The growing outrage over the high levels of rewards in the banking sector may damage women’s chances of securing board positions in the financial services sector, a senior executive has warned.

Angela Knight, chief executive of banking trade body the British Bankers Association (BBA), described the political and public pressure over top level pay in banks as a “witch hunt” , which threatens the reputation of the industry and is discouraging applications for board positions.

In conversation with Cranfield University Professor Susan Vinnicombe, Knight argued: “The big question mark is whether the very intensive FSA (Financial Services Authority) interviews are proving to be a deterrent from applying to board positions of major financial companies in the UK.

“The witch hunt is also reducing applications, and may diminish the UK’s world class financial services industry. Women especially may choose elsewhere.”

Knight said she did not attribute the lack of women in Britain’s boardrooms to the failure in the financial system, but added: “There was a certain amount of received assumptions or “group think” from regulators, central banks, governments and bank boards, which contributed to failure.”

Professor Vinnicombe, who leads Cranfield’s annual Female FTSE reports about women at the top of leading British companies, commented: “There is growing evidence to show that diverse boards are better boards, delivering financial out-performance and stock market growth.”

>> You can watch the discussion between Angela Knight and Professor Vinnicombe here

Helen Loveless

NICK Clegg last month pushed the case for employee share ownership, urging more firms to take a ‘John Lewis’ style approach to running their business by involving staff far more.

In a series of proposals the deputy prime minister suggested employees be given the right to ask for shares in companies they worked for, arguing that it could lead to a fairer model of capital and labour and address concerns about executive pay.

So what are the benefits, of any, of adopting such a structure and how do business owners go about it?

Currently firms where employees own a significant stake in the business they are working for have a combined annual turnover of more than £25 billion – more than two per cent of GDP.

According to a recent study by Cass Business School, employee-owned businesses create jobs faster, are at least as profitable and more resilient than non-employee owned firms. During the recession they have outperformed the market. It also found that absenteeism and staff turnover tend to be lower in employee-owned businesses, while job satisfaction is higher.

Campbell McDonald is a director at Baxi Partnership, which offers advice, support and funding to employee-owned firms and those looking to become employee-owned businesses.

The Baxi Partnership came out of family business Baxi Boilers, which was set up in the 1800s but in 1983 became employee-owned. In the late 1990s Baxi Boilers was sold to Potterton and the £20 million sale proceeds were used to create the Baxi Partnership Fund.

Since then Baxi Partnership has ‘created’ more than 40 employee-owned businesses, working with a range of private firms and some public sector groups. The group holds free seminars and also works with business networks and groups such as the Institute of Directors to promote the benefits of employee-ownership.

McDonald says: ‘When you give people a stake in the business and a say in how things are run, you motivate them. There is a noticeable uplift in productivity and people become more entrepreneurial.’

He also points to the fact that employees may have the opportunity to exercise their views on pay, while some firms, such as John Lewis, operate a pay ratio to ensure the pay of those at the top is related to those at the bottom. There is also a greater transparency about business information, with staff able to see more clearly how the business is doing and the impact they are having.

There are different ways of approaching employee-ownership and each case is individual says McDonald: ‘There isn’t a clear signposted route to becoming employee-owned. One benefit is that it is very flexible, it can be as structured as you want. The key is knowing what you want.’

There are different ways to fund a transition to an employee-owned business. In some cases the Baxi Partnership will make a loan against the value of the business, alternatively it may take an equity stake in the firm concerned.

McDonald adds: ‘Sometimes employees invest in the business to fund the change but there are ways to make the transition that don’t involve employees investing. When firms come to us we ask them what they are trying to achieve and talk about the options open to them.’

>> For more on Baxi Partnership, click here

Town centre vacancy rates stabilised last year at an average of 14.3%, or 48,000 shops, according to a report by the Local Data Company, despite a spate of high-profile retail administrations including Barratts, Jane Norman and The Officers Club.

But while some high streets are still thriving, particularly in the south of England, the report warned many centres are “locked in a spiral of decline”.

With 2012 expected to see a further fall in consumer confidence, rising unemployment, the continued growth of supermarkets and the internet and uncertainty in bank lending, it predicts the vacancy rate will rise again.

It said the high street faces “structural issues”, with the internet’s share of the shopping market having doubled in the past 11 years and out-of-town centres also seeing growth, meaning that “there will be, if not already, too many shops on the high street”.

Prime town centre locations have generally remained healthy but secondary centres in outlying areas have been the biggest losers as they struggle to compete with town retail parks and the internet.

The report also confirmed a north-south divide in the health of high streets, with most of the locations with above average vacancy rates in the Midlands or the North.

Stockport was the worst centre with a vacancy rate over 30%, while Nottingham, Grimsby, Stockton-on-Tees, Wolverhampton, Blackburn, Walsall and Blackpool all had more than a quarter of shops empty.

Although York and Harrogate had vacancy rates below 10%, the best performing centres were mainly in the south and west. These included Exeter, Kingston, Camden, Cambridge, Taunton, Salisbury and St Albans, which was the best performer with an 8.2% vacancy rate.

The survey revealed that the squeeze in consumer spending was also hurting shopping malls, with one in five suffering financial difficulties.

LDC director Matthew Hopkinson said: “The stable top line rate of 2011 hides the significant breadth in town centre vacancy rates up and down the country and the structural issues that are at stake.

“The reality is that the odds are stacked against a positive take-up of shops and as such the new reality of 48,000 empty shops is here to stay unless an alternative use or purpose can be found.”

Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said: “Today’s figures show that while some high streets are thriving, others remain locked in a spiral of decline.”

She added that it was vital for measures to save the high street, including those suggested by retail guru Mary Portas, to be brought in as soon as possible. Ms Portas’s suggestions include national market days and more free parking.

British Retail Consortium director general Stephen Robertson said: “It’s a small mercy that shop vacancy rates are not rising but they are still worryingly high in many locations.

“The Government should be keeping down the cost pressures it is responsible for. Most urgently, it should reduce the eye-watering 5.6% business rates increase it plans to impose in April.”

Local Government Minister Grant Shapps said: “It is clear that while some high streets are thriving, others face stiff competition from internet shopping and out-of-town shopping centres. That’s why we already have responded rapidly to recommendations in Mary Portas’s review on the future of high streets and will publish our full response in the spring.

“A new competition will give 12 town centres across the country the opportunity to become ‘Portas Pilots’, so they can benefit from Government funding and expert support to breathe new life into their town centre. And later in the year markets across the country will hold a fortnight of special events, where they will lend their expertise to budding entrepreneurswho want to try their hand at running a business.

“The Government has also scrapped Whitehall rules that instructed councils to hike parking charges, given councils new powers to cut business rates for local firms, and doubled small business rate relief, which will help half a million small firms for the next two-and-a-half years.”

Barbour had a record year in which sales rose more than 30 per cent and many items sold out before Christmas.

New ranges have struck a chord with customers obsessed with British brands amid a flurry of Royal celebrations.

However, group finance director Brenda Readman-Bell said the company had to deal with a ‘massive’ escalation in the number of counterfeit products available on the internet.

Barbour sends out about 25 legal warnings a day to counterfeiters, internet service providers and rogue websites compared with ‘one or two a day’ 12 months ago.

Barbour employs 700 staff, including 120 machinists in its South Shields factory, where the jackets are made, and is concerned that poor-quality copies from sites set up in countries such as Bermuda and Nigeria could damage the business.

Nails Inc, the nail bar and polish brand, is set to cash in on booming demand for manicures by expanding on to the Continent and the Middle East.

The company founded by former Tatler journalist Thea Green enjoyed like-for-like sales up 19 per cent in the five weeks to December 31.

Total sales rose by 39 per cent to £10.6million in the six months to the end of December while profits rose to more than £1.5million, the same amount achieved for the whole of 2010.

Green said: ‘Nail polish has been enjoying the most amazing boom time over the past couple of years.’

Last year the brand’s nail polish was launched in America and Canada. The company is in talks with distributors for the Middle East, Japan and Australia.

>> Click here to read Thea’s exclusive advice to women starting their own business

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Cashing in on this year’s run of historic events won’t come easy for retailers, one of Britain’s most influential High Street executives has warned.

Debenhams trading director Suzanne Harlow, who will unveil the chain’s latest designer range this week, says success before the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics will depend on careful planning – and the vagaries of the British weather.

Debenhams this week unveils its first range from Jenny Packham, one of the Duchess of Cambridge’s favourite designers.

It will be available in 70 stores from April.

‘This will be a feelgood year and will be all about nostalgia, heritage and having a great British summer,’ she said.

‘Mother’s Day, Easter and the Diamond Jubilee will give us a launch pad. Planning ahead of that will be important, but what it ultimately means for retail sales may all depend on the weather.’

Newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror’s remuneration committee is to review the pay of chief executive Sly Bailey.

Shareholders in the Daily Mirror publisher have made it clear to Financial Mail they consider her pay package to be excessive.

Her remuneration has risen from more than £1million when she took over in 2003 to nearly £1.7million in 2010, even though Trinity Mirror’s stock market value has plunged from £1.1billion to £121 million today.

Trinity Mirror’s remuneration committee, headed by long-serving director Jane Lighting, is understood to be planning to meet to discuss Bailey’s pay ahead of the publication of the group’s annual results on March 15.

Bailey’s basic pay has remained pegged at its 2008 level of £750,000, but in 2010 she received a £660,000 cash bonus and £57,000 in deferred shares along with a £248,000 pension contribution.

Last week, Trinity Mirror axed a further 75 jobs, or 18 per cent, of its national newspaper editorial staff.

Under a new policy of disclosure by Amazon, the supermarket giant has been revealed as the ultimate seller of a range of goods – including DVDs and computer games – marketed on Amazon under the trading name of Oakwood Distribution Ltd. Oakwood is a subsidiary of Tesco.

An investigation by Financial Mail found that the price of numerous items, including a box set of the first BBC series of Downton Abbey and a Super Mario computer game, were far cheaper when sold by Oakwood Distribution on Amazon than through the Tesco website.

For example, Downton Abbey is retailing at £7.43 plus £1.26 delivery, a total of £8.69, on Amazon, but £9.97 on Tesco’s site. The Super Mario 3D Nintendo game costs £29.12 via Oakwood on Amazon and £34.97 from Tesco online.

Tesco has regularly been criticised for squeezing suppliers to push the prices on its shelves to rock bottom levels.

Now it seems Amazon’s demands that retailers do not sell more cheaply anywhere, not even on their own sites, may be turning the tables on the supermarket.

Consumers who believe they are supporting independent businesses may not be pleased to find out they are shopping with Tesco.

Critics have accused Tesco of using a different company name to masquerade as a small business on Amazon, claiming this allows it to slip under the radar of consumers who actively choose not to buy from Tesco.

A spokesman for pressure group Tescopoly said: ‘Tesco has already demonstrated a similar method of operating on the High Street through the One Stop chain of convenience stores.

‘This would appear to be another example of Tesco trying to sell more to consumers who think they are getting an independent choice.’

Tesco said: ‘It is public knowledge that Oakwood is part of Tesco.

‘Where we have excess stock it is sold competitively through third-party marketplaces. Many customers prefer to shop direct with Tesco for additional benefits.’

Consumers can check the identity of sellers through Amazon by using the site’s new Detailed Seller Information button.

Last week, Amazon reported a savage fall in profits from $416 million (£263 million) to $177 million for the fourth quarter of 2011.

The figure was $800 million below analysts’ expectations, prompting a nine per cent fall in the share price.

How Tesco has been forced to chage less

Air charter firm Elite Helicopters is offering apprenticeships for ex-servicemen left badly injured and disabled in conflicts like Afghanistan and Iraq.

It is one of a growing number of small firms that have discovered that skills offered by war veterans can prove invaluable in the workplace.

The opportunity also benefits ex-Armed Forces unable to return to the front line due to injury and facing an uncertain future. The Poppy Factory – the charity that makes commemorative poppies for the Royal British Legion – is also hoping to help with a £4 million pledge to get 500 war wounded into work.

Former Royal Marine Alec Robotham, 25, of Clanfield in Hampshire, started his apprenticeship with Elite Helicopters in January. In July 2010 he was almost killed when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive while walking past him while on patrol in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The bomb shattered both legs and maimed his right arm.

Alec says: ‘After the slow recover it was a question of what next? The future felt bleak – I could not longer fight for my country. My careers officer told me about an initiative to train injured soldiers as helicopter pilots – a childhood dream. Although not so physically demanding as being a Royal Marine my brain still feels like it is on a Commando course.’

Alec began 12-month intensive training at the start of the year with help from a £15,000 grant from The Poppy Factory. The total cost for obtaining a full commercial pilot’s licence will exceed £50,000. As an apprentice he will be given practical support and training but Alec must also pay his way as a flight marshal and be involved in other ground operations. Elite Helicopters hopes to take on up to half a dozen war wounded apprentices this year.

Mark Radcliffe, pilot for Elite Helicopters is aiming to set up a charity called Wings 4 Warriors to help provide additional funding support if necessary.

Mark says: ‘This is not just about doing a good turn – it is a hard-nosed business decision where employers get highly skilled professionals. The level of commitment and determination these ex-servicemen bring is inspirational for the workplace.’

The Poppy Factory has already helped find work and apprenticeships for a hundred injured and disabled ex-servicemen and hopes to help get 400 more in employment over the next three years. Jobs that have been found range from golf course green keepers to company managing directors.

Melanie Waters, chief executive at The Poppy Factory, says: ‘There are a wide range of transferable skills picked up from being in the military. These men and women also have a level of resilience and dedication to hard work that makes them great in a team. The support we give is career management and aimed at benefiting employers.’

Leeds Business School research calculates transferable skills picked up in the military can be worth £9,000 a year. These include management, leadership, decision making, coping under pressure, teamwork, discipline and organisation.

>> Click here to find out more about the Poppy Factory

>> For more on Elite Helicopters, click here

Online video advertising service Telemetry, used by multinationals such as household goods giant Reckitt Benckiser to deliver and audit campaigns, is rapidly expanding with the help of new contracts.

The British firm recently started working with Reckitt rival Unilever and has now added China’s third-biggest brewer, Harbin Beer, to its client list.

The £22million turnover firm, which is valued by accounting giant Deloitte at £175million, audits internet video advertising by inserting a code into an online campaign so advertisers can analyse its impact.

London-based Telemetry said it was the first foreign firm allowed to serve and audit an online video campaign for a Chinese brand within the country.

Chief executive Anthony Rushton expects to float the company on the stock market in 2015.