Most Help to Buy beneficiaries ‘did not need scheme’ June 13, 2019 The government’s Help to Buy scheme has been accused of subsidising existing homeowners, after it emerged most people who have bought a house using the programme could have done so without it. A National Audit Office report today said three-fifths of buyers could have bought a property without the support of Help to Buy, “but [...]
Can Amazon really be a climate change champion? June 12, 2019 Amazon is not a company normally associated with meaningful strides towards a low carbon future. Although e-commerce is typically better for the environment than heavily air-conditioned, high street stores, speedy deliveries carry a high carbon cost. Any Amazon shopper may feel a pang of guilt – as I have – at using the one day delivery [...]
Crest Nicholson reports profit slump on Brexit uncertainty June 11, 2019 Crest Nicholson reported a fall in profits this morning as Brexit uncertainty kept house prices flat across the south of England. The figures Revenue was £501.9m, up seven per cent on half-year 2018 while profit before tax fell 11 per cent to 64.4m. Read more: Intu appoints ex-Crest Nicholson exec as finance chief The company [...]
Focus On Bermondsey: The London borough with the Shard in its back yard June 7, 2019 Seventy two households, all belonging to the Count Robert of Mortain, and collectively worth a grand total of 40 pence; this was the value of Bermondsey as recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086. Things have changed somewhat since then (Bermondsey wasn’t even an official part of London at the time), but few areas have [...]
Homes outnumber shops on UK high streets June 6, 2019 Residential addresses now outnumber retailers by more than two to one on UK high streets, data published today reveals. Read more: Boots considers more than 200 store closures The percentage of retail business fell two per cent to comprise just 25 per cent of high street addresses between 2012 and 2017, according to the Office [...]
Crisis-era ‘bad bank’ repays last of government loan June 5, 2019 The so-called bad bank created to take on the debts of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley (B&B) after the financial crisis has paid back the last of the almost £50bn used to fund the bailouts. Read more: Rothesay life buys £860m of UK ‘bad bank’ mortgage loans Treasury-owned UK Asset Resolution (UKAR) today said [...]
Pawning the family treasure: Rare chess piece set to fetch up to £1m June 3, 2019 A rare and long-lost medieval chess piece could fetch up to £1m at an auction in Edinburgh tomorrow. Sotheby’s is putting a Lewis Chessman piece up for sale some 55 years after it was snapped up by an eagle-eyed Edinburgh antiques dealer for £5. Read more: David Hockney's pool painting breaks record for living artist [...]
Toasting a deal: Bollinger takes stake in wine merchant backed by Michael Spencer May 30, 2019 Champagne house Bollinger has snapped up a minority stake in a UK fine wine merchant backed by City grandee Michael Spencer. Societe Jacques Bollinger (SJB), the family group behind one of France's most prestigious champagne firms, is understood to have acquired a minority stake of up to 10 per cent in BI Wines & Spirits [...]
Profits slide at Telford amid housing uncertainty and move into rental market May 29, 2019 Telford Homes has posted a double-digit drop in full-year profits before tax, as a move into less lucrative rental projects and a slowdown in the capital’s property market hit the London-based housebuilder. The developer said margins had been hit by its direction away from traditional private house sales and into the build-to-rent market, as it [...]
Kleinman: Government must steel itself for share of blame May 24, 2019 Few economic symbols speak more powerfully to a nation’s sense of self-worth than the decline of its heavy industries: just look at the justifiable angst surrounding the collapse into insolvency this week of British Steel. The crisis engulfing a company on which close to 25,000 people’s jobs depend would be tragic at any time; the [...]