City Moves for 12 September 2013 | Who’s switching jobs September 11, 2013 Davenport Lyons The law firm has announced the appointment of Colin Sawdy as a partner in its intellectual property team. Sawdy specialises in trademarks, design and copyright. He was most recently at Edwards Wildman Palmer, where he was an associate. Prior to that, he was a solicitor at Field Fisher Waterhouse. Deloitte Real Estate The [...]
Osborne freezes fuel duty until the 2015 election September 30, 2013 GEORGE Osborne yesterday vowed to freeze fuel duty for the next two years, ensuring the chancellor will go into the 2015 election without ever raising tax on petrol. In a surprise announcement, the chancellor told the Conservative party conference in Manchester that, providing other savings can be found, he will ensure motorists are untouched. “Conservatives [...]
Letters to the editor – 18/09 – Banking reform, Best of Twitter September 17, 2013 Banking reform [Re: We should replace Fed monetary superheroes with rules-based policy, yesterday] A bigger concern is that central banks themselves have been given superhero status. There is now a belief that they can solve any economic woes, and this is then transmitted to whoever is in charge. Central banks should do less, and leave [...]
Housing bubble threat underscores pressing need to revise Help to Buy August 13, 2013 HELP to Buy has been widely criticised by experts, academics and journalists as a dangerous policy. In the long term, in a supply constrained system, simply increasing lending does not build a single extra house. And due to the planning system’s failures, we have an incredibly supply constrained system. From 2000 to 2007 lending doubled, [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 14 October 2013 October 13, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Tory plan to raise allowance to £12,500 Senior Conservative politicians are drawing up plans to raise the personal tax allowance to £12,500 as a key election pledge in 2015. Top party officials believe the move will enable the Tories to claim they are tackling the cost of living crisis by taking low earners [...]
Retail sales drop unexpectedly in August September 19, 2013 UK retail sales have dropped by 0.9 per cent in August, a shrink where analysts had expected a 0.4 per cent growth. In the year to August, that's a 2.1 per cent rise, well below last month's three per cent, and short of economist forecasts of a jump to 3.3 per cent growth. Sadly, it [...]
Real estate jobs boom a worry – but labour market rebalancing September 16, 2013 IT is the fact of the day: those who work in real estate accounted for 23.05 per cent of the net jobs growth in the UK over the past year. In fact, 13 per cent of the 562,000 total jobs that now exist in “real estate activities” – which include a range of jobs, from [...]
Why UK recovery could rescue the great British banking sector sell-off September 2, 2013 ROLL up, roll up. Britain’s banks are up for sale. This month and next, the Lloyds privatisation will compete for attention with Barclays’s £5.8bn rights issue. Then there’s the initial public offering triplets: Williams & Glyn, Virgin Money and TSB – all set to hit the market with aplomb. And that’s before RBS has turned [...]
Tired of the rain? Try these winter getaways November 10, 2013 NOW THE embers of Bonfire Night have fizzled out, the nation can get on with the serious business of preparing for Christmas. But what about afterwards? Once the pudding has been gobbled up and the fairy lights have been put away, all that remains is frost, a terrifying credit card bill, and indigestion. Our winter [...]
Mortgage lending jumps to highest in five years July 18, 2013 LENDING for property purchases leapt to its highest level since the end of 2008 in the second quarter, according to figures released yesterday by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). Gross lending between April and June reached £42bn, up nearly a quarter on the previous three months. In June alone, £15bn was lent, rising two [...]