Cost of London office space set to soar amid supply shortages July 22, 2015 Office space is in short supply, putting upward pressure on prices, a new survey of property surveyors reveals today. In central London, 60 per cent more surveyors are seeing a rise rather than fall in demand across all areas, the research undertaken by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said. As a [...]
Commodities plunge to 13 year-low dragged down by mining shares July 22, 2015 Commodity prices continue to plunge, as falling mining shares dragged a commodity index down to its lowest point since 2002. Bloomberg’s commodity price index, tracking gold, crude oil and other raw materials, has plunged by 40 per cent since 2011. Today the index fell to 95.5 points, its lowest point in 13 years. Mining shares [...]
Institute of Directors: Bank of England must raise interest rates now or risk being defenceless during the next crisis July 22, 2015 The Institute of Directors (IoD) has urged the Bank of England's monetary policy committee (MPC) to start raising the interest rate "now" or risk being "defenceless" when the next financial crisis comes. Read more: Pound jumps as Bank of England moves closer to rate hike In a statement released after yet another decision to hold rates [...]
Pound jumps as Bank of England rate-setters vote unanimously to keep rates on hold in July July 22, 2015 The pound rose 0.45 per cent against the dollar to $1.5624 this morning after members of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee (MPC) struck a more hawkish tone in minutes of a meeting published today. While all nine members voted to hold interest rates at a record low 0.5 per cent at its meeting [...]
Government spending review: How George Osborne’s 40 per cent cuts would shrink each department July 22, 2015 George Osborne’s spending review will have struck fear into many a government department. The chancellor has committed to cutting £20bn from the public purse and, as well as kicking off a major land-grab of from public property in an attempt to address Britain's housing supply crisis, he's tasked each department to come up with projections for [...]
Generation rent on the rise: UK private rental sector set to outstrip households with mortgages July 21, 2015 The plight of Britain’s generation of renters was laid bare this morning, as new figures showed that those in the private rental sector could outnumber mortgage-holders in a decade. City analysts say there are now 5.4m households in the UK’s private rental sector – more than double the same figure from 2001. By 2025, [...]
Mark Carney points to interest rate hike at the turn of this year July 21, 2015 The Bank of England will need to decide around the turn of the year whether the time is right to start to raise interest rates from their current record low, its governor Mark Carney said last night. Carney, speaking at an event hosted by the Policy Exchange think tank, said the UK economy still faced [...]
Arbuthnot warns over higher bank tax: “This will act as a brake on challenger sector” July 21, 2015 Challenger bank Arbuthnot Banking Group yesterday warned higher taxes on bank profits will hurt lending to the real economy The firm, owner of private bank Arbuthnot Latham and half-owner of listed entity Secure Trust Bank, also called on chancellor George Osborne to calculate bank taxes on the size of their balance sheets. The [...]
Stricter visa rules to give firms headache amid skills shortage July 21, 2015 Proposed changes to rules governing who can work in the UK threaten to exacerbate the skills shortage facing employers, the head of a major recruiting body has warned. “Our data show that almost all businesses are operating at capacity and want to take on more staff to meet demand, but the reality is that chronic [...]
Treasury to cut Bank of England monetary policy committee meetings from 12 to eight July 21, 2015 If you've been getting fed up with months of MPC updates with no change – and let's face it, after six years of the same update, who isn't – then there's some good news. The number of monetary policy committee meetings is about to be reduced to just eight per year, down from 12. This [...]