Narrowing Conservative lead fuels talk of earlier election December 14, 2009 THE CONSERVATIVES’ lead over Labour has narrowed to single figures, a Guardian/ICM poll showed yesterday, upping the pressure on Gordon Brown to call an early election. This is the first ICM poll since the end of 2008 that gives the Tories less than a double-digit lead, raising hope in the Labour camp that they can [...]
Gartmore in disappointing share debut December 14, 2009 GARTMORE’s shares made a disappointing debut yesterday, falling by as much as 10p in morning trading after the firm was forced to cut the value of its initial public offering. The stock closed 1.4 per cent down at 217p in its first day of listing, giving Gartmore a market capitalisation of £666.8m. The fund manager [...]
Treasury Select Committee set to grill chancellor over deficit December 14, 2009 GOVERNMENT debt and the tax on bankers’ bonuses will be the hot topics when Alistair Darling is grilled by the Treasury Select Committee tomorrow. The chancellor will be questioned over his pre-Budget Report, which includes a 50 per cent one-off super tax rate on bankers’ bonuses. Darling, who pledged to halve public borrowing by 2014, [...]
Sales jump at Whitbread December 14, 2009 PUB and hotel group Whitbread yesterday posted higher sales thanks to price-cutting, but forecast a “long slow haul” out of the slump. The owner of Costa Coffee, Beefeater and Brewer’s Fayre pub restaurants and Premier Inn budget hotels boosted like-for-like sales 0.3 per cent in the third quarter to November 26, with total sales up 6.7 [...]
NEW VIRGIN MEDIA EXEC December 14, 2009 VIRGIN Media yesterday appointed Andrew Barron as its new chief operating officer. He will take up the position on 4 January. Barron has been with Virgin Media since March 2008, leading its strategy development and overseeing a comprehensive reorganisation of the group’s customer operations and network teams.
Property prices increasing as rising demand outstrips supply December 14, 2009 HUGE demand for housing is outstripping any modest rise in available property, with prices continuing to rise in the UK’s weak economic climate, a housing survey said yesterday. London and the South East are experiencing rising enquiries from new buyers, said the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors’ (RICS) November housing survey, with 50 to 60 [...]
NEWS | IN BRIEF December 14, 2009 London Array in £2bn cash boost Germany’s E.ON, Denmark’s state-owned group DONG Energy and Masdar said yesterday they had signed contracts worth nearly €2bn (£1.3bn) for work on London Array’s offshore wind project. Masdar is an Abu Dhabi green energy investment firm. The companies said work for first phase of the project would start early [...]
Greek prime minister details radical plan to stop country drowning in debt December 14, 2009 THE GREEK Prime Minister George Papandreou yesterday said the country was in danger of drowning in debt and pledged to take radical action to tackle its fiscal situation. “We need to move immediately to a new social deal,” Papandreou said in an economic policy speech aiming to reassure markets and EU partners. “We must change or [...]
BA pensions boss quits as deficit grows December 14, 2009 THE chairman of British Airways’ pension schemes yesterday bowed to pressure and resigned over a perceived conflict of interests. As revealed by City A.M., Roger Maynard faced calls to quit in November because he was a key figure in the merger between BA and Iberia, sitting on the boards of both airlines as well as [...]
ITV cheers as 19m tune in to X-Factor grand final December 14, 2009 MORE than 19m viewers tuned in to watch Joe McElderry win the X-Factor on Sunday night, the biggest ever audience for ITV 1’s flagship talent show. In a rare piece of good news for the struggling commercial broadcaster, overnight figures yesterday showed that the two-hour show averaged 15.5m viewers, giving it a 53 per cent [...]
