Let’s transform our coastal communities into the beating heart of a green industrial revolution July 13, 2020 Covid-19 is set to do long-term damage to the communities of the three million people who live along the UK coastline. These communities often felt neglected even before the outbreak, and now they are especially vulnerable. Coastal constituencies overwhelmingly voted Conservative in the 2019 election on the promise of a “levelling up” agenda. Yet they [...]
UK retailers warn shoppers face price hikes if no EU trade deal agreed July 10, 2020 Britain’s retail industry has warned that consumers could face higher prices next year if the UK is unable to reach a tariff-free EU trade deal. The British Retail Consortium said the industry could not absorb the additional costs of tariffs, meaning the hike in prices would be passed on to consumers whose finances have already [...]
Sunak’s spending spree ‘catastrophe’ for UK’s night time industry July 9, 2020 Casinos, comedy clubs and nightclubs have accused the chancellor of letting Britain’s night industry “slip through the cracks”, as a new wave of financial support for the hospitality industry failed to provide specific support for shuttered night time venues. Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled a raft of measures in his £30bn mini-Budget yesterday, in a bid [...]
Rishi Sunak Summer Statement: All the Chancellor’s spending pledges July 8, 2020 Chancellor Rishi Sunak today announced a raft of measures in his Summer Statement in a bid to help the UK economy recover from the worst effects of coronavirus. The Treasury boss revealed massive public spending to bolster the UK economy in what people are calling his mini-Budget. While he did not extend the government’s furlough [...]
New job retention bonus at heart of Rishi Sunak’s £30bn spending spree July 8, 2020 UK chancellor Rishi Sunak today put a new “job retention bonus” programme to encourage companies to bring back furloughed workers at the centre of a £30bn package aimed at kickstarting the economy. In his summer statement, Sunak said employers who take back furloughed workers until the end of January will receive a £1,000 payment for [...]
Stamp duty holiday: Industry reacts to property tax cut July 8, 2020 The UK property sector has reacted to the stamp duty holiday announced this afternoon, with many believing it will help to reinvigorate the market following months at a standstill during lockdown. Chancellor Rishi Sunak said this afternoon that the stamp duty threshold will increase from £125,000 to £500,000 until March next year to boost activity [...]
Hospitality sector welcomes ‘blaze of sunshine’ from chancellor’s VAT cut July 8, 2020 The hospitality sector has greeted chancellor Rishi Sunak’s announcements of a VAT cut for the hospitality sector and a new Eat Out to Help Out scheme as a “blaze of sunshine” after months of closure during the coronavirus pandemic. Speaking in the Commons today to announce his “mini budget”, Sunak vowed to cut the VAT [...]
The idea that it is somehow grubby to care about the economy in the face of a global pandemic is nonsense July 8, 2020 Today, chancellor Rishi Sunak will make an announcement to the House of Commons about the shape of the government’s coronavirus support over the coming months. Sunak faces a tough choice as the country starts to open up while trying to keep infection rates as low as possible. There is no easy way out of the [...]
WFH: Is it the death knell for offices? July 7, 2020 Some real estate investors believe the successful working from home experiment during this crisis will lead to a long-term decline in demand for offices. We think this is premature. One of the more mundane aspects of the coronavirus has been the sudden evacuation of offices and mass adoption of home working. In the US it [...]
To avert an unemployment crisis, the government must act now and equip workers for the post-pandemic world July 7, 2020 Tomorrow, the chancellor will rise to make his economic statement with the country teetering on the edge of the worst unemployment crisis since the Great Depression. Around 10 million people face the possibility of losing their jobs. Clearly not all of them will, but as the furlough scheme unwinds, half of businesses say they expect [...]