Others, such as Laing, have turned themselves into managers of construction but Carillion argues that customers want to speak to the company that is actually going to do the building work.Although Laing is doing well under its business model, the Carillion “integrated” approach appears more persuasive in a market that is still evolving to meet the needs of the Private Finance Initiative.Carillion has got out of some construction activities, selling operating such as electrical engineering and social housing. Some 5 per cent of the estate was switched last year, boosting operating profits per pub in its managed division by 10 per cent.A parliamentary committee, however, is investigating the relationship between pub companies and their tenants to see if the arrangements are fair. Greene King may find it has to be more open about its agreements with tenants and there is some risk of reputational damage. Like-for-like sales dropped to 2.7 per cent in the second half of the year from 3.8 per cent in the first half.

All three divisions are performing well, with underlying profits for the year at the group up 10 per cent to £74m.The beer market is in general decline in the UK, but Greene King is taking further market share Some 78 per cent of its sales are to external customers. This means it is not reliant on volumes in its own pubs and sales through supermarkets are improving.The managed pubs business, however, is having a difficult time from tough competition and high overheads. With Euro 2004 drawing to a close, Greene King, the pubs operator and brewer, is hoping that its customers carry on drowning their football sorrows for the rest of the summer.
The company yesterday delivered strong results, thanks to the good weather last year. Greene King operates three businesses – brewing beer such as Greene King IPA and Old Speckled Hen, managing pubs in-house, and leasing out pubs to tenants who pay rent and buy beer from the company. Even so, it is unlikely to kill the debate on whether we are getting value for money out of higher, tax-funded spending. Opinions are already too entrenched to be shifted.jeremy.warner independent.co.uk.

Under the new method, more than 1,700 different treatment types will be measured and weighted according to cost.This is obviously a much better method, which scarcely falls within the definition of “cooking the books”. Under the old system, NHS activity was divided up into just 16 categories, with the weighting given to each determined by its cost to the NHS. However within each category, all activities were counted as the same. When you are relying on a tax-funded healthcare service, the amount that is spent is limited by what the Government can raise in tax or borrowings.