CHELMSFORD, ESSEX March 24, 2011 THE BARNSTON Price: £299,000 This newly built three-bedroom house with carport and parking space is only a mile and half from Chelmsford town centre and railway station. Its kitchen has been kitted out with stainless steel hobs, oven and appliances. There is a front and back garden. Contact: Crest Nicholson on 01932 580555 or go [...]
INTERIORS March 24, 2011 DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL LONDON LETTINGS FIRM DRAKER LETTINGS Q. I have recently bought my first rental investment and have heard some terrible stories from landlords who have had nightmare tenants. How do I stop this from happening to me? A. Firstly, be very careful not to rush into the first tenancy that comes along. If [...]
George giveth and George taketh away March 23, 2011 GEORGE Osborne yesterday unveiled a handful of eye-catching tax cuts designed to help the motorist and boost economic growth. Businesses welcomed the chancellor’s decision to reduce corporation tax by 2p next month while a 1p per litre cut in fuel duty will help soften the blow of soaring petrol prices. But Osborne was accused of [...]
At a glance: All the crucial points from Osborne’s Budget for Growth March 23, 2011 THE ECONOMY/PUBLIC FINANCES The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has revised its growth forecast for the economy, blaming higher-than-expected inflation as a result of recent global commodity price shocks and the weather-affected final quarter of 2010. GDP growth has been revised down to 1.7 per cent in 2011. Growth is expected to peak at 2.9 [...]
A useful but schizophrenic package March 23, 2011 SOME of the early reaction yesterday was that this was a slightly boring, forgettable Budget. Nonsense. It was far-ranging: radical in parts, brilliant at times, occasionally awful, way too political and often quite surprising. It wasn’t quite the Budget for growth that George Osborne should have delivered: populism all too often got the better of [...]
A political Budget in Gordon Brown’s mould March 23, 2011 GEORGE Osborne added the two most eye catching measures to his Budget at the very last minute. We know this because the Office for Budget Responsibility said it learned of the 2p cut in corporation tax and the 1p cut in fuel duty too late to consider their effects on its economic forecasts. Always the [...]
George Osborne unties his hands March 23, 2011 The chancellor’s hands are tied,” we kept hearing last week. But like the digits of a precocious contortionist, George’s fingers fluttered free. They bounced iambically over not-quite-iambic phrases – “to fix the budget to fit the forecast” – pointed emphatically upwards as his nasal tones scraped the rafters and stretched themselves soothingly over sunny phrases [...]
The Budget: What did you think? March 23, 2011 AFTER?yesterday’s Budget, we ran a snap poll of 250 readers with PoliticsHome to gauge your thoughts on some of the key changes. First we asked about the decrease in corporation tax. More than 87 per cent supported the change, with 9.7 per cent against and 2.75 of no opinion. The average score out of ten [...]
Portugal PM forced to quit March 23, 2011 PORTUGUESE Prime Minister Jose Socrates resigned yesterday after his latest austerity budget was thrown out by parliament. The defeat leaves Portugal teetering on the bring of an EU?bailout, without a government and without a credible plan to address its debt problems. Socrates had threatened to resign if the cuts – the fourth package of reforms [...]
Tchenguiz inquiry hits double setback March 23, 2011 THE man in charge of the fraud investigation into the financial affairs of the Tchenguiz brothers and their connection to the collapsed Kaupthing Bank has resigned on a day which also saw dozens of documents being returned to the brothers’ lawyers. The Serious Fraud Office’s (SFO) Mick Randall is said to be taking up a [...]
