UK house prices: Though it’s currently the economic golden child, Milton Keynes needs to shake off its brand image to become hot property January 19, 2016 Despite being one of the most confusing and maligned cities in the UK, Milton Keynes is managing to outpace London in terms of economic growth, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). With good transport links, a booming property market, and massive employers like Argos and Red Bull based there, on paper this makes sense. But, let’s [...]
Can employers now snoop on their employees? Why the European Court of Human Rights’ recent ruling is not that straightforward January 19, 2016 The European Court of Human Rights’ (ECHR) recent decision on accessing employees’ private messages has had a lot of publicity. There have been suggestions that the judgement means that employers can have free reign to go checking up on their staff. That’s not correct at all, and nothing has really changed. The European Convention on [...]
City Moves for 19 January 2016 | Who’s switching jobs January 19, 2016 Bryan Cave International law firm Bryan Cave has announced two new appointments to its London office. Corporate partner Sarah Atkinson joins the transactions client service group from Hogan Lovells. Associate Yannis Erifillidis joins the financial services client service group from Norton Rose Fulbright. Sarah’s experience concentrates on cross-border M&A, private equity and general corporate advisory work. [...]
How to make better decisions, faster: Follow Obama’s example and make certain choices routine January 19, 2016 "Nothing comes to my desk that is perfectly solvable. Otherwise, someone else would have solved it. So you wind up dealing with probabilities,” Barack Obama told Vanity Fair in 2012. “Any given decision you make you’ll wind up with a 30 to 40 per cent chance that it isn’t going to work.” Yet decision paralysis [...]
China: Why international investors are right to be nervous January 19, 2016 A quote I saw a few days ago has stuck in my mind: “what happens in Beijing won’t stay in Beijing”. We should be pretty acclimatised by now to Chinese market sell-offs, a super volatile oil price, geopolitical instability, and to a marked slowdown in global growth. And yet the Dow shed more than 1,000 [...]
The bear is back: Experts warn the FTSE 100 is on the brink as global market volatility continues January 19, 2016 Fears that the FTSE 100 could be dragged into bear market territory deepened yesterday as global equities were gripped by volatility in another day of torrid trading. The FTSE 100 has so far managed to fend off falling into the bear trap, trading around 19 per cent off its all time high of 7,103 in April [...]
British Business Bank Investments commits £30m to new UK private debt fund as it reports £11.8m profit and 6.5 per cent returns in first set of results January 19, 2016 British Business Bank Investments (BBBI), the commercial arm of the government’s economic development bank, will today report a net profit of £11.8m from revenues of £13.9m. BBBI’s maiden set of results will show the bank’s investment arm made a 6.5 per cent net return on its capital, ahead of targets, in the full year ending March 2015. [...]
Insurers including Direct Line, Aviva and Admiral band together to examine future of driverless cars January 18, 2016 Some of Britain's largest motor insurers, including Direct Line, Aviva and Admiral, have banded together to plan for a future when driverless cars are the norm. The Automated Driving Insurance Group, which will be led by trade body the Association of British Insurers (ABI), is assessing the insurance implications of the rise of driverless technology. The group [...]
Holland & Barrett tells suppliers to foot the bill for company’s investment programme by reducing costs January 18, 2016 Healthfood retailer Holland and Barrett has urged its suppliers to slim down their costs by five per cent to help fund the company's pension scheme. In addition to the price cuts, the group wants its suppliers to foot the bill for its investment in security by paying for £3m-worth of security tags and high definition CCTV in the [...]
Labour MP Anna Turley and steel workers union Community call for Business Minister Anna Soubry to oppose China’s bid for market economy status January 18, 2016 A trade union and a Labour MP today urged the government to oppose China's bid to become a market economy in the light of the damage it could cause to the UK's steel industry. The Labour MP for Redcar, Anna Turley, whose constituency has been affected by the job losses in the steel industry, told City A.M. [...]