UK needs to stop deliberately inflating residential land prices August 14, 2013 MY column yesterday revealing that the French are building three times more homes than the British every year – an astonishing fact which highlights the gravity of our housing supply crisis – elicited a number of typical counter-arguments. The most common was that the French have plenty of land, and we don’t, so it isn’t [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 15 August 2013 August 14, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Court stops €3.2bn German cable deal The €3.2bn purchase of Kabel Baden-Württemberg by Liberty Global has been blocked by a German court, casting doubt on the latest attempts to consolidate the country’s cable industry. Liberty agreed to buy Germany’s third-largest cable operator for €3.2bn in March 2011. John Deere boosted by farming John [...]
6,000 UK bank branches could close by 2020 August 14, 2013 HALF of Europe’s bank branches could become unviable or unnecessary by 2020, according to a study out yesterday from commercial real estate group Jones Lang LaSalle. The shift towards online and mobile banking combined with a further spread of debit and credit cards is expected to reduce the value of branches to banks. On top [...]
Egypt in crisis as hundreds massacred August 14, 2013 THE EGYPTIAN army yesterday killed hundreds of supporters of the deposed President Mohammed Morsi in an attempt to destroy protest camps calling for his return. Thousands more were severely injured in the clashes, while the pro-Morsi Muslim Brotherhood movement claimed the real number of lives lost is much higher. Interim Prime Minister Hazem Beblawi, installed following [...]
Steady jobless rate as market watches closely August 14, 2013 UNEMPLOYMENT fell by 4,000 in the second quarter this year, with the rate stable at 7.8 per cent, despite the Bank of England projecting a rise. However, the single-month estimate of unemployment in June was only 7.4 per cent, with the quarterly figure inflated by higher joblessness in April and May. Despite [...]
More signs of July’s housing market boom August 14, 2013 AS HOUSING markets in the UK begin to heat up, Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) has revealed that July was the busiest month in the brokerage’s 13-year history. MAB announced that there had been an 82 per cent increase in mortgage business between July 2012 and last month, with July this year seeing £554.7m worth of [...]
Fitch warns on breaking RBS into bad bank August 14, 2013 RBS IS recovering and breaking it into a so-called good bank and bad bank could be an expensive mistake for taxpayers, credit ratings agency Fitch warned yesterday. Splitting it into two and selling off the good part would leave the taxpayer with more toxic assets than is currently planned, as well as pushing up the [...]
Tushar Morzaria to take over as Barclays’ finance boss in October August 14, 2013 JP MORGAN’S chief finance officer will take over as Barclays’ finance director in October, four months earlier than planned, as Chris Lucas stepped down yesterday. Tushar Morzaria had been lined up to take the job in the New Year, but Lucas’ deteriorating health accelerated the plans. The new date may mean Barclays is [...]
Bitcoin probed by US Senate August 14, 2013 BITCOIN and other fast-growing online currencies are to be investigated by the US Senate amid money laundering concerns, it was announced yesterday. Bitcoin is not controlled by any government and is difficult to trace, leading a top Senate committee to raise concerns that it leaves “little or no trail for regulators or enforcement agencies”. While the virtual [...]
Cisco to axe 4,000 staff August 14, 2013 NETWORK equipment manufacturer Cisco last night said it would axe 4,000 workers, equivalent to five per cent of its workforce, as it faces uncertainty for its products. Despite beating expectations with strong fourth quarter profits of $2.3bn (£1.5bn) its shares fell 10 per cent in after hours trading as the company announced an uncertain outlook for [...]
