Foxtons reaps the rewards as house buyers scramble to complete ahead of stamp duty deadline – but how long will the party last? April 27, 2016 Foxton's has posted impressive-looking results for the quarter to the end of March. But shares slid as investors showed their nerves over new buy to let rules. The figures Total group revenues rose to £38.4m during the period, up 16.2 per cent from the same quarter last year. That was pushed up by a 28.5 per cent increase in property [...]
Forget vacuums and hand dryers: The Dyson product might just blow away a whole industry April 27, 2016 It's been four years and £50m in the making, but Dyson's new product just blew in: this time, entrepreneur James Dyson is taking on the beauty market. Yes, fresh from such innovations as the world's first self-righting vacuum cleaner, the company has decided to tackle something altogether more personal: the hairdryer. And naturally, given the company's [...]
Big Ben’s bongs are going to be silenced for months April 26, 2016 One of the capital's most iconic sounds is going to be silenced for several months, as repairs are carried out on the UK's best-known clock tower. The Houses of Parliament said today that Big Ben's bongs will be no more – for several months, anyway – while vital repairs are carried out to the tower. Meanwhile, [...]
Paul Smith wants to turn Trafalgar Square into a mini golf course – but he needs your help April 26, 2016 Paul Smith and his friends at the London Design Festival have teamed up to transform Trafalgar Square from its current status, ie. tourist-addled nightmare, to the sort of mini golf course we can only dream about. Smith has even designed a pair of socks for it. But there's no easy way to say this: there's a chance it might not [...]
No more fatbergs: Thames Water finance chief to retire as it says it will name a new chief executive “shortly” April 26, 2016 He's spent more than quarter of a century in chief finance officer roles – but today Thames Water said its finance chief is planning to step down. No more fatbergs for him, then… Stuart Siddall, who has been the company's finance chief since 2011, but who has been in CFO roles since 1990, will retire [...]
ScottishPower has just been hit with a huge £18m fine over bad customer service April 26, 2016 ScottishPower has become the latest utilities provider to be hit with a huge fine over poor customer service. The company said this morning it had reached a deal with Ofgem, the utilities watchdog, to pay £18m – £15m of which will go to vulnerable customers, and £3m of which will go to charity. In a [...]
City A.M. Unregulated podcast: Episode four – Does The Divide mean capitalism has failed? April 26, 2016 Unlicensed and off-the-leash, this is City A.M. Unregulated. A no-holds-barred, uncensored look at the stories breaking the news and the markets across the globe. Unregulated dives straight into one of capitalism's biggest debates this week: as The Divide, the documentary looking at the story of seven people as they strive for a better life, is [...]
A supermarket is offering a “quiet hour” to help shoppers with autism April 25, 2016 If you've ever had the joy of going to a supermarket with a child with severe autism, you'll know the drill. From loud noises to people jostling them, anything can turn what could have been a peaceful shop into a potential tantrum situation. But now the manager of an Asda store in Manchester is seeking to make things easier [...]
Now we can all bank like the super-rich – as Goldman Sachs offers bank accounts to the hoi polloi April 25, 2016 Goldman Sachs might be used to dealing with the wealth of the world's highest rollers – but now you can feel just as exclusive, after the bank launched a drive for new retail bank customers. Yep – having revealed last week it had completed the acquisition of online retail bank GE Capital Bank and rebranded it as GS [...]
