Barometer | 18 January 2018

Big losers

Construction company Carillion collapsed with debts of £1.5 billion. How does that compare with other UK corporate failures?
Overend Gurney & Co, a bank, collapsed in 1866 with £4 million in liabilities (£400 million at today’s prices).
Polly Peck failed after a fraud probe with £100 million in debts (£217 million).
Barings Bank failed in 1995 after rogue trader Nick Leeson ran up £827 million of losses (£1.55 billion).
MG Rover failed in 2005, leaving behind £1.4 billion of debt (£2 billion).
Northern Rock was saved in 2007 after the government provided emergency loans to the tune of £27 billion (£35.7 billion).

Rough areas

A petition called for homeless people not to be removed from the streets of Windsor for the royal wedding in May. Which areas have the most recorded rough sleepers?

LOCAL AUTHORITY	NUMBER
Westminster	260
Brighton and Hove	144
Cornwall	99
Manchester	78
Luton	76
Bristol	74

Forest of statistics

Plans to plant a 62,000-hectare forest across the north of England were announced. How do we compare with Europe for trees?


UK FOREST COVER
Overall	13%
England	10%
Scotland	18%
Wales	15%
Northern Ireland	8%

EUROPE’S MOST DENSELY FORESTED
Finland	73%
Sweden	68%
Spain	37%
Germany	33%
Italy	32%
France	31%

Women on top

Which organisations have a ‘reverse’ pay gap — they pay men less than women?

EMPLOYER	MALE/FEMALE DIFFERENTIAL
Yellow Dot Ltd	-80.6%
Arnold Clark Finance	-15%
Campbells Prime Meat Ltd	-13.1%
Hambleton District Council	-12.1%
Diageo GB Ltd	-9.8%
Commission for Equality and Human Rights	-8.2%
Biffa Environmental Municipal Services	-5.7%
SSE Energy Supply Ltd	– 3.8%