‘Imperative’ that Oxford Street pedestrianisation includes hospitality Politics The Mayor of London’s plan to pedestrianise Oxford Street must offer visitors “a mix of hospitality, leisure and retail” if it is to be successful – including eating and drinking spaces scattered through the middle of what used to be the road – the UK’s top hospitality lobby group has said. Writing to Sir Sadiq [...]
WFH: Blackrock orders managing directors to work full week from office Investing Blackrock is ordering its most senior staff to work from the office five days a week in the latest example of financial institutions abandoning the flexible working from home (WFH) policies many adopted in the wake of the pandemic. The investment juggernaut will tell its workers that all of its approximately 1,000 managing directors across [...]
Are we witnessing the slow death of advertising holding companies? Media The feted founder of AKQA, Ajaz Ahmed, has launched a new agency that promises to take on the “slow, bureaucratic” ad groups that since the pandemic have have been labouring under stagnant revenues and falling share prices. Ali Lyon asks: “Are those holding companies on borrowed time?” Ajaz Ahmed is not a man to shy [...]
Kevin McCloud: Housebuilder ‘oligopoly’ needs urgent reform May 2, 2025 Britain’s housebuilding industry is a cartel-like oligopoly that needs root and branch reform in order for the UK is to build enough high-quality homes to solve its housing crisis, Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud has said. In a withering assessment the track record of major housebuilders, McCloud said the UK construction sector’s supply chain had [...]
Rio Tinto shareholders reject move to ditch primary London listing May 1, 2025 Rio Tinto will keep its primary London listing after the mining giant’s shareholders voted comprehensively to reject an activist investor’s push for the firm to abandon its current dual-listed structure. More than eight in 10 shareholders voted against the motion proposed by London-based Palliser Capital, which called for a review into whether the miner should [...]
Shein pauses London IPO as tariff hit sparks US restructuring plans April 30, 2025 Fast-fashion giant Shein has put preparations for its London float on ice while it calculates the best way to respond to Donald Trump’s draconian tariffs on Chinese imports. According to the Financial Times, the Chinese-founded firm is considering a major overhaul of its US operations, which are especially exposed to the US administration’s sweeping trade [...]
US economy shrunk by 0.3 per cent in first quarter April 30, 2025 The United States economy shrunk by 0.3 per cent in the first three months of 2025, after American companies raced to get ahead of Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs by stockpiling imports. According to official government data, the US economy fell into contraction from growth of 2.4 per cent, with the effect of higher imports compounded [...]
Businesses are bracing for trans policy rewrites April 30, 2025 Campaigners and watchdogs say the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on trans inclusion in the Equality Act brought clarity. But for bosses, the topic is likely to become even more of a minefield, says Ali Lyon. Ever since her appointment as chair of the UK’s human rights watchdog in 2020, Baroness Falkner has been convinced that [...]
Investor demand for gold hits three-year high April 30, 2025 Record interest from investors and sustained appetite from central banks helped keep demand for gold among the highest its been since the onset of the pandemic at the start of 2025. According to the World Gold Council, the spectre of Donald Trump’s tariffs and continuing geopolitical uncertainty all served to maintain demand for the traditional [...]
Redbird ‘confident’ of tying up Telegraph deal in weeks April 28, 2025 US private equity shop Redbird Capital is “confident” of getting a deal for the Daily Telegraph newspaper over the line in just a few months, marking the end of the conservative broadsheet’s two-year hiatus without an active owner. A source familiar with the negotiations told City AM that the uncertainty continuing to swirl around the [...]
