Infozone – the briefing:16/10/09

TORIES MOOT TAX BREAK FOR START-UPS

A national insurance (NI) tax holiday for startups could create 60,000 jobs, according to the shadow chancellor George Osborne, who unveiled the plans at last week's Conservative Party conference in Manchester.

Osborne said he would abolish employers' NI contributions for the first 10 employees recruited by a new firm in its first year of operation as one of a raft of measures aimed at getting Britain back to work and boosting the country's skills base.

The Forum of Private Business, which is campaigning against the 0.5% NI increase scheduled to take place in 2011, cautiously welcomed the proposal. Chief executive Phil Orford said: "We will examine the savings that will need to be made to pay for this initiative, but welcome it in principle as a genuine stimulus to employment, small business growth and sustained economic recovery."

HOTEL COMPARISON ON EASYVOYAGE

TripAdvisor rival website EasyVoyage has launched an optimised search engine for its hotel offering, reviewing establishments in 22,000 cities.

The new interface allows customers to select and compare the hotels according to their needs, budget, expectations and points of interest.

EasyVoyage provides reports on over 250 geographic areas and reviews more than 7,000 hotels worldwide. This includes every hotel available across the internet or through tour operators.