The Bank of England has developed a mythical stature – it’s time to burst it
The UK, along with the rest of the Western world, has just lived through a period of low inflation. In the 25 years since the mid-1990s, inflation has averaged just 2 per cent a year. It is enough to double the price level every 35 years, but a far cry from the double-digit rates seen […]
ExCeL London gets green light for expansion
Volterra are delighted to see the expansion of ExCeL London receive planning approval. An additional 25,000sqm of premium event space will be delivered at ExCeL London, increasing overall floorspace at the venue by 25%. This expansion will allow ExCeL London to continue to host the biggest and best events, attracting visitors from all over the […]
Bail outs for businesses in strife only gloss over the truth, it’s time to face reality
The price of both oil and gas has doubled across the world in the last year. The price of crude oil is at $84 a barrel for the first time in three years. As a result, fuel of every kind, for every purpose has become more expensive. The public has reacted in the most extraordinary […]
Universities have sown their own demise with blended learning and short courses
The start of autumn has seen the start of the university term for students since time immemorial. This time round of course, the ritual of hauling luggage round the country to the halls of residence has not quite been on the same scale as usual. Some universities, including members of the prestigious Russell Group, are […]
Northern line extension – South London welcomes the long awaited arrival of two new underground stations
We are very pleased to see the opening of the London Underground Northern Line extension today, the first major addition to the Tube network this century. This brings much needed connectivity across the capital, carrying passengers to new stops at Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station. Battersea is now only a 15-minute direct ride from […]
Pelham Street – Planning consent for the development of two office schemes on Pelham Street in South Kensington has been granted.
Plans to deliver approximately 12,000 m2 (GIA) of high-quality office floorspace across both schemes (40 Pelham Street, and 63-81 Pelham Street), which also includes a gym as part of the amenities, were recently approved by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. At its core, the development will help satisfy the growing need for workspace […]
Hikes to national insurance funds a level of public services we can’t afford
The government’s plan to increase National Insurance has sparked the predictable furore. The pressures to raise taxes to pay for the level of public services the electorate have come to expect is hardly new. The welfare state was created immediately after the Second World War. For a time, the financial demands were held in check. […]
A service economy and shrinking workforce is the driving force of low economic growth
Extinction Rebellion’s fortnight of protests have only hardened existing beliefs and positions on both sides of the debate. But a book by Dietrich Vollrath of the University of Houston suggests that there may be much broader support for a low or even zero growth agenda than even XR might imagine. Vollrath does not address this […]
Labour shortages make light work of fears of a post-Brexit unemployment surge
In the two decades before the Brexit referendum, there was a large increase in the number of people moving from the EU to the UK. In the mid-1990s there were less than one million EU citizens living in the UK. By the mid-2010s, this had risen to 3.6 million. The bulk of the increase came […]
Science has been overrun with politics – it’s time to take it back
At the onset of the Covid pandemic in February 2020, the pages of the Lancet, a very prestigious medical journal, carried a statement eulogising China and the efforts it had already made to deal with the virus. For the luminaries who signed the statement, no praise could be too high for the Chinese. They had […]
