A St James’s Square office development just smashed the UK’s rent record April 9, 2015 The crazy inflation of London office rents continues apace, after a gallery signed a record-breaking deal at a new development in St James's Square. The Helly Nahmad Gallery has signed a 15-year lease to pay £185 per sq ft across 2,959 sq ft on the sixth floor of 8 St James's Square, industry magazine Property Week [...]
Living standards are finally rising – but only in the North April 9, 2015 Is the North-South divide about to flip on its head? A new report suggests living standards are finally beginning to rise – but only up North. According to the research, by think tank the Resolution Foundation, although typical weekly incomes rose after the financial crisis, after 2009-10 they began to fall again, hitting a low [...]
UK property prices: House price growth still falling – but mortgage approvals are up April 9, 2015 Growth in house prices fell again in the three months to March, to 8.1 per cent, down from 8.5 per cent in January, research by Halifax suggested today. That puts growth at a "similar" rate to September 2014 – although it's now "significantly" below July's peak of 10.2 per cent, it added. Month on month, [...]
General Election 2015: Is the Green Party’s boyband video the most bonkers election broadcast ever? Here are five of the best April 8, 2015 The Green party has launched its new Party Election Broadcast. It has David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg, and Nigel Farage depicted as a rather bizarre boy band, singing a power ballad about austerity. No. Really…. Incredibly, the Green video may not actually be the most bonkers election broadcast a party has ever [...]
A Carlsberg billboard in Shoreditch is dispensing free beer April 8, 2015 Nothing like a couple of pigeons to improve the drinking experience (Source: Carlsberg) Actually, this probably is the best poster in the world: a billboard in Shoreditch is giving out free beer. Unusually, for the area, it's not some unknown craft ale – it's Carlsberg. And it's only today. The billboard (or "installation", as its creators [...]
BG Group chief executive Helge Lund may just have earned millions for two months’ work April 8, 2015 After a brief two months at the helm of BG Group, its chief executive Helge Lund may be about to join – as the FT put it – "the ranks of history's footnote guys" – but it looks like he'll have last laugh. Back in December, two months before Lund was due to leave Norwegian giant [...]
Elon Musk’s Tesla unveils new “entry level” Model S 70D April 8, 2015 Tesla, the electric car maker with the cult following, has just unveiled its latest model: the "entry level" Model S 70D. At just over $75,000 (£50,000), it's hardly a snip – but at 514 hp, it's almost as powerful as a Porsche 911…. The company's shares rose 2.9 per cent to $209.25 in pre-market trading, [...]
How to get into the finance sector: The six university degree subjects most likely to land you a job in a London bank April 8, 2015 It's that time of year again – A-Levels are coming up, and students everywhere are trying to work out what to next. Aspiring bankers could do worse than to read up on new research by salary benchmarking site Emolument.com, which has identified the six most common degrees held by London bankers. At the top – [...]
British Museum boss Neil MacGregor announces plans to retire April 8, 2015 British Museum director Neil MacGregor has announced plans to retire at the end of 2015, after 13 years at the helm of the UK's most popular tourist attraction. During his time at the museum, visitor numbers have increased from 4.6m a year in 2002/03, to 6.7m in 2014/15, making it the second most visited museum [...]
This morning I rode to work in a Metrocab, London’s first electric taxi – is this black cabbies’ Uber-killer? April 8, 2015 Since taxi app Uber launched in London two years ago, the capital's traditional cabbies have developed something of an image problem. With various strikes and lawsuits on the go, the Licensed Taxi Drivers' Association (LTDA) has lost the sympathy of many of its passengers by appearing stubborn, protectionist and out of date. But now cabbies [...]
