Japan quake relief budget passed

2 May 2011 Last updated at 09:10 GMT The funds will help remove rubble and rebuild regions devastated by the tsunami Japan's parliament has passed a 4tn yen ($49bn, £30bn) emergency budget for reconstruction following the 11 March earthquake and tsunami.

The bill, unveiled last month, passed the lower house on Saturday and was approved unanimously by the upper house budget committee early on Monday.

It will help fund new housing for tens of thousands of people who lost their homes.

It will also support businesses hit by the disaster.

According to the latest police figures, 14,704 people are now known to have died in the disaster and another 10,969 remain missing.

Budget wrangle

Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said further spending would follow in the months ahead. Ultimately the disaster could end up costing Japan $300bn, analysts say.

Allocations intended for pension funds, child allowances and slashing motorway tolls have been diverted into the emergency budget.

The opposition backed the emergency package, but Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government is expected to face tougher battles to secure future reconstruction funds using a mixture of borrowing and tax hikes.

Japan already has a debt burden double the size of the economy.

Polls over the weekend showed mounting public concern over Mr Kan's leadership during the crisis, which has seen exports severely hit by power and supply shortages.

Work to bring the crippled nuclear plant in Fukushima under control is continuing, after the earthquake knocked out cooling systems to the reactors.

Workers have been pouring water into reactors to cool fuel rods, but have then faced the challenge of containing contaminated waste water leaking from the reactor buildings.

Their goal is to gain access to reactor buildings to restore cooling systems. On Monday workers were preparing to install an air purifier in the No 1 reactor building to reduce radioactivity, a spokesman said.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) has said it could take up to nine months to bring the plant fully under control.

On Monday top government spokesman Yukio Edano said the government would not cap liabilities faced by Tepco, because the disaster was "not impossible to foresee".

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Japan announces emergency budget

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Budget airline pulls out of city

13 April 2011 Last updated at 17:07 GMT Cardiff Airport said it was "disappointed albeit unsurprised" at the news.

Budget airline bmibaby is to halt its operations from Cardiff Airport from this autumn.

The firm, which employs 69 at Cardiff, blamed the economic climate, saying it would focus on airports with strong growth opportunities.

It said it would be redeploying aircraft to Northern Ireland and the Midlands.

Cardiff Airport said it was "disappointed albeit unsurprised" at the news.

The airline, which is also withdrawing from Manchester, started operating out of Cardiff in winter 2002.

It started with 12 destinations and more than 100 flights a week to UK and European destinations from the city, having first launched at East Midlands airport earlier that year.

The airline said it currently operates nine routes from Cardiff - to Geneva, Faro, Belfast City, Malaga, Murcia, Alicante, Ibiza, Palma and Mahon.

A bmibaby spokesperson said: "In the current economic climate it is essential for bmibaby to focus on airports where the airline already has a strong market presence and where there are strong growth opportunities for the bmibaby business."

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It is essential for bmibaby to focus on airports where the airline already has a strong market presence”

End Quote bmibaby spokesperson The company said it would transfer two Boeing 737 aircraft currently based at Cardiff, and two more based at Manchester, to Belfast, Birmingham and East Midlands airports.

The spokesman added: "bmibaby will therefore cease operations from Cardiff Airport and from Manchester Airport from the end of the summer 2011 flying schedule.

The firm said it would be entering into a minimum 30-day consultation process with all of the respective unions.

Cabin crew and pilots based at Cardiff and Manchester would be offered the chance to redeploy to the Midlands.

The airline said its 69 staff working for bmibaby at Cardiff Airport had been told on Wednesday they are at risk of redundancy.

Some 44 cabin crew, 24 pilots and one manager had been given 30-day redundancy notices.

However, the company said it had enough similar positions at East Midlands and Birmingham Airports for them all to directly transfer to if staff decide they want to.

'Huge impact'

The airline has announced seven new routes from George Best Belfast City Airport.

Flights to Malaga, Alicante, Palma, Faro and Ibiza will run from March 2012, and go on sale on Wednesday.

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Both Cardiff Airport and the Welsh Assembly Government has provided significant support for bmibaby to operate in Wales... only to see this announcement appearing today”

End Quote Cardiff Airport statement A year-round service to Amsterdam will also operate from October 2011, along with winter flights to Geneva for 2011.

In a statement Cardiff Airport said: "Cardiff Airport is disappointed albeit unsurprised at bmibaby's decision to withdraw from Wales altogether."

The statement said that since 2006/7 when bmibaby accounted for 34% of passenger volumes there that had declined to less than 14% in 2011, having a huge impact on overall passenger statistics.

'Sun and the sand'

It continued: "Since 2002 both Cardiff Airport and the Welsh Assembly Government has provided significant support for bmibaby to operate in Wales, as the nation's low cost carrier, only to see this announcement appearing today.

"It is regrettable that bmibaby has cited the economic climate as its reasons for withdrawing both in Manchester and Cardiff as both regions have demonstrated strong economic prospects."

Airport managing director Patrick Duffy said: "It's not a question of saying no to Wales, it's a question of consolidating their fleet... which is getting smaller and smaller every year anyway.

"This has been predictable for three or four years and in that time we have been contemplating what life would be like without them.

"The sun and the sand is still available - there aren't many routes that weren't covered by somebody other than bmibaby so it's not as if there's going to be an inability to get somewhere."

The airport said last month had seen the start of the Helvetic Airways 4 weekly service to Zurich achieved through a joint partnership approach.

It said it looked forward to working with other airlines and other partners "to facilitate increased opportunities going forward".

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Council budget 'social vandalism'

12 February 2011 Last updated at 12:46 GMT Birmingham City Council says 2,450 jobs will go in the coming financial year Birmingham City Council has been accused of "social and economic vandalism" after revealing plans to cut thousands of jobs.

Leader Mike Whitby said the authority would "play its role" in helping to tackle the national deficit.

He said 4,300 council posts would be cut and 3,000 more transferred into a schools co-operative, amid funding cuts from central government.

But a spokesman from Unison criticised the scale of the cuts.

Roger McKenzie, assistant general secretary of Unison, said the coalition government had "pulled the rug from beneath Birmingham society" and called the council's move "disastrous" for the city.

He said: "The cuts amount to social and economic vandalism and they threaten the economic viability and social fabric of our city."

The city council, which is run by a Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition, has 18,993 full-time staff posts.

Mr Whitby said that the target of 4,300 posts had almost been met, as 1,807 council employees had already taken voluntary redundancy and a further 1,500 had opted to do so in the coming financial year.

The authority - the largest in the UK - has made 302 compulsory redundancies and is consulting over the remainder of the posts which must be cut.

Increase parking fees

The introduction of schools co-operatives means that council workers in supportive roles in Birmingham schools, including catering, cleaning and caretaking staff, will no longer be employed by the city council.

They will instead be paid directly by schools.

Further savings are to come from plans to privatise adult social care, increase parking fees and remodel youth services.

The details were revealed on Friday in a document by the council.

Mr Whitby said: "Undoubtedly this has been one of the most challenging budgets to plan."

But Mr McKenzie said the council had made a "political decision" to push ahead with cuts that threatened the "very viability" of public services.

Roger Jenkins, GMB regional officer for workers at the city council, said: "Whichever way you look at it the outlook for the employment and the services provided by Birmingham City Council are very bleak."

A final decision will be made in March.

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VIDEO: Budget passed at Decision Time

MSPs have voted to pass the Budget (Scotland) Bill on 9 February 2011. 79 MSPs voted for the bill, with 48 against.

The minority Scottish government's £33 bn budget was passed by MSPs, after a series of last-minute opposition concessions.

Finance Secretary John Swinney agreed to demands from the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives to boost support for youth employment, private sector projects and housing.

Labour refused to back the spending plans, saying they failed to support economic recovery.

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