Liz Truss reportedly thinks UK-US trade deal before 2023 is unlikely July 11, 2021 International trade secretary Liz Truss is reportedly resigned to not closing a UK-US trade deal before 2023 as she prepares to travel to Washington today. Truss will go to the US to meet Joe Biden’s Trade Representative Katherine Tai as a part of a five-day working trip, which will also include a stop in California. [...]
High as a kite: The boom in the cannabis industry has forced the green sector to tackle its sustainability challenge July 10, 2021 Cannabis has long been considered a green industry, ready for the future. More and more places are decriminalising cannabis and the UK has become awash with CBD products. There has even been a growing market for hemp-based clothes as demand for sustainable fashion has eschewed cheap products. Hemp, a variety of cannabis, is an extremely [...]
The Analyst: What could the future hold for Channel 4? July 10, 2021 Ian Whittaker has been a City analyst for more than two decades, and what he doesn’t know about media, advertising and the creative services industry isn’t worth knowing. Here’s his second monthly column for City A.M. The UK Government recently announced a consultation on the future of state-owned Channel 4. Theoretically all options remain but [...]
Five years since Brexit: four charts to show UK shares could be returning to favour July 9, 2021 As Brexit negotiations reached their denouement late last year UK investors sensed the outlook for their home market improving. The Schroders 2020 UK Financial Adviser Survey revealed 40% of respondents were looking to increase allocations to UK shares over the subsequent 12 months, see: Are investors adjusting to the new normal? Six months on, with a “no-deal” outcome [...]
Police officer Wayne Couzens pleads guilty to Sarah Everard murder July 9, 2021 The Metropolitan police officer pleaded guilty to the murder of Sarah Everard at the Old Bailey on Friday morning. Ms Everard, who was 33, went missing as she walked home from a friend’s house in Clapham on 3 March. Her body was found a week later in woodland in Kent. Wayne Couzens, a 48-year-old married [...]
Exclusive: Rising fintech star and former PayPal tech lead on his new payments venture July 8, 2021 Wise £8bn launch on the London Stock Exchange yesterday underpins how the capital’s fintech scene is booming, with a clear investor appetite for payment platforms such as Wise. Another fintech company in this space that has flourished in the last twelve months is Osu, an instant payments app that was created specifically for the self-employed [...]
Business travel groups urge government to prioritise international visitor exemption from quarantine July 8, 2021 Business travel firms have cheered today’s loosening of travel restrictions, but warned that the government needs to apply the same rules to international visitors if the sector is to fully recover. Earlier today transport secretary Grant Shapps announced that fully vaccinated Brits would no longer have to quarantine on return from “amber list” countries. The [...]
Socialism is on the rise in the UK – we need radical free-market solutions to issues like the housing crisis to fight it July 8, 2021 Last Friday, an underwater oil pipeline burst in the Gulf of Mexico. Spectacular images of a burning oil patch, which looked a lot like the “eye of Sauron” from Lord of the Rings, quickly went viral around the world. What had gone wrong? It did not take long for Twitter to reach its verdict: the [...]
Surging house prices fuels revenue growth at Persimmon July 8, 2021 Housebuilder Persimmon posted a strong set of results for the first six months of the year, driven by surging house prices. Revenues climbed to £1.84bn in the first half of 2021, up from £1.75bn over the same period in 2019 – before the pandemic struck. Income for 2020 was £1.19bn. Surging house prices driven by [...]
Editorial: A growing talent time-bomb is putting London’s economic recovery in peril July 7, 2021 London feels more normal than it has done for a long time. Soho is buzzing, Oxford Street has begun to see elements of a footfall revival, and at certain times in recent weeks it’s been possible to see young men of a certain age getting merrily tanked up before going to the football. And not [...]