“For every 1,000 people made redundant, a further 400 jobs could be lost as those newly unemployed workers cut spending.”The Bank [of England] should cut rates again but is unlikely to cut until too late to make a difference.”The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee begins its meeting today, against a background of growing evidence the economy has slowed markedly in the past couple of months.A snapshot survey of the services sector, by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, yesterday showed activity slowed last month.. “We expect house prices to fall by 10 per cent by the end of 2006,” Mr Carrick said. “Mortgage approvals are down 35 per cent year-on-year and it is only time before this decrease in demand feeds through to lower prices.”He said this alone would trigger a direct fall in construction employment of 5 per cent, or about 110,000, from current levels.He said the “explosion” of household debt – now well above the £1 trillion mark – had made the economy far more vulnerable to higher unemployment “Momentum will make things worse,” he said. As it was, no one could ever buy the company because only family members could own the B shares, so its takeover protection is now removed.”Young & Co will also move down to AIM. Peter Whitehead, the finance director, said the company had been looking at simplifying its share structure for some time, but the family had been reluctant to give up its B shares because they are free from inheritance tax.Mr Whitehead said: “There has always been a problem with the share structure, but also with the inheritance tax status of the B shares.”Shares listed on AIM, if they are held for more than two years, are also free from inheritance tax, so it has proved a convenient solution to the problem.”. Half a million British jobs will be lost over the next three years because of a “dramatic decline” in consumer spending, a leading investment bank warned yesterday.

He said he was worried the Bank of England would make the situation worse by failing to cut rates in time to prevent a major deterioration.ABN Amro forecast that about 500,000 jobs would be lost from the retail, manufacturing and construction sectors by 2008. This means non-family members could stage an offer to buy the company.Guinness Peat Group (GPG), which will own about 10 per cent of the new share capital of the group once the conversion takes place, welcomed the move to put all voting shareholders on an equal standing. It has been a long-standing critic of Young & Co’s share structure, which it believed hindered the progress of the company.Blake Nixon, of GPG, said yesterday: “This removes the family veto on resolutions and also allows anyone to buy the company’s shares freely. The family behind the historic Young & Co brewery has given up its 174-year-old veto on major corporate decisions at the company in a move that paves the way for a possible takeover.

This reduces the number of share classes to two – A shares and shares that carry no voting rights.Although the family will still own 57 per cent of the A shares after conversion, all the voting share capital of the company will be on the same footing. Company resolutions, such as a takeover or approval of accounts, must get approval from owners of B shares, which account for 57 per cent of the company’s shares with voting rights, before they are put to holders of A shares.Young & Co’s B shares will now be converted into A shares. He also wants to raise the issue in Parliament in response to the Queen’s Speech on 17 May. He said he would raise “Mr Flynn’s self-confessed background in terrorist organisations and his resumption of those connections in 2002 and 2003, at a time when he was chairman of Bank of Scotland (Ireland)”.Lord Laird said he wrote to Lord Stevenson, the chairman of HBOS, and the Financial Services Authority to raise questions about Mr Flynn’s former role and how he passed the “fit and proper person” test for his appointment. He has moved in high circles in Ireland – he is by definition a fit and proper person,” Mr O’Riordain said.Mr Flynn has stood down from his posts as an Irish government adviser on industrial relations and as chairman of the Irish implementation body overseeing the decentralisation of the civil service.. The FSA said such issues were a matter for the Irish regulators.