UK weather: Rising levels of surface water flooding put success of Flood Re insurance scheme at risk, warn academics February 8, 2016 The success of a reinsurance scheme designed to cut insurance costs for households with a high risk of flooding is in jeopardy thanks to rising levels of surface water flooding, academics have warned. According to a paper published today by Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the ESRC Centre for Climate Change [...]
Hurricane Irma slams into Florida as losses could soar to $200bn September 11, 2017 More than 6m people have been ordered to evacuate and over 2.4m homes and businesses were left without power as Hurricane Irma battered Florida’s west coast yesterday. The storm lashed the so-called sunshine state with sustained winds of 130mph, leaving at least three people dead. The hurricane struck Miami with huge force, causing widespread flooding [...]
Flood Re publishes plan explaining how it will lower premiums for home insurance customers in high-risk areas beyond 2039 February 10, 2016 Flood Re has today published a transition plan detailing how it will help home insurance customers in flood-risk areas get a better deal once the scheme expires in 2039. Flood Re, which is due to start operating in April and could benefit up to 350,000 homes, has outlined how it will use the data it [...]
Global markets are correcting not crashing February 7, 2018 When it came, the correction looked brutal: $4 trillion wiped off global stocks in a single day. But let’s not get carried away here. This was a correction rather than a rout whatever the newspapers might have us believe. The Dow Jones is still up 21% compared with the same time a year ago. The [...]
Top of the food chain: Meet the company helping street-food vendors become the next big thing February 8, 2018 Londoners have a growing obsession with good food. Our European cousins may have scoffed at British cuisine in the past, but a change has taken place over recent years. The multicultural nature of our city means we have been flooded with influences from all around the world, and we now boast an entire smorgasbord [...]
The digital nomads: How to pack a suitcase and start a new life working from abroad January 25, 2018 Who among us hasn’t dreamed of jacking in their day job to trade forex from a laptop in Malibu or open a beach bar in Thailand? You might have read The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss and asked why you haven’t yet “escaped the nine-to-five to live anywhere and join the new rich”. I [...]
Ofo and Urbo are the latest dockless bike-sharing startups to hit London’s streets after oBike and Mobike September 5, 2017 Mobike, obike, o not another bike… cycle-sharing is about to get even more crowded in London. Ofo is the latest bike-sharing startup to launch in the capital, bringing 200 cycles to the streets of Hackney without the need for docking like the capital's Boris Bikes (or Santander Cycles as they're officially known). It follows a [...]
Ofo and Urbo are the latest dockless bike-sharing startups to hit London’s streets after oBike and Mobike September 5, 2017 Mobike, obike, o not another bike… cycle-sharing is about to get even more crowded in London. Ofo is the latest bike-sharing startup to launch in the capital, bringing 200 cycles to the streets of Hackney without the need for docking like the capital’s Boris Bikes (or Santander Cycles as they’re officially known). It follows a [...]
Influencers must work hard to earn trust in 2018 January 24, 2018 Within the space of a week, two events hit the news that point to a pivotal 12 months between influencers and their publics, and represents good news for PR consultants. Firstly, a very public spat between a social media influencer and a Dublin hotel, and secondly, a leading global survey into public trust in the [...]
What happened when we got a job picking weed in California’s booming cannabis industry March 5, 2018 The rugged wilderness of Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity Counties, northern California’s “Emerald Triangle”, produces over half the cannabis consumed in the US. Every year, from September to December, the region swarms with seasonal agricultural workers known as “trimmers”, or “trimmigrants”, here to work the land to supply America’s legion of stoners. For years the going [...]