UK productivity growth lags; figures produced by the Conference Board show that the productivity gap between the UK and the US has grown even wider. In 2005, Britain’s hourly work output rose by 0.9 per cent, the same level as in Germany but well below the US rate of 1.8 per cent. In Japan the rise was 1.9 per cent and in France 1.5 per cent. The ten new members of the EU enjoyed an average rate of 6.2 per cent. The Chancellor has placed great stress on labour productivity as one of the most important building blocks of economic prosperity. The Treasury uses international comparisons of national output per worker but the Conference Board report shows that any relative improvement in the UK is down to an increase in working hours. Britain’s output per hour worked is just as far behind Germany and France as it was in 1997 and even further behind the US. The Conference Board attributes Britain’s problems to a failure to make full use of computers. The Financial Times says that this will be a persistent worry for the Chancellor for the rest of this Parliament. With low unemployment, long hours and high numbers of people in work, Britain must improve productivity growth if the economy and living standards are to rise rapidly. For further information click here. Financial Times 18.01.06
Unemployment on the rise; Government statisticians report that the labour market was “weakening” as they published data from January–November 2005 showing a rise in both measures of unemployment and falls in employment, job vacancies and average earnings growth. For the first time since 1992, it was the second month when all the indicators fell simultaneously. The jobless total rose by 110,000 - the largest quarterly rise since February 1993 - to a three-year high of 1.53 million. The number of people claiming jobless benefits rose 7,200 to 909,100. The number of vacancies fell by 12,700 to take the annual decline to 40,400. The growth in average earnings over the three months to November fell to 3.4 per cent. John Butler, UK economist at HSBC, said that the new data confirmed their view that interest rates would eventually have to come down. For further information click here. Independent 19.01.06
UK tax levels to exceed Germany’s; a research paper produced by the Bank of America using Organisation for Economic Co-operation Development (OECD) data shows that Britain’s tax burden is set to outstrip that of Germany for the first time in a generation. Britain’s overall burden of tax as a proportion of income will rise from 40.7 per cent in 1999 to 42.4 per cent in 2006. On the other hand, the figures for Germany’s tax burden shows a drop from 46.7 per cent at the end of the nineties to 42.1 per cent today. The rise in public spending in the UK is due to reach 45.7 per cent of GDP by next year whereas in Germany it will have declined to 45 per cent. For further information click here.Times 16.01.06
There is some-relatively-good news; the latest report on the UK economy by the Ernst and Young Item Club says that the UK economy will pick up this year and is set to enjoy stronger growth in 2007-08. They forecast that the economy will grow by 2.3 per cent this year against a Treasury estimate of between 2.0 - 2.5 per cent and a consensus for growth amongst independent economists of 2.1 per cent. They also support the Chancellor’s optimism about the long-term health of the economy by forecasting growth “back up towards” 3 per cent for 2007-08. The report says that a better than expected Christmas for retailers, higher share prices and signs of a rebound in the housing market bode well for the economy. However, it does warn that with consumer and business confidence still fragile and the prospect of higher global interest rates it says “the outlook is still very uncertain”. For further information click here. Evening Standard 23.01.06
UK tops inward investment league; the latest figures issued by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development show that the UK received more inward investment than any other country. This is the first time the UK has topped the Foreign Direct Investment table since 1977. This success was mainly due to merger and acquisition activity, with the Royal Dutch Shell merger bringing in £57billion alone. In all, the UK attracted $219billion, the highest ever figure for a European country, and twice the $106billion invested in the US. China was third with $60billion. For further information click here. Financial Times 24.01.06
Why
are house prices rising? Writing in the Times, Arnold Kaletsky looks
at some of the issues raised by the Governor of the Bank of England over interest
rates both in the short and long term. The Governor had argued that house
prices and other assets were being boosted by low interest rates but that
the real question was why were long-term interest rates so low and what that
would this mean for the economy. Kaletsky argues that the reason is clear
to see; globalisation. The addition of two billion new workers in China and
India has slashed the price of manufactured goods and reduced the wages of
manual workers around the world. Countries like the US and the UK, which import
most manufactured goods while exporting services not exposed to Chinese competition,
have enjoyed a huge increase in living standards. Asian competition has had
an even bigger impact on global inflation and Asian savings have been flowing
into countries such as America, Britain, Canada and Australia. The Governor
fears that if the Chinese and other Asians start spending rather than saving
inflation would accelerate and interest rates would have to be jacked up,
probably resulting in a collapse of property and other assets. Kaletsky accepts
that this is a genuine risk but that it is plausible for the next few years
that the Asians would remain just as competitive and thrifty and house prices
rather than collapsing would go on rising. As a result there would be a reorientation
in society towards property ownership, rather than employment. Times 19.01.06
‘New business starts have stalled’; according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) the number of people involved in new businesses in the UK has stalled. The Monitor, which is run by London Business School and Babson College, says that in 2005 about 6.2 per cent of the population started or were running a business less than 42 months old, down from 6.3 per cent in 2004 and 6.4 per cent in 2003. Maria Minniti, GEM Research Director, said, “The change from 6.4 per cent to 6.2 per cent is not significantly different, but what it does suggest is that the UK is not growing, whereas other European countries seem to show an improvement”. The report, which surveyed 35 countries, shows that the number of people working in new businesses in the USA rose from 11.3 per cent to 12.4 per cent last year, while in Ireland the figure rose from 7.7 per cent to 9.8 per cent, just above the average of 8.4 per cent. Business organisations pointed to red tape as one of the reasons why the UK was below average and had been surpassed by Ireland, Germany and Spain. However, a Department of Trade and Industry spokesman said, “The UK still has the third-highest entrepreneurship rate of the G7 economies behind the US and Canada”. For further information click here.Times 16.01.06
Hollywood abandons the UK; New figures show that Hollywood studios have halved their investment in using the UK as a production base over the past two years. The amount spent on production in the UK in 2005 declined by 31 per cent to £559.5million, according to figures released by the UK Film Council, which promotes the UK as a production base. Amongst the contributory factors were the strength of the pound against the dollar and the overhaul of UK tax incentives. However, the British film industry is hopeful that a new tax regime unveiled by the Treasury last month will result in foreign investment swiftly returning to the UK. For further information click here. Guardian 17.01.06
Insolvencies ‘set to surge after debt spree’; Begbies Traynor, a quoted firm of insolvency accountants, is predicting that the hangover from the credit boom, plus spiraling energy costs, will send corporate and personal insolvencies soaring in 2006 and 2007. The forecast that the number of companies going under is unlikely to peak until 2007 and could go up as much as a third in the next two years. They also believe that there will be no let-up in the number of individual voluntary arrangements, designed to keep people who are struggling with debt, from going bankrupt. For further information click here. Evening Standard 16.01.06
India is now a net investor in UK; for the first time since gaining independence India is investing more in the UK than the UK is in India. Saroj Poddar, President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce, says that Indian companies invested £566m in new British developments or ‘greenfield’ projects in the year to 31st March, 2005, with “slightly less going the other way”. Ian Pearson, the trade minister, who is visiting India with a trade delegation said that if re-investment was taken into account UK investment would still be higher. Recent Indian investments in the UK have included Mahindra, Mahindra purchasing Stokes Forges, a car components maker, and the Tate Group announcing plans for a $6m development centre near Coventry. Times 17.01.06
Christmas shows online sales surge; online shoppers in the UK spent nearly £5billion in the Christmas period, making Britons Europe’s top online consumers. The figures, which were compiled by Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG), show a 50 per cent increase on Christmas 2004 when £3.33billion was spent. Internet shopping now accounts for 9 per cent of all retail spending and IMRG estimate that 24 million people shopped online at Christmas spending an average of £208. This compares with a sluggish performance overall for the retail sector where like-for-like sales rose by just 2.6 per cent in December. In 2005 as a whole IMRG say that overall online spending grew by 32 per cent to £19.2billion, with shoppers spending an average of £816. They forecast that this would grow by 36 per cent in 2006 to £26billion. The increase has come at a time when there has been a rapid increase in the uptake of broadband with 37 per cent of UK homes now having a high-speed internet connection. The increase in online shopping has been achieved by ‘cannibalising’ high street sales. Ottakar’s bookshops report a 4.9 per cent drop in sales and HMV an 8.9 per cent drop over the Christmas period, while Amazon UK reported a 20 per cent increase. Further information click here. IMRG Financial Times 20.01.06.
Treasury removes threat to community finance; As social enterprises become all the rage, the Treasury has announced that the £11million being held in the Phoenix Fund for the regional development agencies to support local community development finance initiatives (CDFIs). The funding, taken from the DTI’s budget, aims to protect CDFIs over the next few years and charge them with responsibility for supporting the sector switches from the Small Business Service to the regional development agencies. Regeneration 20.01.06
Sub-Post
Offices under threat; It is being claimed that the Government’s
decision not to renew a £1billion contract for pension and benefits
payments with the Post Office after 2010 threatens the future of many of Britain’s
sub post offices. Colin Baker, the General Secretary of the National Federation
of Sub-Postmasters, has written to the prime minister and other ministers
to warn that the “devastating” decision “will force thousands
of post offices to close”. The Department of Work and Pensions said
that the costs of administering the Post Office card account took up 80 per
cent of the costs of administering the total pension and benefits payments
whilst only reaching 23 per cent of the customers. More than 4 million pensioners
and benefits claimants receive their payments through the system. Guardian
20.01.06
COMMUNITY AND BUSINESS AFFAIRS
Companies respond to human rights; The annual report of Human Rights says that international companies are responding favourably to calls for binding human rights standards in the corporate sector, as evidence mounts that voluntary guidelines are unfair and bad for business. Human Rights Watch recommends that OECD follows up the treaty that outlawed bribery by making its corporate social responsibility guidelines binding. For further information click here. Financial Times 19.01.06
Letter urges action to fill OFR void; shareholders and governance groups have written to the government urging action to fill “a dangerous policy vacuum” created by the sudden abolition of the mandatory Operating and Financial Review (OFR). Following the sudden announcement by the Chancellor, speaking to the CBI annual conference, that he was scrapping the OFRs in a bid to cut red tape the letter says that shareholders and governance groups have been left in the dark. The government proposes to replace the OFR with the simpler “business reviews”, required by the European Union but experts say that the reviews are likely to be less useful to investors as they do not have to contain forward-looking commentary. The letter has been signed by leading investment firms such as Jupiter Asset Management, Henderson Global Investors, Fortis Investments and others as well as the TUC and the UK Social Investment Forum. It has been co-ordinated by Tomorrow’s Company. For further information click here. Financial Times 23.01.06
Lehman backs centre to advance women; Lehman Brothers, the global investment bank, has committed £1.75m to the London Business School over the next five years for a new research centre that will focus on breaking down barriers to women’s advancement in the corporate world. To be known as the Lehman Brothers Centre for Women in Business, it will conduct European research into gender differences in attitudes, preferences and behaviour and into hidden gender bias in business and other large organisations. Cranfield already has a well-established centre and Oxford Said Business School recently announced a scholarship scheme to help women enroll for MBAs. For further information click here. Financial Times 23.01.06
Tycoons turn to charity; Following the news that the Reuben brothers are to donate £56m to create the Reuben Foundation the Sunday Times looks at the growing trend for tycoons to give a fortune to charity. However, it says that the new generation of philanthropists is more demanding than those in the past wanting to see a return on their “investment” and also in how the cash is used. Others who have made major donations in the past year include George Weston, the Chief Executive of Associated British Foods, who gave away £68m, Gerald Ronson, who has pledged to use his 23 per cent holding in Heron to create the new Ronson Foundation and John Studzinski, joint head of HSBC’s investment banking division, who gives half his annual salary to human rights causes, the homeless and the arts. Another is Scottish entrepreneur Tom Hunter who pledged in 2004 to give £100m to the Hunter Foundation. Hunter says that he drew inspiration from the philanthropic activities of Bill Gates, who has so far given away $26billion to tackling disease. For further information click here. Sunday Times 15.01.06
Davos ‘has pervading sense of flatulent self-importance’; Andrew Gowers (pictured right), former editor of the Financial Times and now a columnist in the Sunday Times, looks at the World Economic Forum being held for the 35th time in Davos. He wonders why 2,000 politicians and pundits, business leaders and lobbyists, celebrities and social activists keep going when Davos has become so celebrity-obsessed it can no longer manage serious debate on the issues that matter to business. Delegates, swept along by the warmth and fuzziness rank poverty the world’s number one problem, and global economic growth that would help to reduce it only priority number eight. However, Gowers argues that, perhaps, this does not matter much. Perhaps we should simply see beyond the relentless hype and showbiz and appreciate Davos for the top-notch networking occasion it really is. Sunday Times 22.01.06
Is work experience worth it? Lucy Kellaway devotes her “Work”
column in the Financial Times to examining work experience. She says that
the Financial Times has now adopted a policy of only providing work experience
places for schools in its own borough of Southwark, which she deems as sensible.
Only if a member of staff happened to have Tony Blair or Prince Charles as
a neighbour would it make commercial sense to take their kids. Finsbury, the
Public Relations firm, where Euan Blair will be carrying out work experience
has had a windfall of free publicity, as did HSBC from taking on Prince William.
Otherwise she suspects that work experience does not teach children anything
of value about working life. She suspects that it actually teaches them about
photocopying and making tea. It is a much better idea for older people who
have left school or university. It boosts their CV and helps them to discover
what they like and don’t like. Financial Times 23.01.06
Single people dominate city centres; a new report by the Institute for Public Policy and Research (IPPR) says that the new residential developments in northern city centres are dominated by young professional single people who stay a short while and then move on. Max Nathan, the author of the report, says that the centres cannot be made family friendly because it is too expensive to provide the schools, outside spaces, houses and healthcare parents are looking for. He says, “Young people want to live in the city centre because it is fun and they can keep in touch with their mates; they’re not interested in knowing their neighbours or being part of a community”. He goes on, “You would have to change the whole way a city works to accommodate families. There are hardly any families living in the center of Manchester- 6 per cent compared to other cities”. With the exception of London, living in the city centre has become increasingly popular over the past 15 years with Manchester’s city-centre population growing by 300 per cent between 1991 and 2001, from 3,500 to 10,000. Liverpool’s city centre population grew by 3,000 in the same period to 13,500 and half of the people of working age in Liverpool city centre were found to be students. For further information click here. Guardian 11.01.06
Miliband calls for neighbourhood budgets; David Miliband (pictured right), the Communities and Local Government minister, has proposed that neighbourhoods should be revived by giving them their own improvement budgets, powers to put inadequate services out to tender and councilors as much as £10,000 to spend on local needs. Recently picked out by the Prime Minister to take Blairism to the next stage Mr Miliband argues that there is a ‘power gap’ in England and that local government seems remote to most people. He points out that despite “the sterling work of 10,000 local parish councils in England, the lowest principal tier of local government is ten times the size of the lowest tier in other countries, covering around 150,000 people, compared to about 50,000 in the US, 30,000 in Sweden and 20,000 in Australia. In France there are 36,000 communes for a population roughly 10 per cent higher than ours”. He proposes that formalising the right of residents to trigger inquiries into local issues, or to force consideration of changes in local service provision. Under the Police and Justice Act ward councilors can lead neighbourhood calls to demand police tackle a local crime issue. For further information click here. Guardian 18.01.06
Scramble to house the UK’s only super-casino; with the deadline for applications not until 31st March, the government’s Casino Advisory Panel has already registered 40 applications to host the UK’s only Las Vegas-style super-casino. More applications are expected although under the government’s controversial new gambling laws, which were hurried through in the run-up to the last election, only one super-casino will be allowed. An additional eight medium-sized casinos and eight large ones will also receive licences. Blackpool is the favourite to win the licence, having made a super-casino the cornerstone of a city-wide regeneration programme but London is also hopeful of winning a licence either for Wembley or the Millennium Dome. Richard Caborn, gambling minister, has said that the number of super-casinos could be increased provided there was sufficient local support and the Conservatives have indicated that they could support an increase as part of a series of changes in the Gambling Act. Financial Times 20.01.06
Call
for stronger leadership for Thames Gateway; a yearlong survey of
100 stakeholders in the Thames Gateway shows that the leadership of the regeneration
project is thought to be in disarray and needs to be brought under the control
of a strong central figure. The report, which has been prepared by management
consultancy Hornagold and Hill, quotes one respondent as saying it needs “Somebody
young and vibrant devoted to it. Thames Gateway needs to find its Lord Coe”.
Although the report reveals widespread support for the concept, 56 per cent
of the respondents said that they were confused over the roles played by the
numerous organisations operating in the area. There are two main gripes raised
in the report. The first is infrastructure. When the Communities Paper was
published it was acknowledged that the new communities would only be sustainable
if an integrated approach was taken to the provision of transport links, community
facilities and public services, so that hospitals, schools and roads emerged
before or alongside the housing developments. The critics say that the housing
is being built but the complementary services are largely absent. The other
is the complexity of the organisational framework. There are seven government
departments, three regional development agencies, numerous sub-regional partnerships
as well as key agencies such as English Partnerships, English Heritage, British
Waterways and the Environment Agency as well as two urban development corporations
and now, of course, the Olympic Delivery Authority. For further information
click here.
Regeneration 20.01.06
Half of workforce has reading age of children; the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has published an evaluation of the Government’s Skills for Life scheme designed to improve the quality of adult literacy and numeracy teaching. The Department for Education and Skills is on course to have spent almost £6billion by 2010, but the committee can find little evidence of improvement in provision in colleges or on-the-job training by employers. It says that there are 12 million people in employment with literacy skills and 16 million with numeracy skills at level 1 or below; equivalent to the levels of 11 year-olds or younger. The Committee proposes that much higher spending is required to meet the targets and estimates that a further £2billion is required over and above the £3.7billion already spent. For further information click here. Guardian 24.01.06
Rise in jobs for older workers; statistics produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that more than 100,000 people aged over 60 found a new job in the period January to November 2005- a rise of 11 per cent. This means that 1.1m people over pensionable age are now working, which translates as 10 per cent of the pensionable age workforce. Two thirds are women. The rise is seen as doubly surprising at a time when overall unemployment in the UK is increasing and when far fewer older people in continental Europe are working. While about three-fifths of people aged 55 to 64 are still employed in Britain only two out of five are working in Germany. Whilst it is, in part, attributable to the UK’s economic performance, it is also a reflection of the rigid seniority system in France and Germany where wages tend to rise with age. Also, the pension system in much of Europe still encourages early retirement. The ONS predicts that Britain’s workforce will expand by about 2 million over the next 15 years as people live longer and work longer. The number of workers aged 65 or more is expected to pick up by 200,000- although the most recent data could mean that this is a conservative estimate. For further information click here. Guardian 19.01.06
‘Carrot-and-stick’ package aims to cut one million off benefits; the Welfare Reform Green Paper has been launched by Prime Minister Tony Blair and Works and Pensions Secretary John Hutton (pictured right). The Prime Minister said that the aim was to reduce the 2.7million people currently on incapacity benefits by one million through a mixture of support and also a measure of ‘compulsion’ to make it less easy to stay on benefit. John Hutton said that private sector companies and voluntary groups were to be given a bigger role in helping long-term sick and disabled people to find jobs. The Green Paper paves the way for much of the activity provided by the 650 Jobcentres to be outsourced. This follows a study of the 13 privately-run employment zones, which shows that they get 10 per cent more long-term unemployed people into work than the directly-managed services. The minister also underlined his determination to set tough new benefit conditions with a ‘something for something’ approach that demands that state help is matched by increased responsibility on the part of the claimants to take advantage of the support programme. For further information click here. Financial Times 17.01.06, Evening Standard 24.01.06
Councils offered cash to tackle sick-note culture; Bonuses are to be offered to city councils that help to get long-term benefit claimants back to work. Tony Blair told council leaders at a top-level meeting at Downing Street on 19th January that the government would share the proceeds of money saved in long-term benefit handouts. Among those who attended were the Mayor of London and the leader of Glasgow City Council, which suffers the highest level of incapacity benefits in the UK. The scheme is included in the Green Paper on welfare reform that was published on Tuesday, 24th January. For further information click here. Times 23.01.06
Web scheme promotes part-time work; the Slivers-of-Time
scheme, which has been piloted in Newham, has received backing from the Office
of the Deputy Prime Minister, to become nationwide practise. The scheme provides
a marketplace that matches employers’ needs for flexible working with
people who are without full-time jobs but need to work irregular hours. In
the Newham pilot 75 people are currently selling 400 hours of their time each
week. The ODPM is putting in £500,000 and private investors have come
up with £300,000. It is hoped to reach London by September. For further
information click
here. Regeneration 20.01.06
School makes learning Chinese compulsory; Brighton College (pictured left) has become the first school to make Mandarin Chinese a compulsory subject. Richard Cairns, the Head Teacher, said that the aim was to recognise the importance of China as the world’s fastest growing economy. He said that he would join the first Mandarin class when it started in September. The 1,200-pupil school has a dozen or so native Chinese students. For further information click here. Guardian 17.01.06
City academies fare badly in exam league table; the exam league table for every state and independent secondary school shows that half of the flagship city academies are among the worst-performing schools in England. To date 27 academies have opened but only 14 have been open long enough to qualify for the tables. Of these, seven were in the bottom 200 schools using the benchmark of the proportion of pupils gaining five or more passes at grades A*-C. Less than 30 per cent of the pupils at the seven academies gained five C grades or better. At Bexley business academy (pictured right), the first to open in 2002, 29 per cent of pupils achieved five or more C grades whilst at Capital City academy in Brent and Unity city academy in Middlesbrough the rate was only 19 per cent. A DfES spokeswoman said that: “All seven academies have improved GCSE results compared to the very poor results recorded by their predecessor schools in 2002, some of which had only just come out of special measures”. Further information click here. Guardian 19.01.06
Academy
sponsors ‘all want to be in London’; Sir Cyril Taylor
(pictured right), Chairman of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust,
says that his organisation is struggling to persuade City companies to sponsor
city academies outside London. He said that multinationals were still shying
away from involvement although he pointed to the news that Honda and Vodafone
are preparing to sponsor academies. However the two companies said that they
were supporting the local communities around their areas of operation where
they are both working with the United Learning Trust, a branch of the Church
Schools Trust. Companies tend to look to local schools because it allows for
greater involvement by employees. Of the 27 academies in operation only Ramsgate,
which is sponsored by Pfizer, and Middlesborough, which is supported by Amec,
gave big corporate supporters. Thirteen are supported by individual entrepreneurs,
such as Sir Peter Vardy or Lord Harris of Peckham, and nine by churches or
charities. An adviser to the city academy programme had earlier told the Sunday
Times that wealthy individuals who agreed to make large donations could be
rewarded with knighthoods and even peerages. Sunday Times 15.01.06, Financial
Times 16.01.06
Major union calls for nuclear power; Amicus, one of Britain’s largest trade unions, has called for urgent action to build new nuclear power stations, in the face of soaring energy costs, which they believe are threatening British jobs and industry. Derek Simpson (pictured right), the leader of the union, says that successive governments have “shied away” from taking decisions on future supplies of energy. Amicus is concerned that companies are increasingly citing high energy costs, rather than labour costs, as a reason for moving manufacturing overseas- a view in which they concur with Sir Digby Jones, the Director-General of the CBI. The Christmas standoff over gas supplied by Russia to the Ukraine has illustrated the dangers for countries that rely on imports for their main energy sources. After many years of being self-sufficient in coal, oil and gas, Britain has suddenly become a net importer of gas and will rely increasingly on overseas sources for its energy. Derek Simpson says, “The nation’s needs will be hostage to politically unstable states unless the Government’s energy policy promotes clean coal technology and new nuclear power build”. For further information click here. Times 16.01.06
Power companies predict the return of coal; According to projections from the world’s biggest power equipment producers, the world is on the brink of a big switch from gas to coal as the preferred fuel for power stations. The Financial Times quotes independent forecasts from Alstom, Siemens and General Electric which show that 40 per cent of the orders for electricity turbines in the next decade will be for coal-powered units, with the share of gas-fired plants falling to between 25-30 per cent. The shift is being triggered by technological changes that reduce the amount of pollution created by coal-fired stations and disenchantment with gas as a fuel. There are also concerns about rising prices and political problems as seen in the recent dispute between Russia and the Ukraine. Financial Times 16.01.06
UK ranked fifth in world green list; the UK has been ranked
fifth best in the world in tackling domestic and global environmental problems,
according to the first performance league tables presented to the World Economic
Forum in Davos. The tables, which are produced by Yale and Columbia Universities,
rank 133 countries according to how they tried to tackle 16 global and domestic
problems and met world and domestic targets. New Zealand came top followed
by Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic. The US was ranked 28th. On individual
issues the UK scored highly on environmental health but did not score highly
on greenhouse gas emissions. For further information click
here. Guardian 24.01.06
Doctors protest at collapse of Royal London and Barts scheme; Over 1,000 doctors and consultants at St Bartholomew’s and the Royal London hospitals have written to the Times protesting at Government plans to renege on a £1.15billion deal to rebuild the two hospitals. The Department of Health failed to sign off the scheme before Christmas and has now called for a review, which, it is feared, could lead to the possible exclusion of Bart’s in an effort to cut costs. The Times says that other hospitals, due to be rebuilt under the Private Finance Initiative, are also in doubt including Bristol, Liverpool and Newcastle. Ministers are concerned that the PFI hospital programme, which is bigger than that of the rest of the G8 put together, will not be able to service its debts. This follows the news that the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Greenwich is technically insolvent. There are also doubts as to how many major hospitals are needed as well as the conflict with the new Patient Choice, which allows patients to choose where they have their treatment which, in turn, means hospitals have increasing difficulty in predicting their income. Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, put out a statement saying that the Government had “no plans” to close either Barts or the Royal London. Times 16.01.04 Evening Standard 16.01.06
Times backs Bart’s and Royal London; in their letter the doctors say that the two hospitals “have some of the best clinical outcomes for the treatment of cancer heart disease and they serve Europe’s most ethnically diverse population”. They point out that the Prime Minister has given a personal commitment to the redevelopment and that Frank Dobson, when Secretary of State for Health, promised that Bart’s would be saved. Ministers say that say that the aim of the review is to see whether cancer and cardiac services at Bart’s can be relocated and that talk of closure is scare mongering. In an editorial the Times says that it is understandable that ministers want to check the figures and that all sides need to be confident that the trust will be capable of repaying the above-average cost over the next 42 years. But Bart’s has a good case for substantial refurbishment. It services one of the poorest populations in the country, and the booming Thames Gateway means that its catchment area is growing (it will be bigger than the population of Wales). In the light of the forthcoming White Paper on Health other trusts should be prepared to amend their PFI plans to ensure that they are in tune with 21st-century healthcare. Times 16.01.06
Londoners feel safer; according to the latest annual London survey fear of crime has dropped by 19 per cent over the past five years. This is attributed to the expansion and localisation of policing. Some 62 per cent told MORI that they feel safe walking alone in the evening and 68 per cent said that they had not been a victim of crime in the preceding 12 months. Welcoming the figures, Ken Livingstone, London’s mayor, called on the overground rail operators to provide greater security at railway stations late at night. For further information click here. Guardian 18.01.06
Think London to open offices in New York and Beijing; Think London, the body set up to promote investment in the capital, is to open its first overseas offices in New York and Beijing this spring. The move is designed to strengthen Think London’s activities and is also a reaction to the increased competition coming from Ireland, India and Eastern Europe. The Beijing office is to be run jointly with the Mayor of London’s office and will be opened by Ken Livingstone, when he visits the city in April. It is hoped to learn from how the Chinese use the 2008 Olympics to stimulate investment. Independent on Sunday 22.01.06
Wembley- the saga continues; the ongoing £50m plus lawsuit between Multiplex, the main contractor for the new Wembley Stadium, and the former sub-contractor Cleveland Bridge UK has taken a new turn. In documents, lodged with the Technology and Construction Court, Cleveland Bridge allege that Multiplex used an unsuitable form of concrete in the foundations for the signature arch for the new stadium. It is understood that the claims will be vehemently denied when Multiplex lodges its own documentation before the court. The case is due to go to the High Court in April. Guardian 13.01.06
Is Haggerston the new Hoxton? the new Lonely Planet Guide to London declares that Haggerston is now one of London’s “chic new neighbourhoods” that make “London s dynamic and buzzing place”. In the Independent’s write up they do admit that Haggerston, which is sandwiched between Dalston and Bethnal Green with Shoreditch to the west, is close to Cambridge Heath Road, home to a lap-dancing club, mini-cab offices, kebab shops and used car lots. It does, however, also have the Bistrotheque restaurant, now considered the coolest eating-place in the capital. The centre of Haggerston is Broadway Market where, what once a wasteland of an old market street, is being transformed with smart estate agents, an art gallery, a deli/coffee bar and new restaurants cheek by jowl with ramshackle mini-markets, a resolutely old-fashioned ironmongers shop and one of London’s last eel and pie shops. Nothing underlines the change more than the arrival of a thriving Saturday farmers’ market. There are squats to protest about local businesses being turned out to make way for development and as Hari Kunzrun (pictured right), the novelist and local resident, “one person’s regeneration is another person being pushed out”. Independent 21.01.06
London house prices show rapid rise; the Financial Times house price index shows that house prices in London rose by 5 per cent in the year to November - well above the 3 per cent average for England and Wales. There is little in the figures, which are compiled by Acadametrics based on every house sale reported to the Land Registry, to suggest an impending boom but prices in London tend to radiate across the country and suggest that the prospect of a housing market crash is even less likely. Gary Styles of Acadametrics said, “We expect house prices to show only a low level of growth in the next 12 months as the market adjusts to high levels of personal debt and stretched levels of affordability”. Further information- Financial Times 14.01.06
Crossrail will help displaced businesses; the government
has told the committee considering the Crossrail Bill that a service will
be set up to help relocate businesses displaced by the high-speed link across
the capital. The committee also heard protests from British Land and the City
of London that the scheme was not taking sufficient account of new development
planned for Bishopsgate. Estates Gazette 21.01.06
Property companies compete for station revamps; most of the UK’s major property companies are bidding to become involved in the revamp of three of London’s major stations; Euston, Victoria and Waterloo. Amongst the bidders at Euston are Chelsfield, Stanhope, Grosvernor, British Land and Development Securities. The 15-acre station site could be the base for one of London’s biggest property schemes; at 4.3m sq ft it will be the same size as Canary Wharf. The proceeds would be used to make huge improvements in the station. The second biggest scheme will be at Victoria with new space totaling about 8000,000 sq ft. Bidders include Stanhope, Hammerson, Grosvernor and British Land as well as Land Securities, who are undertaking a large project north of the station. The third big station is Waterloo where the tender will go out this year. Financial Times 20.01.06
Pondering on Regent Street; following the closure of the Dickens and Jones store on 14th January there comes news that its old next-door neighbour is looking for ways and means of strengthening its commercial appeal. The Estates Gazette says that Liberty plc, which is owned by Marylebone Warwick Balfour (MWB), has submitted proposals to Westminster City Council for a 41-bed five-star hotel to be called Liberty of London. The hotel would be created out of the surplus space in the famous mock-Tudor building as well as new development at the back. Liberty have already announced that it intends to close the Regent Street side of the store by March and that everything will be packed into the Tudor building. The re-constituted store would not be affected although part of the basement will be used to create a new restaurant. MWB already own the Malmaison and Hotel du Vin hotel chains. The new owners of the lease for the Dickens and Jones site plan a series of small shops with flats and offices above. Estates Gazette 14.01.06
Westfield works on White City link; Australian shopping center giant Westfield is working up plans for a mixed-use development to link its flagship White City scheme to the 43-acre regeneration scheme to the north. Westfield believe that the masterplan being drawn up by the consortium of owners which include the BBC, Marks and Spencer and Hellical Bar will leave a significant swathe of land around Aerial Way. To ensure that the two schemes link and that there is a successful approach to the new 1.4m sq ft shopping center Westfield are looking at a mixed-development to include transport links and residential. The new White City centre, which is due to open in 2008, is refocusing on luxury and will now include a new sloping street to house a dozen restaurants. Anchor tenants include Marks and Spencer and rumours include Debenhams, Next and House of Fraser. The Estates Gazette says that Westfield is targeting Bond Street-style retailers as well as relocations from Kensington High Street and overseas retailers. Estates Gazette 14.01.06
Shortlist for Hammersmith; Transport for London has shortlisted six developers for a 300,000 sq ft mixed-use development on the 1.5-acre car park adjacent to Hammersmith underground station. The shortlisted developers will now lodge detailed proposals for the scheme, which will be office-led, but with the potential for a hotel and shops. Companies on the shortlist include British Land, Development Securities, Helical Bar and Hermes. Estates Gazette 07.01.06
Battersea college to become flats; St James, a joint venture between Berkeley Group and Thames Water, has won planning permission to redevelop the former Westminster Kingsway College on Battersea Park Road into 204 apartments. The Tate Library will become a restaurant/wine bar. Construction is due to start this month and be completed in late 2008. Estates Gazette 07.01.06
Residential tower proposed for Vauxhall; London & Regional have submitted plans for a 46-storey residential tower next to Vauxhall’s train, underground and bus station. The plans include a second 23-storey building, leisure space, shops, community facilities and a new public space which will hopefully be an ‘urban jungle’ under a curved transparent roof. L&R will fund the restoration of Spring Gardens, south of the railway, and invest in Vauxhall City Farm. Estates Gazette 07.01.06
‘Vauxhall is the new Paddington’; in a survey of the London market for the year ahead Estates Gazette runs a feature on what it calls a rundown area besides the River Thames with direct access to Central London stretching from Waterloo to Vauxhall Bridge. It quotes Jason Mills, Director of Developments London & Regional as claiming that Vauxhall is the new Paddington. So far the proposals for the area have concentrated on residential property led by the Berkeley Group’s St George’s Wharf scheme, which includes the tallest residential tower in the UK.
City approves three major schemes; the City of London has
given planning permission for three major new property schemes. Gerald Ronson
has won the go-ahead for a revised 41-storey tower block at 110 Bishopsgate
whilst two office and shopping schemes gained approval. Land Securities plan
to build a 560,000 sq ft building on the site of One New Change, the old Bank
of England building facing St Paul’s, whilst UBS will demolish Mondial
House, a former BT telephone exchange next to Cannon Street station and build
a 545,000 sq ft building. However, the City Planning Committee, asked to see
a three-dimensional mock-up of One New Change before giving full consent because
of fears of the project’s experimental use of glass. Times 18.01.06,
Estates Gazette 21.01.06
Grapevine is produced twice monthly (except August and December when there is one issue) by Brian Wright on behalf of oneLondon.
Next issue:
9th February 2005
oneLondon is a membership organisation.
Members are:
BT, Cadbury Schweppes, City of London, Greater London Enterprise, HSBC,
Lloyds TSB, London South Bank University.