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There is nothing written in stone.”I was aware that things were…” She stopped, and added: “but there’s going to be no problem. Nothing’s going to stand in the way of this particular issue.” Quite.The relationship between the Stock Exchange and Mr Jones, who is a former Exchange board member, has never been a very happy one.Mr Jones left the board last year afteronly six months. Mr Kemp-Welch will present the Advisory Portfolio Management Award.”Polhill Communications, the public relations company helping to arrange the ceremony, was rather less clear. That will be presented by the publisher of Financial Times magazines. The Stock Exchange also warned it might take disciplinary proceedings against ShareLink.In the meantime, however, ShareLink, the private-client stockbroker, has been voted Execution-only Stockbroker of the Year by readers of Investors Chronicle magazine.Earlier this week, the Investors Chronicle pre-publicity for Thursday’s event proclaimed that: “The awards will be presented at a breakfast ceremony at the Financial Times by John Kemp-Welch.”The current tension, however, may have caused a re-think.A check call yesterday to the London Stock Exchange, to inquire whether the institution’s chairman really was about to present an award to Mr Jones, provoked the following response: “Mr Kemp-Welch will be at the awards but he will not be presenting the Stockbroker of the Year Award.

DAVID HELLIER. John Kemp-Welch, chairman of the London Stock Exchange, has found himself in the embarrassing position of being billed as the presenter of an award to David Jones, the chief executive of ShareLink.
Mr Kemp-Welch’s venerable institution, lest it be forgotten, announced last week that it had decided to sue Mr Jones after comments he made on the radio concerning a dispute between the two organisations. Mr Bonham said they were “gradually getting a younger team in place”, with two key appointees earlier this year – Bill Landuyt new head of the US operation, Hanson Industries, and Andrew Dougal, new group finance director, both in their early 40s Lord White, the co-founder, died last month.. The intention is that Mr Collins will deputise for Mr Bonham while he is abroad.Robert Hanson, whose previous career included a spell at the merchant bank NM Roths- child, has since last year been in charge of the search for expansion opportunities in the Far East. He has worked under Mr Collins for the past five years.A number of long-serving Hanson executives have left over the past year or so. He has been shadowing Martin Taylor for 12 months now.”Mr Collins’ decision to join the group in Australia in 1989 had been almost incidental to the family connection.Mr Collins will in future be the sole vice-chairman as David Clark, who held the post jointly with Mr Taylor, has not been replaced since leaving to head US Industries, the American arm demerged earlier this year.

Countering any suggestion the management changes involved favouritism, Mr Bonham said the two men being promoted had been in their jobs for quite some time. In a reference to the pounds 2.5bn acquisition of Eastern electricity group, which went unconditional yesterday, he said: “Christopher Collins has been with us since 1989 and, indeed, been instrumental in the Eastern bid. Anthony Cotton, another board member, will also step down.Hanson’s shares edged up just 0.5p to 208.75p on yesterday’s news. In that position, he will be second-in-command to deputy chairman and chief executive Derek Bonham, the man earmarked to succeed Lord Hanson as executive chairman when he retires in January 1997.Replacing Mr Collins in charge of corporate development is Robert Hanson, Lord Hanson’s 34-year old polo-playing son, who has been on the board since September 1992Mr Taylor, who had open-heart surgery last year, will continue to act as adviser to the group. MAGNUS GRIMOND

Lord Hanson has tightened his family’s grip on the industrial conglomerate he founded, with the promotion of both his niece’s husband and his son to senior board positions at the Hanson group.
The changes have been triggered by the retirement at the end of this month of Martin Taylor, the long-serving vice-chairman who joined the group in 1969 and became the public voice of Hanson in the 1980s.Christopher Collins, 55, a former jockey who is married to Lord Hanson’s niece, will move up from corporate development director to be vice-chairman. Even so, yesterday’s figures led City analysts to conclude that tax cuts of more than pounds 2bn-pounds 3bn – equivalent to 1p to 1.5 p off the basic rate of income tax – would alarm the financial markets.Comment, page 17.

Economists said the combination of slower growth and low inflation explained the shortfall, which has affected VAT receipts most.There has been no revenue from privatisation so far this financial year. The Treasury predicted a total of pounds 3bn, but the only payments due are second tranche receipts from the sale of the electricity generating companies in February.The PSBR is notoriously difficult to forecast, being the difference between two large and volatile numbers.The Treasury’s average forecast error is more than pounds 10bn either way. The interest bill is, at pounds 9bn, 13 per cent higher so far this year than last.However, the bigger concern in yesterday’s borrowing figures was the slow growth of tax revenues across the board.Kevin Darlington, UK economist at stockbroker Hoare Govett, said: “What is worrying about this is that it is impossible to pinpoint any one problem.” Revenues in the year to date are 8.5 per cent higher than at the same stage last year, compared to a Treasury forecast of 11 per cent growth. One factor was departmental spending growing a little faster than the Treasury forecast.Kenneth Clarke, Chancellor of the Exchequer, yesterday repeated his commitment to firm control of public spending as essential to good economic performance.Debt interest payments have surged because of earlier increases in short- term interest payments. However, borrowing for the rest of the year would need to be pounds 2bn a month lower on average than in 1994/95 for the Government to get back on target.There was no single reason for the disappointing August figure.

Keith Skeoch, chief economist at James Capel, said: “The case for tax cuts in this year’s Budget looks increasingly dependent on Mr Clarke’s ability to deliver a tough spending round.”The Treasury said it was very difficult to forecast the total at this stage. It also increased the main cash and share offer by 10p to pounds 10.25, by raising the cash component, a move that had not been widely expected This values Manweb at pounds 1.13bn.. DIANE COYLE

Economics Correspondent
The scope for tax cuts in the Budget was thrown into doubt yesterday by an unexpected jump in Government borrowing. The public sector borrowing requirement was pounds 1bn more than expected last month, at pounds 4.6bn.However, the Governor of the Bank of England brought some relief on interest rates.