It’s official: This is the deadline if you want to make a PPI complaint March 2, 2017 After years of nuisance phonecalls and bankers' misery, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has finally set a deadline for complains over payment protection insurance (PPI). The FCA said today all complaints must be lodged by 29 August 2019 – several months later than previously hoped. Although this isn't the end of PPI: the regulator said [...]
Here’s the new luxury SUV Range Rover Velar in all its glory – and it’s being built exclusively in Britain March 2, 2017 The moment has arrived. Jaguar Land Rover has unveiled the newest addition to the Range Rover family aimed at "filling the white space" between the Range Rover Evoque and the Range Rover Sport. And it does so in both size and price. Read more: Range Rover confirms new Velar SUV will be built "exclusively" in Britain [...]
How Long Is the Investment Learning Curve? March 2, 2017 | City Talk Mistakes and disappointments are not unusual in the investment world. On the contrary, it is investment successes that are rare. Persistent boom-and-bust economic cycles underline the numerous unavoidable challenges that investment decision makers face. Moreover, professional investors rarely have a complete understanding of their own miscalculations or those of others. From poor analyst forecast accuracy [...]
Tinkering with business rates won’t fix a fundamentally broken tax on investment March 2, 2017 Business rates reform is crucial for the health of local communities across the country. Retailers pay a quarter of all business rates and it is the single largest tax paid by the industry. Put simply, the burden of property taxation is too high. It is a disincentive to invest in physical space. A system where [...]
Overzealous EU data protection regulations are more likely to take your job than a robot March 2, 2017 Economist John Maynard Keynes once suggested, tongue only just in his cheek, that if governments want to create jobs, they could fill bottles with cash and bury them, so companies would hire workers to dig them up. The EU’s incoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), its attempt to strengthen and unify data protection laws, looks [...]
The cost of talent and housing threaten London’s digital crown March 2, 2017 The government yesterday unveiled its digital strategy – an action plan for growing the digital economy and making the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a digital business. This ambition is undoubtedly very welcome. London is already the best place in Europe for digital startups and scaleups, boasting excellent access [...]
Forget the trivial Single Market: Brexit’s true economic dividend will be a revival of self-reliance and liberty March 2, 2017 In order to understand the long-term impact of Brexit on the UK economy, imagine a river running upstream to downstream and out into the ocean. With this in mind, view conventional long-term economic performance as very much downstream, at the mouth of the river, with an emphasis on the performance of productivity and competitiveness. But [...]
With Francois Fillon limping on, is centrist Emmanuel Macron going to be the next French President? March 2, 2017 Famke Krumbmüller, partner at OpenCitiz, the political risk consultancy, says Yes. Once he qualifies for the second round, Emmanuel Macron will win it against Marine Le Pen. The ex-Rothschild banker is able to attract votes from across the political spectrum and is hence best placed among all candidates to beat the far-right (with 61 per [...]
Academics are becoming more and more left-wing, this free market think tank has warned March 2, 2017 The UK's academics are increasingly dominated by the left-wing, according to a new study from a free-market think tank. An estimated three-quarters of academics are left-liberals, according to the Adam Smith Institute, which said the figure reveals the dangers of groupthink in the UK's universities. By contract, just 12 per cent of British academics consider [...]
London’s new super sewer could add up to £25 to water bills by the early 2020s March 2, 2017 London's new super sewer is set to add up to £25 to water bills in the capital, according to a report from the UK's public spending watchdog. The Thames Tideway Tunnel is expected to cost a total of £4.2bn, and but the National Audit Office today warned it remains unclear how much Thames Water customers [...]