City Hall Tories want control of stamp duty October 20, 2015 Conservatives in City Hall want Whitehall to hand control over stamp duty to local authorities – and are bolstering their case by claiming devolution could lead to more than 40,000 new homes in London each year. Greater London Authority (GLA) Conservatives said today that City Hall could finance the building of 42,614 homes each year [...]
London’s insurance industry will thrive globally post-Brexit with the right competitive boost September 13, 2016 Rebalancing the economy away from financial services and our capital city has been the preoccupation of successive governments since 2008’s financial crisis. The sheer size of the banking sector, so the thinking went, alongside the absence of any second, truly global city beyond London, had made the UK too reliant upon the dominant industry of our [...]
How the chancellor can unlock more private capital for infrastructure November 23, 2016 Chancellor Philip Hammond is widely expected to outline a more flexible approach to deficit reduction when he delivers his first Autumn Statement today. Flexibility seems wise, given the scale of uncertainty as the UK prepares to leave the EU. Ministers have identified investment in infrastructure as a means to boost the UK’s competitive standing. In [...]
Two charts for those already suggesting the value bounce is finished December 13, 2016 When you sign up to be a value investor, you soon learn you have not chosen the easiest path to tread. Even so, here on The Value Perspective, we still find ourselves occasionally astonished at the way the wider market can seem so willing to write off the discipline’s prospects. Take the recent resurgence [...]
Two charts for those already suggesting the value bounce is finished December 13, 2016 When you sign up to be a value investor, you soon learn you have not chosen the easiest path to tread. Even so, here on The Value Perspective, we still find ourselves occasionally astonished at the way the wider market can seem so willing to write off the discipline’s prospects. Take the recent resurgence in [...]
Tech City UK: What London needs from the next mayor January 15, 2016 The race to become London’s next mayor has begun, and now more than ever we need a tech champion at the controls in City Hall. London is unquestionably the digital capital of Europe. Our fintech pioneers, app developers and software innovators are re-defining city life. Digital businesses employ over 250,000 people in the capital alone. [...]
Shunning fossil fuels could burn £1m a year off of GLA pension fund November 18, 2015 Going green might be good for the environment, but it could eat into the Greater London Authority (GLA) pension fund. GLA Conservatives economics spokesman and assembly member Gareth Bacon has said that the pension fund could potentially lose out on £1m per year if it stops investing in fossil fuels. “Recent calls to stop the [...]
London house prices: The capital leads the way with Build to Rent scheme October 19, 2015 Calls for more properties to be built in London to slow rampant price growth are being partly answered. The capital is leading the way in the Build to Rent scheme, with the number of rental developments in the pipeline more than double that in the rest of the UK. The scheme allows developers to build properties for rent [...]
How the stockmarket returned 80% without moving December 2, 2016 Reinvesting dividends is one of the most powerful tools available to an investor to boost returns over time. If you had invested £100 on 30th December 1999 in the FTSE 100, the capital growth would have produced a notional return of £0.97 (by 31/10/16). But on a total return basis, reinvesting all dividends, the £100 [...]
The parts of London that risk flooding by 2050 without improvements to the drainage system October 29, 2015 Vast swathes of London risk flooding by 2050 without radical improvements to the city's 150-year old drainage system. Over the last 40 years, London has lost around 40 per cent of its permeable ground. This has effectively "waterproofed" the city by pushing more water into the drainage system everytime it rains. Potential flooding hotspots include the London boroughs [...]