Back to 2007: UK house prices rise for every region and buyer type October 18, 2021 It’s a full house for the UK home buying market, with property prices rising last month in every region of the UK, London included, and for buyer types ranging from first-timers to those at the wealthiest rungs of the property ladder. In London, the average property price hit £650,683, up another 1.9 per cent on [...]
Gove the gardener: Are plans for a Tulip tower in London set to bloom again? October 17, 2021 Tulip fever is heading to London, with housing secretary Michael Gove tipped to overule London mayor Sadiq Khan’s decision to squash plans for a flower-inspired skyscraper in the City. Gove is expected to give the plans for a 300m tower the OK, the Telegraph reported, which would overturn Khan’s 2019 decision against the Tulip. At [...]
Insurance broker Howden snaps up Aston Lark from Goldman Sachs in £1.1bn deal October 13, 2021 Employee-owned insurance broker Howden this morning announced it had agreed a deal with Goldman Sachs and Bowman to buy Aston Lark. The deal, thought to be worth more than £1bn according to people close to the broking firms, will give Howden access to the Aston Lark’s complex commercial and private client base. Howden will leapfrog [...]
Bank of England rate-setter: Brace yourself for interest rate rises very soon October 10, 2021 One of the key rate-setters on the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has today said UK households should be primed for an interest rate rise “significantly sooner” than first thought. Michael Saunders, the former Citigroup economist turned Threadneedle St wonk, noted that financial markets had already priced in a pending rate rise as economies [...]
Gas price crisis: Ovo boss hints more energy companies will fold October 10, 2021 More energy companies will have a “hard time” due to rising gas prices, the chief executive of Ovo has said. Stephen Fitzpatrick told the BBC this morining: “There are a lot of companies in the market that have sprung up quite recently, there’s been some great competition in the UK market, consumers have benefitted. “But [...]
Fill it up: Saudi Aramco mulls an IPO for its retail fuels business October 7, 2021 Oil giant Saudi Aramco is said to be considering an IPO for its retail fuels and lubricants business. Saudi Aramco, one of the world’s most valuable companies, want to pursue the float plans so that it can maintain its multi-billion-dollar dividend policy, Bloomberg reports. The unit is reasonable new, having only been set up as [...]
Exclusive: London bearing the brunt of skills shortages, say city bosses October 7, 2021 The skilled labour shortage gripping the UK is being felt most acutely by London businesses, with seven in 10 executives saying their company has been affected. Despite promises of emergency visas and skills training from the Government, 22 per cent of London business leaders think the problem will be the biggest hurdle their company will [...]
Watchdog mulls investigation for EY and Deloitte over Southeastern audits October 3, 2021 The accountancy watchdog is debating whether to launch a probe into the auditors of the Southeastern train line after the company last week admitted to hiding £25m owed to the state. The Financial Reporting Council is looking into whether audit giants EY and Deloitte have a case to answer, sources told the Sunday Telegraph. Last [...]
Cazoo swerves the UK driver crisis as spending spree pays off September 29, 2021 The boss of fast-growing vehicle-selling platform Cazoo backed moves to use emergency visas to ease the driver shortages now stalling the UK economy — while trumpeting a recent deal for logistics specialist SMH Fleet Solutions as part of its way around the labour market strife. Cazoo, which buys up used cars from UK sellers, then [...]
Cop26 sponsor NatWest named and shamed for links to Arctic oil and gas drillers September 27, 2021 NatWest is under scrutiny from campaigners due to it financing fossil fuel developers while sponsoring the Cop26 climate summit NatWest is the banking sponsor of the Glasgow conference — where countries will pledge to reduce carbon emissions as part of a wideranging global effort — but was still providing underwriting and loans to energy companies [...]
