From the Tube strike and July Budget to Battle of Britain and the 7/7 London bombings anniversary: Here’s what got us talking this week July 10, 2015 There was a technical fault in New York. There was a cocktail cloud. And somewhere in crowdfunding land, there was a jacket that would make all your commutes suddenly so much better. Here's what got us talking this week 1) Battle of Britain celebrations began They kicked off with a flypast over Buckingham Palace, but [...]
TfL Tube strike 2015: Unions resume battle after strike misery paralyses London traffic July 9, 2015 Londoners were forced to resurrect the Blitz spirit yesterday as the Tube strike all but paralysed travel in the capital. As commuters faced long walks to and from work, queues for Santander bikes, gridlocked streets, taxi rates almost tripled by Uber and fights for a place on crowded buses, unions praised drivers for the [...]
Market Tech placing raises £200m July 9, 2015 MARKET Tech Holdings, the owner of the iconic Camden Market and run by Israeli entrepreneur Teddy Sagi, has raised £200m through a placing that will pave the way for a move to the main market. The company, which has amassed 14 acres of land in and around Camden, placed 90m shares in an accelerated bookbuild, [...]
West End retailers take control of shops July 8, 2015 RETAILERS on Oxford Street and Bond Street are increasingly seeking to take control of their shops, with stores owned by brands rising 28 per cent and seven per cent respectively over the past two years. Research released today by Savills finds that retailers now account for 22 per cent of ownership for the whole of [...]
July Budget 2015: Challenger bank share prices plummet – Aldermore, Virgin Money, Shawbrook and OneSavings suffer worst day ever July 8, 2015 Publicly-traded British challenger banks suffered their worst day on record yesterday, as chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne said yesterday that a new corporation tax surcharge would take a significant chunk out of the industry’s profits. Reading-based retail bank Aldermore, which floated on the London Stock Exchange earlier this year, saw its share price [...]
July Budget 2015: Living wage bill hurts retailers and small firms July 8, 2015 Retail and hospitality industry insiders warned yesterday that their sectors face a huge rise in labour costs after a Tory pledge to introduce a minimum wage of £9 for over-25s by 2020. From April next year, businesses will be required to pay £7.20 per hour to workers over the age of 25, rising to [...]
July Budget 2015: Liberalised shopping on Sundays will deliver big benefits to the consumer July 7, 2015 The liberalisation of Sunday trading hours, expected to be announced in the Budget today, is a timely response to the way in which Sundays have changed in the 21 years since shopping hours were last reformed in 1994. Sundays remain a day of leisure for most of us, and our leisure time is enriched by [...]
Competition and Markets Authority sets out its plans to increase competition in the energy markets, sending Centrica and SSE share prices down July 7, 2015 Shares in energy providers dipped in early trading, after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) outlined a raft of measures aimed at increasing competition in the energy market. Shares in SSE fell 0.5 per cent to 1,566p while London-listed Centrica shares dropped 0.6 per cent to 265.9p, after a wide-ranging report attacked the UK's "Big [...]
Two more bad arguments for why Britain needs a mandatory living wage July 6, 2015 With £12bn of working age welfare cuts expected in this Budget, Conservative voices are clamouring for the “living wage” to be used as a means of reducing in-work poverty. In the past week, two celebrity former advisers to the Prime Minister, Steve Hilton and Rohan Silva, have argued the government should boost the national minimum [...]
Amazon to launch new global shopping event “Prime Day” at midnight on 15 July to rival Black Friday July 6, 2015 Amazon is hoping to stir up the same shopping frenzy as Black Friday by launching of new global shopping day next week with hundreds of promotional deals. The online retail giant is turning 20 years old next week and as part of its celebrations it will launch Prime Day at midnight on 15 July, which [...]