Inflation and business rates to deliver £6.8bn hit to small businesses February 27, 2017 Inflation and business rate rises could deliver a £6.8bn hit to small and medium-sized businesses this year. The rising costs are leading more than half (57 per cent) of these firms to predict their revenues will not grow this year, according to a report from insurance group RSA. Fourteen per cent of small and medium [...]
There are now 11 house-hunters for every property on the market February 27, 2017 The UK's housing crisis is getting worse, new figures have suggested – with 11 house-hunters vying for every property on the market. Research by the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) suggested an average of 425 prospective buyers were registered to each estate agent branch in the UK in January, 10 per cent higher than [...]
Peugeot has unveiled its Instinct concept: A driverless car featuring a virtual assistant February 27, 2017 Peugeot has provided insight into its driverless ambitions with the unveiling of its Instinct concept. It's a shooting brake style which provides the option of "fully autonomous driving". The car features both drive and autonomous modes though, offering the driver the choice of four different settings. And of course, it doesn't just stop at "driverless" when [...]
LSE-Deutsche Boerse merger thrown into chaos: Reactions from City analysts and Westminster February 27, 2017 Last night's announcement that the mega-merger between the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Deutsche Boerse may have been derailed entirely by competition concerns in Europe has left the City reeling. The £21bn merger, which had overcome the potentially devastating hurdle of Brexit without so much as a shrug, was thrown into chaos last night after it [...]
Discretionary income is “fading fast” as fuel prices squeeze families February 27, 2017 Growth in discretionary income is "fading fast" as fuel prices soared in January. UK families had an average £205 of disposable income available each week last month, according to Asda's income tracker, up 3.5 per cent on the same month the year before. Read more: Alarm bells sound over rising costs and inflation However growth [...]
Most successful tech entrepreneurs have set up their businesses by the time they’re 30 February 27, 2017 Are you a 30-something itching to set up a tech firm? Strike age and lack of experience off of your list of excuses because Europe's top entrepreneurs set up their companies by the age of 30. Despite often lacking financial expertise, the average age tech titans establish their company by is 29.7 years, according to research by [...]
Southern rail urges passengers to check if they’re in line for one-off compensation (as it doesn’t have all of their details) February 27, 2017 Southern rail is urging season ticket holders to check if they're eligible for a special one-off compensation offer ahead of an April deadline. The scheme, announced by the government in December, said one-off payments worth up to a month of free travel could be claimed to make up for the disruption of 2016. To qualify, Southern [...]
There’s no such thing as “fat-shaming” – it’s just advertising February 27, 2017 I take issue with the Vicariously Offended; the virtuous who take up the mantle of oppression, regardless of whether they are personally affected, at every given opportunity. I bit my tongue last week when they took offence at Protein World’s Tube campaign questioning commuters’ ability to “keep up with a [very slim] Kardashian.” It was, [...]
Joining the data dots to predict the future: Meet Ometria’s Ivan Mazour February 27, 2017 With nauseating velocity I’m elevated 40 floors up the Heron Tower, my ears popping with altitude, to meet Ivan Mazour at the Duck and Waffle. We’re here to talk about how Ometria, his seventh company by his early thirties, can predict the future. Often referred to pejoratively as “the son of a Russian billionaire”, Mazour is [...]
Tandem Bank’s chief executive Ricky Knox talks sarongs, dumb pipes, ornithology and why Facebook is scared of banking February 27, 2017 "Would you have called Amazon? I didn’t! We all thought that was just a fad – it was a bookseller. An online bookseller with that valuation? But the internet creates these giants – and it’s not just one or two of them. "Look at music – EMI is basically dead. Google – a little bulls*** [...]