Thursday, March 28

Day: February 24, 2020

Coronavirus: West End suffers as Asian tourists stay away
Featured, United Kingdom

Coronavirus: West End suffers as Asian tourists stay away

    The impact of the coronavirus scare has spread from Chinatown to much of the West End as high-spending Asian tourists stay away. Restaurants in areas such as Mayfair and Knightsbridge reported a slump in trade in the past fortnight, although most of the rest of the capital does not yet seem to have been hit. Adam Hyman, founder of the Code Hospitality consultancy, said: Lots of West End hoteliers and restaurants have been severely impacted in the last couple of weeks. All the big restaurants and hotels say there are just no Chinese customers. Flight analysts ForwardKeys said its latest data showed bookings from China to Europe for March and April are 36.7 per cent down on last year. Chef Adam Handling said that at his Covent Garden flagship Frog “this week and las...
The chancellor should prioritise savings reform in first budget
Featured, United Kingdom

The chancellor should prioritise savings reform in first budget

    If the new Chancellor Rishi Sunak wants to appeal to Tory voters in the shires and the new converts in the Red Wall seats of the North, he should use his first Budget to end the war of attrition on savers. Thrift and personal responsibility are at the core of Conservative values. They are also very much part of the Labour heritage of co-operatives and mutuals. Yet in the past two decades, governments on both sides have thrown savers to the wolves. The repeated attacks on pensions saving have been particularly short-sighted and harmful so the news that Sunak’s £10billion tax grab on higher rate pensions tax relief is likely to be scrapped is welcome. This was an idea so bad it could have come from the Jeremy Corbyn playbook. Seizing tax relief from higher rate taxp...