The housing crisis could extinguish London’s growth: No party has a solution April 9, 2015 For the best part of 30 years, London’s renaissance has seemed unstoppable. The 1980s “big bang” created a tidal wave of regeneration which swept over the city, reinvigorating areas of decline and nurturing a globally competitive super region. While an exodus of businesses and investment once appeared inevitable, London is now a hive of startup [...]
Wearables at work: Why employees don’t need to fear an office Big Brother April 9, 2015 Imagine the following scenario. An employer has given a wearable device to one of their most high-performing staff members. Among other functions, the wearable monitors the employee’s heart rate and blood pressure over a period of six months. After analysing the data collected, it becomes obvious that the employee is more stressed on Wednesday mornings. [...]
Is renewing the Trident nuclear programme necessary for UK defence in the modern world? April 9, 2015 Dr Andrew Futter, senior lecturer in international politics at the University of Leicester, says Yes The threats facing the UK today are unquestionably different to those of the Cold War – and nuclear weapons have little utility against cyber attacks, terrorists or climate change. But this is to misunderstand their role – they have only [...]
Why empowering all women is key to sustained change in the boardroom April 8, 2015 For A topic that attracts so much attention, there’s a surprising dearth of academic research into the rise of women to the boardroom, and particularly the conditions that enable (or inhibit) women’s progression globally. The literature tends to be focused on single countries (80 per cent on the US), on the controversial topic of quotas, [...]
Scrapping non-doms would make Britain less competitive – not more April 8, 2015 “You can easily spend 75 per cent, or 85 per cent, of your time in the UK… but be a non-dom. No wonder people are pissed off.” This wasn’t Ed Miliband yesterday, during his speech announcing his intention to abolish the tax status that applies to over 100,000 UK residents, but a Conservative MP, Richard [...]
London should embrace new technology to make car ownership pointless April 8, 2015 London could lead a revolution in car use and car ownership over the next decade, by divorcing the two. It may soon be unnecessary to own a car to secure the full benefits of car ownership, due to a combination of continued improvement in public transport, the surge in app-based car hire services, and the [...]
As BG Group agrees a £47bn takeover by Shell, is this a good deal for shareholders? April 8, 2015 Iain Armstrong is an equity analyst at Brewin Dolphin, says Yes This is a good deal for Royal Dutch Shell shareholders. First, BG Group has an excellent portfolio of both producing and exploration assets. Second, the fit between the two companies is very strong. Third, this is a relatively low-risk proposition for Shell, given that [...]
General Election 2015: A Labour-SNP alliance could be a fillip for markets – but not for long April 7, 2015 Of all the possible outcomes of the General Election, one scenario in particular has concerned segments of the business and investor communities. A minority Labour government supported by SNP MPs is seen by some investment commentators as a challenging combination. Although Labour has ruled out a formal coalition, there may still be the possibility of [...]
Mutuals will now be able to issue shares – transforming competition in finance April 7, 2015 The Mutuals’ Deferred Shares Bill received Royal Assent last month. The Act will give mutual businesses a new option to raise tier one capital in the form of deferred shares. This is good news for leading mutuals like LV=, but what will this mean in practice and does it change the competitiveness of mutuals in [...]
Capitalism isn’t a recipe for perpetual crisis: It’s both stable and resilient April 7, 2015 The financial crisis did succeed in creating at least one dynamic new industry. Since the late 2000s, there has been a massive upsurge in op-ed pieces, books and even artistic performances offering a critique of capitalism. A founder member of the Monty Python team, Terry Jones, is the latest to get in on the act [...]