Landlords threaten to sell up 500,000 rental homes after stamp duty hike February 2, 2016 Landlords are so tired of being persecuted by the government, they're threatening to flog half a million rental properties in the next 12 months – meaning the UK's rental sector could be about to shrink dramatically. And as we have learned today – the UK needs more rental properties… Research by the National Landlords Associations [...]
UK house prices: The UK needs a million more rental homes in the next five years February 2, 2016 The UK needs more than a million new rental homes by 2021, a new report has suggested. The government has a target to build 400,000 new affordable homes for sale over the course of this parliament – but that's ignoring the needs of renters, the research, by Savills, suggests. Sluggish economic recovery, low interest rates – [...]
In pictures: Modern Express, a giant, listing cargo ship, has just narrowly avoided crashing into the French coast February 2, 2016 The French maritime agency has confirmed it has prevented a massive cargo ship from crashing into its coast during a last-ditch rescue attempt. The Modern Express was listing badly in gale-force conditions just over 28 miles off the French coast. It was feared the ship would run aground at some point today, after several attempts to turn it around [...]
Ocado share price jumps as it makes its second-ever profit – and says it is “confident” of signing a big deal February 2, 2016 Ocado has reported its second-ever pre-tax profit, which jumped 65 per cent in the year to the end of November. And the company was dropped a couple of hints which could relate to those rumours of a tie-up with a certain giant ecommerce site… The figures In a statement today, Ocado said gross retail sales rose to £1.1bn in 2015, up 14.7 per [...]
TalkTalk share price jumps as revenues rise – but cyber attack cost it £60m February 2, 2016 Shareholders seemed impressed with TalkTalk's recovery from the cyber attack that devastated it in October – it's even retained its dividend. But the hack still cost it as much as £60m. The figures In a statement this morning, the company said revenues rose 1.8 per cent in the third quarter, with on-net revenues growing 4.5 per cent. But the company [...]
National Australia Bank prices Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks shares near bottom of range – but puts off IPO by a day February 2, 2016 National Australia Bank (NAB) has said shares in its Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank chains (CYBG to their friends) will trade at 180p – but added that the much-anticipated initial public offering (IPO) will take place tomorrow. The new bank had been expected to begin trading on the London Stock Exchange today. But NAB said a request from one of the ratings [...]
George Osborne is playing a dangerous game with the new Help to Buy London February 1, 2016 George Osborne is playing a dangerous game with the new Help to Buy London Back during the Autumn Statement, George Osborne announced with great pleasure that he would be introducing a London-specific Help to Buy scheme. The government are going to give a hand to struggling homeowners, to get on the first rung of a [...]
From Sprezzatura to Fingerspitzengefuehl: 29 brilliantly hard-to-translate words to use when you’re praising your team February 1, 2016 New research has found English is lacking in the language of positivity: in short, we don't have all the right words to describe the subtle express joy as other languages. The paper, published in the Journal of Positive Psychology by Tim Lomas, lists 216 "untranslatable" words, with the aim of "providing a window onto cultural differences" and [...]
Migrant crisis: EuroTunnel has hired French soldier Dominique Schmitlin to head its security February 1, 2016 British jokes about French soldiers might soon have to stop – one is now guarding the Calais border. Channel tunnel operator Eurotunnel has appointed a French helicopter commander in a new role as security director to “beef up” precautions over the migrant crisis. Dominique Schmitlin started his 33-year military career in the army’s combat chopper [...]
UK house prices: Mortgage lending rose unexpectedly in December February 1, 2016 The rush to sneak that house purchase in before interest rates rise continues apace: figures published by the Bank of England this morning showed mortgage lending jumped unexpectedly in December, beating analysts' expectations. Mortgage lending for house purchases rose to 70,837 in December, up from 70,424 in November. That was against analysts' expectations of a modest fall, [...]
