The poorest will suffer if we ignore the real evidence on payday loans December 10, 2012 THE non-stop tide of new regulation from the government continues. It now appears to be preparing to accept an amendment to the Financial Services Bill, which will allow the Financial Conduct Authority to cap interest rates on payday loans. A recent intervention by the incoming archbishop of Canterbury (who is strongly in favour of the [...]
Gove’s reforms will help better equip young people for life September 18, 2012 BRITAIN’S poor educational standards are a national scandal and a key reason why the UK’s productivity continues to lag. The problem is not with graduates of our top universities, though even they could do better. The real crisis is that thousands of school leavers and even, in some cases, graduates from other universities, end up [...]
No shortage of literature for banking bookworms this month October 23, 2012 RECENT City A.M. award winner and property giant Westfield welcomed the Prime Minister’s wife to their Shepherd’s Bush store yesterday. Samantha Cameron, ambassador of Save the Children, gave a special reading of The Snail and the Whale at Foyles Bookstore to a group of children from Larmenier & Sacred Heart primary school. But for grown-up [...]
Foreign buyers drive boom for London houses September 2, 2012 THE LONDON housing market is in a booming recovery, defying global downturn and an unconvincing overall climate for UK housing, according to a report released by Knight Frank today. Prime central London prices are 49 per cent up since March 2009, when the market bottomed out following the financial crisis, and already 14 per cent [...]
Why Ben Bernanke’s decision to launch QE3 is a bad mistake September 13, 2012 SORRY, but this is not the way to run an economy. There was a case for quantitative easing (QE) at the start of the financial crisis, and conceivably more recently too, to prevent the money supply from collapsing, in the US, in the UK and elsewhere. But not today – and especially not in America. [...]
Banks are part of the solution: They’re the lifeblood of UK economic growth November 21, 2012 WHEN it comes to the economy, banks are usually seen as the problem – as the ones that got us in this mess. But banks are also part of the solution. It is not just that financial services is a major sector of the economy – one of the few sectors where the UK is [...]
Persimmon says government scheme is boosting enquiries April 19, 2012 PERSIMMON yesterday said it enjoyed a strong start to the year, with the government’s NewBuy scheme helping boost demand during the spring selling season. The housebuilder, whose brands include Charles Church and Westbury, said it continued to outperform, with visitor levels to its sites over the first 15 weeks of 2012 up 10 per cent [...]
London report August 27, 2012 MARKET watchers will be looking to tomorrow’s Nationwide house prices report and mortgage approvals on Thursday to gauge whether the UK’s economy is pulling out of its double dip. Recent data put the number of mortgage approvals at a 15-year low and last month house prices had fallen by 0.7 per cent and 2.6 per [...]
Clegg plan on pensions draws fire September 23, 2012 THE INVESTMENT industry slammed Liberal Democrat plans to allow parents to use a quarter of their pension pots to guarantee their children’s mortgages yesterday, arguing it could undermine pensions and hit retirement incomes. Nick Clegg said the move will help struggling young people get a foot on the housing ladder at a time when large [...]
Coalition must not become complacent on economic growth October 25, 2012 UNLIKE some commentators, I don’t think David Cameron did anything especially wrong yesterday. He hinted at Prime Minister’s Question Time that the economy was improving; he didn’t leak the GDP figures. The statistics will be published this morning; so there is little point speculating about them. But it is worth noting that when the Prime [...]