Transport bosses invite buskers with the X Factor to auditions January 21, 2013 THE DIZZYING career arc of a reality TV music star often takes in a spot of busking along the way. But Transport for London has decided to turn the format on its head, inviting prospective London buskers to take part in a terrifying round of X Factor-style auditions to win a coveted spot serenading droves [...]
Airport owners can’t control the weather… or airlines January 20, 2013 IT WAS a terrible week to announce the sale of an airport. Snow has sent air travel into meltdown, in spite of airports’ best efforts to stock up on pricey new ploughs and grit, while safety fears over Boeing’s new Dreamliner planes are playing havoc with the industry’s public image. For Stansted, however, any buyer [...]
Online shopping is masking the birth of hybrid retailers January 15, 2013 THE fall of yet another iconic British retailer, HMV, does little to assuage fears that the high street in its current form is in terminal decline. The statistics are bleak. According to a survey by PwC and the Local Data Company, 32 stores closed each day in July and August 2012. Over one gloomy five [...]
Cobham recruits chief financial officer from listed peer Senior November 26, 2012 DEFENCE manufacturer Cobham yesterday poached the group finance director of its FTSE 250 aerospace technology rival Senior to become its new chief financial officer. Simon Nicholls will leave Senior at the end of April next year after five years in the post to replace outgoing Cobham CFO Warren Tucker, who will stand down at the [...]
Analyst Views | What does this mean for the world economy? January 2, 2013 KEVIN BURROWES PWC UK banks will breathe a sigh of relief today as the threat of the biggest economy slipping back into a recession diminishes.” KIT JUCKES SOCIÉTÉ GÉNÉRALE 2013 GDP growth is now likely to be 2–2.5 per cent, and the chances of [second half] growth exceeding three per cent are significant.” DAN MORRIS [...]
Post-Olympics hangover for London as occupancy rate falls November 4, 2012 A STUDY out today predicts that Britain’s hotels industry will next year suffer its lowest occupancy levels since 2005. Accountancy giant PwC said Revenue Per Available Room (RevPar) is set to rise four per cent to a record £114.71 this year, driven by one-off events such as the Jubilee and the Olympics. In 2013, however, [...]
Osborne’s axe on pensions tax relief extends beyond wealthy December 5, 2012 GOVERNMENT plans to limit tax-free pension saving could hit a wide swathe of society, not just the wealthiest, industry experts warned. The maximum amount a saver can put into a pension over their life, without facing tax, will be sliced from £1.5m to £1.25m in 2014-5, having already been cut from £1.8m. And the annual tax [...]
Forget Europe: our only hope is to trade with emerging giants January 15, 2013 BY 2050, the largest European economies will be ranked just ninth and tenth globally; and the UK will have fallen to 11th, behind Germany and France – or so says PwC. This leads to two conclusions: first, we really need a supply-side revolution to boost long-term UK growth as there is no reason why the [...]
Inflation and poor returns turn screws on defined benefit plans November 25, 2012 FIRMS with defined benefit (DB) pension schemes are still struggling to get their funding holes under control, research out today claims. Low investment returns coupled with heightened inflation has left FTSE 350 firms falling even further behind the funding requirements of their DB programmes. PwC’s pension support tracker has stood at 74 out of 100 [...]
Starbucks to donate tax to UK coffers December 2, 2012 STARBUCKS is seeking to voluntarily pay more UK corporation tax, the coffee chain said yesterday, in a victory for angry MPs and activists. But experts warned that a tax system based on public pressure on a few high-profile firms, rather than one that relies on actual changes to tax law, risks undermining investors’ faith in [...]