Meet the serial entrepreneur building P2P energy company Squeaky March 13, 2017 That was the worst choice of name ever,” admits serial energy entrepreneur Chris Bowden, as I add an extra syllable to “Utilyx”, his first company, which he sold to Mitie in 2012 for £16.2m. Founded in 2000, it became the largest energy broker for commercial and industrial consumers and independent power producers. “When we started, [...]
Editor’s Notes: Tory immigration policy will harm the City and our economy, Corbyn’s deleted Chavez past and City AM founders included in Change Makers series May 26, 2017 Back when George Osborne was chancellor and Theresa May was home secretary, the pair would argue over the wisdom of seeking dramatic reductions in net migration. May was obsessed with the idea, and clearly still is, whereas Osborne was instinctively more comfortable with the view that immigration was nothing to worry about and the benefits [...]
Millennials don’t want build to rent. They want to buy homes like everyone else December 9, 2016 In the 1960s and 1970s architects designed a maze of gigantic housing estates stretching from Elephant and Castle to Peckham. When the buildings were complete, you could walk from the Aylesbury Estate near Elephant and Castle to the North Peckham estate via the Elmington Estate in Camberwell using elevated pedestrian walkways without ever touching the [...]
Brexit, General Election 2017: It’s time for entrepreneurs to get involved in the policy debate April 26, 2017 Some people love politics – the cut and thrust, cheering and jeering, pavement pounding and leafleting in support of their tribe. Others, not so much. For the haters and agnostics, recent months and years have been a trying time. Brexit and Trump are more than enough politics for most of us; now we have a [...]
Forget Brexit: London and Belgium are collaborating on fintech January 11, 2017 London's world-leading fintech sector is forging ahead despite Brexit with closer ties to counterparts in Belgium, the heart of European government. Belgium's finance minister Johan Van Overtveldt and a delegation of fintech experts are in London to build closer ties with the city and launch a new platform for fostering collaboration between startups and finance firms. "Brexit [...]
Construction firms hit brick wall as depreciation in sterling pushes up costs of building materials January 9, 2017 Building projects could be about to shoot up in price, as figures out today show more than seven in 10 UK builders have seen an increase in the cost of materials. Thousands of smaller building firms are now grappling with rising material prices caused by the depreciation of the pound since the EU referendum in [...]
Why solving the country’s housing crisis means backing – not battering – landlords January 10, 2017 Politics is a strange world, and the year’s events (Trump, Brexit and elsewhere in Europe) are topsy-turvy. But I still find it strange that Britain’s best and most effective form of housing provision, the private rented sector, is coming under such consistent attack. Policies such as changes to the way landlords are taxed, the stamp duty [...]
Who said millennials don’t want to climb the property ladder? December 9, 2016 In the 1960s and 1970s architects designed a maze of gigantic housing estates stretching from Elephant and Castle to Peckham. When the buildings were complete, you could walk from the Aylesbury Estate near Elephant and Castle to the North Peckham estate via the Elmington Estate in Camberwell using elevated pedestrian walkways without ever touching the [...]
Buck up: UK tech sector not doing enough to attract female talent, according to research by PwC March 6, 2017 The UK's tech sector isn't doing enough to attract female talent, according to research by PwC. Only a quarter of female students in the UK (27 per cent) would consider a career in technology, compared to 62 per cent of males, PwC's survey of 2,000 A level and university students has found. Only three per cent of females [...]
Tony Pidgley on Berkeley Group’s demotion from FTSE 100, giving up his six-figure salary and solving London’s housing crisis March 15, 2017 Berkeley Homes bowed out of the FTSE 100 following the Brexit vote last year but founder and chairman Tony Pidgley CBE isn’t perturbed. “I don’t run Berkeley for whether it's in or out of the FTSE 100. I run Berkeley because Berkeley does what it does well,” Pidgley tells City A.M. “I couldn’t control Brexit [...]