Zac Goldsmith: The green Tory gunning for Londoners’ votes in the 2016 mayoral election November 2, 2015 Zac Goldsmith may be a long- time environmental campaigner, but this does not conflict with his ambition to foster business in London, see the capital’s economy grow and tackle problems such as housing and infrastructure. In an interview with City A.M., he said: “In the real world, environmentalism and growth go together; they’re married.” The [...]
Mayors should vow that nobody working in their city will have have to commute for more than one hour – IPPR North March 10, 2016 Can the mayor control your commute? One leading think tank thinks so. The new mayors of some of Britain's biggest cities should vow that nobody working in their region will have to commute for more than one hour by bus, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is arguing in a new report out today. [...]
Galliford Try awarded £360m Silvertown Way development to build 1,100 homes in Canning Town June 30, 2015 Galliford Try has been awarded a contract by the Greater London Authority to build the £360m Silvertown Way development in Canning Town. The project, which will be delivered through its joint venture with Thames Valley Housing Association, will see Galliford Try build more than 1,100 homes, making it the largest standalone housing scheme the company [...]
13 years of returns: history’s lesson for investors September 12, 2016 There is no guaranteed route to success when it comes to investing, but the data below illustrates why it is important not to hold all your eggs in one basket. 13 years of asset class performances A widely-held belief is that shares deliver the best returns over the very long term, at least among [...]
London housing commission calls for devolution to solve chronic lack of house building March 7, 2016 Local authorities need to be given more oversight of house building in the capital if London is to accommodate its growing population, the London housing commission said today. In return for greater powers over borrowing, property taxes and planning, the Mayor and boroughs would have to make a joint commitment to deliver significantly higher numbers [...]
Stephen Greenhalgh: “Buy to leave” investors are pricing Londoners out of the property market – this is how I’d tackle it July 31, 2015 Often it is the non doms in London who are given a really bad press for inflating the property market. However I believe that it is the "non res" rather than the non dom that London should really worry about. The global non resident super rich see London residential property as a holiday home [...]
SSE sells stake in its Scottish Clyde wind farm March 14, 2016 Energy giant SSE has sold a stake in its Clyde wind farm to Aim-listed Greencoat UK Wind and a pensions partnership for £355m. UKW will acquire 28.2 per cent of Clyde and GLIL will acquire 21.7 per cent in the deal which is expected to complete on complete on 18 March. SSE will continue to hold 50.1 per cent. One the [...]
Three immediate challenges to the new government are apparent July 13, 2016 Recently I sat next to the head of corporate lending at one of the big banks. The usual question of “how’s business” was inevitably asked, with the answer “just had six quarters of lending growth but the last two weeks… awful! Especially with infrastructure, we had so much in the pipeline but confidence is low”. [...]
Budget 2016: The UK is hugely split on what it most wants to come out of George Osborne’s red box today March 16, 2016 You can't please all of the people all of the time. And if you're a politician, you're probably used to pleasing none of the people most of the time. And if he wants to please the people of London, George Osborne is going to have to pull more than one rabbit out of his red box [...]
Terrorism is now a key business risk – and too many companies are insufficiently prepared March 24, 2016 Terrorism is a threat that has clearly registered with London’s top executives. Along with fraud, regulation and reputation, it’s up there as a major risk that could damage their business and, worse, harm the public and their employees. With the threat level currently at “severe”, we should be under no illusions: terrorists would dearly love to [...]