The City of London has its own caliphate – and they have away days in Hampshire September 18, 2014 Given what we've learned about caliphates over recent months – largely from the rise of the brutal Islamic State (IS) in the Middle East – the City of London, with its decidedly Western attitudes to money-making, is not where you’d expect to find one. But it turns out the Square Mile is home to [...]
Risky projects like HS3 are the only way to rescue our languishing regions July 16, 2014 In London and much of the South East, the recovery has been well underway for a considerable period of time. House prices boom and restaurants are packed. The economic data for the UK as a whole looks just as encouraging, with employment now at its highest ever level. Yet there are persistent complaints that the [...]
Dividend hike expected for FTSE 350 firms July 7, 2014 DIVIDENDS from FTSE 350 firms are projected to climb by £74.5bn this year, up 4.7 per cent, with an even larger increase expected for the year afterwards. A new forecast by Markit suggests that after a significant rise this year, dividends among the UK’s large listed firms will surge by nine per cent in the [...]
Lloyds caps mortgages May 20, 2014 LLOYDS Bank yesterday announced a shock clampdown on home lending designed to tackle the London housing boom, saying applications for mortgages worth over £500,000 would now be subject to a new income test. Borrowers will now only be able to get their hands on over half a million pounds from the UK’s biggest mortgage lender [...]
Housing fears rise even as risk of crash recedes June 9, 2014 THE BRITISH economy has the lowest risk of a crash than at any time since at least 2008, but house prices are increasingly concerning financial institutions, according to the Bank of England. In the Bank’s latest systemic risk survey, released yesterday, 46 per cent of respondents said that the likelihood of a high-impact event in [...]
Our booming population faces a crippling shortage of homes January 12, 2014 ANOTHER day, another report providing yet more evidence that Britain’s housing crisis is getting worse. Countrywide estimates that England will face a shortfall of 1m homes by 2021, half of which will be in London and the South East. The problem, of course, is that our planning rules have throttled house-building in the UK, guaranteeing [...]
Letters to the Editor – 06/06 – Penning in the poor, Home working, Best of Twitter June 5, 2014 Penning in the poor [Re: Why Britain’s housing crisis risks turning into catastrophe, Wednesday] An excellent, angry piece by Paul Cheshire. Alongside the problem he identifies of Britain building houses where they’re needed least, our new homes are also among the smallest in Europe. All these land use restrictions have the effect of penning poor [...]
London house prices: City closing in on West End’s values June 23, 2014 Residential property prices in the City are rapidly rising to match some of London’s most expensive areas, and could catch up with the costliest parts of the West End in just five years’ time. Typical house and flat prices in the City were 60 per cent lower than their equivalents in the ultra-prime areas of [...]
Suitors line up for Bonhams as outfit goes under the hammer June 5, 2014 A HANDFUL of private equity suitors have submitted first round bids for 220-year-old British auction house Bonhams, after the firm opted for a sale over a stock market float. Up to six firms are understood to have submitted bids for the company, including offers from the UK arm Mitt Romney-founded Bain Capital, as well as [...]
Failure to cut deficit poses challenge to Treasury as George Osborne struggles to meet fiscal targets July 22, 2014 The economic recovery is still failing to cut the government’s huge budget deficit, with analysts yesterday suggesting that chancellor George Osborne might not be on course to reach his own fiscal targets. The UK borrowed £11.37bn excluding one-off interventions in June, barely less than in the same month last year. In June 2013, public borrowing [...]