Cognicity Challenge: Canary Wharf Group’s £300,000 smart city startup fund October 21, 2014 Canary Wharf Group yesterday launched a startup accelerator programme to find six so-called smart city technologies – that drive cost savings using technology in fields such as transport and construction – to be piloted across its estate. The Cognicity Challenge will be spread over six sectors: integrated transportation, connected home, virtual design, construction, integrated resource [...]
The City must make the case for EU reform – for the sake of all Europe January 5, 2015 The General Election looms large at the start of this New Year. For practical reasons, business prizes stability and places a premium on calm trading conditions, as major changes in policy have an unsettling effect on potential investors. And few decisions will have such a far reaching impact on the UK economy as what we [...]
UK house prices: Housebuilding won’t meet demand, so will 2015 lead to a worsening supply shortage? December 29, 2014 Despite the slowing housing market, a surplus of demand and dearth of properties could lead the housing market into crisis in 2015. A survey by the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) has revealed many of its members believe that government plans to build new homes will not do enough to sate demand. [...]
Galliford wins £77m projects in Northamptonshire and Surrey October 22, 2014 CONTRACTOR Galliford Try yesterday announced it had been appointed to construct two building projects, totalling £77m, including the construction of council offices for Northamptonshire County Council. Galliford will build the 17,600 square metre council offices and a cafe in a regeneration area on the south side of Northampton, in a contract worth £38m. It has [...]
London technology sector booms: Start-ups receive twice as much venture capital funding in 2014 December 30, 2014 The amount of venture capital funding given to technology start-ups in London hit a record high this year. According to research group CB Insights for London & Partners, investors put $1.4bn (£0.9bn) into the capital’s young companies over the last 12 months. This is twice as high as last year and 20 times higher than [...]
George Osborne under fire for seven day current account switching service timidity November 25, 2014 George Osborne is expected to tweak the seven day current account switching scheme to iron out some of the wrinkles in the system, in his Autumn Statement next week. But the changes did not go nearly far enough to open up the market to competition, the Yorkshire Building Society said. And consumer group Which? also called [...]
Game of phones: £22.5bn worth of deals transforming UK mobile, broadband and TV markets January 29, 2015 Britain raced further towards a future where you might buy your mobile, landline, TV and broadband all from the same supplier yesterday after Sky revealed it will add mobile to its offering next year. The European pay-TV giant said a partnership with O2 will allow it to launch a so-called quad play offering next year, [...]
Analysis: Why has Tesco chosen to shut these 43 stores? January 29, 2015 Tesco has now announced the 43 stores that it plans to close. 18 Express stores, 12 metro stores, seven superstores and six Home Plus stores. The closures will start taking effect from March. What does it tell us about their location strategy when one looks at the stores set to close? It is a [...]
From banking to barista: Meet Notes director Edward Halfon February 8, 2015 Mass-produced coffee is out: new, hip speciality cafes are in. Former financier Edward Halfon tells Annabel Denham how the founders of food and wine “destination” Notes plan to indulge our ever-evolving taste buds. Recent research from the small business website Startups.co.uk found that “cult cafes” will become the hottest business opportunity over the next 12 [...]
City jobs drive UK productivity as sector grows: Average finance worker contributes £85,000 to the economy each year December 21, 2014 The City is continuing to punch above its weight to boost productivity in the economy, figures out today reveal. Around 2.1m people now work in the finance and professional services industry across the nation. This represents only 7.2 per cent of the UK’s workforce, but contributes 12 per cent of the UK’s £1.5 trillion total [...]