For all the talk of a ‘working from home’ revolution, it seems there’s just as much demand for office space in London and the City as ever, borne out by a very unscientific drive-by survey on my last visit to The Smoke. It’s also interesting that there’s little evidence of a Brexit business exodus; perhaps our capital still has some pulling power, despite everything. Another headline this week, however, was ‘Quatar reviews London assets’. It seems they’re not happy with the bad World Cup PR, and are not likely to add more of our prime real estate to their portfolio. They already, however, own Harrods, The Shard, Chelsea Barracks (!), Grosvenor House, half of Canary Wharf, 20% of Heathrow and 14% of Sainsburys. Who knew?
“Cut interest rates to prevent recession, says Institute of Economic Affairs’ SMPC”
The ‘lag’, ‘trailing leg’ or ‘long wake’ of any economic measure means that its effects are often felt long after the problem it was supposed to solve has disappeared. 2010’s ‘balancing the books within the space of one parliament’ (that went well, didn’t it?), austerity to you and me, is one example.
