With P2P lending passing £1bn in 2014, is it a real alternative to traditional financial services? February 1, 2015 Christine Farnish is chair of the Peer-to-Peer Finance Association, says Yes. Alternative finance is growing and the current regulatory and consumer environment in the UK means it is set to grow even further. Last week, the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Finance Association put out figures showing that, in 2014, our members had lent more than £1.2bn in [...]
Syriza could push the UK out of the EU if Europe embraces its anti-market agenda January 29, 2015 Unsurprisingly, there has already been a rush to judgement on the implications of Syriza’s electoral triumph in Greece. Its victory is fast becoming all things to all people, from those anticipating a clash with Germany and a subsequent Greek euro exit, to the many expecting the party to blink first in negotiations with the EU/IMF/ECB [...]
Why we must end damaging stereotypes and get women back into trading January 29, 2015 When I started work at BP as an oil trader in the 1980s, I joined a team of five female and four male oil traders. This was in the days before Diversity and Inclusion was even invented, let alone taken seriously by many organisations. It was a successful and high performing team doing its job [...]
As Eton and Harrow are judged to be failing by school league tables, are the rankings useless? January 29, 2015 Philip Booth, a professor at Cass Business School, and editorial and programme director at the Institute of Economic Affairs, says Yes League tables were an important innovation when introduced. The information that goes into them should also be freely available, so that parents can make judgements about schools. However, the tables themselves have served their [...]
Analysis: Why has Tesco chosen to shut these 43 stores? January 29, 2015 Tesco has now announced the 43 stores that it plans to close. 18 Express stores, 12 metro stores, seven superstores and six Home Plus stores. The closures will start taking effect from March. What does it tell us about their location strategy when one looks at the stores set to close? It is a [...]
Advertising has an image problem: Apprenticeships will help us boost diversity January 29, 2015 With 98 days to go until the general election, David Cameron has pledged to reduce the annual benefits cap to fund 3m new apprenticeships. Is this what business wants? It is clearly a good thing, economically and socially, to spend less on welfare and to encourage more people into work. To date, however, the creative [...]
London should turbo-charge devolution by creating a Thames City super-region January 28, 2015 Devolution is the flavour of the month, with plans to transfer powers from Westminster to Scotland sparking widespread debate about how else we can fix Britain’s over-centralised system of government. But London will have to take a very different approach to other regions. Yes, the capital desperately needs more fiscal autonomy, but it also needs [...]
Entrepreneurs aren’t lone wolves: Labour will back them for the good of all January 28, 2015 Paul Lindley looked at the range of baby food at the supermarket and thought his daughter’s generation deserved better. So in 2006 he founded Ella’s Kitchen, to create food for kids that appealed to all the senses. Since then, his daughter Ella has grown – but Ella’s Kitchen has grown much faster. It has a [...]
As Tsipras says that Greece won’t default on its debts, is a compromise still likely? January 28, 2015 Dario Perkins, chief European economist at Lombard Street Research, says Yes It’s hard to disentangle rhetoric and bargaining tactics from official “red lines,” but there is still scope for a mutually beneficial deal. The Troika could quite easily cut the future value of Greek debts by extending maturities and lowering interest rates, without imposing immediate [...]
OnTheMarket will need to win the Google battle before it can really challenge Zoopla and Rightmove January 28, 2015 OnTheMarket.com, the new property website from the Agents’ Mutual group of estate agents, launched with much fanfare this week with an apparent threat to the “duopoly” enjoyed by Rightmove and Zoopla. Zoopla, as the less well-visited of the two property portal giants, seemed in particular danger as one of the requirements of OnTheMarket.com meant [...]