Planning permission granted for Ilona Rose House

Soho Estates has been granted planning to convert the old Foyles building in the Tottenham Court Road Opportunity Area into a mixed use development known as Ilona Rose House. The development will include the provision of office, retail and leisure space as well as improved public realm. Volterra authored the economic case for the development which […]

Why austerity must be the order of the day for May’s chancellor

On the face of it, the Brexiteers have a bit of explaining to do. A week before the vote, Boris Johnson dismissed fears about the value of sterling, and accused the governor of the Bank of England of “talking the economy down”. Yet the economy does seem to have stalled, property funds have had to […]

The poor state of macro justifies scepticism with Brexit disaster forecasts

David Cameron has tried to frame the Brexit debate into one based on economics.  Standing with him is the overwhelming consensus of economists themselves, from academics to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).  Their pronouncements are not having that much impact on the electorate if the polls are to be believed. There is justification for this […]

Surviving the pensions crisis means encouraging work

The Queen’s 90th birthday has quite rightly dominated the media over the past week.  Her Majesty continues to break all sorts of records, spending longer on the throne than Queen Victoria and being our oldest ever reigning monarch.  But longevity should no longer give cause for surprise.  The oldest participant in the London Marathon was […]

A radical idea for reviving the North

The Head of OFSTED, Sir Michael Wilshaw, warned last week that secondary schools in Liverpool and Manchester were ‘going into reverse’. Too many pupils in Northern towns and cities are simply not prepared for the next phase of their education, training or employment. In Liverpool, for example, four out of every ten schools are judged […]

Could Ernie replace Andy? The Bank’s take on automation

The Chief Economist of the Bank of England, Andy Haldane, has been in the news with his predictions that up to 15 million jobs in the UK are at risk of being lost to automation. This is a huge number, around half the total number of people in work today. Haldane injected a note of […]

History shows why robots won’t destroy our jobs

Economics is often described as the dismal science, but it often contains cheerful material. A paper by the leading American economic historian Joel Mokyr made for exuberant holiday reading. Written for the top Journal of Economic Perspectives, it is entirely in English and contains not a single mathematical symbol. Mokyr examines the history of anxieties […]

Volterra in the news: ‘unions are standing against progress’

Jo Valentine, Chief Executive of London First, spoke out against last weeks tube strike stating that by striking against the Night Tube ‘unions are standing against progress’. In an article for City AM Jo Valentine discussed the need for London to remain competitive on the global stage and refers to Volterra’s report for TfL in […]

500 additional FTE jobs and over 1,200 new homes at Cherry Park development

Volterra recently supported Westfield’s application to build a mixed commercial and residential scheme at Cherry Park. The proposed scheme is to the south of Westfield shopping centre in Stratford and adjacent to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, falling within the London Legacy Development Corporation area (LLDC). The scheme comprises of retail and flexible commercial floorspace […]

Volterra provides economic assessment for new luxury West End Hotel: Peninsula London

Volterra supported the joint venture partners, Grosvenor and The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels (HSH) Ltd in their application to build a luxury hotel (the Peninsula London) and prime residential units at 1-5 Grosvenor Place. The new building will replace the existing 1960s offices at the site. HSH aim to operate one Peninsula hotel in every […]