More reforms coming
Following yesterday's announced SU reform, the government is now looking to do away with the so-called 'match groups' that the councils use for delegating job offers to social security recipients. The employment minister, Mette Frederiksen (Socialdemokraterne), wants social security receivers to be more job-active in future. There are three match groups: Group 1 is for people ready to work, Group 2 is for people ready for job activation while Group 3, where social security recipients are currently placed, is for people who are aren't active in the job market due to problems of a psychological or social nature. – Politiken
No construction = no homes
The building industry in Denmark is at its lowest point since before the Second World War and a housing shortage seems imminent. New figures from the construction association, Dansk Byggeri, indicated that only 9,500 private and public homes will be constructed in 2013. That’s 26,600 less than the highest point in 2006 and well below the average of 27,000 homes built annually for the past 60 years. The financial crisis is the main reason for the cautious building patterns. – Berlingske
Green energy support being reined in
Last year, electricity customers contributed a record 4.7 billion kroner to green energy investments through fees on their electricity bills, according to energinet.dk. The business sector has complained that the fee is ruining their ability to compete, which in turn, has led to opposition party Venstre proposing to end the fee. Venstre argues that the fee was supposed to contribute a more reasonable 100 million kroner in 2012 as part of the government's green energy goals. – Jyllands-Posten
Cousins strike it rich in Maldives
Lars Erik Nielsen and his two cousins, Jesper and Rene Mourier, have made a fortune by selling their air taxi service in the Maldives to a US company. The Danish cousins sold their business, Maldivian Air Taxi, for billions of kroner to investors Blackstone after seven gruelling months of negotiations. Maldivian Air Taxi, which was founded in 1991, made its money by shuttling tourists around the approximately 1,200 islands in the Maldives in water planes. – Børsen
