Rescuing brands from oblivion September 13, 2015 Havas Media’s Paul Frampton talks whisky and consumer apathy IN THE battle for customer loyalty, brands are realising that, to market a product, they must do more than thrust it in front of potential consumers. According to Paul Frampton, chief executive of Havas Media UK, curating interesting, even educational content, and delivering it in ways [...]
Apple Pay launches in the UK: Where to use it, how to use it, which iPhone you need and how it works July 14, 2015 If you're the proud owner of an iPhone 6, 6 Plus or Apple Watch you can now spend your cash with little more than the flick of a wrist. Apple Pay has today launched in the UK, allowing people to use near field communication on their iPhones to tap and pay for items worth [...]
UK house prices: Scotland’s growth at its highest since 2007 as prices accelerate May 19, 2015 The UK’s house price growth rose to 9.6 per cent for the year to March, with Scotland the east of England and London driving the rise. The figures The 9.6 per cent rise in the UK for the year to March was 1.2 percentage points higher than the 7.4 per cent recorded in February. The [...]
Slip in consumer confidence despite retail sales growth – London Report May 25, 2015 DATA on GDP growth, consumer confidence and house prices are due out this week, and today sees the release of the CBI Distributive Trades Survey. The CBI’s research is expected to show robust retail sales growth in May. GDP growth in the first quarter is likely to be revised up to 0.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter [...]
UK house prices: First-time home buyers priced out of market July 2, 2015 Annual house price growth has slowed to a two-year low, according to a major mortgage provider. But months of fast growth has left first-time buyers struggling to put deposits together, despite government programmes to help them. House prices were 3.3 per cent higher in June than in the same month last year, Nationwide said. It [...]
First ever tracker mortgage with interest rate below one per cent June 5, 2015 CHELSEA Building Society yesterday unveiled the first ever tracker mortgage with an interest rate below one per cent. Housebuyers who want to borrow under the scheme need to meet stringent restrictions, including having a 35 per cent deposit and paying £1,545 in fees. But if they can do, applicants are rewarded with an interest rate [...]
Sheffield shows why manufacturing and finance enjoy a glorious synergy August 2, 2015 My title might be “lord mayor of the City of London”, but really that’s quite misleading. It’s my job to represent the whole of the UK’s financial and professional services industry, wherever it’s based. London may well be the largest single financial services centre in the UK, but 1.7m of the 2.1m people employed by [...]
Five charts showing how we’re massively underestimating how much life costs, including children, house prices and pension costs July 7, 2015 You're probably really bad at estimating how much things cost – but don't worry, most of us are. As a nation we're drastically underestimating the cost of major life events such as having children, buying a house, or saving for retirement, according to a new poll by King's College and Ipsos Mori. "It’s concerning that [...]
The UK must digitally disrupt to grow the economy and create jobs, or be disrupted July 23, 2015 Not many things are guaranteed in life, but the power of technology to disrupt our lives is one that is. Whether we look at the creation of the first personal computer in the 60s, the arrival of the World Wide Web in the 80s, or the smartphone connected world we now occupy; digital technology has [...]
UK house prices: The return of cheap housing finance? Chelsea Building Society unveils the first tracker mortgage to be launched with an interest rate lower than one per cent June 5, 2015 When the sub-prime mortgage bubble burst, everyone blamed cheap borrowing – but that clearly hasn't perturbed the Chelsea Building Society, which today unveiled the first ever tracker mortgage launched with an interest rate below one per cent. To be fair, housebuyers who want to borrow under the scheme need to meet pretty stringent restrictions, including [...]