Conversions to housing driving office shortage July 28, 2014 DEVELOPERS converting commercial property into private homes are helping to drive the sharpest decline in availability of non-residential buildings in at least 16 years. According to figures released today by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), there has been a rapid drop in the number of available commercial properties across the UK. A third [...]
London’s future growth depends on bridging the east Thames chasm July 10, 2014 London is growing – and it is growing eastwards. A combination of large-scale redevelopment projects and underdeveloped land means that east London is in demand for both new homes and jobs. Over a fifth of all developments underway in London today are taking place in Newham, Tower Hamlets and Greenwich, while over a third of [...]
Royal Mail plans to trial Sunday parcel delivery May 21, 2014 THE NEWLY-PRIVATISED Royal Mail is to start delivering parcels and opening its collection offices on Sundays to try and keep up with the demands of online shoppers and other postal companies. Royal Mail, which will post its first full-year results as a listed company today, plans to deliver parcels within the M25 seven days a [...]
Oxford Uni appoints Sir Paul Ruddock as investment boss June 26, 2014 SIR PAUL Ruddock, the co-founder of Lansdowne Partners, has been unveiled as the new chair of the Oxford University’s investment committee, his first major role since retiring from the group last year. Sir Paul will join the committee in September and become chair in January, taking over from Richard Oldfield. He exited the business he [...]
Update: Firefighters put out blaze near Woolwich’s Royal Arsenal May 27, 2015 Update: Firefighters have put out a blaze at a Berkeley Homes building site on Arsenal Way, Woolwich this afternoon. Four fire engines and 21 firefighters and officers from Greenwich, East Greenwich and Plumstead attended the incident, and the fire was extinguished in just under an hour. Station manager Joe Kenny, who was at the scene, [...]
Chinese insurer in talks to buy Canary Wharf tower for £780m June 11, 2014 A state-back Chinese insurance firm is thought to be in advanced talks to purchase law firm Clifford Chance’s headquarters in Canary Wharf for £780m. China Life, China’s largest life insurer, is understood to have been on the hunt for trophy assets to buy in London, providing further evidence of mounting interest from Chinese investors in [...]
Optimism about London’s economy grows – and east is where it’s at June 19, 2014 Optimism about London's economic growth remains high, according to a business survey by CBI and KPMG. Although a slight decline from last year's 70 per cent, it showed that 65 per cent of businesses are currently positive about the future of the economy, with 79 per cent rating London as a good, or very good, [...]
Lights out for darker skies: First World War started with a crash August 3, 2014 For the City, the Great War began with a financial crisis. Even before Britain committed itself, Europe’s great powers ranging against one another spelled disaster: the collapse of the magnificent, peaceful edifice of international trade built between the empires. As told in Jerry White’s riveting account of London in the war, Zeppelin Nights, on Friday [...]
Bottom Line: Postman Pat tries for a competitive edge May 21, 2014 WE GOT an advance delivery from Royal Mail ahead of its first full year results as a private company this morning. It announced plans for Sunday opening of some offices for parcel collection and a pilot Sunday delivery scheme. That’s significant, given how much of the delivery market Royal Mail has – 99 per cent [...]
Was this Primrose Hill mansion King Edward VII’s secret love nest? June 20, 2014 EVERY street corner in London tells a thousand stories, and the same can be said of its buildings. But an unassuming family home in Primrose Hill, north London, probably has a few novels under its roof, given its connections to royal scandals and the invention of daylight savings time. Elsworthy Road is on the market [...]