Housing White Paper reforms will ‘accelerate’ planning process March 12, 2020 The government will release its housing White Paper in the spring to outline an overhaul of the country’s planning rules. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said it would “propose measures to accelerate planning” and “maximise the potential of new technologies to modernise the system”. Housing secretary Robert Jenrick said this would [...]
Budget 2020: Sunak pledges extra £175bn to ‘get Britain building’ March 11, 2020 New chancellor Rishi Sunak pledged to “get Britain building” in today’s budget, unveiling an additional £175bn in capital investment to “level up” roads, railways, housing and broadband across the country. The extra money, which forms part of Sunak’s much trailed £640m spending package, means that by 2024 annual expenditure will rise above £110m, triple the [...]
Budget 2020: Government to tax financial services firms to pay for economic crime fight March 11, 2020 The chancellor said today that the government would bring forward a levy on financial services firms to help pay for the fight against economic crime. It said businesses subject to the money laundering regulations would be subject to the tax which would aim to deliver reforms laid out in the government’s economic crime plan. Businesses [...]
Budget 2020: Government to review Air Passenger Duty March 11, 2020 The government has announced that it will undertake a review of Air Passenger Duty (APD) as a part of its new Budget, after calls from the aviation industry to scrap the tax. It said that it would “consider the case for changing the APD treatment of domestic flights, such as reintroducing a return leg exemption, [...]
Oil prices reaction: All the fallout as OPEC sends prices spiralling March 9, 2020 Oil prices fell to a four-year low today after Russia and Saudi Arabia began a price war that triggered major stock market sell-offs. The two oil-producing titans were in talks over a further production cut to protect oil prices against the coronavirus outbreak. But Russia blanched at the prospect of slashing another 1.5m barrels per [...]
UK house prices: Brexit clouds lift, but coronavirus threat looms March 6, 2020 UK house prices rose 2.8 per cent in February compared to the same month last year, Halifax data showed today. Homes’ values increased 0.3 per cent month on month and 2.9 per cent on a quarterly basis, Halifax’s House Price Index found. That left the average UK house price at £240,677 in February. But while [...]
UK house prices leap 4.1 per cent in bumper January – Halifax February 7, 2020 UK house prices jumped 4.1 per cent in January on an annual basis to come close to a two-year high, fresh figures from Halifax showed today. Homes rose 0.4 per cent in value compared to December, and climbed 2.3 per cent on a quarterly basis, Halifax’s house price index revealed. Russell Galley, managing director of [...]
Fresh 737 Max delays hurt Ryanair’s passenger growth target February 3, 2020 Ryanair today warned Boeing 737 Max delivery delays will hurt growth plans as it swung back into profit in its third quarter. Ryanair was expecting its first delivery of the airplane to arrive in spring 2019. But it admitted that will now not happen until September or October 2020. The fresh Boeing 737 Max delivery [...]
Sky launches new factual channels amid production push January 27, 2020 Sky today said it will launch two new factual TV channels as the media firm ramps up its investment in original productions. Sky Documentaries and Sky Nature will launch in the spring, offering subscribers original programmes as well as new series from networks such as HBO and Showtime. New original documentaries will include Tiger Woods: [...]
UK PMI: Economy climbs to 16-month high, leaving rate cut less likely January 24, 2020 The UK economy has returned to growth in January, according to a flash Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) reading, hitting a 16-month high as the Bank of England weighs up whether or not to cut UK interest rates. The flash IHS Markit / CIPS composite PMI reading for the UK hit 52.4 in January, up from [...]