Megacity London: Our next mayor needs the ambition to match the scale of the challenge January 28, 2016 The next mayor of London will have some difficult decisions to make. Forecast to reach 9m residents by 2020 and 10m by 2030, the capital’s soon-to-be status as a “megacity” will bring with it both significant challenges and opportunities. This evening, the main candidates standing to be the next mayor will be setting out their [...]
Iran is open for business – but don’t expect UK banks to rapidly increase their exposure January 28, 2016 Could you be doing business – or even holidaying – in Iran in the not too distant future? One of the Middle East’s largest economies and biggest oil producers has been off limits to most Western businesses for years as a result of extensive sanctions. But it is now rejoining the international fold, following the [...]
As RBS shares plunge on the news of a £2.5bn profit hit, should the government delay privatising the bank? January 28, 2016 David Buik, market commentator at Panmure Gordon, says Yes. Yesterday’s announcement that RBS has had to make further provisions of £2.5bn for the mis-selling of mortgages in the US and PPI, as well as writing back Coutts’s valuation, should have come as no surprise. The task of both former chief executive Stephen Hester and more recently [...]
Google’s tax bill is not an excuse to bash big companies January 28, 2016 Big business is seen as “above the law”. That was the line from the former Downing Street strategy chief, Steve Hilton, as part of his intervention yesterday into the Google tax row. Let’s be clear. Business must pay its taxes. Period. But this week’s debate should be about Google and its tax affairs and not [...]
Tesco angers investors as storm clouds gather January 27, 2016 Just two weeks ago, Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis was hailing a “strong Christmas” as evidence of the retail giant “making progress”. UK like-for-like sales had risen 1.3 per cent in the six weeks ending 9 January, and Lewis was particularly pleased with international growth. When good news is hard to come by, every little [...]
I’ll give London’s businesses the support and freedom they need to thrive January 27, 2016 From tech startups to street markets, black cabs to global banks, London’s businesses are what make our city great. As mayor, I’ll make it my business to deliver for them. Last week I launched my Action Plan for Greater London: more homes, better transport, cleaner air and safer streets. These are issues that matter to [...]
Markets aren’t necessarily telling the truth about the state of the global economy January 27, 2016 The opening month of 2016 has been marked by sharp falls in asset prices, not just in financial markets but in commodities such as oil too. The conventional wisdom is that the markets form a rational assessment of future prospects for the economy and set prices accordingly. So if prices fall, we should be downgrading our [...]
Ignore Google’s corporation tax bill – and scrap the tax altogether January 27, 2016 It would be easy to believe, from the coverage of Google’s £130m tax deal with the Exchequer, that corporations are a big pot of money from which we can take as much as we like, limited only by their cunning wiles, our bumbling and/or complicit tax men, and our foolishly malleable tax rules. But this couldn’t [...]
After a Brexit war game found prospects for the UK outside the EU are bleak, should we take the result seriously? January 27, 2016 Rajesh Agrawal, founder and chief executive of RationalFX and Xendpay and business adviser to Labour’s London mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan, says Yes. The EU gives us access without barriers to 500m customers, £24bn of foreign investment and the clout of negotiating as part of the world’s largest trade bloc. Britain could of course go it alone, [...]
Take red tape burden away from UK startups January 26, 2016 As an economically-literate and highly-educated reader of Morning Wire, you will no doubt be familiar with the theory of “bootleggers and baptists”, coined by regulatory expert Bruce Yandle. It goes as follows – regulations are typically supported by self-styled moral crusaders (the baptists), but also by commercial interests that stand to benefit from the measures. [...]