UK News
Insights from the UK and beyond
from FaithWorld:
Ireland eyes Catholic religious orders’ properties to meet abuse damages costs
(Irish clerical sexual abuse victims with a copy of a government report into child abuse, in Dublin May 20, 2009/Cathal McNaughton)
The Irish government asked religious orders on Tuesday to consider transferring buildings and land to the state to cover a 200 million euros shortfall in their contribution to a compensation fund for victims of abuse. The congregations agreed in 2009 to provide more compensation to victims of rape, beatings and slave labour in now defunct industrial schools they ran after the publication of a report into the abuse shocked the once devout Catholic country.
The government wants the congregations, including the Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Mercy, to contribute half of an estimated final compensation bill of 1.36 billion euros ($1.9 billion). The government has paid out around 1.3 billion euros in compensation so far.
"The congregations' total offers fall well short, by several hundred million, of the 680 million contribution they should bear towards the cost of institutional residential child abuse," Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn said in a statement.
from MacroScope:
Darkening outlook for UK housing
The outlook for the UK housing market has darkened again. The usually optimistic bunch of property market watchers polled by Reuters, who have tended to predict ever-rising property prices no matter what the season or financial climate, now say the market will move sideways for the next two years.
They say that in the next few months, the small double-dip in prices that has begun will continue. Modest gains predicted less than three months ago for this year and next essentially have been wiped away.
from The Great Debate UK:
Is it safe to make cuts in the current economic climate?
-Ian Ellis is executive chairman of Telereal Trillium. The opinions expressed are his own. Join Reuters for a live discussion with guests as Chancellor George Osborne makes an emergency budget statement at 12:30 p.m. British time on Tuesday, June 22, 2010.-
The government is clear that reducing the public sector budget deficit is top priority and Tuesday’s budget will give us our first real indication of how and where public spending cuts are going to occur.
from Global Investing:
To spend, or not to spend?
A day after Britain unveiled a multi-billion-pound fiscal stimulus package to spend its way out of recession, market analysts have been busy figuring out what it all means, in the context of a sharply slowing economy.
Nick Parsons, head of market strategy at nabCapital, has come to this conclusion:
You know things are bad when..
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You know exactly what the population of Iceland is and can also pronounce the name of its prime minister.
Even the word ‘crisis’ seems to have lost its currency.
Countries pop up for sale on eBay for 99p and get few offers.
Posters on BBC messageboards stop discussing the undulating pitch of Robert Peston’s voice and listen to what he’s actually saying.
The speech bubble on Page 3 of the Sun is given over to discussing the credit crisis.
Financial market updates displace stories about Jade Goody on the tabloid front pages.
Bad news stories from government departments are rushed out day after day and not even the Opposition seems to notice.
Estate agents finally admit house prices have fallen but tell you now is a really great time to buy because the market is stabilising.
People marketing get-rich-quick property seminars don’t get taken seriously any more.
The Chancellor, writing in the Financial Times, says that “now, more than ever, we need new ideas”.
Your primary school-aged children know that credit crunch is not a type of biscuit and that IMF isn’t just a fictional organisation in Mission Impossible.
You go for a while without noticing one estate agent’s mini and then you see a whole bunch of them on the back of a car transporter.
A pensioner on the evening tube train from Canary Wharf gives up her seat to a banker because she reckons he might need it.
The Ivy rings to ask if you’d like a table tonight or any night.
There are no spare trolleys when you turn up at Aldi to do your weekly shop.
Do you have any better suggestions? All contributions welcome – please send in your selection.
Currency key in property hotspots
British house prices might be in the doldrums, but isolated hospots around the world are bucking the trend. Bulgaria has again topped Knight Frank’s quarterly global house price index, confounding market fears of oversupply. It has reigned supreme at the top of the table since the second quarter of last year and notched up annualised price growth of 31.5 percent in the first quarter of 2008 — far above a worldwide average of 6.1 percent.
Making up the rest of the top ten are: Singapore (29.9 percent), Hong Kong (28.8 percent), Jersey (28 percent), Russia (21.7 percent), Iceland (19.1 percent), Australia (13.8 percent), China (11.7 percent) and Sweden (9.1 percent).
Another “slap in face with wet kipper” Budget
By Francesca Lagerberg, head of the national tax office, Grant Thornton
Most Budgets have all the attraction of being slapped in the face with a wet kipper and sadly this one is unlikely to reverse the trend. As expected, from today up goes the cost of booze (4p on a pint) and fags (11p on a packet). Also for those who like driving larger less-green new cars there is a “showroom” tax coming in from 2009 that could cost them around 950 pounds.
However, for the entrepreneur there was a little cheer. After strong representations from business, Chancellor Alistair Darling has deferred the “income shifting” rules that were due to start from this April. These were a direct attack on family-owned businesses that include lower tax paying family members who take out dividends or profits but make a less significant contribution to the business. A case last year (Jones v Garnett) went against the government and it was looking to legislate to get the result it wanted. The proposals were wide-ranging and ill-targeted. A deferral will hopefully allow time to revisit this whole approach.
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The Wall
