London house prices ready to break through £500,000 mark August 19, 2014 House price growth dipped slightly in June, while the average property in the capital climbed to just shy of £500,000, according to figures released yesterday. Prices across the UK as a whole still rose in the year to June, up by 10.2 per cent, but the figure was a slight drop from May’s 10.7 per [...]
Goal-based investing: Why it pays to look at the big picture October 21, 2014 There’s no golden rule, but don’t be afraid to take risks. The casual observer might think that the only way to invest is to seek the highest possible return on a single pot of money, chasing the latest themes in markets and following certain star fund managers. But the experts say that goal-based investing [...]
As business surveys trigger worries over a UK growth slowdown, should we be concerned? October 5, 2014 Ben Brettell is senior economist at Hargreaves Lansdown, says Yes. Last week’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) figures certainly point to a deceleration in economic growth, although it should be noted that, despite a modest fall in September, the PMI for the services sector (responsible for two-thirds of GDP) is still well into expansionary territory. Collectively, [...]
Hats off to our deficit-cutting bankers – CNBC Comment November 17, 2014 Nice work gents… I don my hat.” Those forex-rigging traders copped some decent lingo. But it could quite easily have been George Osborne. That’s not to suggest the chancellor was pleased about the manipulation of the $5.3 trillion a day market, of course, But rather that he’s made an even bigger turn than the numpty [...]
UK house prices surging despite new regulation August 6, 2014 UK house prices rose at the fastest pace in seven years during July, up by more than a tenth, according to figures released by Halifax yesterday. The bank said that house prices had risen by 10.2 per cent over the 12 month period. The figures fly in the face of others indices, which indicate that house [...]
Estee Lauder has a beautiful year in Britain August 27, 2014 Fashion house Estée Lauder UK retail sales were up 10 per cent for the fiscal year ending 30 June. Britain is the second largest market for the company, which outperformed the Prestige Beauty sector market, where retail sales were up 5.4 per cent.
Mortgage approvals skyrocket to 76-month high February 25, 2014 Mortgage approvals have skyrocketed by 57 per cent year-on-year to a 76-month high in January, according to the British Bankers Association (BBA). Approvals for house purchases leapt to 49,972 in January from 47,086 in December. The numbers follow a stream of data showing a sustained burst of activity in the UK housing market. In 2013, [...]
Topps Tiles lines up profit rise as home improvement sector scores September 24, 2014 Topps Tiles expects pre-tax profits to have risen by one-third this year, with revenue also up as the buoyant housing market encourages home improvements. The tiling specialist has been helped by increased spending as the general economy improved. In a trading statement for the year ending tomorrow, the firm said revenues will be in the [...]
London house prices make it the world’s most expensive city September 23, 2014 London is the world's most expensive city, according to a new report. High property costs (the average price just went over £500,000 according to the ONS), high transports costs and expensive drinks have long been the bane of Londoners, and now a new report from Savills, an estate agent, has calculated London to top its [...]
Planning liberalisation is the closest thing there is to an economic silver bullet September 15, 2014 WITH low productivity, high inflation and terrible industrial relations, in 1977, Britain was a basket case. So that year, businessman John Hoskyns decided to dedicate substantial effort to analysing the UK’s economic problems. The result was a flow diagram, which sought to trace out the fundamental causes of the malaise. Hoskyns’s work pinned the blame [...]