I know I'm a little behind the times on this issue as it really broke last week but I've been mulling it over in my head since and it doesn't become any clearer.
Read More »Construction matters
So, according to research by economists LEK, boosting the construction industry could prove the biggest way to boost the UK economy. That's because every £1 spent on construction leads to an increase in GDP of £2.84, as the spending not only creates construction output worth £1, but also stimulates growth elsewhere in the economy worth…
Read More »Margins for error
The phrase: "turnover is vanity, profit is sanity" has been trotted out so much over the years I've been in this business that it's become a cliché. But, like all clichés, it's become one simply because it is true.
Read More »Government ‘woefully short of target’
This week's winner of the 'stuff that's so obvious it hurts' award is the news story from that redoubtable organisation the Joseph Rowntree Foundation that the Government is unlikely to reach its own target of three million homes by 2020.
Read More »Mortgage shmortgage
Hurrah! The number of mortgages granted to prospective home buyers in October was nearly double what it was at the same time last year.
Read More »And now for the serious stuff
In an otherwise exemplary performance at the BMN Awards lunch a couple of weeks ago, John Inverdale - the sports presenter chappie - inadvertently upset rather a large number of his audience.
Read More »We did it!
Whoo Hoo! Permit me, if you will, to gloat, just a little over the fact that there will apparently be an announcement in the PreBudget Report later today of a Boiler Scrappage Scheme, similar to the car scrappage scheme.
Read More »Too little, too late
As usual it seems, Chancellor Darling's last Pre-Budget Report for this Parliament (possibly ever), was a mixed bag full of , well, not very much. I suppose you could call it another curate's egg, although not a particularly nice egg.
Read More »A Winter’s Tale
I've heard it said that you know you're a proper grown-up when, at the first flurry of snow your reaction is not 'Yay, snow, hooray' but 'oh damn, how am I going to get to work tomorrow' or 'why do other countries manage to cope with the snow properly'.
Read More »A real opportunity for merchants
So we got the boiler scrappage scheme in England. And judging by the rumours circulating around Twitter and the industry, we might be getting something similar for Wales and Scotland. Hurrah. Check out the Reheat Britain website for all the latest details.
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