Let the travelling by boat take the stress out of commuting June 24, 2010 IN warm weather those living near the river in London have a big advantage. It’s not just the views or access to riverside beer gardens – it’s the fact that they don’t have to jam themselves into sweat-drenched Tube carriages and buses when they can drift merrily to work by boat instead. When commuting comes [...]
Q&A: AUTO ENROLMENT June 24, 2010 Q.WHAT IS THE EXISTING ARRANGEMENT FOR AUT0 ENROLMENT? A.Currently, all employees will be automatically enrolled into a pension scheme from 2012. Those employees working for a firm that doesn’t provide a pension will be enrolled into the National Employee Savings Trust or Nest. Q.WHY DO EMPLOYERS WANT NESTS RE-EXAMINED? A.They are worried that the one-size-fits-all scheme could hurt some firms, especially smaller ones. Currently [...]
Q&A CURRENCY June 24, 2010 CAMILLA DELL MANAGING PARTNER AT BLACK BRICK Q.Dear Camilla, I am a London property developer and in light of this week’s Budget, what will the week’s announcements mean for the capital’s housing market? A.Well, the rise in capital gains tax (CGT) was far, far less than everybody expected, which is a great relief for those [...]
Cameron asks public workers how he should cut spending June 24, 2010 PRIME Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg wrote to six million public sector workers yesterday asking for ideas on how to save money and tackle a record peacetime deficit. Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget suggests 25 per cent spending cuts in all government departments except health and international development to balance a deficit of [...]
Cable to refresh Royal Mail privatisation plans June 24, 2010 VINCE Cable has asked the man behind plans to part-privatise the Royal Mail to see whether a full stock market flotation or sale to a trade buyer could unlock more value in current market conditions. In his first report, former deputy chairman of Ofcom Richard Hooper recommended a strategic partnership with a private player, essentially a part-privatisation. [...]
How Osborne’s budget affects the housing market June 24, 2010 THERE are not many ways to make a 10 per cent tax hike look business-friendly, but Chancellor George Osborne pulled off a neat trick this week by doing just that. Expectations of a massive capital gains tax (CGT) rise had been building since the Liberal Democrats, who had promised to raise CGT to close to [...]
Bank debt could hurt UK June 24, 2010 THE largest UK banks will need to refinance or replace around £750bn worth of term loans and liquid assets by the end of 2012, warned the Bank of England yesterday. The scale of the required refinancing is greater than that of banks based in the US, Germany, France or Italy and could hurt the UK’s [...]
FSA oversight set to persist June 24, 2010 ALL major FSA policy initiatives and its intensive supervisory approach will be adopted within the new regulatory structure, FSA chief executive Hector Sants confirmed yesterday. Speaking at the watchdog’s annual public meeting, Sants said the FSA would take forward all its major policy initiatives within the new structure, including plans to eliminate commission for most [...]
There’s nothing that says well done me quite like a bodacious one-man palace June 24, 2010 YOU’VE given your life to work – and you’ve made a mint in return. It’s high time you rewarded yourself with a show-stopper of a home.?Don’t beat around the property bush – buy yourself a bachelor pad with all the bells and whistles, a home you love so much you’d be happy to live in [...]
Morgan Stanley pays $102m to end subprime lending case June 24, 2010 MORGAN Stanley agreed yesterday to pay $102m (£68m) to end an investigation in Massachusetts into unfair lending practices. Martha Coakley, the state’s attorney general, said Morgan Stanley, which funded subprime loans throughout the country, improperly loaned billions of dollars to New Century which then sold loans to unqualified borrowers in the state. Morgan Stanley also [...]
