Blame the bank: How finance caused today’s housing crisis October 18, 2018 Home ownership is increasingly out of the reach of younger adults in the UK. The share of those aged 25-34 who own their home fell from 55 per cent in 1997 to 35 per cent in 2017, according the Institute of Fiscal Studies. A decade of stagnant wage growth means that the gradual house price [...]
FCA could slap fine on TfL for not informing London Stock Exchange of Crossrail delay in July October 18, 2018 The financial watchdog is considering whether to launch a formal investigation into Transport for London (TfL) over its alleged failure to inform the London Stock Exchange (LSE) about the impending delay to Crossrail in July. On 31 August Crossrail announced that the £15.4bn Elizabeth Line, which will connect Reading and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield [...]
DEBATE: Subscribers have surged, but are we nearing ‘peak Netflix’? October 18, 2018 Subscribers have surged, but are we nearing ‘peak Netflix’? Jon Tipple, chief strategy officer at FutureBrand, says YES. Netflix is an amazing success story. Its content, valuation, and subscriber numbers all say so, especially after Tuesday’s results. Our FutureBrand Index also confirmed it last week – we reorder the PwC Global Top 100 firms to [...]
Kleenex to ditch ‘mansize’ tissue brand over sexism fallout October 18, 2018 Kleenex is set to scrap its "Mansize" branding tag-line from its large tissue boxes, after customer outcries that the name was sexist weighed heavily on the company. The tissues will now be called "Extra Large", the company said on Twitter. However its parent company Kimberly-Clark said it did not itself believe the name endorsed gender [...]
Buses to run for 24 hours a day under new £150m plans for Oxford Street October 18, 2018 Buses will run for 24 hours a day under new plans to develop Oxford Street which London mayor Sadiq Khan wanted to pedestrianise before the plans were abandoned in the summer. Westminster city council will spend £150m on increasing walking space in Oxford Street but two lanes of traffic will continue along the length of the street [...]
Pilfered pens and fudged expenses could foreshadow an ethics scandal October 18, 2018 Are UK employees the least ethical in Europe? The Institute of Business Ethics’ 2018 Ethics at Work Survey seems to indicate so. Brits appear to take a more lenient approach than the average European employee to questionable workplace practices. We asked employees about their attitudes to ethical issues in the workplace, ethical practices in their [...]
Charity case: Don’t lose sight of the small causes October 18, 2018 There is a healthy degree of scepticism around corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Too often, tin rattling or an annual bake sale can seem little more than a get-out clause from engaging in more meaningful activity that requires more effort and commitment. It is tempting for companies to champion high-profile charities that have brand recognition [...]
Black cabs to launch in Paris (but will they go south of the Seine?) October 18, 2018 London’s black cabs will launch in Paris next year as the Chinese owner of the iconic design continues its global expansion. In 2017 the Geely-owned London Electric Vehicle Company said it would launch its taxis in Amsterdam, Oslo, Berlin and Hamburg. Read more: Driverless flying taxis could be heading for London The company said today [...]
Loot boxes, video games, and others ways the gaming industry wants you to spend more money October 18, 2018 What do you get when you buy a game? You might think that, after spending hundreds of pounds on a PlayStation or Xbox console, or an expensive gaming PC, then another £50 on the latest release, you’re getting a full and complete experience. But that’s not necessarily the case. Games are very expensive to [...]
Growing the UK games industry’s success shouldn’t be taxing October 18, 2018 The video games industry is one of the UK’s great success stories. Last week’s report by the British Film Institute (BFI) showed that the sector is thriving, describing it as a “significant entertainment industry”, which has produced a “wide array of globally successful and culturally impactful entertainment products”. At The Independent Games Developers' Association (TIGA), [...]