Shaftesbury continues to be buoyed by London’s West End property market November 24, 2015 London's residential property market might be cooling, but the commercial sector is showing no signs of slowing down with landlord Shaftesbury reporting strong growth for the full year. The figures Shaftesbury's net asset value per share rose 21.9 per cent to £8.69 in the year to September 30, up from £7.13 a year earlier. Earnings at the [...]
UK weather: Storm Barney brings travel chaos to train networks including Southern, Southeastern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express, Abellio Greater Anglia, Stansted Express and London Midland November 18, 2015 Storm Barney landed last night, with severe gales of up to 80 mph in some parts of the country. As forecast, that is having a knock-on effect with a number of train networks this morning, with several lines reporting severe or minor delays as a result of the bad weather. A fallen tree has damaged [...]
Paris terror attacks: There’s no case for rushing in illiberal snooping laws in the new surveillance bill November 17, 2015 Lest my position on current events be misunderstood, let me restate a basic truth I’ve set out in these pages before. Killing terrorists is good. However, achieving that desirable end does not mean that the state needs to become more powerful. Nor does it mean that the state should snoop on all of us, “just [...]
Property firm Knight Frank launches Tech team to target London’s booming digital sector November 16, 2015 Knight Frank has created a Tech team to tap into growing demand from digital firms looking for office space in the capital. The property advisory company said it has poached industry veteran James Nicholson from rival firm JLL to lead a new central London Tech and Creative team and build the company’s profile in the [...]
Discounters Aldi and Lidl pick up the space race left by Big Four supermarkets November 15, 2015 The big four supermarkets may have called an end to the space race. But for Aldi and Lidl the race has just begun, after new figures show the discounters have submitted plans for nearly five times as many stores. The latest data from construction data firm ABI Barbour shows that Aldi has submitted 93 planning [...]
Golden touch: Global Group founder Johnny Hon talks Kung Fu Panda, the Northern Powerhouse, Glenn Close and human rights November 15, 2015 Did you sell sweets to all your classmates? I ask Johnny Hon, interjecting as he talks about his childhood. “Yes, I did actually,” he chuckles, before moving back to explaining how he never took money from his parents after the age of 18, and ended up selling second-hand cars to fund his education. “They taught [...]
Lord Mayor’s Show London 2015 parade: Something different for the weekend November 13, 2015 We all have our daily routines. Travel into such-and-such station, make a beeline for the office, grab a coffee on the way, preferred sandwich shop at lunch, back to work, another beeline to such-and-such station, then home again. And repeat. Hundreds of thousands of us cross paths in the Square Mile each weekday, turning into [...]
Inside the rock: Gibraltar’s strategic and military importance is complemented by financial and gaming leadership November 12, 2015 Covering an area of just 6.8 square kilometres, the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar punches well above its weight. At the last count, despite a population of only 32,000 people, it was home to 67 insurers with £9.95bn in total assets, 13 banks, 72 trust and company service providers, 14 pension fund administrators, and [...]
Great Portland’s first half results boosted by mammoth Facebook letting November 11, 2015 Great Portland Estates posted record beating results in the first half of the year after Facebook agreed to take all of its office space at Rathbone Square near Tottenham Court Road, in one of its biggest lettings deals to date. The West End developer made 29 new lettings in the six months to 30 September [...]
Spectre: No slowing down for the new James Bond movies’s marketing bandwagon October 28, 2015 So the new Bond film has been out for a few days now, but there’s no slowing down for the enthusiasm of London’s PRs and small businesses. Venues and companies big and small are attempting to cash in on Bond-mania while some poor souls in the City have yet to see the film. The good people [...]