Autumn Statement 2014: George Osborne’s stamp duty reform is a smack in the face for London – and hard-working strivers December 4, 2014 Midnight, 3 December 2014 is a date to celebrate for UK home buyers. Anyone purchasing a property worth less than £937,500 is now paying less tax. The chancellor’s move to scrap the invidious slab-style stamp duty land tax (SDLT) regime, introduced by Labour in 2000, and to transform it into a graduated tax, is a [...]
Autumn Statement 2014: George Osborne tells Labour – anything you can do, I can do better December 3, 2014 Picture the scene. A room full of Treasury policy experts, a month or so before the Autumn Statement. The mood is tense, everyone knows the numbers aren’t as good as the chancellor hoped and the election looms menacingly on the political horizon. Pacing up and down, a pensive look on his newly-slim face, George Osborne addresses [...]
Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2015: UK shoppers holding out to snap up bargains in November pushed October sales down November 10, 2015 UK retail sales were disappointing last month, according to a survey by the British Retail Consortium released today, suggesting that some shoppers may be holding out for some deals around Black Friday at the end of November. Retail sales decreased 0.2 per cent on a like-for-like basis from October 2014, when they were unchanged from the preceding [...]
Prime Minister’s Questions: Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn hammers David Cameron on tax credits again November 4, 2015 In this week's episode of Prime Minister's Questions, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn grilled Prime Minister David Cameron on tax credit changes again. Read more: David Cameron's first PMQs in full Tory goverment: The bunfight returns Corbyn said he had asked Cameron the same question six times last week and the Prime Minister failed to give him [...]
Minority Game: What stock investors can learn from the failure of Black Friday December 1, 2015 Black Friday has come and gone, but the massive surge of shoppers which was anticipated in much of the media failed to materialise. Many retail outlets were quieter than a normal Friday. In contrast, internet shopping went wild. Amazon had its biggest ever day in the UK, selling over 7m items. Argos and John Lewis [...]
Bank of England stress tests: RBS and Standard Chartered flagged for “capital inadequacies” as Bank warns new capital requirements could be introduced next year December 1, 2015 British banks could be required to bolster their capital reserves by billions of pounds as soon as next year, the Bank of England said this morning, as it revealed that two of the country’s largest lenders had narrowly avoided failing its latest round of stress tests. The Bank is actively considering raising the so-called countercyclical buffer, [...]
Autumn Statement 2014: Stamp duty, business rates, banking profits and tech firm taxes. How has industry responded? December 3, 2014 There were a number of surprises in George Osborne's final Autumn Statement before the general election, many of which are solidly aimed at middle class voters. Bankers taxes are being limited, multinational tech firms are going to have to pay more taxes and stamp duty slabs have been scrapped. The squeezed middle and chattering [...]
Autumn Statement 2014: George Osborne’s wizard wheezes don’t mask his total failure to eliminate the deficit December 3, 2014 I said that I would eliminate the budget deficit in this Parliament. I have failed to do so. It’s actually going to take me about 10 years rather than five. So, I’d be most grateful if you could re-elect me next May to let me finish the job at the snail’s pace I have now [...]
Investment manager Dragon wants fund to breathe fire with London float May 23, 2016 Investment management company Dragon Capital is planning to float its flagship fund on the London Stock Exchange. Dragon wants Vietnam Enterprise Investments Limited (VEIL), which has a net asset value (NAV) of $850m (£587m), to list on the main market of the exchange from July. Read more: London set for IPO market recovery… but not just [...]
The OBR deficit conundrum: Why all is not necessarily rosy in George Osborne’s fiscal garden December 2, 2015 The office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) finds a £27bn improvement in the public finances” is the message that many will have taken away from last week’s Autumn Statement and Spending Review. Combined with the deficit (PSNB) moving into surplus at the end of the forecast period, and the fall in total public spending as a [...]