Property

Thursday

Matthew Lynn

Why Mark Carney’s Canadian success story may be about to fall apart

No Bank of England governor has ever been installed in office with quite so much advance hype as Mark Carney. When he moves from running to the Bank of Canada to his new office in Threadneedle Street, expectations will be running high. Carney arrives with a reputation as a master of economic strategy, a man who can single-handedly steer an economy through the most treacherous of waters, and get a country growing again with a few deft strokes of monetary magic. Certainly, George Osborne has invested his hopes in him. During Carney’s time as governor in Canada, the country was ‘acknowledged to have weathered the economic storm better than any other major western economy’, he said on announcing the appointment.

Thursday

Martin Vander Weyer

In Cyprus as in Britain, the prudent must pay for others’ folly – but not like this

The Cypriots are the authors of their own misfortune, having turned their banking system into a rackety offshore haven for Russian loot and lent most of the proceeds to Greece. But it was madness on the part of bailout negotiators to shake confidence in banks across the eurozone by trying to impose a levy on deposits held by even the smallest Cypriot savers, in what was presumably an attempt to cream off a layer of ill-gotten foreign cash. And even if the proposal has been radically watered down by the end of the week, we now know the European powers-that-be are prepared to pull this device out of their toolbox if the subject government is too weak to resist.

Thursday

Alex Brummer

Investment special: Gaining from a housing recovery

The long period of dormancy for Britain’s housing market looks as if it is coming to an end — though there are huge regional differences. Central London remains exceptional, with the influx of overseas buyers into Kensington, Chelsea and adjoining neighbourhoods creating a microclimate of surging prices that has little to do with economic fundamentals — and has the political left salivating at the thought of a ‘mansion tax’ on properties worth £2 million-plus, even if that means turfing elderly widows out of family homes. Some five years on from the financial crisis that brought many lenders and house-builders to their knees, there are signs of a broadly based recovery.

Thursday

Martin Vander Weyer

London house prices are a better guide to how the world sees us than Moody’s ratings

‘There are two superpowers in the world today,’ said the American columnist Thomas Friedman in 1996. ‘There’s the United States and there’s Moody’s bond rating service. The US can destroy you by dropping bombs, and Moody’s can destroy you by downgrading your bonds.’ Well, not any more. Last Friday’s removal of triple-A status from British government debt may have made for a tense weekend chez Osborne and provoked short-selling of sterling by traders who thought it an obvious bet at a time when the Bank of England would clearly prefer a cheaper pound to boost exports.

Thursday

James Forsyth

Pickles takes it to the Lib Dems

Vince Cable’s remarkable criticisms of David Cameron’s speech on immigration are dominating the news. But in the papers today there’s a development in another intra-coalition dispute, Eric Pickles hitting back at all the Lib Dem talk of higher property taxes. The Telegraph reports on figures released by Eric Pickles’ department which show that prosperous areas pay far more in council tax than they receive back in services. His point is that the council tax burden already falls disproportionately on the well off and so layering another band on top or doing a revaluation that would push houses into higher band would be unfair. Pickles’ reading of the politics of this is acute.

Friday

David Blackburn

May calls for culture change towards LGB&T groups

Theresa May has called for ‘culture change’ in wider society to ease the equality and acceptance of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender minorities. Abstractions are the executive’s favoured metier these days. I’ve read and re-read May’s article in Pink News and nowhere does she define ‘culture change’. The end product of a culture change towards LGB&T groups might be envisaged, but how is it initiated? The government cannot answer that question, beyond suggesting that supporting pride marches is positive. True, but society is more than a pride march. It exists in the daily confusion caused by ill-defined laws, such as who B&B owners let into their homes/businesses.

Thursday

Alex Massie

Trumpton-on-the-North-Sea Latest: The Donald Can Still Buy Your House

It had been expected - according to press reports admittedly - that Aberdeenshire Council would lift the threat of compulsory purchase orders being used to evict four families from their homes to pacify Donald Trump's demand for yet more land for his golf course development on the Menie Estate, near Aberdeen. Well, so much for expectations. Alas. By 57 votes to six the council rejected that proposal, claiming, according to the BBC that it would be "inappropriate to reject the use of CPOs completely without a full report." While it's good that the Council hasn't yet endorsed compulsory purchase orders, it's depressing that they remain on the table at all and one must fear that, when or if push comes to shove, the council will eventually approve them.