Quindell buyer Slater and Gordon’s UK chief executive steps down February 5, 2016 The UK chief executive of the law firm which bought the professional services of arm of embattled Quindell last year has stepped down. Neil Kinsella was the first chief executive of Slater and Gordon from 2012 to 2013, after it took over Russell Jones and Walker (RJW), before becoming its interim head of general law. He was [...]
UK rental prices: Why landlords aren’t to blame for the housing crisis February 5, 2016 Landlords aren't exactly flavour of the month right now. For many critics of the UK private rental market, it's landlords who seem to be presiding over a broken and unjust system, fleecing tenants out of their hard-earned cash while keeping property prices at the insanely high levels that price them out of home ownership. It’s [...]
Metro Bank float may take the (dog) biscuit February 4, 2016 How much is a dog biscuit worth? A lot, if you believe the contents of documents sent to shareholders in Metro Bank ahead of its listing on the London Stock Exchange in March. Since its launch six years ago, the first new lender to hit UK high streets in more than a century has done a [...]
Piercing the bitcoin veil: Businesses should beware the risks of trading with a sanctioned entity February 3, 2016 In January the EU and the US lifted economic and financial sanctions against Iran in a ground-breaking deal that unfroze billions of pounds of assets and opened up new markets for the first time since 2010. Despite the fanfare surrounding the deal, in the small print a warning remains: some EU and US financial sanctions [...]
How much are Neymar and Gareth Bale worth? Investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald believes it has the definitive answer on player values February 3, 2016 Football clubs have been urged to shut out the noise and defer to statistical analysis sourced from the City, during another high-spending January transfer window. Premier League clubs surpassed £1bn in total transfer spend for the first time in 2015 and invested another £175m last month. With such increasingly huge sums at stake, club owners are [...]
Landlords threaten to sell up 500,000 rental homes after stamp duty hike February 2, 2016 Landlords are so tired of being persecuted by the government, they're threatening to flog half a million rental properties in the next 12 months – meaning the UK's rental sector could be about to shrink dramatically. And as we have learned today – the UK needs more rental properties… Research by the National Landlords Associations [...]
UK house prices: London Help to Buy is a thing now – but experts warn it could inflate risks (and only help high earners in the first place) February 1, 2016 Callooh callay, London's own Help to Buy scheme has launched this morning, the government's scheme to give first-time buyers a lift onto the housing ladder. The new scheme effectively doubles the help being given out previously, as the government makes loans of up to 40 per cent available for first and second-time buyers on new [...]
Crazy London house prices have pushed Aim-listed Formation Group’s revenues up almost 200 per cent January 29, 2016 London’s buoyant property market has helped construction management firm Formation Group report revenue growth of 199 per cent for the year ending 31 August 2015. Group revenues rose to £23.7m over the period, compared with £7.941m the previous year, while profits before taxation were £2.2m from continuing operations, up from a 2014 loss of £99,000. [...]
First-time housing market booming in the UK despite fall in purchases over the Christmas period January 29, 2016 THE NUMBER of first-time home buyers in the UK fell in December due to the traditional Christmas period slowdown, but showed healthy growth over the year, new data has shown today. First-time buyer numbers fell by 1,300 or 4.7 per cent month-on-month due to the “traditional winter cooling” period, according to the first-time buyer tracker [...]
London house prices: Housebuilding is falling in the capital – so rip up planning rules and start again January 29, 2016 Help to Buy. The Help to Buy Isa. NewBuy. Right to Buy. Shared ownership. As the housing crisis worsened in recent years, there was no shortage of government schemes aimed at helping first-time buyers reach that crucial bottom rung on the housing ladder. In the capital, it is becoming increasingly obvious gentle encouragement from George [...]