers, labour costs have risen inexorably to increasingly unsustainable levels. Company Watch and Opus Restructuring have now
FT reporter, Gill Plimmer writes that the UK’s care home industry is “on the brink of collapse” with companies either going bankrupt or pulling out of contracts. This is the conclusion of a joint report published by the Local Government Information Unit and one of the largest providers, Mears. Mears says it loses £3m a year on its home care business
