Roll up, roll up! Let’s play London office Monopoly April 7, 2016 Britain's looming EU referendum, the London mayoral election, the commercial stamp duty clampdown and other regulatory reforms as well as major infrastructure changes, such as Crossrail. These are just some of the factors that are making the dynamics influencing the London office market more complex than ever, according Bilfinger GVA. The real estate advisory firm has mocked up a Monopoly board [...]
Leviathan’s tentacles: How the true size of the state is hidden from the electorate April 7, 2016 The Institute of Economic Affairs published a “Nanny State” Index last week, showing the UK was the third most meddling country in the EU for intervening in lifestyle choices around cigarettes, tobacco, food and alcohol. This reminds us yet again that the Total Intervention Index (TII) for the state includes both tax and spend and [...]
Drug makers pop after Pfizer deal sinks, taking FTSE 100 up for the day April 6, 2016 A last-hour surge saved the FTSE 100 from another unspectacular day, as the afternoon rally helped the blue chip index climb up 1.2 per cent to close the day on 6,161, and a surprise fall in US oil stocks put some energy into oil prices which also gained handsomely. It wasn’t quite a green sweep [...]
Renters in London are having the hardest time of all, suffering the smallest pay rises in UK and soaring housing costs April 6, 2016 If you rent a house in London and work full-time, chances are the economic recovery has been something you read about in the newspapers but haven’t felt in your pocket. That’s because over the last three years, London has experienced the slowest growth in average wages of any part in the UK, but the fastest increases [...]
UK house prices: Prime central London rents are polarising between east and west, says Knight Frank April 6, 2016 London's prime rental market is becoming more polarised. Prices in the east are accelerating faster than those in the west as financial services tenants move closer to the City in search of cheaper rents, new research shows. Annual rental value growth in prime central London fell by one per cent in March – the lowest rate since May 2014, according to [...]
East London is propping up slowing central London housing market, JLL report shows April 6, 2016 East London residential property prices jumped by seven per cent in the year to March, helping to shore up a slowdown in other parts of the capital hit by uncertainty in the market, new research from JLL today shows. The property firm's latest central London development report shows a slowdown in sales activity in the first quarter of the [...]
City boys go overboard on their whisky order and rack up an £11,000 bill in West End restaurant April 4, 2016 The Capitalist once thought, naively, that five-figure bills can only be racked up by ordering multiple bottles of Dom Perignon from bars in Mayfair or the Square Mile. Our doubts were first raised when, we brought you the news that a group of wealthy tourists managed to spend over £10,000 celebrating the Russian Orthodox new [...]
Will Greenwood: Joe Marler “gypsy boy” affair should have been dealt with in a weekend by World Rugby and Six Nations March 31, 2016 World Cup winner Will Greenwood has called for rugby’s governing bodies to reassess their disciplinary procedures to avoid a repeat of England prop Joe Marler’s “gypsy boy” saga. Former England centre Greenwood believes World Rugby and Six Nations organisers should have delivered a coherent message over Marler’s contentious comment towards Wales prop Samson Lee earlier [...]
Rum-maker Bacardi stirs things up by moving its European headquarters to Spitalfields March 24, 2016 Bacardi, maker of the world's leading rum brand, is moving to the other side of town after announcing plans to decamp its offices in west London to a new scheme in Spitalfields. The family-owned spirits company has agreed to let the entire third floor – or 9,564 square feet – of TH Real Estate's The Steward Building near Liverpool Street on [...]
Smart City: How London’s next mayor can harness the capital’s entrepreneurial energy to revolutionise local services and save millions March 22, 2016 Londoners are smart – you only have to look at the thousands of exciting, innovative new businesses sprouting up across the capital to see the benefits of such a tremendous concentration of human and intellectual capital. But is the capital itself as smart as the people who call it home? The new mayor, whoever it [...]