How the Budget will affect your finances March 25, 2012 High and middle income earners can expect to gain and lose, but pensioners, smokers, drinkers and drivers will all be penalised by the chancellor’s announcements last week THE chancellor made an abundance of announcements in this week’s Budget, invoking a variety of strong responses, both in support and against. The Budget contained both positives and [...]
PROPERTY NEWS March 22, 2012 GROSVENOR RENTS SHOW BUOYANT MARKET Property giant Grosvenor says it has secured a record rental price of £93 per sq ft for a prime property on Green Street in Mayfair, smashing the average area price of between £63-£65 per sq ft. The firm said the new tenants of the triplex apartments are European including one [...]
What was in Osborne’s red box: our quick summary March 22, 2012 THE ECONOMY/PUBLIC FINANCES The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts that UK GDP will grow by around 0.8 per cent this year, the same rate as in 2011, up from its earlier forecast of 0.7 per cent. The beneficial effects of falling inflation are expected to be offset by uncertainty over the Eurozone and tighter [...]
Chancellor moves to boost North Sea investment March 21, 2012 Chancellor George Osborne unveiled in his budget plans to boost investment in the North Sea, giving oil firms certainty on the level of tax relief they will receive when they dismantle pipelines and platforms and introducing new tax breaks for some projects. Chancellor George Osborne said in his annual budget on Wednesday Britain will agree [...]
Chakra: good but not great March 19, 2012 157-159 Notting Hill Gate, W11 3LF Tel: 020 7240 2078 FOOD *** SERVICE *** ATMOSPHERE ** Cost per person without wine: £50 WE hate it when our friends become successful,” lamented Morrissey back in 1992. “And if they’re Northern, that makes it even worse.” I have to disagree with the last part. In Birmingham, Manchester [...]
Sunday trading rules set to be scrapped for Games March 18, 2012 SHOPS will be allowed to open for more hours on Sundays during the Olympics, George Osborne said yesterday, boosting sales in London by hundreds of millions of pounds. Current rules limit large stores’ opening times to six hours on Sunday, which means Olympic visitors will miss out on evening shopping – sending out a signal [...]
Euro jobs at risk if crude hits $150 March 18, 2012 SURGING OIL PRICES have the potential to knock the Eurozone further into recession and cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, according to analysis by Ernst & Young. If the price of crude hits $150 (£95) a barrel this year, the consultancy expects to see contraction of one per cent in the Eurozone’s GDP, compared to [...]
We mustn’t mourn the end of encyclopaedias March 15, 2012 AS A boy, I remember being taken to the local library and taught to use the dark, weighty volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. As of now, that dates me. A “digital native”, someone to whom the modern information revolution comes naturally, is often defined as a person who has never owned a camera that needs [...]
DIXON SETS SAIL FOR A PLUSH NEW HABITAT March 11, 2012 Tom Dixon, Habitat’s former head of design, has conjured up interiors for some of London’s swankiest hangouts including Shoreditch House, the Paramount Club at the top of Centre Point and Jamie Oliver’s Barbecoa restaurant at One New Change. The British designer is now moving into uncharted waters: turning Sea Containers House on London’s South Bank [...]
AT A GLANCE: RAIL REFORM March 8, 2012 ● Timings Transport secretary Justine Greening has put out a consultation paper in response to Sir Roy McNulty’s report into the sector last year. She hopes to see £3.5bn cut from the annual budget by 2019. ● Peak fares could rise Though the government wants to end inflation-busting fares, plans to ease congestion could include [...]