Rent for a two-bed house in London is set to reach £2,000-a-month by 2020 warns Labour’s London Assembly spokesman Tom Copley November 20, 2015 Let the renter despair, average rents in London are set to reach £2,000 a month by 2020. If rents continue at their current trajectory, a two-bed house in the capital will cost £2,007 a month in five-years’ time, Labour’s London Assembly housing spokesman Tom Copley warned. A one-bed property would cost a staggering £2,010 a [...]
Public Accounts Committee slams Network Rail for serious planning and budgeting failures, including an “unacceptable” £1.2bn overspend on Great Western Main Line project November 20, 2015 Network Rail's five-year investment programme contains serious planning and budgeting failures, according to a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report released today. In particular, the report calls the projected £1.2bn overspend on electrifying the Great Western Main Line between London and Cardiff “staggering and unacceptable”, and says there is “far too much uncertainty” about costs and delivery [...]
Ted Baker posts dramatic jump in third quarter sales November 19, 2015 Retailer Ted Baker's sales soared double-digits in the third quarter thanks to a popular autumn/winter line and international store openings, the company reported in an statement this morning. Sales rose 20.5 per cent in the last three months while store sales jumped 18 per cent with openings in Stansted Airport, Amsterdam, Malibu, Toronto and Hawaii. [...]
Mothercare more than doubles profits as UK turnaround plan pays off November 19, 2015 Baby goods chain Mothercare more than doubled profits in the first half of the year, in a sign that a revamp of its struggling domestic business is on track. Underlying pre-tax profits rose by 112 per cent to £7m in the six months to 10 October, thanks to a pick-up in trading at its UK [...]
Volkswagen scandal compensation: Australian law firm launches new class action claim on behalf of VW car owners November 19, 2015 An Australian law firm today launched a class action lawsuit on behalf of owners Volkswagen (VW) cars. Maurice Blackburn Lawyers has said that more than 10,000 people have already registered for their class action claim, which will also cover affected Skoda and Audi vehicles and will target the German parent companies, not just the Australian [...]
Uber introduces a “business profile” option to make expensing work trips easier November 19, 2015 Uber has launched a new “business profiles” option to make sure people don't end up paying for work trips with their own money. It gives every Uber user the option of having an additional profile associated with work, so that all they have to do is select one or the other when calling an Uber. The idea [...]
Standard & Poor’s: Dismantling Europe’s old nuclear power plants will run up a €100bn bill for EDF, E.ON, RWE and others November 19, 2015 Dismantling Europe’s old, uneconomic power plants will impose heavy costs on Europe’s biggest operators, something which could strain their balance sheets, and hit their credit rating. Nuclear liabilities of the largest eight nuclear plant operators in Europe totaled €100bn at the end of last year, representing around 22 per cent of their aggregate debt, according [...]
July Budget 2015 measures have boosted people’s incentive to work, despite proposals to cut in-work tax credits – Institute for Fiscal Studies November 19, 2015 Measures announced in the July Budget strengthened the incentive to work, despite the proposed in-work tax credits cuts, according to a study released today by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). The report found that the complete package of changes, which included raising the personal allowance for income tax and introducing the National Living Wage, has [...]
Match Group IPO: Shares surge 12pc on stock market debut after Tinder chief Sean Rad’s comments November 19, 2015 Match Group, the owner of dating app du jour Tinder, match.com and OK Cupid, has made its stock market debut, with shares rising as much as 12.5 per cent. Priced at $12 yesterday – the low end of expectation – shares hit $13.50 in early trading, falling short of high end pricing expectations of $14 per share. Brushing [...]
Saudi Arabia’s oil minister Ali al-Naimi calls for more investment in the oil industry November 19, 2015 Saudi Arabia's oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, has warned investment in the oil industry must keep pace with forecasts for future demand to ensure the stability of the market. Speaking at an energy conference in the Bahraini capital Manama, Naimi said: "Demand for oil is continuing to rise". "To meet this growing need, there should be a continuation [...]