Latest news with #CityofLondon
CTV News
a day ago
- General
- CTV News
Tokala Trail to be closed for work starting Monday
Tokala Trail will be closed between Dalmagarry Road and Sedgefield Row on Monday June 2, with a detour in place around the area for motorists. (Source: City of London) The City of London has issued a notice that Tokala Trail will be closed between Dalmagarry Road and Sedgefield Row on Monday June 2, with a detour in place around the area for motorists. The detour will be in place until roughly June 16, motorists are advised to expect delays and follow detour signs to reach their destination. The closure is in place to facilitate private work, sidewalk access will be maintained throughout the work, and access to businesses will be uninterrupted.
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
London's first public park reopens after upgrades
London's first public park has reopened after a decade largely spent as a building site for the construction of the Elizabeth line. Finsbury Circus Gardens has been the focus of a major transformation project by the City of London Corporation since 2023, with the Grade II listed site's lawn revitalised, seating improved and landscaping added. The largest open green space in the Square Mile has had 12 additional tree species, more than 13,000 plants and 6,000 bulbs added to its site to boost biodiversity. Chris Hayward, from the City of London Corporation, said the "tranquil" park was "revitalised and ready to be rediscovered". The gardens first became a public park known as "Moor Fields" in the 1600s. A formal layout was introduced by George Dance the Younger in 1815. For most of the past 10 years, Finsbury Circus Gardens has been closed to the public while it was used by Crossrail to build the nearby Liverpool Street Elizabeth line station. It was partially reopened on 6 May, with the official reopening due to take place on 4 June. Hayward said: "Our green spaces play a vital role in making the Square Mile a welcoming and attractive place to live, work, and visit – delivering on our vision for a more inclusive, innovative, and sustainable City." The corporation's natural environment board chairperson, James St John Davis, said the Square Mile's parks and gardens, which attract over 21 million visits a year "truly punch above their weight". He added: "They offer a vital escape from the bustle of daily life." Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to Deer spring back into London park after four years City of London Corporation
BBC News
a day ago
- General
- BBC News
London's first public park Finsbury Circus Gardens reopens
London's first public park has reopened after a decade largely spent as a building site for the construction of the Elizabeth Circus Gardens has been the focus of a major transformation project by the City of London Corporation since 2023, with the Grade II listed site's lawn revitalised, seating improved and landscaping largest open green space in the Square Mile has had 12 additional tree species, more than 13,000 plants and 6,000 bulbs added to its site to boost Hayward, from the City of London Corporation, said the "tranquil" park was "revitalised and ready to be rediscovered". The gardens first became a public park known as "Moor Fields" in the 1600s. A formal layout was introduced by George Dance the Younger in most of the past 10 years, Finsbury Circus Gardens has been closed to the public while it was used by Crossrail to build the nearby Liverpool Street Elizabeth Line was partially reopened on 6 May, with the official reopening due to take place on 4 June. Hayward said: "Our green spaces play a vital role in making the Square Mile a welcoming and attractive place to live, work, and visit – delivering on our vision for a more inclusive, innovative, and sustainable City."The corporation's natural environment board chairperson, James St John Davis, said the Square Mile's parks and gardens, which attract over 21 million visits a year "truly punch above their weight". He added: "They offer a vital escape from the bustle of daily life."
The National
2 days ago
- Business
- The National
Lord Mayor of London expects UK-UAE economic and investment ties to strengthen further
Alastair King, the Lord Mayor of London, is expecting economic relations between the UK and the UAE to strengthen further, with a focus on co-operation and investments in important industrial and financial sectors. These industries of 'mutual strength' include green and transition finance, financial regulation for economic growth, pension reform and financial innovation, the British embassy in the UAE said in a statement on Saturday, following Mr King's visit to the Emirates on Friday. The UK delegation, which included representatives from insurer Howden, financial institution Aberdeen Group, KPMG and FinTech firm Guavapay, won commitments for Emirati participation in City of London Corporation events such as the Net Zero Delivery Summit scheduled for June 23 and May's Global Risk Summit, it said. Mr King, who as Lord Mayor acts as an ambassador for the UK's financial and professional services sector, noted how UK investment strategies align with the 'We the UAE 2031' strategy, supporting objectives across sustainability, innovation and economic diversification. 'The UK and UAE share a commitment to innovation, investment and sustainable growth, which drives our dynamic and growing trade relationship, particularly in the financial sector,' he said. His visit came after this month's unveiling of the Mansion House Accord, an agreement between the UK government and Britain's biggest pension funds aimed at unlocking up to £50 billion ($67.3 billion) in investments for the UK's infrastructure, its businesses and overall economy. 'The accord will strengthen [the UK-UAE] relationship further … this could create valuable co-investment partnerships aligned with the Emirati's appetite for high-quality, de-risked opportunities,' Mr King said. The UK and the UAE have maintained relationships dating to 1971. Co-operation between the countries span intelligence, defence and security, through joint diplomatic initiatives at the UN on hunger and access to education, to climate change, finance and artificial intelligence regulation. Total trade in goods and services between the countries hit £24.3 billion at the end of 2024, making the UAE the UK's 19th largest trading partner and largest trading partner in the Gulf region, data from the British embassy shows. Mr King's visit yielded 'tangible outcomes, including the exploration of collaborative investment initiatives in priority sectors such as sustainability, infrastructure and financial services', the statement said. Discussions also focused on encouraging equity and debt listings on the London Stock Exchange and resolving regulatory barriers for UK financial and professional services firms seeking to establish or expand in the UAE, it added. 'Both parties committed to establishing continuing knowledge exchange in innovation, pension reform and regulatory best practices, with a joint initiative on sustainable finance to be launched in the coming months.'
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Starmer says Farage would spook the City and give us Truss 2 – he could be right
The message Zia Yusuf wanted to send was clear. With a backdrop of the City of London behind him, from the 34th floor of the Shard, the Reform UK chair laid out an economic policy designed to show his party meant business. In a briefing over a full English breakfast for some of the nation's journalists on Friday morning, Yusuf reiterated an announcement the Reform leader, Nigel Farage, had made overnight from another hotel 5,000 miles away in Las Vegas: the party would now accept donations in bitcoin, and if elected to power would make tax and regulatory changes to bolster Britain's adoption of cryptocurrency. As far as settings go for a press conference, commanding views over St Paul's Cathedral and the banks and asset managers of the Square Mile, it is straight out of the Westminster playbook, even if the policy idea is pure Donald Trump. However, the trouble with Yusuf's message to the City was not the questionable credibility of crypto – viewed with unease at the Bank of England as the wild west of finance – but the party's broader tax and spending policies. Riding high in the opinion polls, scrutiny of Reform and its plans for the economy is growing – led this week by an attack from Keir Starmer who claimed that Farage's tax and spending policies were grounded in the same 'fantasy economics' used to devastating effect by Liz Truss. The accusation Labour makes is that Yusuf and Farage would spook the City with unfunded tax cuts, sparking a meltdown akin to the ill-fated former prime minister's mini-budget. And despite the posturing from the heights of the Shard, the verdict from many economists is that Starmer could have a point. Reform has made expansive tax pledges worth at least £60bn – with most of the costs relating to a promise to raise the income tax personal allowance to £20,000 a year, a substantial increase on its current £12,570. Reform has also pledged to increase the threshold for the 40% higher rate of income tax in England from £50,271 to £70,000. In the argument about whether Reform's sums add up, Richard Tice, the party's finance spokesperson, has suggested most politicians have no idea about the Laffer curve. Named after the US economist Arthur Laffer, it is an illustration of a theory that there are optimal tax rates at which government revenue is maximised. The idea is that tax cuts could stimulate economic activity, thus bringing in more revenue. While a tax rate of 100% would clearly stop dead economic activity, the idea that tax cuts pay for themselves has also been widely debunked including by Greg Mankiw, the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under George W Bush, who has described Laffer advocates as 'charlatans and cranks'. Tice acknowledges that there is an 'optimum point', while Yusuf said that in government Reform would prioritise tax cuts 'in the right sequential order and make sure that the numbers add up'. Many economists, too, warn tax rises announced by Labour will undermine economic growth. However, the criticism remains that Reform has mostly promised sweeping tax giveaways without credible corresponding measures to avoid widening the country's already £100bn-plus budget deficit and £2.7tn debt pile. Add to this Britain's low economic growth rate, above-target inflation, elevated national debt and rising borrowing costs for governments around the world linked to investor fears over Donald Trump's trade war, and the argument is that room for additional borrowing is pretty slim. After Farage's welfare pledges this week, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said Reform's announced fiscal policies so far would cost the exchequer between £60bn and £80bn a year in foregone income and additional outlays. The IFS warned this was not yet balanced by corresponding spending cuts or tax rises elsewhere, which it said would be needed for the plan to be implementable. Yusuf said Reform's plans were a work in progress and were liable to change as the party developed its 2029 manifesto. 'You shouldn't just transfer or copy and paste all of that [policies from the 2024 document] into an assumption about what the manifesto would be for the next general election,' he added. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion It could be a fair point given the distance to the next election, and how much the economy is likely to change between now and then. Labour also stands accused of reneging on its early 2024 promises. However, voters may expect better from a putative party of government – especially one trading on public anger at politicians for moving the goalposts. However, Yusuf insisted that savings could credibly be made from 'scrapping net zero', slashing overseas aid to zero, stripping 5% from 'quango spending' each year and removing all funding for 'asylum hotels'. 'The numbers I just gave you there add up to 78 odd billion, right? And that would be £350bn-£400bn over the course of Nigel's first term,' he said. 'Economists at the Institute for Government have questioned whether these savings would ever be deliverable, highlighting that most of the £45bn of net zero savings promised by Reform was money being spent not by the government, but the private sector. When Truss brought forward her mini-budget, she used a Treasury document running to more than 40 pages to justify her tax plans – yet still tested the confidence of City investors. For Reform, there could be a danger of history repeating.
