Call to end tax on vacant properties
A group of the largest property owning companies have called on the government to scrap or amend legislation covering business rates on empty properties in the pre-Budget report.
Companies began paying full rates on vacant properties for the first time this year, following an initial grace period. It has been criticised as an extra financial burden on an already struggling property sector.
Many companies and organisations outside the sector also own real estate, including pension funds. Local councils have suffered as they also pay tax on empty properties. Campaigners say the tax is stifling regeneration.
The letter to Gordon Brown has been signed by companies with a combined market capitalisation of £370bn.
These include companies from AstraZeneca and McDonald’s to Next, Tesco and Nokia, as well as Land Securities, British Land and Canary Wharf.
Segro and Brixton, among the other supporters of the letter, which was collated by the British Property Federation with Property Week magazine, estimate that the tax will cost them £8m and £5m this year respectively.
The letter asks for a 50 per cent relief on the tax for shops and offices for two years, and an indefinite stay on industrial buildings.
The government scrapped a former relief for empty properties in April. It estimates the move could generate up to £1bn in extra revenue.
The Communities and Local Government Department said: “There are no plans to reverse the changes to empty property rate relief introduced on April 1. However, as with all taxes the position is kept under review and the government has engaged with industry and local authorities to understand how the reforms are working overall.”
Ian Coull, chief executive of Segro, said: “This outrageous piece of taxation is hitting the whole of the British economy at a time of severe downturn.”
Source: FT; By Daniel Thomas
Published: October 23 2008 22:47 | Last updated: October 23 2008 22:47
Friday, 24 October 2008
Thursday, 31 July 2008
Wednesday, 30 July 2008
Don't Expect Too Much Support from Your Bank
The following article re-printed below is not good news at all. As the recriminations start, Banks will have to defend themselves and by the look of things end up paying off angry investors.
Either way the credit crunch is only starting to seriously unfold.
Barclays dismisses San Marino lawsuit
Barclays Capital will fight vigorously a lawsuit filed against it in London’s High Court by a banking client Cassa di Risparmio di San Marino, which alleges misrepresentation by the UK investment bank in the sale of complex debt products.
The San Marino-based bank is seeking damages of at least €170m (£134m) in losses and lost income related to five complex credit-linked notes bought by CRSM for €450m in 2004 and 2005.
It is also seeking unspecified damages related to the restructuring of three other complex notes in June 2005.
“The legal action has no merit and we will contest it vigorously,” Barclays said on Tuesday.
The suit is part of an increasing number of actions faced by banks over their complex credit products since the market turmoil that began last year led to widespread losses in the financial industry.
Lawyers said that many disgruntled clients are pursuing the banks that had arranged complex debt products, but that claims are mostly settled well before they near a court filing, which is seen very much as a last resort, particularly in Europe.
Barclays has faced a number of similar lawsuits over collateralised debt obligations it has structured and sold.
In 2005 it settled a $151m claim brought by HSH Nordbank of Germany.
HSH is also currently suing UBS, the Swiss bank, over alleged mismanagement of a $500m portfolio of collateralised debt obligations to London. The case, which is set to be heard in New York, was among the first to be filed over subprime mortgage losses in the wake of the credit crunch.
Barclays, meanwhile, is also named in a lawsuit filed this month by Oddo Asset Management of France in New York, which relates to two investment funds known as “SIV-lites”.
That suit also seeks damages from Solent, a London-based hedge fund that managed one of the investment funds, and from McGraw-Hill, the owner of Standard & Poor’s, the rating agency.
Bankers said Italy was beginning to discover the depths of its problems with structured products. Marco Elser, senior manager in Rome at Advicorp, an independent investment banking group, said: “Half of Italian banks don’t know what they have in their accounts, because the derivatives around which the structured products were sold are so complex that it would take an Einstein to figure it out.”
Additional reporting by Guy Dinmore in Rome
By Paul J Davies
Published: July 29 2008 19:05 | Last updated: July 29 2008 19:06
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
The action above could be the first in an avalanche of law suits filed by investors who could feel a little hoodwinked by the avaricious banks and their rush to sell "products" to their clients in the headlong desire to make ever increasing profits from a "business" that should only be marginal at best.
When you run a business that has its hands in your pockets, the tendency is for it to help itself.
John Burke
Either way the credit crunch is only starting to seriously unfold.
Barclays dismisses San Marino lawsuit
Barclays Capital will fight vigorously a lawsuit filed against it in London’s High Court by a banking client Cassa di Risparmio di San Marino, which alleges misrepresentation by the UK investment bank in the sale of complex debt products.
The San Marino-based bank is seeking damages of at least €170m (£134m) in losses and lost income related to five complex credit-linked notes bought by CRSM for €450m in 2004 and 2005.
It is also seeking unspecified damages related to the restructuring of three other complex notes in June 2005.
“The legal action has no merit and we will contest it vigorously,” Barclays said on Tuesday.
The suit is part of an increasing number of actions faced by banks over their complex credit products since the market turmoil that began last year led to widespread losses in the financial industry.
Lawyers said that many disgruntled clients are pursuing the banks that had arranged complex debt products, but that claims are mostly settled well before they near a court filing, which is seen very much as a last resort, particularly in Europe.
Barclays has faced a number of similar lawsuits over collateralised debt obligations it has structured and sold.
In 2005 it settled a $151m claim brought by HSH Nordbank of Germany.
HSH is also currently suing UBS, the Swiss bank, over alleged mismanagement of a $500m portfolio of collateralised debt obligations to London. The case, which is set to be heard in New York, was among the first to be filed over subprime mortgage losses in the wake of the credit crunch.
Barclays, meanwhile, is also named in a lawsuit filed this month by Oddo Asset Management of France in New York, which relates to two investment funds known as “SIV-lites”.
That suit also seeks damages from Solent, a London-based hedge fund that managed one of the investment funds, and from McGraw-Hill, the owner of Standard & Poor’s, the rating agency.
Bankers said Italy was beginning to discover the depths of its problems with structured products. Marco Elser, senior manager in Rome at Advicorp, an independent investment banking group, said: “Half of Italian banks don’t know what they have in their accounts, because the derivatives around which the structured products were sold are so complex that it would take an Einstein to figure it out.”
Additional reporting by Guy Dinmore in Rome
By Paul J Davies
Published: July 29 2008 19:05 | Last updated: July 29 2008 19:06
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
The action above could be the first in an avalanche of law suits filed by investors who could feel a little hoodwinked by the avaricious banks and their rush to sell "products" to their clients in the headlong desire to make ever increasing profits from a "business" that should only be marginal at best.
When you run a business that has its hands in your pockets, the tendency is for it to help itself.
John Burke
Tuesday, 10 June 2008
Join Technorati
Technorati Profile
Its all about cross networking and interconnections!
Or is it just to get Technorati up the google rankings by inward links? So to balance things here are a list of my blog and web interests with lots of great partners and projects: No particular order.
G8way
Jamie Lawrence Football Academy
JLFA Blog
Refill Food
Cherrie Box Media
Emerging Markets Investor Services Ltd
Watersons Marketing Group
Inspirational Seminars Ltd
Inspirational Seminars Blog
Sylvia Modu
Faye Klein Lingerie
DMR Ltd
Bevin Fagan (who sadly died in April 2008)
Gold Investments
Property Investment and Credit Crunch
Business Start Ups
Yorkshire Network
Gold Bullion Trading
Click4Marketing
Affordable Seminars
Barbur Realty
Canal Craft
Management Resource
Unique Sounds
Plus a whole load of ongoing projects in Africa to build Solar Tower Power Stations, renewable energy systems and exploding the myth of global warming and the great carbon tax con.
I am also very keen on lean government along the lines that Hong Kong adopted and not the over-bloated British Model!
Its all about cross networking and interconnections!
Or is it just to get Technorati up the google rankings by inward links? So to balance things here are a list of my blog and web interests with lots of great partners and projects: No particular order.
G8way
Jamie Lawrence Football Academy
JLFA Blog
Refill Food
Cherrie Box Media
Emerging Markets Investor Services Ltd
Watersons Marketing Group
Inspirational Seminars Ltd
Inspirational Seminars Blog
Sylvia Modu
Faye Klein Lingerie
DMR Ltd
Bevin Fagan (who sadly died in April 2008)
Gold Investments
Property Investment and Credit Crunch
Business Start Ups
Yorkshire Network
Gold Bullion Trading
Click4Marketing
Affordable Seminars
Barbur Realty
Canal Craft
Management Resource
Unique Sounds
Plus a whole load of ongoing projects in Africa to build Solar Tower Power Stations, renewable energy systems and exploding the myth of global warming and the great carbon tax con.
I am also very keen on lean government along the lines that Hong Kong adopted and not the over-bloated British Model!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)