General election jitters? UK house prices fall off the boil in February March 5, 2015 The path to house price equilibrium is an undulating one. After a 1.9 per cent spike in January the average cost of a house fell by 0.3 per cent month-on-month in February, according to the latest data from Halifax. This put the price of the average home slightly lower at £192,372, with some analysts suspecting [...]
City Moves for 05 March 2015 | Who’s switching jobs March 4, 2015 Aon Hewitt The talent, retirement and health solutions business has appointed Adrian Mitchell as partner and senior portfolio manager in its delegated consulting services team. He joins from the John Lewis Partnership Pensions Trust, where he was chief investment officer. Mitchell has also held senior positions at Proxima Alfa UK Investments, FF&P Asset Management, JP [...]
HSBC bosses to face more MPs for another interrogation on tax March 3, 2015 HSBC’S chief executive and its former private banking boss will answer questions in parliament on Monday over the group’s Swiss private bank. The Public Accounts Committee, headed by Margaret Hodge MP, has summoned chief exec Stuart Gulliver and ex-global private bank boss Chris Meares, as well as HSBC non-executive director and BBC boss Rona Fairhead. It [...]
JP Morgan and the Brookings Institution host UK-US trade summit: What can cities do to boost exports? February 26, 2015 Sheffield’s manufacturing heartlands were once dominated by grey steel, but now they make something more colourful. Sheffield council’s recent push to boost exports has helped one hair dye manufacturer win a six-figure contract to make hair dye for Asian consumers – and it won’t be the last. “Our initiative is already targeting 60 companies in [...]
Businesses including PwC, KPMG and Axa back four-week limit on unpaid internships proposed by campaign group Intern Aware February 26, 2015 Some of the UK’s biggest businesses are backing a ban on internships which force young people to work for long periods of time without pay. Accountancy giants KPMG and PwC along with insurance firm Axa are putting their weight behind campaigner’s calls to place a four-week limit on internships which do not offer pay. Campaign [...]
Bankrupt chief of finance quits Superdry owner February 25, 2015 SUPERGROUP’S finance chief Shaun Wills left his £475,000 job yesterday after admitting to the company that he had been declared personally bankrupt. Wills, a chartered accountant who joined the owner of the Superdry fashion brand in 2012, is understood to have been caught in a row with HM Revenue & Customs over an unpaid tax [...]
Emma Thompson’s husband refuses to pay tax until HSBC staff are put in prison February 25, 2015 Oscar-winning, actress Emma Thompson, will refuse to pay any tax until those involved in the HSBC tax evasion scandal are put in prison. Thompson's husband and fellow actor Greg Wise told the Evening Standard that he and his wife would stop giving money to HMRC until "everyone pays tax". Wise trumpeted his commitment to socialism [...]
HSBC’s Stuart Gulliver set to face MPs on tax evasion February 24, 2015 HSBC chief Stuart Gulliver will face MPs today to give evidence on claims its Swiss private banking arm helped clients evade taxes. Initially it was only the giant bank’s chairman Douglas Flint who had been summoned to the Treasury Select Committee for a 45-minute session. But now both bosses are attending parliament, and they will [...]
Property sales fall in January February 24, 2015 UK HOME sales fell in January for the fourth month in a row, to reach their lowest level since October 2013, according to new data. The latest seasonally adjusted figures out yesterday by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) shows there were 97,320 transactions last month, down six per cent compared with a year ago. Transactions [...]
HSBC chief holds Swiss bank account but bank denies wrongdoing February 23, 2015 HSBC has acknowledged its chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, uses a Swiss bank account to hold his bonuses, following revelations published in the Guardian. Gulliver was shown to have sheltered money in a Swiss account through Panamanian company Worcester Equities Inc. But HSBC pointed out to the BBC that its chief executive has paid [...]