Bank of England Fair and Effective Markets Review: Tens of thousands more City workers to be covered by the senior managers regime June 10, 2015 The Bank of England (BoE) today unveiled a set of tough new market rules which will increase individual responsibility among banks' senior managers and lengthen jail sentences for market abuse. Read more: Why the financial system has the same qualities as cancer Recommendations from The Fair and Effective Markets Review include extending the senior managers regime [...]
Cairn Homes IPO: Irish homebuilder to raise about £270m in London listing June 3, 2015 Irish housebuilder Cairn Homes will raise around £270m in a London flotation to take advantage of Ireland’s resurgence by building more homes for the country’s rising population of young househunters. The company, which was formed about a year ago by Michael Stanley and Alan McIntosh, will sell shares to investors for €1 each, raising money [...]
Jeremy Corbyn: Leadership lessons from Corbyn’s first five days September 17, 2015 The first few days are rarely simple for a new leader. If you’re appointed chief executive to turn around an ailing company, your ideas may be met with a hostile reception. A Labour MP for more than 30 years, the party’s new leader Jeremy Corbyn is hardly an external appointment. But he is [...]
UK house prices: Home ownership falls for first time in over a century as renting soared June 19, 2015 The UK experienced its first fall in home ownership in a century between 2001 and 2011, according to data from the Office of National Statistics. Some 64 per cent of the 23.4m households in England and Wales were owner-occupied in 2011 – down from 69 per cent in 2001. Rented households accounted for 36 per cent [...]
Drinking at home: An in-house bar is the latest must-have for London’s super-rich June 25, 2015 There are a few base-level requirements if you’re planning on a selling a London property for upwards of £10m. Gyms are essential, as are home cinemas. If there’s a roof, it must be terraced. If there’s a basement, there must be a wine cellar. A recent addition to the ever-lengthening list of must-haves [...]
UK house prices: Growth slows for the first time in 2015 May 8, 2015 UK house price growth has fallen on a three-month basis for the first time in 2015, according to Halifax. The figures For the three months to April 2015, house prices in the UK grew 2.2 per cent, lower than the last three months, when it was 2.6 per cent. On a monthly basis prices rose [...]
July Budget 2015: From benefits caps and child tax credits cuts to pension and inheritance tax changes, here’s what to expect July 7, 2015 Tomorrow, George Osborne takes to the despatch box for his first truly Conservative Budget – indeed, the first majority Conservative Budget since 1996. The chancellor is notoriously good at trailing the contents of his Budgets before he stands up – so what do we know so far? Read more: Budget live – all the key announcements [...]
Focus on Wimbledon property: A game of two halves in SW19 June 25, 2015 The world’s eyes will make their annual pilgrimage to Wimbledon on Monday, where they’ll spend several hours swivelling backwards and forwards watching the greatest tennis tournament on earth. While this leafy corner of south west London is primarily known for racquet sports, the rest of the year it’s one of the fastest-growing local property markets [...]
Why over-55s are “trapped” in £820bn worth of outsized homes June 1, 2015 Homeowners over the age of 55 are sitting on £820bn worth of "under-occupied" homes, new research has suggested – a figure which could hit £1.2 trillion by 2020. The research, by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) and institutional investor Legal & General (L&G), suggested so-called "last-time buyers" are struggling to maintain large [...]
UK inflation: Pound hits seven-week high as inflation unexpectedly hits 0.1 per cent in July August 18, 2015 The pound hit a seven-week high against the greenback this morning as investors cheered a better-than-expected inflation figure. Official data showed the consumer price index rose 0.1 per cent in the year to July, from zero a month earlier, beating economists' expectations for no change. Nevertheless inflation still remains well below the Bank of England's target [...]