Light at the end of the North Sea oil pipeline: Oil firms have all taken a hit by the decline in global crude prices. But has it hit rock bottom? August 19, 2015 The affect of fraught conditions in oil markets on North Sea companies was revealed yesterday as John Wood Group and Cairn Energy announced their half-year results. Wood Group revealed it has axed around 5,000 jobs in response to the decline in crude oil prices, with 1,000 of them coming from North Sea operations. The company’s [...]
The National Living Wage could make eradicating the deficit a three Parliament problem September 10, 2015 Today we have upgraded our forecast for UK GDP growth to 2.6 per cent for this year and next. On the face of it, we should be content with such an outcome, particularly when looking at the economic problems facing the Eurozone and the recent slowdown in China that has reverberated across markets around the [...]
Lidl celebrates record £4bn turnover as discounter cements place in UK with new head office July 15, 2015 Lidl’s UK operation has announced plans to build a new head office in Tolworth, south west London, in a move seen as cementing its big player status in the UK supermarket sector. The expansion comes in the wake of what the company said is its most successful trading year yet. The new office [...]
London bucks trend of growth in UK new home registrations May 28, 2015 New home registrations declined in London during the period between February and April, despite an increase across the UK in general. Registrations of new homes increased by 20 per cent in the quarter, compared to the same period in 2013, according to the National House Building Council (NHBC), and 12,459 homes were registered in April, [...]
Black Monday 2015: Don’t panic, the outlook after the stock market crash remains positive – despite volatility August 24, 2015 Yesterday’s dramatic moves in stock markets around the world, coming on top of the pronounced market volatility of recent weeks, will have concerned investors, with the lack of a single clear trigger making it harder to assess the potential for this volatility to be sustained. While the fluctuations we’ve seen over the last few [...]
London’s next mayor must harness the City to tackle the housing crisis – David Lammy June 8, 2015 Not a day goes by without a politician talking about the London housing crisis, and rightly so. It is the biggest challenge our city faces, causing serious problems for almost all sections of the capital, from businesses to renters and families to first time buyers. Politicians have a frustrating tendency to talk about housing with [...]
Galliford Try wins £55m of school projects May 7, 2015 GALLIFORD Try said yesterday that it has won two new contracts in the education sector worth up to £55m. The FTSE 250’s construction business Morrison Construction will refurbish four primary schools in Scotland after being appointed preferred bidder by Moray Council. Its building business has also won a £38m contract in Hull and East Riding [...]
Singapore at 50: Lessons for the UK from its stunning rise August 10, 2015 Two out of every three Singaporean dollars invested in Europe come to the UK. Over 1,000 British firms and every leading UK university collaborates with the country. As Singapore turns 50, it’s worth asking how we got our relations so right. And what more can we learn from the Little Red Dot’s extraordinary rise? From [...]
The UK must digitally disrupt to grow the economy and create jobs, or be disrupted July 23, 2015 Not many things are guaranteed in life, but the power of technology to disrupt our lives is one that is. Whether we look at the creation of the first personal computer in the 60s, the arrival of the World Wide Web in the 80s, or the smartphone connected world we now occupy; digital technology has [...]
Sheffield shows why manufacturing and finance enjoy a glorious synergy August 2, 2015 My title might be “lord mayor of the City of London”, but really that’s quite misleading. It’s my job to represent the whole of the UK’s financial and professional services industry, wherever it’s based. London may well be the largest single financial services centre in the UK, but 1.7m of the 2.1m people employed by [...]