Strong London house market is behind UK-wide price increases September 18, 2012 LONDON house prices boomed in July, once again driving a modest boost in average UK prices, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed yesterday. UK prices increased two per cent overall in the year to July, the data showed, spurred on by London prices which soared 5.7 per cent in the same period. [...]
UK economic confidence stuck in a rut as US recovers September 18, 2012 THE September data for YouGov’s HEAT (Household Economic Activity Tracker) is out and I’m afraid to report that it continues to tell the same story that we have seen for the last few months – Britain’s economic confidence is stuck in a rut, neither improving nor worsening. The Index score is at 93 (out of [...]
Ofcom pays out on redundancy September 18, 2012 ■ Ofcom spent millions on redundancies over the last five years, even as it hired more staff than it let go, The Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA) revealed yesterday. The communications regulator spent £9.4m on redundancy payments, in a period when it hired 598 staff and only made 223 redundant. “Poor planning by Ofcom has left taxpayers [...]
DMGT offloads events business September 18, 2012 ■ Daily Mail and General Trust yesterday announced it had agreed to sell leadership and conference business Evanta to Leeds Equity Partners for £58m in a bid to pay down some of its debts. The firm said the deal for Evanta, which made £5m profit on the back of revenue streams of £16m last year, [...]
BT opens wallet to sign Beeb’s Jake Humphrey September 18, 2012 A FTER a breakthrough 2012 that saw him shine as one of the lead anchors of the BBC’s Olympic coverage, the Beeb’s Formula 1 frontman Jake Humphrey has been snapped up by BT to present its Premier League offering from next season. Humphrey’s signing is the latest big money move from BT, after it shelled [...]
Panda-monium in Washington as investor fuels bearish boom September 18, 2012 BILLIONAIRE private equity investor David Rubenstein, co-founder of Carlyle Group, has added another string to his bow – as panda godparent. On Monday, Rubenstein got the latest return on his investment in the form of a new giant panda cub called Mei Xiang, which was born thanks to techniques developed at a facility in Washington [...]
Ford suffers as falling car sales across Europe hit automakers September 18, 2012 EUROPEAN car sales fell 8.5 per cent in August, making it the 11th straight monthly decline. The drop was led by Ford, General Motors and Fiat as mid-market brands bore the brunt of the slump in markets including Italy, France and Germany. The region recorded 722,483 registrations last month, the Association of European Automakers said, [...]
Record profits at construction firm Galliford September 18, 2012 CONSTRUCTION company Galliford Try reported an 80 per cent rise in profit for the fiscal year, helped by the performance of its housebuilding segment, and said it was confident of further growth. The company, which also takes up government infrastructure projects, said its construction segment has already secured 82 per cent of its projected workload [...]
Fitzrovia is moving upmarket with apartments priced at £12m September 18, 2012 FITZROVIA is moving upmarket from its humble arty roots with a development of 237 apartments priced at up to £12.5m each. The central London area, once known as a run-down artistic neighbourhood, will become the home of Fitzroy Place, on the site of the former Middlesex Hospital in Mortimer Street. Developer Exemplar has already sold [...]
Yammer in the loop at Silicon Roundabout September 18, 2012 SILICON Roundabout has welcomed its latest tech tenant in Yammer, a social network for companies. San Francisco-based Yammer unveiled its EMEA management team last December, and announced in March that it was opening an office in Shoreditch.
