Estate agent Purplebricks reports record-breaking July instructions August 3, 2020 Estate agent Purplebricks recorded its highest ever month for instructions in the UK in July due to the stamp duty holiday and pent-up demand following the coronavirus lockdown. Shares in the company jumped 4.59 per cent this morning after it announced that it listed a record-breaking 7,000 homes in July. The figures Purplebricks this morning [...]
DEBATE: Is Rishi Sunak’s digital tax a good idea to save the high street? August 3, 2020 Is Rishi Sunak’s digital tax a good idea to save the high street? Jordan Shlosberg, co-founder of proSapient, says YES. High street retail is not fundamentally unprofitable, but is disadvantaged compared to online retail through higher taxes and overpriced leases. Through shifting the national tax burden from physical to online retail, the government can support [...]
Over four-fifths of UK midcaps have just nine months funding left August 3, 2020 Over four-fifths of the UK’s medium-sized businesses will not be able to continue trading for more than nine months under current funding arrangements, a new survey from accountants BDO has found. The 500 medium sized businesses have on average borrowed £21m in loans as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the data showed. Of these, [...]
Boris Johnson considers M25 border among new lockdown measures August 2, 2020 Boris Johnson is considering a fresh raft of lockdown measures in England including restricting travel beyond the M25, as the Prime Minister scrambles to contain a spike in infections across the country. Plans are being assessed after a sharp rise in new coronavirus cases last week forced the Prime Minister to apply the brakes on [...]
Eat Out to Help Out – the best restaurants taking part in the government hospitality scheme August 1, 2020 There was a time when dropping most of your disposable income on avocado on toast made you an idiot who will never be able to afford a house. Now it makes you a hero who will save the economy. It’s so vital that you start eating at restaurants again that, as of Monday, the government [...]
UK house prices rebound sharply after stamp duty cut July 31, 2020 UK house prices unexpectedly bounced back in July after tumbling in June, as pent-up lockdown demand was released and the stamp duty cut cheered buyers and sellers. Building society nationwide said British prices jumped 1.7 per cent in July compared to a month earlier, when they fell 1.6 per cent. Analysts had been expecting a [...]
Business rates aren’t fit for purpose but Rishi Sunak’s digital tax is a sticking plaster, not a solution July 30, 2020 Long before the coronavirus pandemic, our high streets were struggling. Faced with the rise of online sales, many well-known retailers were either closing stores, entering a form of insolvency known as a company voluntary arrangement (CVA), or falling into administration. The oft-quoted analysis of this demise was that the costs of running a physical store [...]
How badly will coronavirus hit UK house prices in 2020? July 29, 2020 Property experts hope a stamp duty holiday and relaxed lockdown restrictions will protect UK house prices from a sharp coronavirus fall this year. At the height of lockdown, experts predicted that UK house prices could fall by as much as 10 per cent this year due to the impact of coronavirus. However, chancellor Rishi Sunak [...]
Who will the PM hire as the press conference spokesperson? July 29, 2020 The Prime Minister today launched a search for a spokesperson to host White House-style daily televised press briefings, in a bid to boost government transparency during the pandemic. An advert for the job posted on the Conservative’s Linkedin page suggested that the successful candidate will be a well-known figure on the political circuit, and assured [...]
Covid-19 could push up prices for online shoppers, experts say July 29, 2020 Online shoppers could face more expensive deliveries as e-commerce retailers grapple with mounting costs due to soaring demand during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the latest research. The spike in demand for home deliveries during the coronavirus pandemic has increased costs for retailers, which will eventually be shared with consumers, experts said. Online sales surged [...]