English soccer fans planning to make the trip to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup, “have to make their travel plans early,” Gary Mabbutt, ambassador for 2010 South Africa World Cup told CNBC Wednesday. This isn’t like the last World Cup in Germany “whereby at the last minute you could jump in a minibus in the morning of a game go across to Germany and then come back the night after,” he said, adding that “it’s a long-haul flight.”

“More and more people are shopping online; there is no doubt about that,” David Smith from IMRG told CNBC. While the postal strikes created a slight dip in online sales at the end of October, “by the end of the year, we are expecting round about £53 billion to be spent online for the year,” he added.

Shares of Sportingbet gained Wednesday after the group provided a confident outlook for the full year. "It does prove that gambling is relatively resilient (during a recession)," James Hollins from Daniel Stewart told CNBC.

“We are seeing a recovery, but it’s based more around the turn of the inventory cycle and what we’re seeing is global trade also recovering,” David Owen from Jefferies told CNBC Wednesday. Geoff Tresman from Punter Southall Financial Management joined the discussion.

"Whoever wins the (UK general) election is going to have to shortly afterwards give some program for getting the public finances back into shape," Richard Lambert, director general of the CBI, told CNBC Monday.

Homeserve posted a 25% rise in first-half core revenue Tuesday and said it was confident of hitting its full-year target. CEO Richard Harpin told CNBC that customers are sticking with the home insurance group despite the downturn.

UK mortgage approvals hit a 2-year high in October, up 98% year-on-year, according to the British Bankers Association. "Money is beginning to come back into cycle. People are beginning to have some reasonable applications. But we have to put that into perspective, the market was dead 12 months ago," David Brunning, MD of Brunning Newman Houghton, said.

Durex condom maker SSL International reported a 45% increase in first-half profit Tuesday, boosted by its newly acquired Russian business. CEO Garry Watts told CNBC Russia "will be the biggest single territory as soon as we've had it in for a full year. It will take over from the UK."

Shares in BSS Group rose Tuesday as the UK plumbing and heating firm posted a 23% fall in first-half adjusted pretax profit but maintained its dividend and said it was confident on the second half of the year. CEO Gavin Slark told CNBC the group's strategy has been to protect and gain market share during the downturn.

The UK needs to retain its open economy and attract new businesses, Andy Green, CEO of Logica, told CNBC Tuesday. Elissa Bayer from Charles Stanley joined the discussion.