Going where no market has gone before: Dow Jones and S&P 500 scale new heights on Black Friday November 25, 2016 Most of the US population might be out beating each other to a pulp to get at Black Friday deals – but traders were on more of a share-buying frenzy, sending two of the US' blue chip indexes to record highs. The Dow Jones jumped more than 50 points to 19,143.9 points in early trading in [...]
Economists want an industrial strategy from the government – but will it solve the productivity puzzle? February 24, 2017 An updated industrial strategy for the UK is long overdue, a poll of prominent economists says, with the process of leaving the EU set to begin in earnest within a month. Two-thirds of the economists’ surveyed, including some of the leading academic economists in Britain, agree that the UK needs a new industrial strategy, according [...]
British American Tobacco’s newest e-cigarette has been launched in the UK December 1, 2016 A new electronic cigarette has launched in the UK from tobacco giant British American Tobacco (BAT) designed for consumers who've written off vaping. Vype Pebble, BAT's release, follows a launch by rival Philip Morris as the companies step up their stakes in the alternative cigarette market. Vype's researchers targeted consumers looking for something different from traditional cigarette-shaped or bulky vapour devices. Read more: [...]
London accounted for nearly a quarter of the 700,000 new jobs in 2014-15 November 30, 2016 UK firms created over 700,000 jobs in 2014-15 – with almost a quarter of them located in London. Research from the Enterprise Research Centre has found that of the 709,174 net new jobs created in the period, 23 per cent of them came from London firms. Read more: "Posturing" Euro chief Dijsselbloem issues London warning [...]
Mortgage lending falls more than £1bn in October November 17, 2016 Mortgage lending in the UK dipped by £1.2bn in October compared with the previous year, according to data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). But despite the five per cent year-on-year decline, the figures were slightly above the trend for the last six months, in which mortgage lending averaged £20.1bn. They held on to post [...]
Pension triple-lock has been spared by Hammond despite concerns it was for the chop November 23, 2016 The pension triple-lock will not be abolished during the current parliament Chancellor Philip Hammond announced in the Autumn Statement. Some experts had anticipated the triple-lock – which guarantees that pensions to rise by the highest of average earnings, the consumer price index, or 2.5 per cent – might be for the chop. But Hammond confirmed that this would not [...]
Insurance premium tax rises to 12 per cent from next June. And it will be consumers that are hit worst, say insurers November 23, 2016 The rate of insurance premium tax will rise from 10 per cent to 12 per cent from next June, Chancellor Philip Hammond announced in the Autumn Statement. The rise will be the third hike since last November 2015 and means insurance premium tax will have doubled from six per cent to 12 per cent in just [...]
Autumn Statement 2015 buy-to-let advice for landlords: After the chancellor’s stamp duty hike, what should investors do? November 27, 2015 The chancellor's announcement of a three per cent stamp duty levy on non-primary residences – specifically buy-to-let investments and second homes – caught many by surprise. This change is an incredibly blunt instrument to deal with a complex set of housing market issues. In principle, it will reduce the competition between first-time buyers and investors for many [...]
Two-thirds of oil and gas firms in the UK have had to cut jobs as low prices continue to haunt industry November 29, 2016 Oil and gas workers are still feeling the squeeze from the crash in global oil prices, with two-thirds of the industry cutting staff and the median pay of operators and contractors declining for the first time in at least 22 years, according to a poll. 67 per cent of companies have cut jobs in the [...]
Autumn Statement 2015: George Osborne promises £450m extra for Government Digital Services to improve public services online November 25, 2015 George Osborne has promised an additional £450m for spending on government digital services to make it easier for the public to do things online. The additional funding comes amid wider cuts to the core spending of the Cabinet Office of 25 per cent. Digitising services, such as filing tax returns, has already saved as much as £1.7bn [...]