HB Reavis Waterloo site given the green light
Volterra have been working with HB Reavis on the redevelopment proposal for Elizabeth House in Waterloo. We are delighted to announce that Lambeth Council has given the go ahead for the project. Designed by AHMM architects, the multi-use space adjacent to Waterloo Station will include a publicly accessible garden promenade. This is an exciting and […]
This year’s Nobel economics laureates have made the world a better place
This year’s Nobel Prize in economics, announced on Monday, was a ray of sunshine amid the prevailing media gloom. The Prize was awarded for the work the new laureates had done on the alleviation of global poverty. This is one reason to be cheerful about it. Another is that Esther Duflo became only the second […]
Putting our best boot forward…
On 13 September Volterra participated in the IBI Group Construction Cup, a five-a-side charity football tournament featuring 40 teams from across the industry. Despite being relative minnows up against some large multinational firms, we won 3 of our 4 group games to qualify for the knockout stages where we lost narrowly to one of the […]
Forget ‘reparations’, scrapping subsidies is the way to help get Wales back on its feet
Get ready to put your hands deep into your pockets for the boyos and girlos of the Welsh Valleys. Adam Price, the leader of Plaid Cymru, called last week for the UK to pay “reparations” to Wales for the crime of reducing the country to poverty. For centuries, Wales has (apparently) been stripped of its […]
A warm welcome to Ian and Ross
Recent additions to our specialist team are economic graduates Ross Bateman and Ian Mwiti. We hope they will enjoy working with us! We are always interested to hear from consultants from a variety of related disciplines, working at all levels, who can compliment our existing team.
What kind of person crosses the Nevada desert to investigate UFO conspiracies?
Area 51 is a mysterious place. Located deep in the Nevada desert, it is home to highly classified US military operations. Rumours abound that it harbours secrets about extraterrestrial life. In June, a podcaster released an interview with someone who claims to have studied flying saucers in Area 51. The video spread like wildfire on […]
In such volatile times, the safest assets aren’t necessarily what investors think
Given the climate of intense uncertainty, the FTSE index remains remarkably resilient. It currently sits almost bang in the middle of the 7,000-7,600 range, where it has been since the beginning of January 2017. Brexit does not seem to trouble share prices. Nor do the threats by John McDonnell, Labour’s shadow chancellor, to carry out […]
Britain’s car industry could weather a storm of tariffs better than you’d think
The latest American Economic Review contains a timely paper. Keith Head and Thierry Mayer, at the University of British Columbia and the Banque de France respectively, estimate the consequences of changes in tariff and non-tariff barriers to the car industry. They look at both US-led protectionism and Brexit, and calculate how these might change the […]
Watch out fiscal conservatives – the mood has shifted and the spending taps are on
The Autumn Spending Review announced by the chancellor Sajid Javid barely raised a ripple last week. Yet the increase planned in 2020/21 for what the Treasury calls “day-to-day departmental spending” is the highest for 15 years, no less than 4.1 per cent in real terms. This spending pays the running costs of public services, the […]
Economic theory can offer a lesson to struggling football clubs
The expulsion of Bury FC from the English Football League last week continues to generate a huge amount of sound and fury. Regardless of the apparently dodgy nature of some of Bury’s transactions, the simple fact is that the club overspent massively in order to gain promotion from League Two last season. The surge in […]
