The Netherlands will not block the start of Iceland's accession talks with the European Union despite an ongoing dispute over repayment of lost bank savings, Dutch agency ANP quoted the Dutch foreign minister as saying on 18 March.

Here's the thing. Everyone knows there must be public spending cuts - even the Lib Dems leader has called for "savage" cuts - and we all know the flannel about back office and efficiency savings is just that. In the end Labour's army of diversity officers, and carbon leadership managers will have to be taken into a room and handed the P45s along with a number of more deserving people. To...

Yesterday London Underground announced it is to axe up to 800 jobs under plans to make savings of GBP16 million a year. The cuts will include 100 managers, 450 ticket office posts and up to 200 other jobs, although London Underground (LU) said it was committed to achieving the losses without any compulsory redundancies.

Cornwall's Lib Dem MPs should explain why their party's promises of £71 million in savings at Cornwall Council have proved to be as much rubbish as the county's growing waste mountain, says Jude Robinson, Labour candidate in Camborne, Redruth & Hayle. Jude said: "Without the promised savings, taxpayers face higher bills and savage cuts. Government funding for Cornwall is ...

T-Mobile and Orange said in November their 50-50 joint venture would give them a market share of about 37%, putting them ahead of current British market leaders O2 and Vodafone Plc. Orange is the number three player in the British market, followed by T-Mobile. O2 is owned by Spain's Telefonica. Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom have estimated synergy savings of more than four billion euros (...

MILLIONAIRE philanthropist Matt Stockdale has launched an energy company to slash bills and cut out the middleman. Not-for-profit At Cost Energy will buy gas and electricity direct from wholesalers and offer savings averaging £320 per year. Give it a few years, then see what the price difference is. A non-profit might have lower prices than for profit firms.

The White House announced plans to help protect workers' retirement savings accounts, which have been severely hit during the financial crisis, by imposing new regulations on the financial advice given to employees

Healthcare innovations such as eHealth and telemedicine offer new prospects for cost savings and improved quality of care, but expensive new technologies are also driving medical inflation and the benefits may not always be distributed equally. The pharmaceutical sector Europe's innovative pharmaceutical industry is a key plank of EU industrial policy due to the jobs and knowledge it creates. ...

Did I read it wrong, or did Brown really say this in his interview with the Economist? "[Our deficit-reduction plan] is probably the most ambitious of any of the G7 countries. It contains, obviously, public-spending economies, cuts in some departments, efficiency savings in others, but protection of the front-line services in health and education and policing. It contains tax rises ... I wish...

A clutch of departmental budgets have £5bn less in them from this April than they were expecting before the last Budget because of 'efficiency savings'