Budget at a glance: Osborne’s plans for Britain’s economy March 19, 2014 As growth bounces back, the focus turns to reforming savings THE ECONOMY UK growth for this year is now expected to be 2.7 per cent, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said yesterday – up from its previous estimate, made in December, of 2.4 per cent GDP expansion. A year ago the OBR expected growth [...]
What does the chancellor’s Budget mean for you? March 19, 2014 Catherine Gannon, 51Managing director of law firm Gannon The business continues to perform extremely well, but new legislation for LLPs means that it is being restructured. Profits and earnings are up on last year but the cost of living has increased rapidly. She doesn’t have much by way of a traditional pension plan but hopes [...]
Big projects on back burner but London backed March 19, 2014 LONDON housing and transport projects got the chancellor’s blessing yesterday, though shovel-ready projects across the rest of the country were thin on the ground. George Osborne said the government will help “develop proposals” for an extension to the Gospel Oak to Barking Line to reach Barking Riverside, a 11,000-home scheme, and support regeneration at Brent [...]
Introducing: the designs of the year March 18, 2014 The ingenious creations that are set to define tomorrow’s world MOST museum shows look back to the past. With flying cars, floating schools and wheelchairs that grow with the owner, this one is all about the future. Next week the seventh Designs of the Year exhibition opens at the Design Museum, and the broad selection [...]
High Speed 2 to lose a link from North to Europe March 17, 2014 BUSINESS groups broadly supported plans to shake up the High Speed 2 project yesterday, though concerns remain about the benefits of the railway and the loss of direct trains from the English regions into Europe. Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin yesterday agreed to scrap plans for a £700m link between HS2 and the Channel Tunnel route, [...]
Paris calls off car curbs after pollution eases March 17, 2014 A BAN on half of the cars in Paris has been lifted after just one day after pollution levels fell back below those in Beijing. Motorists with even-numbered licence plates were ordered off the roads in the French capital yesterday, though nearly 4,000 drivers were fined €22 each for breaching the limit imposed to try [...]
How the UK could cut public spending Singapore-style March 17, 2014 TOMORROW’S Budget will make it all too clear that, to get Britain’s public finances into a healthier state, further tight control of spending will be necessary. But as I’ve shown in my Gresham professorial lectures on how the West must adapt to cope with globalisation, recent spending restraint has been nowhere near enough to keep [...]
The obvious questions HS2 planners still have to answer March 17, 2014 Business groups have been broadly supportive of the changes to High Speed 2, set out this morning by new chairman Sir David Higgins, though concerns remain about the benefits of the project. Following Sir David’s review, transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin has this morning confirmed that the £700m link between HS1 (The Channel Tunnel) and HS2 [...]
New HS2 boss calls for major changes to plan March 17, 2014 THE NEW head of the controversial High Speed 2 railway has today urged the government to speed up work on the route and build a new northern hub by 2027, six years earlier than the scheduled completion date. After several months reviewing the entire project, HS2 chairman Sir David Higgins has set out his proposals [...]
Pop-ups are coming to the Tube: Three ideas for how startups can hop onto the trend successfully March 16, 2014 POP-UP shops could soon be appearing at a Tube station near you. On top of reports that Transport for London is exploring turning obsolete ticket offices into online delivery collection hubs, it signed a deal last week to make its retail property empire available for temporary occupation. Its estate amounts to 1,000 retail premises within [...]