The burden of business rates falls unfairly on the West End April 4, 2019 This week, UK retailers received one of their biggest tax bills of the year. The consequences of the 2017 revaluation of business rates will again be felt, with a further hike of nearly 50 per cent for some companies. Retailers in London’s West End and Mayfair will once again be hardest hit, paying the lion’s [...]
Card Factory posts higher revenues despite ‘challenging’ high street conditions November 15, 2018 Card Factory shares slipped today as high street sales stayed flat year on year for the nine months to October, despite the high street retailer enjoying an online boost. Group revenue grew by 3.4 per cent year on year for the period, but like-for-like sales stayed flat compared to the first nine months of 2017. Card [...]
UK house price growth hits six-year low as experts warn of ‘Brexit downward spiral’ March 20, 2019 London house prices fell 1.6 per cent in the year to January, official data revealed today, as experts warned a mix of Brexit uncertainty and the death of buy to let are hurting the value of homes. The sharp price drop in the capital's housing market meant overall UK house prices rose just 1.7 per [...]
‘Waitrose of the north’ posts £2.2m sales loss amid trading pressures October 15, 2018 Booths, the Lancashire-based supermarket chain dubbed “the Waitrose of the north” for its focus on high-quality food, posted a £2.2m loss on sales but cut its overall losses in half, its latest results revealed. The family-owned-and-operated supermarket, which has 28 stores across Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cumbria, Cheshire and Greater Manchester, saw its losses before taxation fall [...]
Plans for tiny robot workers to fix Britain’s underground pipes get £7m government backing January 3, 2019 Tiny robots the size of a human fingernail will one day swim and crawl along Britain’s vast network of underground pipes, working in teams to carry out repairs in place of people. The government is to plough £7m into the creation of the micro robots, which it hopes will one day perform infrastructure maintenance work on pipes, [...]
Time to clamp down on the work-life double standard February 8, 2019 Ironically, it’s technology that will solve the very predicament it has created This year marks five years since legislation was broadened out to give all employees the right to request flexible working from their employer. What’s developed since then is a highly mobile workforce that has made the most of flexible working freedoms and the [...]
Automakers and the tech giants are battling over the future of the car industry March 5, 2019 More than 100 years after the petrol-powered car passed go for the first time – and despite worldwide sales at a record high in 2018 – stress fractures are starting to appear. Tesla is on track to outsell both BMW and Mercedes-Benz in the US, car sales in China are declining for the first time in [...]
Fix the housing crisis and save the high street at the same time November 15, 2018 Two "crises" have dominated the headlines in the last year. The first is the pressure on housing, the challenges of the rental market, and the soaring cost of living, especially in big cities. The second is the so-called “death of the high street”, as shopping habits change and the retail sector struggles to keep up. [...]
How the UK can work with Japan to make the world a safer and more stable place December 4, 2018 The language of diplomacy can sometimes be very general. Diplomats and politicians invoke the idea of “partnerships” and “strong bilateral relations” without making clear to their citizens why they matter or what the benefits might be. Talk about trading opportunities gives a sense of something practical emerging from these sorts of relationship, but trade and investment is just [...]
German budget supermarket chain Lidl boosts wages for UK employees November 6, 2018 German budget supermarket Lidl will boost wages for thousands of its workers in the UK, it said yesterday. Lidl said entry-level wages will increase from £8.75 an hour to £9 an hour outside of London and from £10.20 to £10.55 an hour within the capital. The increase will come into effect from 1 March next year, [...]