Our at-a-glance guide to Osborne’s mini-Budget December 5, 2012 THE UK ECONOMIC OUTLOOK ■ The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has revised down its forecast for UK growth and revised up its forecast for public sector borrowing. It says the government is no longer likely to meet its target of reducing debt as a proportion of GDP in 2015-16, breaking its supplementary fiscal rule. [...]
Who’s switching jobs October 2, 2012 Taylor Wessing Amanda Nelson has been appointed as a partner in the law firm’s private client practice. She joins from Manches, where she was a partner in its private client and international wealth practice. Nelson specialises in tax planning, with a particular emphasis on inheritance and capital gains tax. RBC Capital Markets Frank Garibaldi has [...]
Thatcher changed the City forever but Big Bang isn’t the whole story June 3, 2013 THERE is a myth gaining traction that Margaret Thatcher’s deregulation of the City through the Big Bang in 1986 ultimately led to the crash of 2008. This is part of the reductionist approach of much of the left-leaning commentariat. The reasoning seems to go: something terrible happened in 2008; Thatcher was terrible; therefore the actions [...]
It’s business as usual as Osborne fiddles December 5, 2012 WHEN expectations are low enough, anything short of a disaster is inevitably hailed as a good performance. That, I’m afraid, is the best way of looking at George Osborne’s Autumn Statement, and the main reason why so many Tory MPs were happy last night. There were no massive, pasty-tax style blunders; all of the bad [...]
Knight Frank says best London property thriving despite dip September 23, 2012 PRIME property in central London hit a new record high in September, according to estate agent Knight Frank, as it continued its robust recovery from the post-financial crisis slump. Prices grew 10 per cent in the last 12 months, the firm said today, pushing the index to a point some 51 per cent higher than [...]
Clegg revives battle on rich with raft of tax plans September 23, 2012 THE TOP 10 per cent of Britons should pay more in tax, the Deputy Prime Minister said yesterday, promising to become more creating in finding new ways to take money from the richest. But finance analysts warned the move could simply drive cash and assets abroad, making the UK and the government worse off, rather [...]
The fiscal cliff looms dangerously over the US presidential campaign November 1, 2012 AS THE US presidential election approaches, one issue has been singularly absent from the campaign. And it’s the issue that worries US investors the most. According to a recent survey by Macro Risk Advisors, Americans are increasingly concerned about a looming “fiscal cliff”, over which the US is set to hurtle on 2 January 2013. [...]
London is most expensive place for finance firms March 13, 2013 TAXES and fees are making London by far the most expensive location in the world to set up a financial firm, according to figures released this morning. Looking at rents alone, Hong Kong tops the table of world cities for locating a company in the financial sector, Savills said, but including the impact of fees [...]
What the other papers say this morning October 2, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Blow for British nuclear revival A Franco-Chinese consortium has walked away from the race to build Britain’s new generation of reactors in a setback to the government’s hopes of ushering in a revival of nuclear power. The expected bid by French engineering company Areva and China’s Guangdong group for the Horizon nuclear joint [...]
What the other papers say this morning October 2, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Blow for British nuclear revival A Franco-Chinese consortium has walked away from the race to build Britain’s new generation of reactors in a setback to the government’s hopes of ushering in a revival of nuclear power. The expected bid by French engineering company Areva and China’s Guangdong group for the Horizon nuclear joint [...]