Rising rents mean that by 2020 over 25 per cent of consumer spending will be on household and utility bills November 11, 2015 Housing and utility bills will account for over a quarter of total UK consumer spending by 2020. Household expenses is the fastest-growing category of consumer spending, increasing at a rate of 3.5 per cent a year, compared to spending on food, which will drop 0.4 per cent a year by 2020. Higher spending reflects rising rent [...]
Support for remaining in the EU at strongest since the start of October, says new ICM poll November 10, 2015 British support for remaining in the EU is at its strongest since the beginning of October, according to a weekly poll published today. ICMs poll showed 46 per cent of people would vote to stay while 38 per cent would vote to leave – the rest said "don't know". The robust support for staying in the EU comes [...]
Rental rates on Central London office space soars at fastest pace since the financial crisis November 10, 2015 London office rents are climbing at their fastest pace since the financial crisis, according to figures published today by a commercial real estate company. Rental values in Central London rocketed 10.3 per cent in the year to October, CBRE said, the first double-digit growth since April 2008. Demand for office space is high with 3.6m [...]
Ethnic minorities substantially more likely to go to university than their White British peers, says the Institute for Fiscal Studies November 10, 2015 Ethnic minority groups in England are now more likely to go to university than their White British peers, according to new research published today. Overall, 32.6 per cent of White British students end up at university, a lower rate than any ethnic minoritiy group. Indian and Chinese pupils are twice as likely to go to [...]
Credit Suisse boss Tidjane Thiam sees possibility of “traumatic” market event as interest rates go up November 10, 2015 Credit Suisse chief exec Tidjane Thiam, who joined the company from Prudential this year, has warned of the likelihood of a “traumatic event” in global markets once interest rates start to creep up from record lows. “Frankly, it’s quite likely that there will be at the end of all this period a relatively traumatic event,” [...]
Divergent monetary policy from the European Central Bank and the US Federal Reserve sends euro to seven-month low against the dollar November 10, 2015 The euro fell 0.6 per cent against the dollar to $1.0682, sliding to a fresh seven-month low against a backdrop of increasingly divergent monetary policy from the European Central Bank (ECB) and US Federal Reserve. Yesterday four ECB government council members hinted a consensus is forming at the Bank to take one of its benchmark interest rates deeper into negative [...]
UBS got it wrong: There’s no such thing as a London house price bubble November 10, 2015 Is London’s residential property market in a bubble? UBS seems to think so, after its Global Real Estate Bubble index suggested the UK's housing market is on the brink of a crash. But has it got its facts right? After all, the devil is really in the detail – and this was put together by [...]
We’d rather discuss age and gender in the office than race, as incidences of racial harassment in the workplace rise November 10, 2015 When it comes to touchy subjects in the office, it turns out talking about race makes us more uncomfortable than discussing age or gender. In a survey by Business in the Community (BITC) of 24,457 UK employees, 37 per cent said they thought their colleagues would be comfortable discussing race, compared to 44 per cent [...]
Global construction market to grow by 85 per cent to $15.5 trillion by 2030 November 10, 2015 The global construction market is expected to grow by 85 per cent to $15.5 trillion worldwide by 2030, new research shows, with China, US and India leading the way and accounting for 57 per cent of all global growth. The latest study from industry analysts Global Construction Perspectives and Oxford Economics predicts that growth in [...]
London office rents: Naysayers are right to worry about a bubble – but London will keep growing November 10, 2015 London’s office market is booming, there’s no doubt about it. We are the midst of an upward cycle and have seen huge levels of capital investment and rental growth in the last few years. This is largely thanks to a spike in demand fuelled by the economic recovery and increased confidence in businesses. With the [...]