CHARLIE CONCHIE
THE GOVERNMENT may need to corral top pension funds into investing in London’s stock market as ministers look to boost domestic investment in Britain’s big listed firms, the City minister has said.
REMORTGAGING Brits are being hit by an average interest rate of 6.66 per cent –the highest figure since the global financial crisis.
The 6.66 per cent mark –as well as mirroring the mythical ‘number of the beast’ –tops last month’s 6.65 per cent figure for a two-year fixed mortgage, new figures from Moneyfacts revealed yesterday.
Having fallen steadily since the market panic over Liz Truss’ mini-budget in October, mortgage rates have spiralled in recent weeks as inflation has remained persistently higher than the Bank of
The sky-high mortgage rate is also pricing first-time buyers out of the market.
“The hit to affordability for new buyers from the rise in mortgage rates… looks huge,” Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said.
Tombs calculates that average buyers will have to allocate 31 per cent of their disposable income to monthly mortgage payments if rates and house prices stay high, “a level only briefly sustained for eight months in 2007 so far this century,” he said.
Those calculations were made even before yesterday’s rates revelation.
financial difficulties as mortgage rates rise, but remained confident that both consumers and lenders could withstand the pressure.
Bradley Fordham, mortgage director at Santander, said that with rates at six per cent, the average increase in monthly payments for customers coming off a deal at 2.3 per cent would be around £350 per month.
“That is significantly more. In this environment you would expect more customers to have some financial difficulty,” Fordham told MPs yesterday.
As a result of the increase in mortgage
they repeatedly stressed that it was unlikely to be too severe.
“We will see more and more customers with more financial stress, but I expect that to be relative to the market. And there are options available to those customers that are experiencing financial difficulties,” Charlotte Harrison, interim chief executive of home financing at Skipton Building Society, told MPs.
Rate hikes will likely swell supply and dampen demand in the housing market, with signs already emerging in recent data that house prices are beginning to slip.
The call comes after the Chancellor won a commitment from firms to punt at least five per cent of defined contribution pension cash into start-ups and unlisted firms, with Aviva, L&G and Phoenix backing the plans.
But City Minister Andrew Griffith told City A.M. that the government may now need to win a similar commitment from the pension sector to invest in listed firms to solve a slump in investment into the stock market.
“The focus above all else [is] on delivering the best performance for members, and everybody wants to make pensioners’ money or long term savers’ money work harder for them,” Griffith said.
He added that while the compact made between the Lord Mayor and the Chancellor had a particular focus on private companies, the reforms within the broad area of pensions “should speak to greater opportunities in the UK public markets”.
LONDON City Airport has said it will appeal Newham Council’s decision to block its plans to expand flying hours and passenger capacity. The airport is attempting to boost its passenger capacity from
6.5m to 9m and extend operating hours at the hub, which it said would create more than 4,500 additional jobs and add over £700m to London’s economy.
But councillors on Newham Council’s Strategic Development Committee voted unanimously to
reject the proposals on Monday, largely due to noise pollution concerns .
“This was the wrong decision and did not properly balance the limited impacts with the very significant benefits of the proposals, particularly in the context of
government policy, including making best use of existing runway capacity,” the airport said in a statement yesterday.
The appeal is now with the Planning Inspectorate.
Robert Sinclair, London City Airport’s chief executive, said he
was “disappointed” with the council's decision.
“We have worked incredibly hard to develop proposals that genuinely reflect concerns raised, sought feedback from our local community and worked closely with the Council’s planning officers,” he said.
LAST week in this space we suggested that Hong Kong’s decision to place a bounty on the head of eight effectively-exiled pro-democracy protestors, including the young campaigner Nathan Law, showed the true autocratic colours of the territory’s government and its Beijing masters. That Hong Kong police yesterday raided the home of Law’s family, and questioned them on “suspicion of assisting a person on the run to continue
behaviour that threatens national security”, shows we can add cowardice to the list of sins.
The anti-democratic crackdown on Hong Kong, and what has happened to that territory, is a tragedy. It will have implications for business in the territory;
Co-founder of investment app Nutmeg Nick Hungerford has died at the age of 43, having been diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer in 2019. His charity, Elizabeth’s Smile, which Hungerford set up a few months ago to provide resources for children who lose a parent, yesterday said it was “deeply saddened” to share the news. “Nick’s smile will inspire us, always,” it said in a statement.
“He was not only a successful entrepreneur and investor but also a generous, caring and witty friend,” Sophie Adelman, an entrepreneur and Board Member of Elizabeth’s Smile, said. “Nick was a true inspiration throughout his life, but the last few months showed the extraordinary courage, determination and selflessness that define this incredible man.”
Singapore is becoming a far more important hub for most Western firms who need to be in Asia than Beijing-on-the-Bay. But it also has very real implications at the human level, as we are now seeing play out. It’s worth remembering that Law’s crimes, such as they are, amount to being elected as a legislator and organising peaceful protests. He is not a fugitive on the run; he’s a democrat. What sort of regime terrorises a man’s family?
A penny, then, for the thoughts of City chiefs like HSBC’s Noel Quinn. Under pressure from the authorities in the territory, Quinn’s bank gave enthusiastic backing to the same National Security law that led to Law’s exile and, now, the persecution of his family. Law told us last year that HSBC, in doing so, was “cheerleading” for the regime. That’s the same Quinn, by the way, who is quoted on the extensive ESG section of HSBC’s
website saying “how we do business is as important as what we do” and promising to “meet our responsibilities to society”. If ever we needed proof that too much of the City’s ESG chat is just waffle, that should be quite enough. There may well be hard-headed business reasons to go along with the evermore vindictive and totalitarian leaders of Hong Kong, and HSBC were not alone, but do spare us the rhetoric.
THE GUARDIAN
AI REVOLUTION PUTS SKILLED JOBS AT HIGHEST RISK, OECD SAYS
Major economies are on the “cusp of an AI revolution” that could trigger job losses in skilled professions such as law, medicine and finance, according to the OECD.
Rioting in French cities over the past two weeks has left a trail of destruction costing €650m, according to insurers. The cost was calculated from 11,300 insurance filed claims, with more expected in the coming weeks.
The lawyer representing two alleged victims of sexual assault by Crispin Odey have urged the FCA to ringfence assets at the firm as the women examine potential litigation.
CHINA is the “largest state-based threat” to the UK’s economic security, deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden said yesterday.
Cabinet Office figures revealed that the government has intervened in eight attempts by Chinese buyers to take over UK firms due to national security fears in the last year.
Deals involving Chinese companies were the subject of more ministerial interventions than deals involving any other nationalities.
The Cabinet Office said there were
886 alerts about possible issues with investments in areas such as defence, energy, advanced materials and communications.
A total of 65 underwent further investigation, with 42 per cent relating to China, 32 per cent to the UK and 20 per cent to the US.
Meanwhile “final orders” either preventing, reversing or imposing conditions on deals were issued in 15 cases: eight Chinese, four UK and three US.
Speaking to the BBC, Dowden said:
“I’m very clear I do not want us to decouple from China, I don’t think it’s in our interest. But at the same time, we
have to be clear-eyed about protecting our national security, just in the same way that the Chinese are.
“It’s not a surprise we should look carefully at Chinese transactions. But equally, we look across the board.”
The government can make interventions under the National Security and Investment Act 2021, which enables it to stop or limit deals that could present national security risks.
“What we have to do is de-risk that engagement, and that is precisely what this kind of legislation enables us to do,” Dowden said.
China’s UK embassy was contacted.
PATRICK DALYNATO leaders have said Ukraine still has “conditions” to meet before it can join the alliance in a move that has left Volodymyr Zelensky frustrated.
During a summit in Vilnius, the alliance agreed that Kyiv could fasttrack the process of joining – a concession called for by the UK – but said “additional democratic and security reforms” were still required.
Before the communique was released, Zelensky had expressed his disappointment with the agenda for
the gathering in Lithuania, saying it was “absurd” and “unprecedented” that no timetable for his country joining was being set out.
Zelensky said the delay was providing Russia with the “motivation to continue its terror”.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told reporters on his way to eastern Europe that he wanted to see Nato’s commitment to inducting Ukraine as a full member of the alliance “reaffirmed” during the gathering. Sunak repeated his stance that, for the UK, Ukraine’s “rightful place is in Nato”.
WORKERS’ pay is rising faster than expected and at among the quickest paces on record in a sign that the Bank of England will deliver a 14th straight interest rate rise next month, official figures out yesterday revealed.
Pay excluding bonuses rose 7.3 per cent over the three months to May on an annual basis, the same rate of increase as the last quarter after an earlier estimate was revised up, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The number was above the City’s expectations for a 7.1 per cent increase and over the Bank of England’s estimate. It also matched the highest rise the ONS has tracked since it started reporting data in 2001.
Including one-off bonuses, wages jumped 6.9 per cent over the same period. The City thought the figure would hit 6.8 per cent.
Pay growth was strongest among City and factory workers, up nine per cent and 7.8 per cent respectively.
Wages are still racing at a quicker pace than the Bank of England is comfortable with, raising the chances of a 14th straight interest rate increase on 3 August.
“Today’s data confirm that the labour market is still too hot, as pay growth remains uncomfortably high,” Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK, said. Governor Andrew Bailey and the rest of the monetary policy committee is concerned elevated wage settlements will raise businesses’ fixed costs, meaning inflation falls slower than expected. Bailey this week in his speech at the annual bankers’ Mansion House dinner said the Bank is looking for signs of wage acceleration cooling. Last month, the MPC said “further tightening in monetary policy would be required” if wage settlements remain high.
AMONG the strangest things in this latest labour force snapshot was that wages are still growing at a record pace of 7.3 per cent.
This shouldn’t be the case. An increase in the number of people available for a job should take some bargaining power away from workers by increasing competition between them. Economic inactivity fell 141,000, meaning there should be about 40,000 more Brits looking for a new gig. What is even more striking is that record pay growth is still being
ANNA WISE
THE UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said it is willing to work with Microsoft over its planned acquisition of video game company Activision Blizzard, which could help end a legal battle over the deal.
It comes after a US judge yesterday handed Microsoft a victory by saying it would not stop its impending $69bn (£55bn) takeover. The CMA previously blocked the acquisition, arguing it would give Microsoft an unfair advantage in the cloud computer game market.
outstripped by rising prices. When accounting for the consumer price index, real wages fell 1.7 per cent over the last three months.
But after the US ruling, the CMA said: “We stand ready to consider any proposals from Microsoft to restructure the transaction in a way that would address the concerns set out in our final report.
JACK BARNETTUnfortunately, 7.3 per cent wage growth is just way too high for the Bank. Whether it sends rates to a peak of 6.5 per cent depends on getting pay growth and services inflation back down – fast.
“In order to be able to prioritise work on these proposals, Microsoft and Activision have agreed with the CMA that a stay of litigation in the UK would be in the public interest and all parties have made a joint submission to the Competition Appeal Tribunal to this effect.”
TOP INVESTOR Terry Smith has revealed that he ditched his fund’s stake in Amazon due to concerns with the company’s grocery business.
In a letter to investors, released on Monday, Smith revealed that the primary catalyst behind Fundsmith’s decision to drop its holding in Amazon last month was due to a “concern over potential capital misallocation”.
The British hedge fund initially invested in Amazon after the company’s boss Andy Jassy outlined a set of principles, which he felt provided “some comfort”.
The principles emphasised that investment projects should deliver good returns, serve new areas of the market, have innovative approaches and execute the investment effectively.
But in the letter, Smith said Amazon’s grocery venture “ran counter to all these principles”.
“Where companies choose to invest outside a powerful core fran-
chise in which they already have expertise we believe they are likely to destroy value, and especially so where they are entering a sector which already has poor returns,” Smith said.
He added that Amazon had already “stubbed its toe” in the grocery retail industry after buying Whole Foods for $13.7bn (£10.6bn) in 2017, which marked the tech giant’s initial steps into the physical retail space.
It is estimated that Smith lost approximately 25 per cent on this particular investment, according to The Times.
The move to offload Amazon shares surprised some investors, after Fundsmith, which is valued at £23.8bn, invested in the firm less than two years ago.
Laith Khalaf, head of investment analysis at AJ Bell, said the very quick sell-out was “an unexpected volte-face” in light of the fund’s reputation for holding companies for the long term, but called it “a rare exception [that] shows the manager is willing to be pragmatic rather than dogmatic”.
LAURA MCGUIRE
BRITISH Land yesterday provided investors with a cheery update on the outlook for the commercial property sector, as the firm was boosted by leasing activity across London and the strength of retail parks.
The property developer yesterday said it had secured 552,000 sq ft of leasing across its portfolio in the first quarter, 11 per cent ahead of its estimated rental value.
The firm was bolstered by activity across its business campuses, where occupancy reached 96 per cent and 164,000 sq ft of leasing was completed. Its retail offering, which includes retail parks, was also bolstered by 387,000 sq ft of leasing activity.
British Land boss Simon Carter, said retail parks continue to be thewinning retail format “given their affordability, omni-channel compatibility and low capex requirements”.
Shares closed up 3.69 per cent.
THE UK “can’t go on” prioritising the competitiveness of the City over the financial welfare of millions of people during a cost of living crisis, the former chair of the Financial Conduct Authority has said.
Speaking with financial regulation
podcast Following the Rules, the former chair of the City watchdog Charles Randell (right) said ministers and regulators risked focusing their attention on the competitiveness of the financial services sector while millions fall behind on their debts.
“Over 5m UK adults have fallen behind in paying their debts in three out of the last six months. Those are pretty shocking statistics,” Randell said.
“On financial inclusion, leaving the role of the FCA aside and just look-
ing at the position of the UK, my strong view is we just can’t go on like this with a two track system where we say we want the City of London to grow and be highly competitive, but we’re prepared to tolerate that level of financial exclusion here at home.”
Randell stepped down from his role last year, and the watchdog has since resisted calls to include financial inclusion within its objectives.
Despite urgings from the Treasury Select Committee, FCA chief Nikhil Rathi has said adding a financial inclusion clause risked “increasing expectations that the FCA should step in to fix problems that it does not have the power to solve”.
Randell’s comments come in contrast to efforts by other figures to bolster London’s markets, after a slew of firms rejected the capital to float in New York.
CHARLIE
CONCHIE
THE GOVERNMENT is looking to ditch EU-era short selling rules and will scrap a requirement for individual investors to reveal their bets against companies as part of a post-Brexit push to scrap red tape in the City.
Revolution Beauty has been locked in a bitter dispute with leading shareholder Boohoo
LAURA MCGUIRE
THE BOSS of troubled makeup brand Revolution Beauty Bob Holt could step down to help resolve an ongoing row with its leading shareholder Boohoo, according to a report. Tensions between the companies appeared to cool this week after Revolution said a “compromise” was close and that it would hold a
general meeting on 8 August, which would include a resolution to remove Holt as chief executive.
But Sky News reported yesterday that Holt could step down before the August vote.
Both Revolution and Boohoo declined to comment on the report. It comes amid a protracted dispute between the two brand’s over the management of Revolution.
Ministers have been consulting with industry on regulation around short-selling, in which firms look to profit from a fall in the share price of a listed company.
Under the current regime, investors have to reveal their individual position to the market when it crosses a threshold of 0.1 per cent of a company’s total issued share capital.
However, the government yesterday said it will replace the current public disclosure regime of individual short positions with an “aggregated net short position disclosure regime”.
The government said it “believes that these changes will ensure that the UK’s regulatory framework for short selling supports effective market functioning” while protecting investors.
NICHOLAS EARL
ROSEBANK, the UK’s largest undeveloped oil and gas field, is highly unlikely to be approved in time for parliamentary recess.
City A.M. understands the site, which has to be green-lit by the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning and the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), is now not expected to be sanctioned until August at the earliest.
This will be a setback for both its stakeholders, Equinor and Ithaca, following industry expectations it would be sanctioned before 20 July when MPs break for the summer recess
When completed, Rosebank is expected to produce up to 500m barrels of oil and gas equivalent over its operating lifetime – which could begin as soon as 2027. This has made the project the sub-
ject of intense controversy, with climate groups and energy transition advocates calling for the project to be rejected amid fears it would jeopardise the country’s climate ambitions.
City A.M. has learned that the NSTA has written directly to oil and gas companies operating in the North Sea, warning them of the importance of electrification for new offshore platforms.
When approached for comment, Equinor denied any concerns being raised by regulators over electrification and, while they would not be drawn on a timeline, they confirmed the project is still developing in line with expectations.
The government told City A.M. there was no organised timeline for the project, and that it remained in the hands of the regulators.
The NSTA and Ithaca both declined to comment.
SUPPLY of minerals critical to the energy transition could move close to levels needed to support climate pledges by 2030 after a surge in investment, the International Energy Agency said yesterday – provided all projects go as planned.
Consultants and analysts have warned of looming shortages due to surging demand for key minerals like lithium and cobalt used in electric vehicles, wind turbines and other clean energy technologies.
LNG demand is booming across the West, with Europe and Asia competing for supplies
NICHOLAS EARL
BRITISH Gas owner Centrica has signed a £6.2bn ($8bn) mega deal with US fossil fuel producer Delta Midstream, in a welcome boost for the UK’s power supplies.
The agreement is for 1m tonnes per annum of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for 15 years, and means Centrica will
take delivery of around 14 LNG cargoes per year. This could provide enough energy to heat five per cent of UK homes on an annual basis.
Centrica chief Chris O’Shea hailed the deal, which he said would be “vital to the UK’s energy security”. Supplies will be shipped from Delfin Deepwater Port, with first operations expected to commence in 2027.
But after investment in critical minerals production jumped 30 per cent last year to $41bn (£31.7bn), having gained 20 per cent in 2021, that picture is looking brighter, the IEA said.
In key battery mineral lithium, the IEA forecasts supply by 2030 will reach 420,000 metric tons – only a touch short of demand estimated at 443,000 to meet government pledges, though well below the 702,000 required for net zero.
“We are happy that for a change we can give some good news,” IEA executive director Fatih Birol told Reuters. “This is testimony that the markets are buying in to the fact that the clean energy transition is moving very fast.”
Reuters
We need to talk about those people who feel confident about their retirement savings. But 1 in 3 of them are actually facing a savings gap of £100,000 or more.
LAURA MCGUIRE
BRITAIN’s biggest pawnbroker H&T saw its share price soar yesterday, following news that lending grew 22 per cent as punters have been forced to flog off goods to secure extra funds during the cost of living crisis.
Ahead of its interim results, which are due to be published in early August, H&T said that demand for high quality new and pre-owned jewellery and watches continued to rise, with sales by value up c.10 per cent year on year.
As customers looked to sell off their possessions to shore up extra cash, gross lending reached £128m during the period, up from £105m compared to the same period last year. Its pledge book, which includes short-term loans linked to customers’ belongings, was also up to £130m in June, compared to £85.1m the prior year and £100.7m last December.
“I am very pleased with the progress we have made in the first half of 2023
in an environment of rising interest rates and persistent inflation,” Chris Gillespie, CEO of H&T, said.
“I am particularly encouraged by the growing momentum with which we enter the busy second half of the year. I am looking forward to updating the market when we report on 8 August.”
The pawn industry is a sector that tends to perform well in times of economic downturn as people grow desperate to get extra cash.
H&T also saw a boom in business during the 2008 financial crisis, with the company opening 16 new stores during the year, as reported by the Guardian in 2009.
H&T currently has over 270 sites across the UK.
“Pawnbroker H&T has been doing incredibly well over the past year or so as more people pledge assets as collateral for loans,” Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell said.
“If the economy does fall into recession, one might expect H&T to do even better.”
UK FAMILIES are poised to be gripped by the cost of living crisis for nearly another whole year due to the Bank of England keeping interest rates higher for longer in a bid to vanquish inflation, a new report out today claims.
Household finances will be corroded by rising living costs and elevated rates until at least May 2024, according to calculations by consultancy Retail Economics and accountancy firm Grant Thornton.
Rising insolvencies along with acquisitions have bolstered the firm’s revenues
CHRIS DORRELL
INSOLVENCY specialists Begbies
Traynor yesterday upped its dividend after it saw its pretax profit increase by half in 2023.
Pretax profit climbed to £6m from £4m the year before, ahead of market expectations, leading the firm to up its dividend by nine per
cent on last year to 3.8p. On an adjusted basis, which excluded the cost of acquisitions made during the year, pretax profit climbed to £20.7m from £17.8m.
The firm said it has started the new year in a “strong position” and has good insolvency revenue, driven by the continued increase in insolvency market volumes.
By the time the living standards crunch ends, it will have lasted 19 months, amounting to a cumulative £65bn hit to household budgets, the two organisations said in a report today.
That would mean the typical British family will be £2,300 worse off when the crisis finishes.
So far, wages trailing sky high inflation and higher borrowing costs has swiped £50bn from pay packets, meaning an additional £15bn of pain is to come by next May.
Retail Economics and Grant Thornton’s report reinforces calculations from the Office for National Statistics yesterday that found wages have lagged behind price rises since November 2021.
ALAN JONES
ROYAL MAIL workers have voted overwhelmingly to accept a deal to end a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.
Members of the Communication Workers Union backed the agreement by 75 per cent.
The union said the vote signals the end of the dispute, which saw more than 115,000 workers take 18 days of strike action in the final quarter of last year.
CWU general secretary Dave Ward
said: “This has been the most challenging period in both the history of the union and the company, and I want to thank every single member that has voted in this ballot.
“Our members will know it doesn’t end with today’s result – we all know what is going on in workplaces across the UK and we are going to deal with it.
A company spokesperson said: “The three-year pay deal agreed provides certainty for employees and ensures Royal Mail remains the industry leader on pay, terms and conditions.”
WE ARE a real barometer for the London economy,” Liam Griffin, the boss of Addison Lee, says as we chat in the firms’ Paddington offices.
The private hire taxi firm has been a stalwart of London for nearly 45 years now, ferrying customers through the boom of the early 2000s, the financial crash of 2008 and more recently, the capital’s re-emergence from Covid-19.
Griffin’s view then, is not without merit –demand for Addison Lee’s service reflects movement between London offices, commuting trends, consumer habits and by extension, economic productivity.
It is unfortunate –but will come as little shock to City A.M. regulars –that after a brief introduction, our conversation shifts towards a slump in the company’s fortunes over the last six months and how this is representative of the capital’s economic health.
Demand has “softened since the turn of the year,” Griffin tells me, with an economic slowdown to blame.
“We came out of Covid and it bounced back very quickly, and then you came back from Christmas and all of a sudden it started to stutter a bit.”
According to Griffin, whose customer base is made up of a “large chunk” of cityfolk, a cause of this plateau, both for the City and Addison Lee, is the controversial shift towards hybrid working and a slowdown in ‘late night’ dealmaking.
“There are very few deals going on,” Griffin said, and “less people are in the office on a daily basis.”
“People are much more comfortable with doing online meetings now, so they’re not necessarily driving and taking taxis to do face to face.”
This trend, in his view, “stops growth”. “We’ve got to a bit of a plateau quicker, because there are certain changes in working habits that perhaps have been to the detriment of taxi usage,” he says.
These thoughts aren’t just speculation, Addison Lee has actually seen a huge drop off in late night corporate trips from prospective dealmakers, which used to make up a significant proportion of the firms’ customer base.
“The biggest drop off we’ve seen is in the late night, corporate work, the late evening… The big city firms would have this 10 o’clock option where, if you were still in the office after 10 you could get a free cab home and we used to get massive demand between 10 and 11 and 12.”
doing it”.
“I think that, you know, if you were sitting in the office before, and you’re working until nine o’clock, you might think I’ll do another hour and get a cab home. Whereas now I think people would be looking at it at six o’clock and thinking, well I’m not waiting till 10,” he explains Demand for commuting is still there, he argues: “We still see strong mornings. Still strong lunchtime, still strong evening rush hour… But the bits in between, where everybody was active, going to meetings and moving around
Home working has become one of the most hotly debated topics in the City over the last few years, with the traditional view being that heading into the office results in higher productivity and, ultimately, better results.
HSBC’s recent downsizing from Canary Wharf to the Square Mile represented a big win for the City, but prompted further confidence that the hybrid working movement is here to stay.
Interestingly, Addison Lee’s data reveals pickups from “places like Canary Wharf have been incredibly quiet postpandemic”, with the Isle of Dogs also down “relative to the rest of the market” and the Square Mile, Griffin says. Ultimately though, it is a culmination of problems that have led to the UK’s plateauing post-Covid bounceback –a “perfect storm” of issues, as Griffin describes, which include everything from inflation, City blues, hybrid
ENGLAND cricketer Stuart Broad has admitted he had a “naive” understanding about what it took to run a hospitality business, as he reopens his pub amid a period of soaring bills and red hot inflation.
The 37-year old sports star recently relaunched his pub and restaurant
The Tap and Run in Leicestershire, which he owns along with former teammate Henry Gurney, after it was destroyed in a blaze last year.
“We’re constantly in the hands of interest rates... the bills can kill you in this game,” Broad told City A.M.
In efforts to cut costs, the pair made the decision to switch to electric from gas at The Tap and Run after
they noticed it was less expensive.
“We’ve only been open 10 days and that’s something that we’re really keeping a close eye on for when our first electric bill arrives... because it’d be really interesting to see the difference in costs,” he said.
“If the bills start running away from you, your cash balance soon disappears.”
working and policy.
“I think it’s just, you know, there is a sum of the parts that created, a slightly ‘perfect storm’ moment that is making life very, very difficult. And there’s not one silver bullet that's going to fix all this.”
“It’s gonna take time, and it’s going to take for a few things to unwind, to get back to normality. So I don’t see it solving itself.”
The taxi chief thinks a turnaround in hybrid working trends may be on the horizon though, and remains optimistic for the firms’ future.
“Bear in mind we grew 33 per cent out of Covid. Next year, we’re forecast and we’ll probably go near 15 per cent. So on one hand, it’s a slowdown of growth and on the other hand, most people are perfectly happy with 15 per cent growth, which we are.”
In the coming months, companies will demand a move away from home working as they seek to “get their pound of flesh” from employees, he predicts. “I think, the working from home, hybrid combination, we’re seeing already that companies are starting to realise they need to get their pound of flesh, that it’s okay when everything’s going swimmingly well, but as soon as it becomes more challenging people want staff in the office.
“Over the next 6 to 12 months, you’re going to see the hybrid model becoming less and less.”
It’s okay when everything’s well, but as soon as it gets more challenging people want staff in the office
RIDE-HAILING platform Bolt has relocated its driver hub to a city centre location on the back of racing demand for its taxis.
Bolt told City A.M. that it has relocated the hub from Chiswick to Bermondsey due to soaring passenger demand and increase in drivers, revealing that it now has 100,000 drivers and 9m users signed up on its UK platform – up from 4m in 2021. Bolt, which was first launched in the
UK in 2017, said it had experienced significant growth in London following the launch of a tie-up with the City’s traditional black cabs in April, which saw the iconic vehicles made available on the app.
Debbie Meijer, senior operations manager for Bolt in London, said:
“Bolt’s offering and popularity with drivers and passengers continues to grow from strength-to-strength not only on a global level but also here in London and the UK.”
“Having a place right in the city
LONDON business groups have backed Gatwick’s proposals for a £2.2bn second runway, arguing the expansion plans would be a boon for the capital’s connectivity, jobs and trade.
Last week, the West Sussex hub submitted proposals to the UK Planning Inspectorate to bring its emergency northern runway into routine use, forecasting this would create 14,000 new jobs and pump £1bn into the economy.
Richard Burge, chief executive of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), told City A.M. that the group “fully supports” Gatwick’s proposals.
“As air travel demand continues to increase and with passenger traffic returning to pre-Covid levels, the additional runway would maximise job and economic opportunities,” Burge said.
The London business chief added that “London businesses would benefit from Gatwick’s enhanced resilience, which
helps sustain the all-important flow of visitors to the UK, and the trade flows through logistics operations, on which London and the rest of the British economy operates.”
Gatwick CEO Stewart Wingate told City A.M. last week that the plans would increase its capacity and allow it to muscle in on Heathrow’s dominance in the long-haul flight market.
The plans come as other airports, including Heathrow, City Airport, London Stansted and Luton, are all plotting infrastructure or capacity expansions of their own, signalling a remarkable revival in fortune from the lows of the pandemic.
“Smart investments from the private sector, such as Gatwick Airport bringing their second runway into routine use, should be seized with both hands,” BusinessLDN, a nonprofit group who represent London businesses, said in a statement today.
“We must also be honest about the fact that there is no economic future for the UK that doesn’t rely on being connected to the global economy, and that requires having enough runway capacity available.”
centre where prospective and current drivers can easily check in made complete sense. We’re looking forward to welcoming them at our new hub,” Meijer added.
The announcement comes hot on the heels of the firm’s appointment of CFO Mikko Salovaara last week, who has been brought in to guide the firm as it preps the ground for an IPO in 2025. Despite the growth, the app still remains well behind rival Uber in user numbers.
Bolt said it has grown in London following its tie-up with black cabs in April
HEATHROW Airport reported 7m passengers passed through the hub last month, a massive uptick on last year but still 200,000 behind pre-pandemic levels. While the figure falls short of the equivalent month pre-pandemic, it marks a 17.5 per cent year-onyear rise. Transatlantic travel was cited for the boost, with the airport saying it now runs more UK-US daily flights than ever before.
HELEN WILLIAM
BUDGET airline Ryanair has resigned from the UK Aviation Council and branded it as a “talking shop” which does not deliver benefits or reform for the sector or passengers.
Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary accused the organisation, led by Baroness Vere, of being “useless and
ineffective” on a range of issues in recent months.
The council was set up to bring industry and Government together to help the UK retain its spot as one of the world’s strongest aviation sectors.
Mr O’Leary, who said the resignation is with immediate effect, said: “If Baroness Vere wants to deliver change or improve UK aviation, then
she should disband this useless council and work instead with the UK’s major airlines to deliver real and effective change, which will enable us to improve capacity and lower air fares for UK citizens and visitors.
“Instead, Baroness Vere prefers to waste her time, and ours, holding a quarterly talking shop, at which she promises action, but delivers none.”
Chris Wysopal smiles warmly and speaks fast. You could easily mistake him for a friendly, slightly nerdy dad. You certainly wouldn’t think he was one of the most famous hackers of the ‘90s. You wouldn’t imagine he stood up in front of the US Senate and said he could shut down the Internet in 30 minutes.
Wysopal grew up in bustling Boston, where he found food for his curious mind in the form of a rising interest in computers and hacking. A young, techsavvy man, he started joining monthly meet-ups of the independent magazine “Hacker Quarterly”. After a year of coming to these meetings, he found his people.
Before L0pht, the haacking collective, came into existence, two of their number were simply looking for a space they could store their computers - and a place to meet that wasn’t the local pizza shop. This was the 90s; computers weren’t skinny, shiny things, they were hulking pieces of technology. The end result was an odd mish-mash of milliners and hacker vigilantes.
It all started from there: young friends trying to be smarter than the big guys. Soon enough, one of them came up with the idea to hack Microsoft - then a tech behemoth with few competitors. Apple, Meta, and Google were still in their infancy.
It was almost a game: Wysopal and his friends simply wanted to see how vulnerable Microsoft was to different hacking techniques. “You could figure out ways to take over that software, compromise it, come up with these vulnerabilities and exploit it”, he says. Unlike most modern day fraudsters, they were more like cyber vigilantes, and once they got underneath the hood, they reached out to Microsoft to tell them where they were exposed. Wysopal insists they weren’t the
“bad guys” and never used the information they found for personal or commercial gain. Part of it was tech voyeurism, a mix of camaraderie and bravado. “I’ll admit it, as a young person it’s kind of fun to go against the bad guy”, he says. The L0pht used to call it “pulling their pants down”.
Thankfully, these guys who thought themselves so clever were also conscious of how serious the problem was. Wysopal was worried if he could hack into Microsoft, bad actors could as well, and believed it was the tech companies’ responsibility to develop safe software.
And that’s how the seven of them ended up testifying in front of the Senate 25 years ago. No hacker before had been in front of the Senate. Pictures from the time show the L0pht members in suits, sitting with their hackers’ names written on plaques in front
of them. They didn’t use their real names for fear of repercussions; Wysopal was “Weld Pond”.
“They wanted to get our viewpoint, which I found was a huge turning point in how governments and busi-
nesses thought about cybersecurity”, says Wysopal. They told the Senate the only way to secure governments and companies on the Internet was to “use offensive, adversarial techniques on yourself”. In the same way car companies do dummy car crash tests, so should governments and companies attack themselves to spot their vulnerabilities. If you don’t, someone else will, the hackers told the Senate. Fast forward 25 years, and some of this has finally made it into the mainstream. We now call it “secure by design”: it means companies aim to release software that’s been tested for its safety before it’s released, rather than after. This model is central to new laws, set to come in next year, which govern safety of all consumer products connected to the Interneteverything from your Peloton bike to your iPhone. The government hopes
everything which uses an Internet connection will be “secure by design” in the next five to ten years. “I just wish it happened five or ten years ago”, says Wysopal.
He tries to be optimistic, saying we’ve learnt a lot in the past 25 years, but you can tell he doesn’t fully mean it. He has the resigned look of a Messiah who was only partially listened to.
It’s complicated: when it comes to governments, there are “haves and have-nots”. Cyber security is expensive and not every country can afford to invest in it. But even within governments, most of the funding goes to protecting the military or intelligence offices. Hospitals or schools get less funding, and that’s how hackers get in: through MRI machines connected to the Internet, or through schools’ software. The infamous “WannaCry” attack on the NHS in 2017 left 50 health trusts exposed. More recently in May, two of the major hospitals in Milan were attacked and had to switch to paper-only data sharing for days.
Wysopal is not a hacker anymore; he calls himself a “vulnerability researcher” and has founded a company, Veracode, which automates what he was doing back in the ‘90s. “We make the software that tests the software that Microsoft or eBay or other companies are making”, he explains with his grown-up/good-guy hat on.
If predictions are true, some of us will have around 25 devices connected to the Internet in our homes in the next 5 years. We’ll need a lot of people like Wysopal who can guide governments and companies in the right direction. When I point that out, he smiles humbly and says the zenith of security will be reached when these people are not needed anymore.
Part of Wysopal’s motivation was a kind of tech voyeurism as well as both camaraderie and bravadoIn 1998, Chris Wysopal admitted to the US Senate he could shut down the Internet in 30 minutes.
LONDON’s FTSE 100 crept higher yesterday as another set of hotterthan-feared wage numbers pushed pound sterling to its highest level in 15 months.
The capital’s premier index nipped 0.12 per cent higher to 7,282.51 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, climbed 0.62 per cent to 18,140.09 points.
Investors were tepidly dipping their toes in the UK stock market yesterday as they digested fresh Office for National Statistics data that signalled the inflation fight is far from being won.
Wages over the three months to May on an annual basis in the UK leapt 7.3 per cent, the joint highest acceleration on record and above the City’s expectation of a 7.1 per cent increase.
Rampant pay growth is raising the risk of inflation – stuck at 8.7 per cent – staying higher for longer, potentially forcing the Bank into another big rate increase next month.
“The previous 50 basis point hike by the BoE [in June] was the recession hike and now it needs to follow that up with another jumbo hike,” Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Finalto, said.
Markets now think there is an around 70 per cent chance the Bank will vote for a 50 basis point increase on 3 August, which would lift borrowing costs to 5.5 per cent. Analysts think the peak could be around 6.5 per cent.
There was little in the way of price action in the City yesterday.
Asia-exposed shares led the FTSE 100 lower, with HSBC, Standard Chartered and Prudential all finishing the day near to the bottom of the index.
Peel Hunt analysts have rated Forterra a ‘buy’, despite lagging demand for the UK manufacturer leading to forecasts coming in “sharply lower” than desired. However, the group is making cost-cutting moves which are estimated to slash costs by £3m.
“UK markets continued business in typically subdued mood yesterday, with labour market figures providing something of a mixed bag... The weakening outlook, despite some surprisingly robust data at times, has weighed on sentiment and has led to the FTSE 250 having now lost four per cent so far this year.”
MICHAEL HEWSON, CMC MARKETSAnalysts at Peel Hunt have rated British Land a ‘buy’ after it showed “good operational performance” with over 550,000 sq ft of space let in its last quarter, with another 1.2m sq ft for offer across its portfolio. Viewings are on the up and its venture into life sciences appears to be gaining momentum.
Powerful real-time thought leadership, insights and news delivery mechanism fuelling the most up-to date reporting, adding critical context for decisions that require consciousness, education and thought leadership.
IF THIS is supposed to be the age of giant technology entrepreneurs, how very small they look. In recent weeks, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have been publicly and pathetically measuring themselves against the other. Both have come up short.
It all began, ludicrously, with the sight of these two overgrown boys declaring they would fight each other in a cage. Zuckerberg has recently been attempting to transform from high-school nerd to frat-house bro. If you care to see some evidence, witness his transformation photo, recently posted to his Instagram account: from the neck down, he is all muscle. Alas, the effort seems to have drained everything above. All that is left is a gawping mouth and a rigid, dead-eyed stare. At least Musk had humour enough to admit his only known form of exercise is lifting one of his many children.
This was just the prelude. Once they stopped fighting on social media, they started fighting about it instead. Last week, Zuckerberg’s Meta launched a new social media platform that bears a striking resemblance to Twitter, currently owned and mismanaged by Musk.
‘Threads’, Zuckerberg’s new plat-
form, has already drawn over 100 million users, though what it intends to add to the sum of human happiness is unclear. Zuckerberg has claimed he plans to make his social network more “friendly” than Twitter. It should be noted that this comes from a man who launched his first social network in order to rank the attractiveness of women in his university. These two men - who are of undoubted talent - are wasting their time competing to create something that will only waste yet more of ours.
There was a time when spats between entrepreneurs meant more
than this. When Elon Musk founded Tesla, he looked backwards in order to look forward, naming his company in honour of Nikola Tesla, the visionary Serbian-American inventor of the late nineteenth and early 20th century.
If Tesla is not universally hailed as the greatest inventor of his age, it is only because he was locked in his own bitter rivalry – engaged in a long-running patent-race with Thomas Edison, his former employer.
To see how spats are really fought, Zuckerberg and Musk could cast their minds to the great “war of the cur-
rents” played out between these two. In the 1880s, the race was on to provide electric lighting to America. Edison had the initial advantage: his “direct current” technology was already inside people’s homes. Tesla’s new “alternating current” – newer and more powerful, but also less easily controlled – now lit their streets. In some ways, their fight was far dirtier than Musk and Zuckerberg’s today. Threatened by his new competitor, there was no low that Edison would not stoop to. He sent long pamphlets to newspaper editors, setting out the dangers of his rival’s technol-
WORKING from home is a phenomenon we still associate with the pandemic. Some companies are trying to reverse its growth and get more people back into the office, but the debate about productivity has failed, so far, to yield conclusive results.
A fascinating and timely Stanford research paper, entitled “The evolution of working from home”, provides both a wider picture and some powerful insights. The authors, Nick Bloom of the Stanford economics department and Steven Davies of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, are distinguished scholars.
The opening sentence tells an important story: “Working from home has been rising in the US for many decades, driven by the continuing improvements in technology that enables remote working”.
In the 1960s, only 0.4 per cent of full paid days in America were done from home, basically in craft-based activities. By the 1990s, this had more than
Paul Ormeroddoubled to 1 per cent, driven by the spread of the personal computer. In the mid-2010s, the technology has improved and this percentage quadrupled, to 4 per cent.
So even before the pandemic, the data show a rapidly rising trend. The percentage working from home, whilst still small, doubled in three decades and quadrupled in just two. This type of growth is associated with technologies which are now ubiquitous across the world.
Sure, there was a massive surge in the percentage of days worked from home when the pandemic first struck. Many who couldn’t work remotely, simply didn’t work. Bloom and Davies
show, using two independent data sources, that by the summer of 2023 this has stabilised at around 25 per cent.
This was of course facilitated by improvements in technology which already existed. For example, video-call software like Teams and Zoom, cloud file-sharing packages such as Dropbox, and connectivity software like Gmail and Slack.
The authors note that, whilst obtaining high quality data across many countries is challenging, Northern Europe has shown a similar pattern to the US. They identify three groups of workers. The largest, which tends to be lower paid, cannot do their jobs from home. Hybrid workers are about 30 per cent of the workforce, and the smallest is those who work completely from home.
Fully remote work is associated with a productivity level between 10 and 20 per cent below fully in-person work. But with hybrid working, it is hard to identify any difference at all, although if anything it is very slightly positive.
Survey data shows that employees value the ability to work from home two or three days a week as being worth on average 8 per cent of their salary. Intriguingly, Bloom and Davies present evidence that this is being translated into actual pay. Many more graduates work from home than nongraduates, and overall graduate pay in the US relative to non-graduates has fallen by about 10 per cent since the start of the pandemic.
Like it or not, working from home is a phenomenon which is not just here to stay, but the actual quantity of work which can be done from home will rise. This prediction is based, in part, on growth before the pandemic, but also the speed at which technology has accelerated. In many ways, the pandemic compressed the growth over a decade or slightly more into the space of a couple of years. In the 2030s, up to 40 per cent of all working days will be done from home.
£ Paul Ormerod is an author and economist at Volterra Partners LLP
ogy. To convince the public of his cause, his firm publicly electrocuted animals with an alternating current, killing them in front of watching crowds. Perhaps most deviously of all, he even conspired to ensure that it was Tesla’s technology that powered the first ever electric chair.
While the tricks were certainly dirty, however, the goals they served were lofty. The turn of the twentieth-century was, as the title of a recent fictionalised version of the feud put it, The Last Days of the Night. Mark Zuckerberg should need little reminding of that. Asked to name his “book of the summer” four years ago, it was the novel he chose.
Zuckerberg and Musk clearly see themselves as successors to that great entrepreneurial age. The two men are indeed impressive. From nothing, Zuckerberg built a business that was recently valued at over $1tn. That is more than the gross domestic product of all but 17 countries in the world. Musk, meanwhile, has built companies that have transformed industries, not least the electric car company that bears his forebear’s name and the satellite system that has allowed Ukranians to fight on.
Competition is the vital lifeblood of progress. Individuals - per Thomas Carlyle’s “great man theory”, which argued that great leaders are born, not made - can indeed shape the world. But when they engage in petty squabbles and devote their time and resources to foolish projects, they bring us no closer to the light.
£Josh Williams is deputy director of Labour Together
Liz Truss, the infamous former prime minister, will today throw her support behind 13 ‘procompetition’ economists as part of a project to rehabilitate her reputation as the politician who crashed the economy. At least she skipped Matt Hancock’s reality TV route.
[Re: AI could save 100 hours a year: new data, July 5]
As a founder, I’ve experienced, first hand, the power of AI in building our precision activation engine for marketers. Only by harnessing the power of AI can we reap its benefits, such as increased productivity. But I also understand the worries for business owners.
The impact of technology has long been a cause for concern. From Karl Marx’s belief that industrialisation would be a threat to the traditional way of life, to Jacques Ellul’s argument that technology was leading the
dehumanisation of society, advancements in technology have always been criticised. These worries are really no different to the fears many have about AI today, so I welcome this report in establishing the fact that AI is the future of work and productivity. Yes, AI will lead to jobs being lost but a whole new set of roles will be created that can propel businesses and the economy forward. With careful development and responsible use, AI can be a force for good, creating new opportunities and solutions to some of the world's most pressing problems. Ultimately, as Ellul said, “the machine is only a tool. It is up to us to decide how to use it”.
Ahad Al Khatib Qudo
THE DAYS when private equity and venture capital were a niche factor in the UK economy are long gone. The UK’s battle to return to strong growth, rising incomes and economic stability will depend on business investment. Private capital is at the heart of that.
It is no surprise then that on Monday the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, used his Mansion House speech to announce reforms which will see more UK pension savings invested in private capital.
The UK has the largest pension market in Europe, worth over £2.5tn. Unlocking just a fraction of that to invest in private capital is good for pension savers, businesses and the economy.
Our research has found that in the last year pension funds from outside the UK invested 16 times more in British private capital than pension funds based here. Retirees in Ontario and California are reaping the benefits of investing in British businesses. The
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was ‘absurd’ that Nato would not lay out a timeline for Kyiv to join the defence alliance. Jens Stoltenberg, the group’s secretary general, said there was a ‘united’ attitude among allies.
Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden met in London on Monday to consolidate what the US president described as a “rock solid relationship”. So our prime minister might have felt a bit betrayed yesterday when he discovered Labour was also soothing our friends across the pond.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, Labour’s shadow trade secretary, was in Washington DC to meet up with Katherine Tai, the US trade representative. He
will later this week meet with business leaders in New York City to plead for a future trade deal on digital services if Labour comes to power at the next general election. That Labour is seriously preparing for government is no news. But Thomas-Symond’s trip to the US signals an even stronger commitment to build ties on the international stage, and to prove the credibility of a Labour government even before it actually comes into existence.
Chancellor is right to push for UK retirees to get the same.
The private capital industry in the UK has continuously outperformed the public markets. As of last year, the sector provided a return of 17 per cent per year - well above the returns generated in public markets like the FTSE 250. These returns inform the Chancellor’s claim that his reforms could boost a typical pension by over £1000 per year. It is welcome news for savers.
The reforms will also provide a muchneeded boost to British business and productivity. Our nation is the birthplace of some of the world’s most innovative start-ups. We are leaders in biotech, fintech and AI, and the startups which drive those innovations need investors and backing.
But there are few funds large enough in the UK to lead on the larger deals when it comes to later-stage venture capital funding and growth private equity. Unable to find the capital they need here, businesses go elsewhere –across the Atlantic in particular. As a result, the UK is losing talent, intellectual property, and the economic champions of the future. Ensuring more of them stay here should be a priority. The Mansion House reforms will help do that. However, as welcome as the reforms are, this must be the start, not the end, of a process. Many of these measures will only begin to be felt in a few years, maybe more. The Chancellor should seize the momentum over the coming months and go further.
The UK remains a massive outlier with a very fragmented market - there are 28,000 defined contribution pension schemes. To get real scale in our pension system these reforms can only be the start.
The success of Australian and Canadian pension schemes is frequently at-
tributed to size, which in turn, bring economies of scale. This allows them to provide better value for money and ultimately achieve better retirement outcomes for savers. The chancellor’s commitment to getting to a similar model was clear at Mansion House.
The UK has one of the largest pensions markets in the world and yet years of fragmentation, of short-sighted focus on costs over net returns, and well-intentioned risk-aversion means that overseas pensions invest considerably more in British venture capital and private equity than homegrown funds. We should be radical in giving schemes the freedom and the tools to build properly diversified, global investment portfolios.
If the UK is to become world-class not just at creating knowledge-intensive companies but also at scaling them up, this must be the start, not the end of reform.
£ Michael Moore is chief executive of British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association
Hunt is right
There are few funds large enough in the UK when it comes to later-stage venture capital
AFRIENDonce overheard someone in a supermarket asking about a bottle of sparking wine and getting the dismissive reply “that’s cava, it’s like prosecco but not as good”.
This makes the wine lover in me wince. It is a misguided hangover from the dark years when Cava was mass produced for a cheaper market but bears no relation to the wine coming out of Spain today.
Rules and regulations have increased to make sure Cava at all price points and premium products created with care and patience. Cava is also made in an entirely different way to Prosecco. It follows the Traditional Method, like Champagne and Cap Classique, a more time consuming and expensive way of creating sparkling wine.
“In the last 30 years there has been an exponential increase in the quality of Spanish viticulture and oenology in general,” says Bruno Colomer, head winemaker of Codorniu, one of the most recognisable and widely available Cavas in the UK.
“We have universities that did not exist years ago and the sector has become more professional. Talent is created in our country and the exchange between universities and wine-growing areas in other countries is immense.
“Cava is no exception, and the DO legislation is evolving to give importance to the different origins and types of ageing, while at the same time supporting organic and sustainable viticulture. As a result, the quality attributes of each of the bottles are increasing, with the consequent in-
PERE VENTURA BRUT GRAN RESERVA CAVA 2015
£37.50
GREAT WINE COMPANY
The crème de la crème of premium Cava in a stunningly bling bottle.
A blend of Spain’s Xarel-lo and Champagne’s Chardonnay, this wine sparkles with sophistication and the fine, velvety bubbles ensure satisfaction is guaranteed.
Brodie
SEGURA VIUDAS
PREMIUM CAVA BRUT
£12 TESCO
Proving you don’t have to spend the big bucks to drink premium wine, this is a delicate cava of white blossom, orchard fruits and just a whisper of vanilla. The bubbles are soft, which makes for pleasant drinking.
MESTRES COQUET BRUT NATURE GRAN RESERVA 2018 £22
THE WINE SOCIETY
For those looking for a low sugar option, this Brut Nature Vintage Cava is bone dry but ages for an incredible 42 months on the lees, giving it a fine, biscuity elegance and beautifully balanced texture. Excellent quality from the Society once again.
M&S CAVA PRESTIGE ROSADO
£10 MARKS AND SPENCERS
The sunshine makes us all want to drink pink, and this cheerful bottle with its youthful effervescence is bursting with vibrant strawberries, raspberries and hints of brioche. A delicious aperitif in the sun.
crease in quality”.
In their recent report it was noted that total sales for the year had increased by 4.58 per cent to 249,135m bottles, of which 69 per cent were exported internationally, with a strong case for this growth to continue.
Describing it as “The Mediterranean joie de vivre delivered worldwide”, Colomer says that Cava “is a super gastronomic partner, and the perfect match for any occasion according to the different ageing”.
To tell the wine’s aging process there is a small, coloured label, called a “marchamo” on each bottle. ‘Cava de Guarda’, with a minimum of nine months aging, has a green label and will be the freshest and most youthful.
The ‘Reserva’ is silver showing a minimum of 18 months and the gold ‘Gran Reserva’ denotes 30 months on the lees. The pinnacle of luxury Cava however is ‘Cava de Paraje Calificado’ with a hefty minimum of 36 months aging and a host of regulations to keep it premium. If you like your champagnes with those toasty, nutty notes then track this down. For the cork dorks out there, check for a fourpointed star in the cork itself, a sacred symbol of harmony, this is a mark of Cava DO authenticity.
When pairing it is easy to think of Spanish tapas, wafers of Jamon and wedges of Manchego, but the versatility of Cava makes it a fantastic foodie wine. Try them crisp and young with fish and seafood, or more aged wines with roasted meats and grilled vegetables. A rosé or rosado makes for the perfect accompaniment for tricky to pair fruit and chocolate dishes too. Happy International Cava Day!
ROGER GOULART GRAN RESERVA CAVA 2017
£20 WHOLEFOODS
Fabulous bright bubbles make this vintage wine, with its seductively long bottle aging, fresh and inviting with gorgeous notes of lemon shortbread, harmonious ripe fruits and white blossoms. Chill it down and enjoy with seafood or roast chicken.
Having worked in some of the best restaurants in France and the UK, sommelier and wine buyer Roxane Dupuy is one of London’s most hotly-tipped wine experts. Now at Mayfair’s The Twenty Two, she tells Libby about her wine world.
WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO WINE?
My family weren’t fine wine drinkers, more bag-in-box in France. I trained as a chef and in my second year at culinary school we did a blind wine tasting. I was served a
Gewurztraminer that smelled like roses, lychees and soft spices. It was the first time I fell in love. So I retrained as a Sommelier and got an apprenticeship at a 3 Michelin star restaurant in Marseille, Le Petit Nice.
SO WHY LONDON?
I met one of my now best friends during a wine competition and he told me how dynamic the city was for wine, with so many wines, tastings, and a whole sommelier network. So I got a job at Sketch.
WHAT IS GREAT ABOUT
THE TWENTY TWO?
For me, it is very free. Not many places give you the support and trust to work like this. My team is my family and there’s real loyalty here. For the customer, we are French and trendy, open minded and arty, we embrace the extravagant and the introvert. Everyone is welcome, it is an extension of your
own living room. We’re celebrating the good weather right now with a weekend lunch showcasing a rosé we truly believe in, Rumor, and our fantastic food. There’s a DJ set that brings a vibe and gets your shoulders moving. It’s easy-going and trendy.
Carpe Diem!
WHAT ARE YOU DRINKING?
Extracted, complex rosés like Parisy by Chateau Rayas, and I’m loving Italian native grapes. Forastera Cenatiempo –it’s so versatile, with citrus fruits and lemon blossom.
FAVOURITE WINE BAR?
Comptoir. Affordable vintages, good price points, and the fortified wine selection is great.
FAVOURITE RESTAURANT?
Andrew Edmunds on Lexington St in Soho, especially during game season. Good food and a great, varied wine list.
FAVOURITE SPOT FOR A LATE NIGHT DRINK?
Blackbook. You see everyone there –on a Saturday night you can find all the sommeliers of London!
It’ll come as no surprise that seafood is a real passion of mine –the British and Irish shores are home to some of the best seafood in the world so any chance I get to use it, either at Bentley’s Oyster Bar & Grill or at home, then I will. This recipe is for a “proper” shellfish cocktail using the very best crab, prawns, lobster tails and brown shrimps you can get your hands on. Go to your local fishmonger if you can – they need our support and the quality will be infinitely better than you get in a supermarket. It’s a showstopper of a starter, or even an extravagant lunch, perfect for the warmer weather and ideal for any seafood lover. It’s quite possibly my favourite thing to eat. Even better, you can prepare everything ahead of time so if you’re doing a dinner party or serving it at a BBQ, you just need to plate up a few minutes before serving. Top tip: be generous with the Tabasco in the cocktail sauce.
INGREDIENTS (SERVES 4-6)
£ A mixture of seafood: picked white crab meat; Dublin Bay prawns; Atlantic prawns, the pink ones; cooked lobster tails; brown shrimps, peeled
£ A squeeze of lemon juice
£ 2 baby gem lettuce
£ 1 small cucumber, peeled, deseeded and diced
£ Mayonnaise removed
£ Tomato ketchup
£ A splash of brandy
£ A dash of Tabasco sauce
£ A pinch of paprika
£ A squeeze of lemon juice
METHOD
£ The quantities of seafood you use are up to you: just try to get a good mix of everything. How much sauce you make is really up to you, too. Keep tasting it, and adjust it until it makes you smile. The food writer Simon Hopkinson had a nice idea of mixing a little cottage cheese into a cocktail sauce; it lightens it up a bit and makes it less cloying.
£ Mix together all the ingredients for the sauce.
£ Take four old-fashioned cocktail glasses.
£ Season all the seafood with a little extra virgin olive oil, salt and a drop of lemon juice.
£ To assemble, put some lettuce and cucumber at the bottom of the glass, which will give a lovely crunch, then layer up your seafood, put a dollop of sauce on top and let people mix everything up, or keep everything separate, as they choose.
£ To book at Bentley's Oyster Bar & Grill go to bentleys.org, call 020 7734 4756 or visit 11-15 Swallow St, W1B 4DG
Much has been made of the creeping corporatisation of Soho, with independent bars and restaurants attempting –and often failing –to hold back the tide of chains hoping to capitalise on London’s most debauched district. Nessa, a new modern British bistro headed up by highly-rated chef Tom Cenci, shows there’s still a place for restaurants that genuinely care –and even for ones that won’t leave you nursing a broken bank account the morning after.
Nestled at the more unloved Piccadilly end of Soho, Nessa is a vast, airy, unassumingly stylish all-day dining room. An alumni of Duck & Waffle, Cenci borrows some of that ‘trashy-comfortfood-meets-serious-gastronomy’ pizzazz but executes it far better. Case in point: the curried egg mayo crumpet, which is an outstandingly decadent creation, slathered in mayo and topped with curry leaves and slices of fresh chilli. The mushroom ravioli is expertly crafted, while small plates including croquettes and black pudding brioche really grab you by the lapels and give you a good shake. Subtle it ain’t, but this is Soho, after all.
£ To book go to nessasoho.com
KOYA
Koya is the best execution of udon in London and their tempura is exceptional. I also love their tea selection, which pairs nicely with the menu - not to mention the seasonal pickles, which are intense and pack a real punch. It’s a great casual option, and their Soho restaurant is walkin only, so it’s a gastronomic journey you can take in the middle of a busy day. Of the three Koyas in London, Soho is definitely my favourite as it feels like an institution –homely, warm and full of character.
BRAT
Brat is one of my top restaurants in London, one that I visit every couple of months. It’s got an excellent selection of fish dishes, and as someone from a coastal city (Izmir), this is a big draw for me. My culinary journey has been closely tied to the Basque region, which I’ve visited a lot over the years for research and inspiration, and Brat is one of the best showcases of Basque cooking on British soil. My favourite dishes include kokotxas (traditional fish stew), and turbot with Txakoli.
SABOR
Similar to Brat and its representation of Basque cooking, I love the way Sabor represents the best of the Catalan region. The croquettas are a must-try, and the counter seating downstairs makes for an excellent experience. It’s great to be in the heart of the action overlooking the kitchen –this is a conscious decision we’ve made at my restaurant, which is called The Counter! I’d recommend their daily seafood specials, and trying out the fantastic selection of vermouths.
Chef Johnny Lake is a legend –his use of ingredients is genius and his approach to achieving umami is really interesting. For me, what makes Trivet so special is its down to earth atmosphere despite the wealth of expertise across the whole team. This translates into the menu where you’ll find unexpected things like french fries that seem incongruous with fine dining but is what are often missing from highly acclaimed restaurants. The way Isa Bal chooses his wines is also unique –it seems like a totally spontaneous choice, but in reality is very carefully considered.
BRAWN
The Brawn team are really skilled at creating umami flavours, with a particular strength being their savoury sauces. Two highlights for me have been an asparagus dish with sour cream sauce, and a fish dish with a mussel sauce, which both created a nice layering of flavours. The produce is also incredibly fresh and I feel this every time I visit (every two months). My favourite drink here is their negroni, but there’s also an excellent wine selection. The atmosphere is worth a mention, and I always feel like I’m dining at a busy French bistro.
BANK on Francis Lui to be proclaimed top trainer at Happy Valley when the city track closes the curtain for its final time this season with a nine-race midweek programme.
Lui arrives at the Valley with a one winner advantage over reigning ‘King of the Valley’ Caspar Fownes, but looks to have enough firepower from his handful of fancied raiders to extended that lead by the end of the day’s action.
To say Lui has been in red-hot form recently is an understatement. The 64year-old handler has visited the winners’ circle nine times in the past month from just 35 runners, and surpassed his previous personal best total
of 63 victories, set in the 2019/20 season, when delivering a four-timer at Sha Tin last Sunday.
You can guarantee that Fownes won’t give up his title without a fight, but the former four-time HK champion trainer has found it tough going in recent times, with just three wins from his last 56 runners, and no stand-out performers at the city venue.
Lui should get the ball rolling when he saddles progressive sprinter JOY COMING in the Fast Most Furious Handicap (12.45pm) over six furlongs.
The son of Sooboog has improved in each of his five runs in the territory, and recently chased home potentially smart Denfield over the course and
distance at the end of last month. A reproduction of that form would make him hard to beat.
His opposition includes hat-trick seeking Flaming Passion, who has a hefty seven-pound penalty to overcome, and well-treated Wind Speeder, with record-breaking rider Zac Purton an eye-catching booking. The five-year-old, who won at this time of the year last season, now finds himself racing off a four-pound lower mark, and looked to be returning to form again, judging by an encouraging effort on his last start.
Lui should be on the scorecard again when he saddles potentially useful middle-distance performer HAMERON
in the Let Me Fight Handicap (2.45pm) over nine furlongs.
The son of Night of Thunder cost a hefty 575,000 guineas at the Tattersalls Sales as a two-year-old, before being transferred to start a career in Australia, where he won three times f or trainer Chris Waller, including a victory over an extended 10 furlongs.
Since arriving in Hong Kong in January, Lui has slowly brought the five-yearold to his peak. He started his career over an inadequate six furlongs in April, and has since been gradually upped in trip, most recently when seen finishing strongly in a fast run extended mile contest at the Valley last month. This five-year-old clearly has loads
of ability, and is capable of winning off his present mark, with the step up in distance likely to bring about further improvement.
With the majority of his rivals firmly in the grip of the handicapper, and last start winners S J Tourbillon and Young Brilliant facing stiff tasks carrying penalties, it will be disappointing if Hameron doesn’t record his first win in Hong Kong.
Joy Coming 12.45pm Happy Valley Hameron 2.45pm Happy Valley
SIX-TIME champion jockey Zac Purton may have quietly celebrated his record-breaking eclipse of Joao Moreira’s 170 seasonal winner total on Sunday evening, but don’t expect the Zac-Man to rest on his laurels before the season closes.
As Purton admitted when interviewed during the action over the weekend, he has been ducking and diving with owners and trainers
over the past month, and upsetting a few along the way, to get himself booked on potential winners before the season closes.
He probably partners the standout performer at today’s Happy Valley meeting, when he resumes his association with speedy sprinter Seasons Wit in the Lucky Patch Handicap (3.15pm) over five furlongs.
The three-year-old had Purton
looking at the big screen in the closing stages for non-existent dangers, when winning over the track and distance last month, and a seven-pound penalty should not stop him winning again.
The slight worry, however, is the form of trainer Jamie Richards’ stable, who are on a losing sequence of 42, and with his odds guaranteed to be short, it may be best to look elsewhere.
UNDER THE LIGHTS WITH 9 RACES
For anyone looking for an attractive outsider, bear in mind the Douglas Whyte-trained EQUALETTA BLITZ
The two-time course and distance winner may have plenty to find with Seasons Wit on their latest form, but is eight pounds better off at the weights with his rival, and more importantly did spread eagle opposition when winning from a three-pound higher mark last season.
With track-side watchers impressed by his present condition – his body weight is close to his last victory – and gallop reports good, he is capable of making the frame at attractive odds, if granted some luck during his journey.
Equaletta Blitz e/w 3.15pm Happy Valley
AFORMERLeyton Orient, Scarborough and Cardiff City manager may seem an unlikely figure to be at the forefront of football’s data wars, but a landmark announcement in the Netherlands this week can be traced back to Russell Slade.
Fifpro, the international union for professional footballers, on Tuesday announced the creation of a new database for players to manage their personal information, which is being captured on a greater scale than ever before and accelerating rapidly with the progress of AI.
It came four years after Slade, 62, triggered wider debate within the industry by founding the Global Sports Data and Technology Group and launching Project Red Card, the first steps in a possible legal battle over the handling and exploitation of player
data. Fifpro says its “player-centric” platform is the first of its kind in the game and will allow footballers “to protect, manage and control their data through a universal database”.
“Data collection, access and use often remains hidden and inaccessible to players, despite their rights under privacy laws,” it added.
“Under the leadership and initiative of Fifpro and its 66 member unions the development of a centralized player data management platform will address the need of players to control the use, application, and exploitation of their data in the workplace or outside.”
Volumetric tracking will capture 8m
data points per player, per game at this summer’s Women’s World Cup, as it did at the men’s tournament last year in Qatar, says Fifpro. It says that millions more data points are collected in club competitions, training and even in players’ private lives.
The platform is designed to give footballers greater oversight of their data by creating a central home for all metrics collected across what can be itinerant careers in a fragmented industry. It has implications for performance management but also for employment and commercial matters; contract negotiations are increasingly conducted
with reference to data.
It is also designed to ensure there is adequate data protection, one of the concerns raised by Slade and Project Red Card. But the extent to which data already in the public domain can be safeguarded is far from straightforward, says Jon Baines, a senior data protection specialist at law firm Mishcon de Reya.
MORE CONTROL
“Information about an identifiable player is their ‘personal data’ under UK and EU
data protection law, and this gives certain rights to those players, and imposes various obligations on those who wish to use it,” said Baines.
“The Fifpro data platform may now have the potential to give players, or those who directly represent them, more control over the collection and commercial use of their own data.
“This may not, however, end the legal debates about such data use: questions may still arise about whether, for instance, performance data which is available in the public domain can realistically be protected from use by others, and it is possible that disputes in other areas of law (such as competition and intellectual property) may instead emerge.”
FEW WOULD have argued that, when England lost the only Women’s Ashes Test of the series to Australia, the urn would not likely return Down Under with the tourists.
When Australia won the first of three Twenty20 matches in Birmingham to go 6-0 up in the series, needing just eight points in total to retain the urn, it was looking even more inevitable. But then England woke up, and won two consecutive T20 matches against the Southern Stars to leave the series poised at 6-4 ahead of three crucial One-Day Internationals (ODIs), which start on Wednesday.
Three ODIs will decide the Ashes, with England’s women needing to get five out of the six remaining points on offer – two wins and a draw at a minimum – to reclaim the Ashes.
The two sides get underway today at 1pm in Bristol before matches on Sunday in Southampton and next Tuesday in Taunton.
Tammy Beaumont has returned to the side having scored a record 208 in the Test but having sat out of the T20 matches.
Lauren Filer is back, too, while there could be a first Ashes appearance this week for Issy Wong – who lit up the Indian Women’s Premier League earlier this year.
“We’re pleased to welcome Tammy and Lauren back,” said head coach Jon Lewis.
“Tammy showed her quality during the Test match with her double-hundred while Lauren offers us real pace in our bowling alongside Issy.
“We were delighted with our T20 series win and look forward to the next stage of the Ashes with everything to play for.”
The 2-1 T20 defeat was the first series loss for Australia in any series since 2017 and represented a crucial win for England in their bid for a comeback.
Many suggested they clinched defeat out of the jaws of victory during the solitary Test and those individuals are right; it could have been a steady run chase towards an achievable total. Alas, it wasn’t to be and they lost by 89 runs.
But since thrust into a must-win scenario, England have managed to pull results out of the bag, first at the Oval and then at Lord’s last Saturday. And now in the outgrounds across the country they must continue to do the same.
Each ODI is worth two points but one
them retain the Ashes, which doesn’t bode well for today given there’s some light rain planned for later this morning.
Lewis added: “The support the team have received throughout the series so far has been incredible and it is fitting to finish with this deciding ODI campaign as the first sell-out series in England Women’s history.
“We respect Australia and know that this part of the Ashes series will again be a big challenge.
“However, we take a great deal of confidence and belief from our recent T20 victories and will, as always, be trying to put on a great showing for our fans.”
England have not won the Ashes since 2013-14, when they beat Australia 10-8 Down Under, and they haven’t
when they beat the tourists by 12 points to four.
Since then Australia have won 10-6, drawn 8-8, and won 12-4 and 12-4, making them the dominant force in the series over the last decade.
A drawn Ashes is not enough for England and only a win will do so they’ll need to harness the batting prowess of Beaumont, Heather Knight and others while relying on the bowling ability of the likes of Sarah Glenn, Wong and Danielle Wyatt.
Much like the men’s series, the Ashes is on the wire and losing is not an option.
So today in Bristol England need to go out and do the business, because if they don’t it’ll be another series lost to the Southern Stars of Australia.
ODI SQUAD
Heather Knight (capt), Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Bell, Alice Capsey, Kate Cross, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Danielle Gibson, Sarah Glenn, Amy Jones, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Issy
FIXTURES
1. Bristol, Wednesday 12 July, 1pm
2. Southampton, Sunday 16 July, 11am
3. Taunton, Tuesday 18 July, 1pm
England may have won T20s but now one-day matches are must-win too, writes Matt HardyWong, Danielle Wyatt.
years after Project Red Card got the ball rolling, players’ union Fifpro has offered its solution, writes Frank Dalleres
ARSENAL fans desperate for a season ticket at the resurgent club are shelling out more than £12,000 for debentures that allow them to bypass the waiting list for a seat.
The Gunners’ return to title challenging form last season has seen demand swell for season tickets, even though prices range from £974 to £1,896.
But some with deep enough pockets have skipped the queue by buying debentures that come with the guarantee of a seat at Emirates Stadium.
And despite the hefty upfront cost, they are generating record levels of sales and enquiries via London-based Asset Match, the only platform for trading the Arsenal debentures.
Category A debentures have fetched £12,500 in recent months, an increase of more than 400 per cent on trades just a year ago. Some are now being listed with a reserve price of £21,000. They cost £1,500 when they were issued in the early 1990s.
Arsenal debentures are not season tickets in themselves but give the holder the right to buy one at additional cost. And with the club estimating the waiting list for season tickets to be 5-10 years, it has proved an appealing option for some fans.
In 2023, 30 debentures have changed hands and another four deals are in the process of completion. That is already more than the 23 trades Asset Match facilitated last year.
“Prior to this year there were only a handful of enquiries a week,” Warren Won, analyst at Asset Match, told City A.M. “But since New Year we’ve had 5080 [a week], which is very unusual.”
“I think it speaks to a definite link to on-field performance,” said Asset Match founder and executive chairman Stuart Lucas. “This is not equity in the club; it’s the right to put a bum on a seat.”
Arsenal finished second in the Premier League last season and qualified for the Champions League for the first time since
£974 to £1,896
2016. The increased demand in recent months has created a sellers’ market, Lucas said.
“With the rising prices it is creating more sellers. We did have one lad whose fiancee found out he had two debentures. They want to put a deposit down on a house so I think he’ll now be watching Monday Night Football on Sky Sports instead.”
Asset Match is primarily a platform to trade shares in private companies, inlcuding Arsenal’s rivals Tottenham.
FRANK DALLERES
COMPARE the Market is to become the new main sponsor of The Hundred, English cricket chiefs have announced.
City A.M. revealed two weeks ago that the England and Wales Cricket Board was finalising terms on a multi-year deal with a principal partner making its first entry into the sport (see right).
That partner has now been confirmed as Compare the Market, the price comparison website known for its meerkat-themed
MATT HARDY
ELINA Svitolina praised Iga Swiatek as an “unbelievable person” for her support of Ukraine after the wildcard toppled the world No1 yesterday in the biggest shock so far at Wimbledon.
Svitolina, who has steadily been making a comeback after giving birth nine months ago, beat the Ladies’ Singles favourite 7-5 6-7 6-2 in front of an adoring Centre Court crowd who applauded each time the 28-year-old mentioned Swiatek’s vocal stance against the war in Ukraine.
Swiatek also wore blue and yellow ribbons throughout the tournament in a gesture of support to Ukraine.
“Iga is not only a great champion, she is also an unbelievable person. She was one of the first who helped the Ukrainian people and was a huge help for Ukraine,” Svitolina said.
“So for sure it’s not easy to play against someone that you share a lot of good moments with and I think for her it was not easy but in the end I was really proud with the effort I did today.”
She added: “It’s an unbelievable feeling, first of all I am going to have a beer.
“I’m going to enjoy this with my team. At the beginning of the tournament, if somebody would tell me that I will be in the semi-final and beating the world number one,
I would say they are crazy.”
Svitolina’s reward in the semifinals is unseeded Marketa Vondrousova, who caused another upset yesterday with her 6-4 2-6 6-4 victory over fourth seed Jessica Pegula.
Ons Jabeur and defending champion Elena Rybakina will face off for the chance to play either American Madison Keys or Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka in the other semi-final.
Elsewhere at the All England Club, favourite for the men’s title Novak Djokovic beat Andrey Rublev 4-6 6-1 6-4 6-3 on Centre Court while Italian Jannik Sinner needed four sets to topple Russian Roman Safiullin on No1 Court.
advertising campaigns.
The British company replaces online car marketplace Cazoo, which was The Hundred’s main sponsor for its first two seasons but decided against continuing.
“This partnership will spread the reach of cricket to more families across England and Wales,” said the Hundred’s managing director Sanjay Patel.
Elsewhere England have included Ollie Robinson in an unchanged 14-man squad for the fourth Ashes Test –the bowler has underperformed thus far.
WORLD Athletics insists it has no plans to change its rules despite double Olympic champion Caster Semenya winning a landmark legal case at the European Court of Human Rights.
Semenya, 32, won a challenge relating to rules introduced by World Athletics in 2018 that force athletes like her with differences of sexual development to take testosterone-lowering medication in order to compete.
The South African 800m runner, who missed the 2020 Olympics as a result of the dispute, has siad that taking the
medication could endanger her health and that the rules deny athletes the right to rely on their natural abilities.
However, World Athletics pointed to the fact that the seven-person ECHR panel had only narrowly found in her favour by a margin of 4-3 and indicated that it would continue its legal fight to uphold the rules on DSD athletes.
“We remain of the view that the DSD regulations are a necessary, reasonable and proportionate means of protecting fair competition in the female category,” the governing body said. “In the meantime, the current DSD regulations... will remain in place.”
