Marshalls Sees Dim Prospects for UK Housing Market Recovery
Though mortgages have become more affordable through successive interest rate cuts by the Bank of England, the lack of confidence in the UK economy is 'holding people back' as they await the autumn budget for more clarity, Chief Executive Officer Matt Pullen said in an interview.
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Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The village ‘ripped apart' by scrapped HS2 line – while taxpayers foot bill for empty homes
A 'jewel' village has been ripped apart by scrapped plans for an HS2 line, locals claim, as it emerged that taxpayers were footing a seven-figure annual bill to guard properties left empty by the overall project. Some 35 of the 50 homes in Whitmore Heath were bought on behalf of the government from residents wanting to sell amid plans for a huge tunnel beneath the hillside hamlet for the high-speed rail link from London to Manchester. But as the properties - many of them lavish mansions with large gardens - were sold off, delays and spiralling costs placed the section of line through Staffordshire in doubt, until, in October 2023, it was axed. 'It destroyed the community,' said Graham Hutton, who lives two miles away and fought against the line, which would have gone from Handsacre in Staffordshire to Manchester, being built. 'The village was an affluent place where people who made their money went to live. But the plans for HS2 made them want to leave, and then their homes were rented out or left empty.' Residents say one home was turned into a cannabis factory, while others judged to be unsuitable to rent remain gated up with 24/7 security teams hired to guard them. The story in Whitmore Heath is a snapshot of the situation along the initial route, which, as well as reaching Manchester on a western leg, was also planned to connect London and Birmingham with Leeds. Only the line from London to Handsacre in Staffordshire, including Birmingham, will now be built. In total, HS2 spent £3.7bn on buying up 1,727 properties on behalf of the Department for Transport (DfT), including £633m on 1,021 properties along the axed routes. They were bought under a range of schemes, including a voluntary purchase and a 'need to sell', where the seller had to provide a compelling reason to move after being unable to sell on the open market. Some were purchased under compulsory purchase orders (CPO). But around a quarter of the purchased properties - around 430 - are empty, with security teams required to protect some of them. Data obtained by The Independent revealed £1.9m was spent on guarding the properties in 2023-2024, the equivalent of £37,000 a week. In Staffordshire, £481,000 was spent. 'What a waste, an absolute waste of money,' said county councillor Paul Northcott. 'We need a resolution now so we can sell those properties to people they bought from, or back on the market - let's get the community back together again.' 'Whitmore Heath was the jewel of the area, but the community has been fragmented, it's been ripped apart by people coming in and going, people renting short-term. 'Villagers are downbeat, they feel like they are in limbo.' Parish councillor Ian Webb said the situation was 'far from ideal'. He added: 'I know several homes that have been left empty for a very long time.' Uncertainty is not helped by the maintenance of safeguards to stop the land from being developed in a way that would conflict with future schemes, with a cheaper high-speed alternative proposed last year. Among those waiting is Edward Cavenagh-Mainwaring, who lost around 250 acres of his family farm in Staffordshire through a CPO for HS2. But like others in the area, he now fears the amount offered was below the market rate, and if the opportunity comes, he will not be able to afford to buy back the land. 'A lot of people have been left mentally hurt,' he previously told The Independent. Last month, the restriction on selling land was lifted for the eastern leg between Birmingham and Leeds, which was cancelled in November 2021. The DfT said an update on safeguarding of the western leg line area will be given in due course alongside proposals for rail routes in the North of England. A spokesperson for HS2 Ltd said: 'HS2 Ltd has a responsibility for the safety and security of all land and property acquired to build the railway. 'More than 1,700 properties are currently managed by the company across the route – including those on the former Phase 2 leg – and it is in the best interests of local communities, project delivery and the taxpayer that they are kept safe and well maintained.' Last month, transport secretary Heidi Alexander said her department was working with HS2 Ltd to 'reset' the project after 'years of mismanagement, flawed reporting and ineffective oversight'. She said there was 'no route' to meet the target date of having HS2 services running by 2033.
Forbes
20 minutes ago
- Forbes
Fabergé Sold To U.S. Company For $50 Million: What To Know About Fabergé Eggs
Fabergé, the jeweler most known for its famously intricate Russian Easter eggs, has been sold for $50 million by a British mining company to an American tech investor who says he plans to expand its international presence. The star piece of Viktor Vekselberg's collection, a $24 millions Fabergé "Coronation Egg" from 1897, is displayed at an exhibition in Moscow in 2004. AFP via Getty Images Gemfields, a colored gemstone miner listed on the London stock exchange, sold the fabled brand to tech entrepreneur Sergei Mosunov's U.S. company SMG Capital. Gemfields will receive $45 million when the deal closes later this month, and the remaining $5 million through quarterly royalty payments. The company said it will use the money from the sale to help fund its mining operations for rubies in Mozambique and emeralds in Zambia. Sean Gilbertson, the chief executive of Gemfields, said the company would miss the "marketing leverage and star power" that came from owning Fabergé, despite the fact the brand has struggled in recent years amid a downturn in the luxury goods market. Fabergé has been one of the most renowned jewelers in the world for almost 200 years but has seen revenue fall in recent years—it reported revenues of $13.4 million in 2024, down from $15.7 million the previous year and $17.6 million in 2022. Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts: We're launching text message alerts so you'll always know the biggest stories shaping the day's headlines. Text 'Alerts' to (201) 335-0739 or sign up here : The Apple Blossom Easter Egg, part of the Fabergé collection. Getty Images 'Fabergé's unique heritage, with ties to Russia, England, France and the USA, opens significant opportunities for further strengthening its position in the global luxury market and expanding its international presence,' Mosunov, a Russian national based in the U.K., said in a statement. 'We feel a deep sense of responsibility and incredible inspiration for the work ahead." Key Background The House of Fabergé jewelry company was founded in 1842 in St. Petersburg, Russia, by Gustav Fabergé. His son, Peter Carl Fabergé, was commissioned by Emperor Alexander III in 1885 to create an extravagant Easter gift for his wife, Empress Maria Feodorovna, and the famous Fabergé eggs were born. Known as "First Hen," the original product is made of gold and coated with white enamel, with a gold hen set with ruby eyes hidden inside. The emperor continued to have them made each year, reportedly giving Fabergé complete creative freedom, and 50 were ultimately made for the Russian Imperial Family, known as the "Imperial Eggs." Nineteen other eggs were made for the aristocracy and other elites. When the Romanov family fell during the Russian Revolution of 1917, the 50 Imperial Eggs were scattered all over the world, and some remain lost to this day. The eggs were crafted from gold or silver and encrusted with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires and other precious stones. They often included hidden items inside, like a miniature Trans-Siberian Railway train made of gold or a tiny, working replica of the Imperial coach used in Nicholas II's coronation. Today, Fabergé makes fine jewelry and egg objects inspired by the original eggs. They're priced starting at $60,000. Big Number 7. That's how many Imperial Easter Eggs are still missing. Eight were missing until 2014, when a buyer at a Midwestern flea market bought one for about $14,000. Kieran McCarthy, a London antiques dealer, told PBS News an anonymous buyer purchased the egg with hopes of making a small profit reselling it for its gold content. It was then authenticated as one of the real eggs. It features a Vacheron Constantin watch and sits atop a jeweled gold stand. A Faberge Egg on display in Moscow, Russia. Getty Images The most expensive egg is known as the Third Imperial Easter Egg, which was made in 1887. It has a solid gold case covered in sapphires and diamonds and houses a women's watch with diamond-set gold hands. It was once valued at $33 million and is owned by an anonymous private collector. Who Owns Fabergé Eggs? Billionaire Russian businessman Viktor Vekselberg owns 15 Fabergé Easter Eggs, making him the largest private collector in the world. Vekselberg bought nine Imperial Eggs from the Forbes media family, at the time the world's largest private collection, in 2004 for just over $100 million. He also owns two Kelch, eggs made for Russian nobleman Alexander Ferdinandovich Kelch, and four other eggs. At the time of his purchase from the Forbes family, he said the collection represented 'perhaps the most significant example of our cultural heritage outside Russia. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to give back to my country one of its most revered treasures." Vekselberg's eggs are on display at the Fabergé Museum in St. Petersburg. The British royal family also owns three Imperial Eggs, originally purchased by King George V and Queen Mary, King Charles's great-grandparents. Forbes Valuation Vekselberg is worth an estimated $9.4 million as of Monday, making him the 328th-richest person in the world. He is a Ukrainian-born aluminum baron who made his first million selling scrap copper from worn-out cables and later turned several medium-size aluminum smelters and bauxite mines into Sual Holding in 1996. He later made his fortune in oil. His $120 million superyacht, Tango, was seized by Spanish police and the FBI in Palma de Mallorca in April 2022. Further Reading Forbes Jewels, Eggs and Empires: The Story Of Forbes And Faberge By Abram Brown
New York Times
20 minutes ago
- New York Times
Crystal Palace, UEFA and CAS: What now for the club, the manager and players?
Three months after winning the FA Cup, Crystal Palace finally know which European competition they will play in this season. Confirmation came just before 11:30am on Monday morning, but it was not good news. Palace will be in the Conference League. After UEFA's Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) ruled Palace were in breach of multi-club rules and demoted them from the Europa League, for which they had qualified courtesy of that FA Cup win, the club appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). But after a hearing last Friday, CAS communicated on Monday that they had upheld the original decision. Advertisement With that news came anger and fury from the Palace supporters, and bitter disappointment for those at the club. The initial decision had felt, chairman Steve Parish said, 'a terrible injustice'. This, too, will feel that way. Less than 24 hours earlier, they had celebrated winning a second trophy in three months after defeating Liverpool in the Community Shield at Wembley. This was a brutal return to earth with a bump. Regardless, the ramifications of the UEFA and CAS rulings could be far-reaching across the club. First, it's worth clinging to a small positive. While they will not be admitted to the Europa League, it should not be forgotten that Palace will still be embarking upon their first campaign in European competition. Amid all the understandable doom and gloom and disappointment, that is a small chink of light for all involved. They have not yet given up on this case, either. Not necessarily in the hope they could yet secure a reprieve and a return to UEFA's second competition, but they might explore suing their former major shareholder, John Textor, who has since sold Eagle Football's 43 per cent stake in the club to Woody Johnson. If that were to happen, they would seek to recoup their extensive legal costs and look to claim damages for the difference in prize money between the Europa League and Conference League. Roughly speaking, the overall prize pot for teams competing in the Conference League (€285m; $330m) is around half that of clubs in the Europa League (€565m). It should also be noted that Palace would have qualified automatically for the group stage of the Europa League. By dropping down into the Conference League, they must now beat either the Norwegian side Fredrikstad or Denmark's Midtjylland — currently going head-to-head to reach the Europa League — in the Conference League play-off round to reach the group stage. Their opponents are likely to be Fredrikstad, who are 3-1 down from their home leg. Their point of contention is primarily that Textor did not act when UEFA's email was received by Lyon and missed by Palace. Had he done so, Palace argue, he could have placed his shares into a blind trust ahead of the designated deadline of March 1, and both sides would be competing in the Europa League. Advertisement Textor is relaxed about any legal action that may come his way, but, regardless of the success, it demonstrates the strength of feeling around the situation and reiterates that sense that everyone around this situation feels as if they have been wronged. 'I remain stunned by UEFA's decision to ignore all of the evidence and the on-pitch result to demote Crystal Palace from the Europa League,' he told The Athletic. 'The rule is clear: a (blind) trust is only needed if there is decisive influence. If I had decisive influence, then you would have already seen Eagle Football players on the ground at Selhurst Park, but after four years of ownership, there is not one example of multi-club collaboration on the Palace roster. 'Unfortunately, the insanity at UEFA will be resolved, and we will come to learn of their remedy as the 'Crystal Palace rule' in 2026, but that will be tragically late for a community that deserves better.' That the final outcome came after winning the Community Shield is all the more galling. UEFA's ruling was delivered two months after the FA Cup victory — a period that should have been one of celebration, but which became sullied by the anxious realisation that there could be an issue just days after that success. Palace deserved to have been able to enjoy their outstanding achievements for longer and without the next chapter being shaped by decisions made in a courtroom rather than on the pitch. There is also a sense of deja vu to all this. After finishing third in the top flight in 1990-91, they were denied what they thought would be a UEFA Cup place in the final weeks of the campaign. English clubs had been banned from European competition following the Heysel disaster in 1985, with Liverpool handed an extended ban. However, Liverpool's ban was lifted a few weeks before the end of the campaign, meaning Palace missed out. Advertisement This time they will compete in a lesser competition than the one they had anticipated — if they emerge successfully through the qualifier — but it is still almost as agonising. Palace will, eventually, seek to draw a line under this saga, however hard that may be, and move on with Johnson as the fourth principal owner, and look to be strong on the pitch across four competitions. For some of Palace's key players who have been in demand this summer, playing in a third-tier European competition may not be especially attractive. Striker Jean-Philippe Mateta in particular is eager to play in the Champions League, while it could now prove more difficult to keep hold of Eberechi Eze and captain Marc Guehi, both of whom are likely to feel they should be showcasing their talents in Europe's most prestigious competition. Glasner did not rule out the departure of either player this summer in his pre-match Community Shield press conference, while Parish conceded after the game that they might have to sell Guehi, who is out of contract next summer. The CAS ruling will not help their cause in that respect. 'We'd have to,' Parish said when asked if they would sell Guehi should an acceptable offer be made. 'For players of that calibre to leave on a free, it's a problem. We had one bid (last summer), but Joachim (Andersen) went (to Fulham instead) and we couldn't afford to lose both defenders. 'We had another bid in January, but that was a difficult situation as well. The player had a point of view on that one. We'll have to see what happens, but it needs a new contract or a conclusion of some kind.' That said, no Palace player has as yet walked into the club and demanded a move on the back of the CAS decision. Palace would play an additional six games, guaranteed, if they emerge through their Conference League play-off fixture, but travel is likely to be more onerous, with trips to distant parts of Europe due to the calibre of teams involved. Chelsea, last year's winners, took an inexperienced squad to Almaty, Kazakhstan, last December for a group game against Astana in the competition. But even they found recovery time and performances affected back in the Premier League. Palace, in contrast, boast a far thinner squad, and the extra travelling may put significant extra pressure on their Premier League performances. If they enjoy a run deep into the Conference League, which is plausible, that additional load will surely take its toll. Glasner has called for at least two more signings after a 'passive' window, and, while he is content to work with a smaller squad, it does feel as though Palace require further reinforcements to provide proper strength in depth — and should any important players leave, then it will become even more essential. Advertisement 'It helps if players are in early when you start pre-season because you have time to train,' Glasner said on Friday. 'After this, training has more or less stopped, and it's just games. It makes it harder to integrate players. This is what we missed (by not making early signings). But I never complain, it's in the past, I can't complain. 'We definitely need two more players. One at the back, one in attack. We have good numbers, good quality, good competition. Challenging players for the top level is what we need.' Palace's transfer activity has been hindered by all the uncertainty this summer. Prospective signings would have sought clarity and certainty before committing. Their financial position is also awkward, with Parish saying the club is still paying off transfer fees for players signed in previous seasons, cautioning against lofty expectations for a host of new arrivals as a result. It seems clear that Glasner will have to work with only a small number of additions to his existing squad. 'If we had four more players, I don't know what we could achieve, but it's not as simple as that,' Parish said. 'We have a lot of outgoings this year because we're paying a lot of transfer fees for players we already have. We'll do whatever we can. 'At some point, you have to recycle your squad or you're pushing off problems. We'll do everything we can in the next few weeks to give ourselves the best chance. I'm aware we're in four competitions and it's not going to be easy. 'Maybe Ismaila (Sarr) will go to the Africa Cup of Nations (in December). We're trying to cope with all those things. But the amount of money we have isn't infinite.' Glasner's approach to management is focused. He tries to stay in the moment and avoids looking too far back or ahead, preferring instead to scrutinise variables he and his team can control. That will be the way forward for him now. There will no doubt be disappointment, particularly given he won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022. He has a track record in that competition, but he is extremely ambitious and has belief in his staff and his players. His mindset will now be on trying to win the Conference League and improve on last season's 12th-placed Premier League finish. It may be more challenging now for Palace to convince players to join, particularly if they are competing for those players with teams in better competitions. But there are still draws, with Glasner as good a sales pitch as any, and the excellent spirit within the dressing room that has been cultivated since his arrival. Advertisement Given that Palace are generally targeting younger talents with a view to developing them, that calibre of player may still be enticed by the opportunity to compete in Europe, even if it is in the Conference League. Despite the disappointment, Palace will be one of the strongest teams in the Conference League and among the favourites to win it. To go all the way, lift another trophy, and qualify for the 2026-27 Europa League would be the perfect response to being denied what they believe was their rightful place. Nothing, surely, would stand in their way. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
