Salmond sets terms for Scots independence vote January 25, 2012 SCOTTISH first minister Alex Salmond claimed he could be leading a sovereign nation by 2016 after setting out details of a proposed independence referendum. The Scottish National Party (SNP) leader chose Burns Night to defy David Cameron and announce his party’s plans for a vote in late 2014 on the matter of dissolving the 304-year [...]
Fears of new slump after GDP shrinks January 25, 2012 GDP FELL in the final three months of 2011, according to early estimates from the Office for National Statistics, published yesterday. Economic output appears to have declined by 0.2 per cent, with 40 per cent of available data analysed so far. Such a decline leaves GDP growth for the whole of 2011 at 0.9 per [...]
Lending slows as consumers pay back more January 25, 2012 BANK lending continued to slow in December, but remains up on 2010’s figures according to data published yesterday by the British Bankers’ Association (BBA). New mortgage lending hit £8.7bn in the month, 12 per cent higher than in December of 2010 and the strongest month of 2011. However, annual net growth in the sector slowed [...]
CITY VIEWS: IS THE UK IN RECESSION? January 25, 2012 BHARPT JOSHR | DENSITRON TECHNOLOGY “I think we’ve been in a recession since the end of last year. I know from experience that most companies are only offering temporary or short term contracts and they see the numbers.” DUNCAN MULGREW | METS LTD “Personally our company is doing its best business in ten years, although [...]
UK factories hit by woes in Eurozone January 25, 2012 THE EUROZONE crisis hit manufacturers in the final three months of 2011, according to the CBI’s industrial trends survey published yesterday. Output stagnated, with a net balance of just two per cent of firms reporting an expansion, and 15 per cent reporting a fall in new orders – the first such drop in two years. [...]
£218,000: the cost of raising just one child January 25, 2012 CHILDCARE, education and food costs have all hit parents’ pockets, pushing the cost of raising a child to new highs, according to a study published today by Liverpool Victoria (LV). The cost of raising a child until they are 21 stands at £218,024, the research estimates. Education costs rose 5.1 per cent over the last [...]
BNY extends its stay with Canary Wharf January 25, 2012 BNY MELLON has decided to stay put at its offices in Canary Wharf with the US bank renewing its lease at One Canada Square for a further eight years. The bank, which is leasing six floors at the top of the 50-storey skyscraper, has signed a new term with its landlord Canary Wharf Group, beginning [...]
Work on the Pinnacle halts again amid tenant drought January 25, 2012 WORK HAS stopped on the Pinnacle skyscraper on Bishopsgate for a second time, as the developer struggles to find enough pre-let tenants. Construction officially halted last week with the tower just seven storeys high. However, City sources say work had been very slow over recent months, making possible tenants more reluctant to consider the building. [...]
A tale of two property developers January 25, 2012 BUILD it and they will come. That was the mantra which underpinned speculative developments during the boom years. These days it’s more like “show me the tenants and I’ll show you the money”. Without a confirmed pre-let, it’s awfully difficult for smaller developers to get funding, hence why work on the so-called Helter Skelter has [...]
Citi cuts put London bank jobs at risk January 25, 2012 CITIGROUP is considering further cuts to its securities and banking division, raising the prospect of more redundancies at its London offices. The bank’s finance chief John Gerspach told investors that losses in the division were “disappointing and unacceptable” and that the firm is “not oblivious to the fact that our cost structure cannot be justified [...]
