Podcasts

Between 2014 and 2015 there was a £50m cut from UK library budgets with 106 closed their doors for ever. The local campaigns against closures continue and many high-profile people have voiced their concern over the closures including Stephen Fry and author Jeanette Winterson. Poet Greta Bellamacina and journalist Davina Catt joined Share Radio’s Georgie Frost to talk about a film they made exploring the history of libraries and their importance to local communities.

The financial services industry is the perfect target for a cyber-attack, a report from lobby group, TheCityUK, has warned. Marcus Scott, Chief Operating Officer at TheCityUK, told Sarah Lowther and Chris Bailey why the banking and financial sector need to be more resilient to cyber-attacks.

John Edmonds, Chair of the Trade Union Forum Management Committee, looked ahead to History & Policy's Trade Union Forum on 'Trade Unions and the European Union'. Ahead of the EU referendum, the Trade Union Forum explores the roles that trade unions have had in previous EU public debates.

Gadgets and Gizmos with Share Radio's technology editor Steve Caplin.

This is Conversations From Africa, Share Radio's weekly view across the continent & it's major news, with Chris Bishop, Managing Editor of Forbes Africa Magazine & Share Radio's Patrick Jones. This week they discuss the World Economic Forum on Africa in Rwanda & the host nation's rise from the ashes, plus a Forbes Africa exclusive, updates from an infamous South Africa's mine collapse several months ago, news out of the Central African Republic after the withdrawal of French forces & more!

This is the Responsible Investment show. Morningstar, the investment research and management firm, recently held its annual Investment Conference with social and ethically aware investing as one of the central themes. The event comes a year after Morningstar unveiled plans to launch the industry's first sustainability ratings index for global mutual and exchange traded funds. So what prompted that decision? Patrick Jones went to the company's conference where he put that question to San Lie, Director of Manager Research at Morningstar Benelux. But how transparent are your investments? Industry experts say that a lack of fee transparency in many funds is stinging buyers with hidden charges -- in some cases they're so high the investments could lose money. It's claimed some unscrupulous fund managers may be exploiting the lack of transparency for their own ends. Matt Cox was also at the Morningstar Conference and he asked Gina Miller a founding partner of SCM and an advocate of fee transparency, about how opaque charging can hurt investors. And finally, James Donald of Lazard Asset Management told the Morningstar conference how his company screens for Environment and Social Governance or - ESG - in companies that operate in emerging markets. Share Radio reporter Patrtick Jones caught up with him and asked him about the ESG qualities it looks for in emerging market businesses.

This is The Apprentice Investor. Regular listeners to the show will know that our Apprentices are five members of the Share Radio team who've each been given fifteen thousand pounds of virtual money to build their own individual share portfolios. They have a minimum of eight stocks which they've been buying and selling through The Share Centre. So....are our financial novices awash with riches beyond their wildest dreams...or are they drowning in waves of debt? Apprentices Matt Cox and Ruby Johnson are in the studio along with Ed Bowsher, Share Radio's Senior Analyst.

There is much uncertainty ahead of the EU referendu, and it is beginning to affect investment in the UK, according to leading business groups. The Confederation of British Industry says it now expects growth of 2 per cent both this year and next. That's down from previous estimates of 2.3 and 2.1 per cent respectively. Senior Analyst Ed Bowsher joins Georgie Frost to talk this and all other stories making the headlines today.

In line with Local Business Week, a new research study has revealed how organisations can go about improving knowledge based worker productivity. Karen Plum, Director of Research at management consultancy, Advanced Workplace Associates, discussed the results of the study on Share Radio Morning Money.

There's been more pain for UK plc's, with profits from investments in quoted companies at their lowest for nine years. We know this from the latest quarterly Profit Watch survey from The Share Centre, and its Chairman, Gavin Oldham, explained the findings to Nigel Cassidy.