David Rudlin’s garden city plan to double size of UK towns wins Wolfson’s £250,000 prize The Wolfson economic prize and the £250,000 that comes with it were awarded to urban planner David Rudlin last night, for his design of a new garden city. The prize was offered to the best design of a new city, set up by Lord Simon Wolfson and organised by think tank Policy Exchange. Rudlin, who [...]
Services surge ahead yet UK’s industry slows BRITISH services are reporting the fastest growth this year so far, even as the country’s manufacturers report a slowdown, suggesting that the recent expansion may be unbalancing. The August survey of the services sector conducted by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply (CIPS) and Markit came in at 60.5 – the strongest since November [...]
FTSE 100 touches a 14-year high after Ukraine cease fire rumours THE FTSE 100 opened at a 14 year high yesterday morning, driven upwards by strong UK services data and rumours of a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia. The index climbed to over 6,897 yesterday morning, the highest level since 2000, before settling at 6,873.58 later in the day, having risen by 0.65 per cent on the [...]
Eurozone service sector’s slowdown puts pressure on ECB to undertake quantitative easing September 3, 2014 The Eurozone’s services firms flagged a further slowdown in the troubled currency bloc’s growth yesterday, with surveys indicating that the region is growing at the slowest pace this year so far, putting pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB). The Eurozone’s composite purchasing managers’ index, collated by Markit, dropped to just 52.5 – the lowest [...]
Dismal Eurozone data adds to reasons not to hike interest rates September 3, 2014 Our panel of experts voted to hold interest rates again this week, with dismal data from the Eurozone adding to weak UK wage inflation as the major reasons mentioned not to tighten policy. The clear slowdown in the currency union has had little effect on hard economic data in the UK so far, but several [...]
German bank boss’ support for central Eurozone bond sparks ire September 3, 2014 The chairman and chief executive of one of Germany’s largest banks was in hot water in his home country yesterday, after penning an article in support of centralised bond issuances for the Eurozone. Commerzbank boss Martin Blessing came under scrutiny after expressing the opinion in an article for German business newspaper Handelsblatt. Blessing said that the [...]
ONS revision shows UK financial crisis was not as bad as thought September 3, 2014 THE RECESSION which hit the UK in the aftermath of the financial crisis was less severe than initially thought, and the country returned to its previous peak size at a much earlier date. Revisions released yesterday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) yesterday showed that GDP dropped six per cent from the first quarter [...]
Sterling sinks as independence win in Scotland looks more likely September 2, 2014 The pound slumped yesterday in the wake of a fresh poll which suggested that Scotland’s looming independence referendum could go right down to the wire. The Yes campaign was buoyed by the release of a YouGov poll which showed 47 per cent of voters were ready to back independence, against 53 per cent who planned [...]
Help-to-Buy mortgages nearly double in 2014 second quarter September 2, 2014 The Help-to-Buy scheme is making up an increasing proportion of the mortgage market, with the number of government-guaranteed loans nearly doubling between the first and second quarters of the year. There were 11,243 uses of the controversial scheme between April and June, up significantly from 6,335 in the first three months of the year. When [...]
M&A deals in UK fall to 27-year quarterly low September 2, 2014 THE NUMBER of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the UK and arranged abroad by UK-owned firms fell to at least a 27-year low in the second quarter of the year. Balfour Beatty and Carillion called off a construction mega-merger last month, but official data released this morning showed that the firms weren’t the only ones [...]
