Facebook and the tech giants are welcoming government regulation – that’s a panic signal for all of us April 9, 2019 Last year, I met someone who had previously worked for a big tech firm in its “free speech” unit. What had happened to make him come and slum it among us mortals in the (badly paid) policy world? Answer: the unit had been shut down. It’s in this context that you should see the milquetoast [...]
Debate: Is Sadiq Khan’s new ultra-low emission zone an effective solution for tackling air pollution? April 9, 2019 Debate: Is Sadiq Khan’s new ultra-low emission zone an effective solution for tackling air pollution? Yes – Fiona Howarth is chief executive of Octopus Electric Vehicles. If London’s water supplies were poisoning 9,000 people a year, there would be national outrage. So why are we not outraged about the air that we breathe? Research published [...]
Santander and Barclays face lawsuits over film financing schemes April 8, 2019 Santander and Barclays are facing lawsuits from investors in failed film financing schemes. Santander could be sued for the role of legacy bank Alliance & Leicester’s role in part-funding the Imagine film financing scheme while Barclays is beng targeted over a similar scheme known as Timeless Releasing. Read more: HSBC sued for £150m in relation [...]
Early bird investors reap rewards April 8, 2019 | City Talk By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. The sooner you utilise your annual ISA allowance, the quicker your money starts working for you. ISA season is over, bringing respite from weekend newspaper supplements offering “five reasons” why we need to act fast to make the most out of our tax-free allowance. Many of us will have [...]
Europe must lead the way with digital tax, says EU competition commissioner April 8, 2019 Europe must agree on plans for a new digital tax and should be the trailblazer if there is no global consensus, the EU’s competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager has said. The EU last month scrapped initial plans to roll out a digital tax on tech giants after opposition from several member states. Read more: EU drops [...]
Sadiq Khan’s ill-conceived pollution plan only threatens London’s push to go green April 8, 2019 From today, all private hire drivers in London will have to pay the daily £11.50 congestion charge when driving in central London. This is an enormous financial burden for some of the city’s lower paid workers – costing nearly £3,000 a year for a driver earning around £25,000. It's also hugely unfair for operators, many [...]
Fevertree’s remarkable turnaround April 5, 2019 | City Talk By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. A 15 per cent trading range following annual results shows how divided opinion is on this AIM favourite now. Having accelerated from £158 million at IPO to a £3 billion-rated company in just over four years, posh mixers firm Fevertree Drinks (LSE:FEVR) underlined again today why it is regarded in [...]
Apprenticeship levy unlikely to meet target of 3m starts by 2020, admits minister April 5, 2019 A controversial tax designed to shake up the apprenticeship system will likely fail to meet its original targets, according to the government minister in charge of it. The apprenticeship levy, a tax on business designed to fund 3m apprenticeships by 2020, has caused the number of apprenticeship starts to plummet since its introduction two years [...]
Judges and social media – Your Honour, should you be using Twitter in court? April 4, 2019 A British judge recently resorted to Twitter to appeal directly to one of the parties involved in a case over which he was presiding. Ellie Yarrow-Sanders was on the run with her toddler son, Olly Sheridan, for over six months. Mr Justice Williams, the High Court judge in the case between Yarrow-Sanders and her ex-partner, [...]
The burden of business rates falls unfairly on the West End April 4, 2019 This week, UK retailers received one of their biggest tax bills of the year. The consequences of the 2017 revaluation of business rates will again be felt, with a further hike of nearly 50 per cent for some companies. Retailers in London’s West End and Mayfair will once again be hardest hit, paying the lion’s [...]