EY adds two key appointments to its Business Rates team February 24, 2020 As the debate around business rates continues and speculation that it may be subject to one of the Chancellor’s key announcements on Budget day increases, EY has announced the arrival of two key appointments to its Business Rates team. Alex White joins the team as Associate Partner, having been a business rates specialist for the [...]
Government appoints advisers to oversee outsourcers amid fear of Carillion-style collapse February 23, 2020 The government has reportedly appointed advisers to monitor the health of important outsourcers such as engineering company Kier. The Sunday Telegraph reported that the Cabinet Office has hired accountancy firm Deloitte to assist in assessing the finances of key contractors. The move follows the collapse of outsourcer Carillion in 2018. The Cabinet Office, which employs [...]
Government in last ditch Jingye talks ahead of British Steel sale deadline February 23, 2020 The government and its advisers are rushing to finalise the sale of British Steel to China’s Jingye ahead of a crunch deadline on Thursday. Jingye agreed a provisional £50m deal in November to buy British Steel’s plants in the UK, the Netherlands and France and was given 70 working days to finalise the details. The [...]
UK retail sales jump 1.6 per cent in January after Tory election victory February 20, 2020 UK retail sales excluding fuel jumped the most in almost two years in January, official figures showed today. Retail sales rose excluding fuel 1.6 per cent compared to the month before as the new year got underway, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. And retail volumes rose 0.9 per cent to recover from falls [...]
London house prices rebound with 2.3 per cent growth after election February 19, 2020 London house prices grew at their fastest rate in 15 months in December following Boris Johnson’s election win, official figures showed today, as UK house prices also rose. Homes in the capital enjoyed a 2.3 per cent rise to £484,000 after a 2019 full of falls, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The [...]
Pound rallies as UK employment hits record high and wages beat 2008 peak February 18, 2020 Wages beat their pre-financial crisis peak for the first time at the end of 2019, as the level of UK employment rose to a record high of 32.9m people. A total of 180,000 people entered the workforce between October and December 2019, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said today. That took the number of [...]
Consumer credit forecast to grow at lowest rate for six years in 2020 February 17, 2020 Consumer credit is forecast to grow at its lowest rate in six years in 2020, despite a post-election pick-up in consumer confidence. The EY Item Club predicted consumer credit growth of 3.2 per cent this year. Although lending rose slightly at the end of 2019, signalling a post-election increase in demand, the annual forecast remains [...]
Fighting shadows: Each technology advance puts new weapons in the hands of cyber-criminals February 13, 2020 US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, talking about the benefits of openness and transparency, famously said that sunlight is the best disinfectant. And, conversely, we are all rightly suspicious of anything that hides in the shadows and conceals identity and motive. Global cybercrime is able to exploit technology to create anonymity and avoid accountability as [...]
Cum-ex: The mammoth European financial crime scandal comes to London February 13, 2020 Denmark has a long history of exports across the North Sea. The Vikings, Bacon, Lego, hygge, the Schmeichels, and now, mammoth fraud trials. The Danish taxman is pursuing a $1.9bn (£1.5bn) fraud claim through the UK courts against British businessman Sanjay Shah and more than 70 other individuals and companies. The huge High Court case [...]
UK house prices leap 4.1 per cent in bumper January – Halifax February 7, 2020 UK house prices jumped 4.1 per cent in January on an annual basis to come close to a two-year high, fresh figures from Halifax showed today. Homes rose 0.4 per cent in value compared to December, and climbed 2.3 per cent on a quarterly basis, Halifax’s house price index revealed. Russell Galley, managing director of [...]