Selling public land is just the start: Three steps to solve London’s housing crisis November 19, 2014 WE HAVE got to the stage that, if you don’t know there’s a serious housing shortage in London, I’d assume you must be living in a cave. This shortage comes with increasingly obvious social and economic ramifications. London First recently published research showing that more than half of workers (56 per cent) have difficulties paying [...]
It’s maddening that investment charges are still so complicated November 18, 2014 THIS week, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has come under pressure to implement more stringent measures on the way investments are managed, particularly when it comes to communicating fees to customers and improving the overall transparency of charges. But this is all backward. It should be companies leading the charge for transparency, because that’s what [...]
“Big four” banks’ small business lending placed under official investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority November 6, 2014 Britain’s biggest banks are to be thrust under the microscope by a watchdog launching an in-depth investigation into personal current accounts and small business lending. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) believes the UK retail banking sector is failing its customers through a "crippling lack of competition and transparency". HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds Banking [...]
Bank of England deputy governor Minouche Shafik: Finance is stronger now October 27, 2014 Huge fines and revelations about some bankers’ bad behaviour in years gone by is obscuring recent progress made in cleaning up the industry, Bank of England deputy governor Minouche Shafik said last night. Shafik has launched a nine-month review into fixed income, currency and commodities markets, looking at every aspect from the way securities are [...]
New dictionary words: How well do you know this year’s finance entries? October 24, 2014 Hear ye, hear ye, financial wordsmiths – the 12th edition of the Collins English Dictionary was out yesterday, and with it 50,000 new words to add to your Scrabble repertoire. The financial crisis has definitely taken hold at Collins HQ, with 14 new financial additions to the dictionary, including Fed chief Janet Yellen's ever-popular "taper" [...]
Lloyds boss calls for easier rules to fix Britain’s housing crisis October 21, 2014 TENS OF thousands more homes should be built each year to ease the UK’s housing crisis, Lloyds boss Antonio Horta Osorio said last night – and the government should take the lead by building on under-used Ministry of Defence land. The bank is setting up a new fund, starting with £50m, to help finance construction [...]
Johnson defends London and foreign investment in property October 15, 2014 LONDON mayor Boris Johnson yesterday stood up for foreign investment into London, dispelling claims that they were in part to blame for the property crisis as “absolute rubbish”. One of the developments Johnson may have had in mind was the Qatar-backed Shard when he spoke at Mipim UK, the inaugural property trade show in London’s [...]
Where is the richest place in Europe? Inner London came out top October 14, 2014 In the depths of the crisis, one small area of the UK held out: Inner London was still the richest place in the EU. Eurostat, the body that collates data about the European Union, has compiled stats on different economic measures to allow for a comparison of different regions. The data showed some big disparities: [...]
Tax cuts and deregulation: How free markets can slash the cost of living September 25, 2014 Rolling back state intervention across the economy and cutting taxes could save some families up to £7,800 a year, according to a new report from the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). The free market think tank has produced the report as part of it's 2020 Vision initiative, which provides a host of publications and films [...]
Labour’s misdiagnosis: A larger state is not the way to raise living standards September 23, 2014 To paraphrase the economist John Maynard Keynes, Ed Miliband’s speech yesterday to the Labour Party conference was an extraordinary example of how, starting with a mistake, a remorseless logician can end in Bedlam. For Miliband, the market has failed to deliver rising prosperity, and it is now time for big government to get back in [...]