Why the government should take outsourcing a radical step further August 17, 2015 Government raids on the methodology of business are commonplace. Some are more successful than others. But as the challenge of George Osborne’s edict to contemplate departmental cuts of as much as 40 per cent sinks in, the search will intensify. As I sat recently in the splendidly refurbished BT Tower – a guest of [...]
City Moves for 11 August 2015 | Who’s switching jobs August 10, 2015 Savills The real estate adviser has appointed Robert Mangan as director in its hotels team. He joins from Michels & Taylor, where he spent five years as a director. Mangan has also held positions at Avestus Capital Partners, Merrill Lynch and BOI. Momentum Global Investment Management Alex Garton has been appointed head of UK institutional [...]
Labour leadership contest: Three reasons why Jeremy Corbyn could be the City’s new best friend August 4, 2015 Jeremy Corbyn is rumoured to be leading in the Labour Party’s leadership election. Without doubt he is setting the pace. The result is that words like ‘hard left’ are being bandied about, especially by his opponent’s camps. But is he bad news for the City? As the author of some of the economic policies [...]
Where are London salaries growing fastest? Kensington and Chelsea and Tower Hamlets have biggest wage growth July 31, 2015 It pays to be a Londoner. Wages are still highest in the capital, and growing at a higher pace than the rest of the country – but where are they growing fastest? The growth is far from evenly split, even within London. Some areas of the capital have experienced a truly booming growth in earnings, [...]
As David Cameron vows to crack down on corrupt foreigners buying London properties, can PM lift the shroud of secrecy? July 30, 2015 Prime Minister David Cameron grabbed headlines this week when he said: “There is no place for dirty money in Britain.” Vowing to remove a “shroud of secrecy” surrounding luxury London properties owned by offshore holding companies, the Prime Minister said in a speech in Singapore that the UK “must not become a safe haven for [...]
Bashing buy-to-let landlords will push up rents and hit the UK economy hard July 23, 2015 Buy-to-let landlords have a huge advantage in the market as they can offset their mortgage interest payments against their income, whereas homebuyers cannot.” That’s how the chancellor explained his decision in the Budget to require that landlords, unlike other businesses, effectively pay tax on their borrowings – their buy-to-let mortgage. But the chancellor has made [...]
HMRC targeting “app economy” in crackdown on tax evaders July 23, 2015 HMRC wants to extend its data-gathering powers to be able to access data from Google and Apple app stores. The state tax collector wants to tackle tax evasion in the “app economy” using data from app stores and online platforms as it believes that this will provide information on digital businesses that have not declared [...]
British home transactions jump in June July 21, 2015 THE HOUSING market picked up pace in June as both buyers and sellers returned to the market after shaking off uncertainty from the General Election. There were 104,590 residential property transactions in June, according to figures released yesterday by HMRC. It marks a 16-month high as well as a 4.7 per cent jump on May. [...]
HMRC debt recovery powers to raid bank accounts ride roughshod over Magna Carta principles July 16, 2015 Buried in the hefty tome presented to the House of Commons at the Budget last week were these 36 words: “Direct recovery of debts – This government will introduce legislation to modernise and strengthen HMRC’s powers to recover tax and tax credit debts directly from debtors’ bank and building society accounts, including funds held in [...]
Blockchain boss Eddy Travia on Coinsilium’s IPO: Why I chose to float a FinTech business in London July 15, 2015 Whilst the bitcoin price may have stolen some headlines during the Greece negotiations it is the underlying technology, blockchain, that is really making waves across the financial world. Last year $330m (around £211m) flowed into bitcoin and blockchain companies, and in the first half of 2015 $373m was invested into the same space, bringing the [...]