House prices 'grind to a halt'

Afternoon all,

House prices in prime London postcodes are falling, as rising mortgage rates grip the capital’s property market. According to official data, the dip across London was 2.2 per cent. In Westminster, prices fell by 14.3 per cent and in Kensington and Chelsea that figure was 13.8 per cent.

Meanwhile, the PM has said that the Chancellor is looking at a cut to standing charges on gas bills, in an effort to stem the impacts of the war in Iran.

We’ll be back in your inboxes at 8am tomorrow. In the meantime, have a great evening!

Matt

Areas at the centre of the capital’s prime property market shed value in August as house prices across the capital slipped by 2.2 per cent year on year, according to the Office for National Statistics.

In Westminster, which covers sought-after postcodes like Belgravia, Mayfair and Maida Vale, the average house price slipped by 14.3 per cent in August, to £887,000.

Speaking in the House of Commons today, Andy Burnham said he had asked the Chancellor and the energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, to consider stripping “unfair” standing charges from bills. 

Standing charges are fixed daily amounts that gas firms apply on energy bills and do not vary by usage. The average UK standing charge is around 30p per day, or £103.32 a year.

The Stockholm-based startup, which creates AI tools for law and professional services firms and corporate in-house legal teams to draft and review documents, said on Wednesday the funding comes at an $8.8bn post-money valuation.

Shares in the motoring retailer fell as much as eight per cent to 256p on Wednesday morning, putting the brakes on the stock’s gradual recovery in recent months. 

Halfords posted seven per cent sales growth in the six months to October, telling shareholders the firm is making good progress towards its higher profit goal. 

The FTSE 100 company said on Thursday it now expects VodafoneThree to deliver £1bn in annual savings by 2032, up from its previous target of £700m by 2030.

The upgraded target comes just over two months after Vodafone completed a £4.3bn buyout of CK Hutchison’s remaining 49 per cent stake in the business, giving it full control of Britain’s largest mobile operator.

One of the Square Mile sights you might have missed over the years is the former brewery a stone’s throw from the Barbican. The grand old building is now owned by the Montcalm Collection, the London hotel firm that specialises in period conversions. Their Mayfair property repurposes a row of Georgian townhouses, and their Finsbury Square property is within the former Royal Mail headquarters.

Local authorities could be empowered to give out £100 fines to ‘loudcasters’ on buses. We hear the case for and against in this week’s Debate.

There are fears that machine games duty could be doubled to 40 per cent, inflicting an additional £100m in costs on retailers, though recent reports suggest a smaller, more realistic rise may still have adverse implications for sports such as horse racing.

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