As we mentioned in our previous two blog posts, the Pensions Regulator’s (tPR) annual funding statement emphasised the fact that flexibility was available to scheme sponsors and trustees. But we don’t believe that the most is being made of this flexibility. So, over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been...
By Andy Ford, Partner, PwC This month’s spending review announcement is widely expected to make grim reading for local government. Certainly, no one expects the efficiency and cost-saving climate to ease anytime soon. But as we move through the current spending round and look to the future, two things are...
By Andrew Sentance, Senior Economic Adviser, PwC Unemployment is falling again in the UK. That is very welcome, though the recent fall is very modest – around 5,000 over the past three months. But the remarkable thing about the UK unemployment rate over the four years of economic recovery so...
The Government intends to apply a new statutory objective for the Pensions Regulator (tPR) directing them to 'minimise any adverse impact on the sustainable growth of an employer'. This builds on tPR's own funding statement released on 8 May 2013. You can read our response to the statement here. So...
The Pensions Regulator’s (tPR) annual funding statement emphasised the fact that flexibility was available to scheme sponsors and trustees. But we don’t think much of the flexibility available is being used – meaning that overly-prudent deficit assessments are increasing deficits by more than £100bn across UK plc's defined benefit pension...
Public sector organisations around the world face a stark challenge: adjust to the reality of ‘doing more for less’ – or even ‘doing less for less’ – whilst focusing on what society needs and wants, and doing all this at a time of seismic changes. The new normal is for...
During 2012 there were a number of IT failures experienced by banks and building societies that prevented millions of customers from withdrawing their cash, making payments and accessing their accounts. This has continued into 2013 with similar episodes occurring. The causes for some of these failures are relatively well reported....
UK E&M market to grow from £54bn to a value of £65.5 billion in 2017; The fastest growing areas will be internet advertising, internet access, out of home advertising, video games and TV advertising. According to PwC’s latest Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2013-2017, growing digital revenues will power the...
The Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) – responsible for supervising banks, building societies, credit unions and investment firms and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – a regulatory authority focused on customer protection and markets, have highlighted the importance of effective internal audit as a key element of the overall governance framework....
Many of today’s industrial manufacturing companies have grown into diverse organisations, with multiple business divisions operating across a number of countries and regions. This web of complexity has been made worse by iterative organisational change over the last 10-20 years. Together, this has had the effect of slowing down decision-making,...
