22/02/2018 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC

News with Alice Baxter

and Sally Bundock.

The fight for clean

air goes to court -

a landmark ruling on whether cities

can ban diesel cars in Germany

is imminent and being watched

closely by the global auto industry.

Live from London,

that's our top story

on Thursday 22nd February.

If the ban is approved,

other major European

cities could follow suit.

It'll be a pivotal moment

for European citizens

as three-quarters of all the world's

diesel cars driven on their roads.

Also in the programme,

Double Dutch.

Will Unilever ditch

the UK for Netherlands

for its new HQ amidst

the uncertainty created by Brexit.

Markets in Asia sank

overnight on fears of further

US interest rate hikes.

Here in Europe, the focus is on Q4

earnings in full swing today.

And we'll be getting

the inside track on unleashing

the Beethoven in your babe.

Did you know there's a simpler way

to teach music to your child?

We speak to the inventor

of the novel musical

instrument Soundbops.

And we want to know what you think

about the diesel debate.

Are you ditching your diesel?

Should the government

decide whether to ban

the most polluting vehicles?

Let us know.

Just use the hashtag BBCBizLive.

Hello and welcome to Business Live.

Europe's car industry

is on tenterhooks today,

awaiting a German court ruling

on whether cities are allowed

to ban diesel cars.

If it's approved, other big European

cities are likely to follow suit.

In fact some have

already made moves.

The leaders of four major global

cities pledged to ban

all diesel-powered cars and trucks

by the middle of the next decade.

Paris, Mexico City, Madrid

and Athens all say they're doing it

to improve air quality.

London's mayor Sadiq Khan

has introduced a £10

"toxicity charge" for older petrol

and diesel cars.

And two of London boroughs have

banned petrol and diesel

cars during peak times.

Oslo is going one step further.

It plans to ban all cars

from its city centre by 2019.

Nearly three-quarters

of all the world's diesel cars

are driven on European roads,

but other highly polluted

cities and countries

are also making big changes.

Last year,

India's government vowed to start

selling only electric cars by 2030,

saying not a single petrol or diesel

car should be sold after that.

Our reporter Jenny Hill has been

following this story

from the German capital.

Good to see you. It's

Good to see you. It's very

interesting this happening today in

Germany where the car industry is

pivotal to the economy and also

quite a powerful lobby.

Absolutely.

It's a huge debate because of

course, there are many here who say

that the German government simply

hasn't done enough and has taken a

small German environmental group to

effectively bring an action against

individual German regions. It's a

complicated process and the end

result is that today a court is

going to rule on whether it is

legally possible for German regions,

German cities, to impose a diesel

band. They say they are not going to

have a court ruling that says you

have to get your cars out of the

city has from today, it's not as

simple as that. But it does open the

door to diesel vehicles being banned

from a number of German cities and

as you say, the knock-on effect is

widespread. If cities like Stuttgart

and Russel Dorf bans certain types

of diesel vehicles, many other

European cities will follow suit --

Dusseldorf. The German population is

split on whether they think it is a

good idea. In one corner there is

the German love affair with the

motor car and the fact that cities

will be potentially paralysed

economic league by such a move. In

the other corner are the statistics

and we had these from the Federal

Environment Agency saying that is up

to 8000 people die every year just

from cardiovascular diseases linked

to nitrogen dioxide emissions. There

is a huge lobby that says it is time

to clean up the air in the cities.

But at the same time, car-makers in

Germany talk about potential job

losses if radical plans are

implemented with regard to diesel

cars.

Yes, and that is a headache

for the German government as 800,000

people are employed by the car

industry in Germany. Looking at the

sales of diesel, they have slid

dramatically ever since the

Volkswagen emissions scandal. Down

45% to 33% of the market this year,

so it's a huge problem for the

manufacturers and another

interesting statistic is that

somebody survey German drivers about

what they think of the car

manufacturing industry and found 87%

of Germans simply don't trust car

manufacturers to reduce emissions

and that's one of the reasons why we

are looking at the judgment today.

Many will say it is too little, too

late. There are other measures in

place in German cities to try to

clean up the air but it's simply not

enough and is not getting the target

down. They still far exceed EU

guidelines and some will argue those

thresholds are far too high in the

first place. That is why many cities

feel that of the judgment goes

against them today they will have to

impose a ban on certain diesel

vehicles.

Jenny, thank you very

much. When we do get the

announcement from the court in

Leipzig, we will update you.

Let's take a look at some of

the other stories making the news.

The British government is bracing

for one of the country's biggest

companies to up sticks.

Unilever may shift its headquarters

to the Netherlands after months

of political pressure

from both sides.

The company has so far

declined to comment.

Ford says its president

for North America - Raj Nair -

will leave immediately.

It says an investigation

found his behaviour was inconsistent

with Ford's code of conduct,

but wouldn't comment

on the inappropriate

behaviour involved.

Barclays has reported a 10% rise

in annual pre-tax profit

to $4.9 billion.

The bank was boosted by a reduction

in costs over the year and the rise

in the value of the dollar and euro

against the pound.

Today is one of those very busy days

as so many companies have come out

with the latest results and

announcement. Among them,

Anglo-American with profits

doubling, no surprise there. It's a

similar story with commodity prices

going up. Heathrow reporting

results, a fall in profits, and

revenues were something like $2.9

billion up, by 3% but pre-tax profit

was down. The number of customers

going through the airport group to

78 million. That is a lot of people.

If you go to Heathrow, you know

about that. The fourth quarter

earnings out in four -- full swing

today.

Markets have fallen in Asia,

following similar moves in the US,

after the Federal Reserve gave

an upbeat view of the economy,

fuelling fears of more

interest rate rises.

First, let's go to our Asia

business hub in Singapore

where Leisha Santorelli

is following the story.

Nice to see you. No surprise in

Asia. That is a fear factor, if

rates go up significantly in the US,

Asia is one of the losers.

Absolutely and we have questions

around US inflation and questions

around what the rates will be for

the rest of the year and investors

in Asia did not find any clarity in

the results released earlier so we

are seeing a lot of risk appetite

weakened because of concerns that we

will see it will go up by more than

expected. Markets see a 90% chance

that federal rates will go up from

the March meeting but it was a merry

picture in the Chinese markets

because they have reopened after the

week-long New Year holiday and they

scored their best growth in 18

months and the investor mentality

was to buy. The best performers were

consumer and transport related

stocks like Qantas, and the

rationale is clear as we saw

millions of Chinese take trips

overseas and they are spending a lot

of money shopping and eating out at

restaurants. Aside from China,

pretty dismal in the Asian markets

but we will see how we go tomorrow.

Many thanks for that.

Most Asian markets sank on Thursday,

fuelling fears of fresh volatility

after Federal Reserve minutes raised

expectations US interest

rates would rise further.

US stocks were in positive territory

most of the session on Wednesday,

but began falling about 40 minutes

after the Federal Reserve

released the minutes of last

month's policy meeting.

The much-anticipated notes showed

the board thought Donald Trump's

sweeping tax cuts could fire up

the already humming economy,

pushing inflation higher.

So Tokyo stocks dropped

following falls on Wall Street

as market sentiment remained fragile

after recent volatility.

Here in Europe markets have opened.

It's busy day on markets

with lots of earnings out today -

Barclays, Centrica, Astrazenica -

offering precious indications

as to whether fourth quarter

was indeed a strong vintage.

Clues are expected on the health

of sectors which have suffered

recently, such as telecoms,

utilities or consumer

staples but also areas

where optimism has risen,

such as banks, thanks

to Lloyds, and miners with

Glencore.

Joe Miller has the details

about what's ahead

on Wall Street Today.

On Thursday Hewlett-Packard

enterprise company which provides IT

solution is expected to report a

fall in first-quarter revenue and

profit. It's been heard by lower

sales in its networking and data

storage equipment business. The firm

has been trying to find its footing

after a high-profile executive

resigned suddenly last November and

now it also has another rival to

contend with after its nemesis, Dell

acquired EMC. Hewlett-Packard split

into two a few years ago and the

other half of the HP empire which

still makes PCs is expected to fare

better when it reports its results.

And we will see what the tariff

effect on imports of solar panels is

having for US manufacturers as first

Sola reveals its accounts.

Mike is a

managing director at Pimco, and it's

really busy.

Better to be busy than

not. We don't mind busy.

Let's talk

about Barclays Bank, various issues,

PPI still bothering it, the payment

protection scandal.

Barclays Bank

and a lot of the UK banks have a

similar story which is the actual

bank itself is now doing very well

and you saw a 10% rise in underlying

profit, £3.5 billion made last year

so the company is doing well and yet

they still have these ongoing fines

from things they did in the past,

the sins of the past, so to speak,

so you have this drag which has put

pressure on their share price, and

even now it's down 10% over the last

12 months but today's news was taken

pretty well because may leave the

underlying bank itself, if you look

forward, things are going well and

profits are up so the stock was up

at 4%.

They also pledging to restore

their dividend pay-out.

That will do

the share price wonders. That's

another indication of the health of

the company. Once you get back to

dividend growth, and potential

buy-backs, that's a good indication

that the company is fully

capitalised, comfortable with the

growth story and they feel they can

look forward.

In the meantime,

companies like Centrica, 4000 jobs

going.

Not a good story,

unfortunately. 4000 job losses this

time Centrica and there are a couple

of stories going round and one say

this might be to do with the utility

price bill which has been in the

news in the last few years and they

are trying to cut costs now, which

means job losses so they have

announced job losses. They will try

to do that in the next 12 months to

get the costs down and profitability

up, and ideally get the utility

bills down as well.

Absolutely.

Mike, thank you for now. Mike, or we

will come back to stories about

Unilever moving headquarters. Stick

around for that. As well as Mike.

How to unleash the

Beethoven in your babe.

There's a simpler way

to teach music to you child based

on building blocks and

we speak to the creator.

And we might have a play as well.

That is all coming.

Let's talk more about Centrica.

British Gas owner Centrica has

announced today that it's cutting

4,000 jobs after losing 10% of it's

UK customers last year.

Group profits also fell 17%

last year to £1.25bn.

Earlier, our business

correspondent, Emma Simpson,

spoke to Centrica's chief

executive, Iain Conn.

We have announced further efficiency

measures that we are driving. We did

announce all so that we have

achieved our first phase of

efficiencies, three years early. But

the reason we announced a further

£500 million per year of planned

efficiencies in 2020, regrettably,

another 4000 job losses as well, is

in response to three things.

Firstly, competition is very intense

and the second thing is that our

customers are actually interacting

with others in a different way,

moving more to digital which is

changing the way and then the third

reason is to drive more efficiencies

in advance of the likely price cap

in the UK.

So there is a direct link

between the job cuts and the looming

price cap? Presumably to give you a

bit more headroom?

As I say, it is

three reasons. It's about

competition and what customers want,

but there is a third reason, there

is a link between cost efficiency

programmes and preparing for any

price gap in the UK. We have got to

be competitive, and this measure

means we have to drive more

efficiency.

Iain Conn talking to our

correspondent. Much more about

Centrica on the Business Live page.

Something else to mention. I know

that we have it on our business

pages, the auditors of Carillion

will face a grilling in front of

politicians today. Another one to

watch. Two select committees will

also question to light and the

pensions regulator as part of the

joint inquiry into the crisis that's

been going on since its collapse.

The work and pensions and business

committee says it has a growing pile

of evidence, the accounting firm

also facing investigation by the

accounting Council over that.

You're watching Business Live.

Our top story.

The fight

for clean air goes to court -

we await a landmark German

ruling on whether cities

can ban diesel cars.

It's being watched closely

by the global auto industry

and other big European cities.

Because most diesel cars are driven

on European roads.

Learning a new musical

instrument can be a chore,

espcially if you're a young child.

I know I found it difficult!

the piano or violin.

But musicality starts

young, so are traditional

techniques too tough?

Our next guest is the brains

behind a new type

of music education devise

that is based on building blocks.

Soundbops aims to tap

the $63 billion market

for educational technology.

Its founder won the Royal Academy of

Engineering's Launchpad

competition in 2016.

The musical toy is in

the final stages of design,

with the first batch due to be

delivered in time

for this Christmas.

Would imagine that's pretty

critical. The award winner,

Soundbops CEO and creator

Michael Tougher joins us now.

you have the one that hopefully will

be on sale at Christmas, in the

meantime we've got one here that we

can play with. This is the first

prototype. You can tell we're very

musical! Tell me why this will help

me learn to play an instrument

because to me it just looks like

mice colourful things that make a

sound. You said as a child who

learned the violin, how do you make

that link?

Playing instruments is

hard, so early, when you are three,

four or five years old you have a

positive introduction to music, you

learn the notes and cause gum you

play with your family and friends.

You learn the fundamentals and also

the notations are when you move to

an instrument you have that backing

and you can choose which one to

learn.

I've got three boys, Alice

has one, we've had tonnes of toys

that make noises, building blocks,

things you bash, things you play,

including smart devices that all

make noises, and buttons that you

push, how is this different? How

will this make a difference to

children learning a musical

instrument?

As you know, lots of

toys make lots of noises. We do have

a headphone socket! Each block is a

different note, so when the child is

exploring, they are learning which

lets go together, which chords go

together. So you can transfer that

noise.

Assuming a child of three

known the letters, some don't.

A

young child learns colours and as

the child grows older, they can

start to learn the letters and

understand how they all work

together. It's that positive

introduction to music.

This is a

very young kids, starting aged about

three. How did you get going in this

because you won this competition in

2016 which gave you some cash and

some fallible mentoring. Yet you got

your initial £50,000 which enabled

you to build this prototype from

Twitter?

Yes, we are active on

Twitter, we have been shedding a lot

about the product and a Belgian

company invests in music, phoned me,

went and invested quickly. I have

been brushing up on my French, it's

been a lot of fun. They see a lot of

value in this product, and in the

market, and they've partnered with

me on this, which has allowed us to

launch the kick starter. We are 30%

to our target in a few days.

I asked

you in the green room how much it

would cost and you told me £70.

That's quite a lot of money for a

toy that may or may not teach your

child how to play an instrument aged

three.

The ability to have a young

child playing songs and three is

valuable for parents. It is very

much like languages, there's a gap

when a young child can get

interested, so the value of music is

that it gets the kid into music

early so they can enjoy that for

life. And it's a very innovative

high quality product. And as we grow

and create other products...

You are

a guitarist as well.

Guitar, my dad

taught me get out when I was younger

and as a family we played and sang

together. I want all children do

have the joy of music when they are

younger.

Fascinating stuff. Thank

you for coming in, Michael.

In a moment we'll take a look

through the Business Pages but first

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Business Live. What you need to

know, when you need to know. That's

sound like similar Hussein from New

York. I'm right! We asked you to

tell us what you thought about the

decisions being taken in Germany. Is

back. Should governments tell us

what we can and can't drive in

cities?

If you take the UK example

it's unfortunate because we were

encouraged to buy diesel cars. I

bought one. And now unfortunately we

are told that they are not good...

With you ditch yours, I am ditching

mine.

We've got an electric car as

well. Diesel cars can be expensive

to sell.

Hot topic. We've had loads

of tweets. One suggests that

developing countries would expect

subsidies from the government as

external support to start buying

electric vehicles is expensive,

another one, from Shaun Perry, says

the government should not start

implementing changes on banning

diesel cars. One viewers says why is

it not OK for us little people to

drive diesel cars and big people to

operate jets in the skies every day.

Many of you have been in touch,

thank you so much for getting in

touch. Now the other stories.

Theresa May braced for the Unilever

decision on headquarters. Unilever

is a massive company. It's perhaps

moving its HQ to the Netherlands.

You don't believe this is a Brexit

story though?

It is not necessarily

a Brexit story. At the moment

Unilever has a headquarters in the

UK and one in Holland and they are

deciding to have one single

headquarters. I think that pressure

has come more from shareholders,

there was a takeover attempt by

Kraft Heinz last year, and I think

this is more about cost pressure

than about Brexit. They have to

choose a headquarters. It happens to

come at a time when Brexit is in

full flow although I think this is

as much about cost is about Brexit.

It would have happened anyway?

The

decision is to go to one place with

one capital.

And another story

claims the antidepressants actually

do work. Music to the years of the

pharmaceutical industry?

Yes, and

also to the ears of people who need

these treatments. It's a big issue

and hopefully this study has put to

bed a question of whether they work

or not.

Presumably they will be more

widely prescribed, which will be

more costly to the NHS.

The study

was pretty in-depth.

Will have to

leave it there, many thanks to Mike

Amey. From Sally and I, many thanks

for joining us