We can’t save the NHS until we acknowledge its failing health January 5, 2018 The NHS has had to cancel 50,000 non-urgent operations to deal with the winter crisis. This is not normal. The Prime Minister may be pretending everything is fine, but this is not acceptable. The trouble is that, beyond the acknowledgement that there is a very serious problem with a health service that spasms in predictably [...]
Liverpool Echo Arena car park fire “to cost insurers more than £2m on car payouts alone” January 1, 2018 The New Year’s Eve fire that destroyed as many as 1,400 cars in a multi-storey car park next to Liverpool’s Echo Arena could end up costing insurers £2m at the very least, City A.M. understands. Firefighters were called to the car park at 4:42pm yesterday afternoon, but were still battling to contain the blaze, which [...]
11 tech startups to watch according to top insurers in Startupbootcamp’s insurtech accelerator December 11, 2017 Nearly a dozen startups looking to disrupt the insurance industry with technology such as artificial intelligence have been chosen for the latest cohort of a London programme, backed by Lloyds Banking Group, Allianz, Scottish Widows and Confused.com among several high-profile financial firms. The 11 early stage startups from nine countries around the world will join [...]
Data is the fuel for AI, so let’s ensure we get the ethics right December 4, 2017 Data is the propulsive energy behind the fourth industrial revolution – playing the same role as coal, oil and electricity did in the previous revolutions. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the new engine, just as the railways connected north and south, roads and cars connected our cities, and electrification lit up our homes and allowed domestic [...]
What will innovation look like in 2018? Bird & Bird’s Digital Innovators tell us all about the year ahead November 24, 2017 In a year when quantum computing made major leaps forward and using your face as a password became a reality, you’d be forgiven for being hard pushed to imagine just how much further technology can take us. But 2018 will certainly be a year for driving even more innovation for the 50 up-and-coming companies chosen [...]
How the Budget could affect your personal finances, and what you should do if it does November 22, 2017 Philip Hammond hasn’t got it easy. Putting a Budget together is difficult at the best of times, but with Brexit looming large over the UK, producing a financial plan for our economy is now a hell of a lot harder. In such an uncertain time, how can Hammond hope to offer the stability the [...]
Sabre insurance reveals plans for £213m float with boss saying: “It’s not all young drivers in hot hatches” November 13, 2017 Quirky British car insurer Sabre today announced plans to raise £213m from a London stock market listing. The move will enable private equity firm BC Partners to realise part of its investment into the Dorking-based firm. BC, which paid £240m in 2013 for the firm, will retain a “significant stake” in Sabre post-float. Sabre specialises [...]
Insurance premium tax: Insurers fire shot across Treasury’s bows, urging chancellor Philip Hammond against a further hike November 8, 2017 The UK’s biggest insurance body has called on chancellor Philip Hammond not to “punish” the British public by hiking insurance premium tax (IPT) for the fourth time in two years. The government has doubled IPT to a rate of 12 per cent in less than 18 months, with the most recent two percentage point rise [...]
Trading Trump October 25, 2017 In recent months President Trump has reportedly been “hell bent” on imposing huge tariffs on steel imports to bolster domestic industries, despite warnings that doing so may spark a global trade war. Treading delicately as is his custom, ‘the Donald’ has also threatened to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta). Nafta does [...]
Robotaxi for who? The 16 stocks UBS believes will benefit from fleets of driverless cars (and the 13 that won’t) October 5, 2017 The rise of the robotaxi – fleets of futuristic looking autonomous cars carrying people around cities and beyond – threatens to bring mass cheap and efficient transport to the world’s roads. That’s good for consumers, but what about business? Well, some stand to benefit more than others, according to UBS, which estimates they will be [...]