London’s housing affordability crisis is also a business problem September 28, 2023 “As a society,” the CNN journalist Luke McGee said on X/Twitter yesterday, “we need to address the fact that a semi-detached in Walthamstow is now a million quid.” Attached to the post was a fairly average looking 4-bedroom flat about five minutes walk from the tube, currently available on Rightmove for the low, low price [...]
Asos’s treatment on the stock market shows up investor short-termism September 27, 2023 Bold leadership takes many forms: one such is at Asos, where boss Jose Antonio Ramos Calamonte has leant in to one of the more eye-catching methods of turning round a business – selling less, to fewer people. The early indications are that the strategy is paying off, with profitability per order higher today than it [...]
Shell’s refusal to answer questions is an affront to ordinary shareholders September 25, 2023 Shell has told journalists it will only be answering analyst questions at its next trading update. That's bad for the City, and ordinary shareholders
Now is the time to change the mechanism that brought us HS2’s repeated failings September 25, 2023 What a sorry mess the country has got itself into HS2 – a poorly planned project, executed badly, at tremendous cost in both time and money. If reports are to be believed that the government is set to axe the Manchester – Birmingham leg, joining with its already dearly-departed Leeds cousin, then we are left [...]
Cazoo’s travails show New York is far from a panacea for UK firms September 21, 2023 But Cazoo’s troubles shouldn’t blind us to the need to get cracking with long-discussed reforms to London’s listed markets.
The debanking debacle deserves proper parliamentary scrutiny September 20, 2023 There were some, when Nigel Farage was debanked by Coutts, who found the whole thing rather amusing. Those people, typically, were no fans of the Brexiteer-in-chief; how they chortled when the BBC broke the news that Farage was taken off the books as a result of his finances. Of course we know now that was [...]
Net zero push will put UK energy infrastructure in Chinese hands September 19, 2023 Net zero targets will put China at the heart of the UK's energy infrastructure - and that doesn't strike us as smart
Basic competence a first step – then Tories can afford ideology September 18, 2023 Liz Truss has been accused of many things over the past year, but nobody could level any accusations about her willingness to front up. Many politicians would have retired, tail very much between legs, to the outer reaches of our public life and sought the quiet life. Not Truss, who today will reassert her position [...]
Looney’s successor must also strike a balance on the green agenda September 14, 2023 There must be something in the water. After Dame Alison Rose’s avoidable exit, now we have Bernard Looney’s. Whilst the details of the former are rather clearer than the latter, it does appear that the Irish exec would still be at the head of the oil major today if he’d been more open with the [...]
It’s time to put the humble job at the heart of political debate September 13, 2023 What’s a job, at the end of the day? That was the question posed at length last evening at the launch of the new Jobs Foundation, a charity which wants (as the name implies) rather more of them. It’s the 9-5, sure, but it’s more than that: security, stability, the ticket to a better life. [...]
