Starmer needs a rethink, not a relaunch December 4, 2024 It doesn’t take a huge stretch of the imagination to picture a communist bureaucrat issuing a decree: “Comrades, I can announce today that four years from now 92 per cent of routine operations will be carried out within our new national target of just four and a half months – realising a goal that has [...]
It’s time for England to stop subsidising Scotland and Wales December 4, 2024 The devolved nations are living on another planet economically because England essentially pays for their deficits. This has to stop, says Paul Ormerod Every single pensioner will continue to receive payments towards their winter fuel. This is not some fantasy world in which the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has abandoned one of her flagship policies. It [...]
Barclays boss insists Budget has been a ‘success’ despite gloomy forecasts December 3, 2024 The chief executive of Barclays has said Rachel Reeves’s tax-raising Budget has been a “success” so far, arguing it will likely boost economic growth in the longer term despite a raft of gloomy forecasts. Speaking at the Financial Times’ Global Banking Summit on Tuesday, CS “Venkat” Venkatakrishnan said markets for government debt suggested the Autumn [...]
City rents rise as return to the office drives up demand for prime locations December 3, 2024 Available office space in London’s most sought-after areas has slumped to near record lows as businesses continue to reverse pandemic-era working from home rules. According to global property consultancy Knight Frank, availability in newly constructed office buildings has fallen to 0.3 per cent in the West End Core – which includes Mayfair and St James’s [...]
Foreign firms launch £7.8bn summer deals raid on British companies December 3, 2024 A raid by international firms on UK companies accelerated over the summer as foreign buyers kicked off deals worth some £7.8bn – even as domestic mergers and acquisitions (M&A) slumped. Foreign spending on UK companies rose by 16 per cent between July and September, thanks in part to the $976m (£769m) swoop by US-based Quanex [...]
How two ex-consultants plan to revolutionise UK consumer credit December 3, 2024 As financial services consultants at EY, Gerald Chappell and Michelle He noticed a weak spot shared by some of the world’s biggest banks: affordable personal loans. Up against ageing data-sharing systems, bureaucratic decision-making and a lack of business motivation to enter a market easily written off as “risky”, they set out to provide finance to [...]
How I crafted the perfect recipe for my multimillion-pound biscuit brand December 3, 2024 Building a successful business takes a focussed mind and a steady hand - but can you have both?
The weird and wonderful world of Japanese model food December 2, 2024 Japan is famous for the way its cultural artefacts seem to evolve separately from the rest of the world. Travel to Tokyo and you can find fax machines that have continued to develop new bells and whistles long after their use in the west began its terminal decline in the 1990s. Shokuhin sanpuru (literally: food [...]
Manufacturing activity drops to nine-month low following Budget December 2, 2024 Rob Dobson, director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said manufacturing was struggling due to a combination of high costs, weak demand and concerns over the economic outlook.
Business confidence takes ‘decisive turn for the worse’ after Budget, says CBI December 2, 2024 The Confederation for British Industry's (CBI) growth indicator showed that more firms expected activity to fall in the three months to February than to increase.