House prices in the capital outpaced those in the rest of the country by a factor of 10 times during the past year, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. The jump helped lift the English average house price 3.7 per cent during the 12 months to July to £255,000, surpassing the 2008 zenith.
Split on Germany’s Left Boosts Merkel’s Re-Election Bid
A radical left party is the strongest guarantee that conservative leader Angela Merkel will secure a third term as German chancellor in national elections next Sunday, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Die Linke—or ‘The Left’—is expected to win up to 10 per cent of the vote, and it is part of a trio of left-of-center parties that, together, could win a majority of seats in Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag. But its relations with the other left-leaning parties are so bad that it almost certainly can’t form a coalition with them.
EU has failed on the single market, says IoD
Europe has “lost its way” and the time has come to question the nature of the UK’s membership of the European Union, the director-general of the Institute of Directors will tell his members today, reports The Daily Telegraph.
RBS branch sale could come this week
Royal Bank of Scotland could make a decision on the sale of its 315-branch Project Rainbow business this week amid reports one of the three bidders for the unit has had its offer rejected, reports The Daily Telegraph.
W&G Investments denied a BBC report it had lost out in the three-way battle for the small business-focused lender being sold by RBS and said it was still in the running to buy the operation.
Banks ignore 70% of complaints about mis-sold paid-for current accounts
Banks are fobbing off thousands of complaints about mis-sold paid-for current accounts, reports the Daily Mail.
New figures from the Financial Ombudsman reveal how Britain’s banking giants are wrongly throwing out 70 per cent of complaints about so-called packaged accounts — which cost customers up to £300 a year.
FTSE bosses show pay restraint
Bosses at the UK’s biggest public companies have shown pay restraint in the last year in the wake of shareholder rebellions over executive compensation, reports The Daily Telegraph.
Executives at the blue-chip companies have seen bonuses fall for the second year in a row, according to a survey of FTSE 350 compensation levels by accountancy firm PwC.
Osborne to woo voters with discounted shares in Lloyds ahead of next election
Millions of ordinary investors could be offered a pre-election sweetener next year in the form of cheap shares in Lloyds, reports the Daily Mail.
The plan emerged after fund managers and insurers snapped up 6 per cent of the state-backed lender in five hours on Monday night, raising £3.2bn for the Treasury.
Obama to face fresh test of resolve over budget talks
Jack Lew, the US Treasury secretary, said on Tuesday that the administration would not negotiate over congressional approval to lift US borrowings, drawing a line in the sand ahead of high-stakes budget talks with Republicans in coming weeks, reports the Financial Times.
