Good morning. Here is your AM bulletin with the latest news and views from EG, along with some of the best bits from the national press.
Inflation has fallen in the UK to its lowest level since March 2022. The 7.9% rise record for June was even lower than the 8.2% expected by City economists.
Meanwhile, despite announcing fairly lacklustre results, Morgan Stanley‘s outgoing CEO has said its AUM will eventually triple to more than $20tn. He said that it had become “a pretty much unstoppable force”.
And Blackstone could pass the $1tn AUM milestone when it announces its latest quarterly results tomorrow.
Tata is set to announce that it will build a gigafactory at Salamanca Group’s Gravity Smart Campus in Somerset.
Westminster City Council and New West End Company are offering up-and-coming brands and entrepreneurs the chance to open their first physical space on Oxford Street, W1, with six months rent-free and a more than 70% reduction in business rates. The aim is to revive spaces vacated by low-quality occupiers including American Candy shops.
The initiative comes as the pair begins consultation on a “much needed facelift” for the 1.8km street.
The £100m joint venture between Aviva Capital Partners and Stories has scored its first BTR development, after being confirmed as partner by Barnet Council for the redevelopment of Bunns Lane car park, NW7.
Richard Simpson has stepped down as chief executive of BTR and PBSA developer Watkin Jones, after it warned of “a greater degree of risk over… transactions completing”.
Brits are more keen on working from home than any other nation on the planet – except Canada.
But Pret has turned a profit for the first time since 2018, partly because of the return of office workers to their desks, and partly because of its strategy to decouple its fortunes from the nine-to-five.
Chief executives on the prime minister’s new business advisory council – which includes Taylor Wimpey’s Jennie Daly – have been asked to come up with concrete proposals.
But the number of directors winding up their own businesses has soared as insolvencies hit 2009 levels.
And the number of UK listed companies issuing profit warnings has risen for the seventh quarter in a row.
Campaigners are appealing against the ban on wild camping in Dartmoor, saying the judge’s verdict that sleeping in tent cannot be classed as open air recreation “went too far”.
