Latest news with #Islington
Daily Mail
12 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Kate Garraway forced to sell £2 million home after racking up £800k debt caring for her late husband Derek Draper
Kate Garraway has been forced to sell her second home after being left in £800,000 debt due to caring for her late husband Derek Draper. The TV presenter, 58, was left the mammoth bill after Derek fought a brave four-year battle against Covid before tragically passing away in January last year. She is also battling company debts after Derek's psychotherapy firm Astra Aspera Ltd went bust owing hundreds of thousands to creditors including a huge sum to HMRC with Kate currently trying to pay back some of the debt. Now the Good Morning Britain star is flogging a stunning three-bed, four-storey townhouse in Islington, north London, which the couple bought for £550,000 in 2004. The property had been up for rent for £6,750-a-month, but is now in the process of being sold, confirmed by the Land Registry Office, and should fetch around £2 million. In January last year, the Mail on Sunday reported that Kate was faced with having to sell her five-bedroom family home in Muswell Hill, but by selling her second home, this appears to have been avoided. Daily Mail have contacted Kate's representatives for comment. One source said at the time: 'It is so sad for Kate. Not only has she had to watch her beloved husband suffer for almost four years but her financial worries have never been far away from her thoughts. 'It has cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to look after Derek and do everything she could to get him better but it's left her struggling. 'The house is about all she has left financially and she is now facing up to the fact it might have to be sold.' According to the rental listing for her Islington pad, it has a roof terrace and private garden. 'This beautifully presented 3-bedroom terraced house offers a perfect blend of modern living and period charm. Spread across four spacious floors, this property is ideal for those seeking comfort, style, and convenience. 'The ground floor features a welcoming living area with original features and ample space for relaxing or entertaining. The fully fitted kitchen is stylish and functional, leading directly to a private garden, perfect for outdoor dining or enjoying the fresh air. 'On the first and second floors, you'll find well-sized bedrooms, each offering plenty of natural light and built-in storage. The top floor boasts a stunning roof terrace with panoramic views across London, making it the perfect spot to unwind or entertain guests,' states the blurb. An identical property on the same street sold for £1.865M in June last year. The most recent liquidator's report for Astra Aspera Ltd shows that Kate has been trying to repay some of the debt she owes - and HMRCS have dramatically decreased their tax demand. The directors' loan account was overdrawn by £139,849, but the liquidator, Greenfield Recovery, hired solicitors, The Wilkes Partnership, 'to assist in the recovery… and the sum of £21,000 has been received in this report period'. According to the latest liquidator's report, HMRC has submitted a new preferential claim of £288,054. This is a third of its previous submission of £716,822. It's not known why the HMRC has dropped its demand. There are also creditor claims of £196,548 from four other firms including a £50,000 bank loan. It looks like there'll be no pay out for creditors. In 2012, two other companies jointly controlled by Kate and Derek were wound up by creditors. Fulfill Media Ltd had debts totalling £922,807, which included £88,486 owed to HMRC, £90,882 to trade creditors, and £462,808 in 'third party loans'. Countrymouse Media Ltd was liquidated owing £189,121, which included £98,944 to the taxman and £48,000 on an overdrawn directors loan account. Derek and Kate were both personally owed £24k each by the business.
The Independent
3 days ago
- The Independent
Tuk-tuk driver caught on camera stealing £24,000 of wine
A tuk-tuk driver, Iuliu Kubola, was captured on CCTV stealing £24,000 worth of wine from a restaurant in the City of London. The 61-year-old removed 73 bottles from Piazza Italiana on Threadneedle Street on 6 May, concealing them in a wheelie bin before leaving on his tuk-tuk. Kubola, from Islington, was arrested on 22 June after an officer recognised him following a police briefing. He is scheduled to be sentenced in September for the theft. Watch the video in full above.
Time Out
3 days ago
- Time Out
The east London borough named one of the best places in the world for cyclists
Cycling through London can be a terrifying prospect. You've got to share the road with huge double deckers, swerve distracted pedestrians and navigate your way around some perilous junctions – to the uninitiated, it doesn't sound at all appealing. But if you've ever thought about swapping public transport for a bike on your morning commute, there are few better, safer places to do it than the capital (honestly!). And there's one particular part of the capital that has just been named one of the best places for cyclists in the world. The People for Bikes City Rating ranks places across the world based on 'how well the bike network in a given area connects people to the places they want to go'. It considers each area's number of protected bike lanes, the off-street paths, slow road speeds and safe crossings to give it an overall score out of 100. Hackney ranked 29th in the world with an overall score of 83. It was named the second best place for bikes in the whole of the UK, just beneath Cambridge, and earned most of its points for its safe bike access to major shopping centres and to recreational amenities like parks and trails. Hackney has put a lot of effort into becoming a bike friendly borough. Its 'cycle permeability programme' sets out to make streets even safer and more accessible for cyclists and to encourage people to hop on their bike instead of their cars or public transport. Hackney Council says that it has the highest number of people cycling to work out of all the London boroughs. Unfortunately, all those bikes are a prime target for thieves in the area. Recent Met Police data has shown that Hackney is the worst place in London for bike thefts – it saw triple the average number of thefts across the city over a 12-month period. But back to the positives — London boroughs did pretty well all round in the People for Bikes City Rating. In fact, they dominated the UK's top 10. Islington ranked third in the UK, Newham came in fourth, Waltham Forest was fifth, Southwark was sixth and Westminster landed in seventh. The number of cycle routes across the capital has more than quadrupled since 2016. Now, its cycle network covers more than 400km, with more routes (like this one on Shaftesbury Avenue) on the way.
Telegraph
6 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
The renters refusing to be ‘trapped' by homeownership
It is widely assumed that every young person has an ambition to buy their own home. Each government has tried to lure voters with policies to boost homeownership. It's a rite of passage in a country obsessed with property. For some young people, the soaring cost of buying of a home has shut them out entirely and consigned them to renting whether they want to or not. Young people are buying their first homes later and later, marooned from the property market by high prices and mortgage rates. But for others, who might be able to afford to buy a home, those years of saving and sacrificing to put down roots are not worth it. This group is mobile, less likely to have children and wary of commitment. Some argue that the stability that comes with owning a home was once a selling point. Now, however, it would be an albatross around their necks. So, they are swearing against homeownership for good. 'I've always seen mortgages as a bit of a trap' Hayley Knight, 37, runs a communications agency. She currently rents a room at a friend's house in Islington and has no desire to ever buy a house. 'I've always seen a mortgage as a bit of a trap. I've rented for years, [though] it's not necessarily a cheaper option.' For some, buying property represents being tied to one place when they crave flexibility. Knight adds: 'I set my business up on the basis of it being purely remote and being able to work from anywhere in the world. 'I don't want any of the commitment [of owning a home] – it doesn't fit into the lifestyle that I have.' Maisie Bamford, 34, rents a flat in Leicester, having previously lived in London. She has no plans to buy a home for the foreseeable future. 'I'm happy here, and it's affordable to me. My life goals have changed – buying a property isn't something that's so important to me any more. I'd rather use my savings for life experiences, having extra money in the bank in case I ever want to travel or move to a different part of the UK. '[Renting] gives me much more freedom, I don't want to be tied down to a specific location. Even if you buy somewhere and rent it out, you still have to be around to manage it.' Elle Sherwood, 24, grew up in Twickenham, south west London, but has moved out and rents in a shared house. She does not envision wanting to buy property in the future. 'Renting gives me choice and flexibility, without the huge financial commitment of buying a property. Also, as my dad's only child, I wouldn't want to be tied down to an area if something happened to him and I had to up sticks. Not being tied to any one space is huge to me.' A lack of ties Part of that desire for freedom is a lack of ties to one location – and for the growing number of young people opting not to have children, the need for a permanent home is diminishing. The age at which women have children has been steadily increasing for decades. In 2023, women were 30.9 years old at childbirth, which has generally been increasing since the mid-1970s. More than a third of teenagers do not want to have children in the future, according to research by University College London. Bamford says: 'Not planning on having children in the near future has shaped [my decision not to buy a house] too. 'More and more people my age are choosing not to have children. Often people settle down near parents and grandparents because they have kids. I don't have that, and a lot of my friends feel the same.' Knight says: 'I don't want children, but if I were to start a family, I wouldn't want to bring them up here. I don't think there's much of a sense of community in the UK any more – everyone is out for themselves.' The lure of a life abroad The rise of remote working has made it much easier to leave the UK. And as real wages have stagnated while the cost of living and homeownership has soared, combined with the highest tax burden since the Second World War, this is an increasingly attractive option for many young people. Nearly three quarters (72pc) of 18- to 30-year-olds would consider living and working in another country in the short or long term, according to the British Council's Next Generation UK 2024 report. Bamford adds: 'If you can work remotely and have a better quality of life, why wouldn't you? When people say they want to live by the beach or somewhere hot, I just think, why not do it?' Tristan Van Den Berg, 25, says that there is a growing awareness among his peers of the better quality of life available in other countries at a much lower price. 'If you earn £1,500 a month, you can go and live in Thailand in a two-bed flat with a pool – it's incredible.' This lies in stark contrast to what you see in the UK, adds Knight. She says: 'Seeing house prices in other countries compared to what you get in the UK is crazy. 'A friend of mine paid £650,000 for a two-bedroom flat in Wimbledon. In Spain, I saw a two-bedroom flat with a pool, private beach access and a mountain view for £150,000 near Malaga. 'You don't get anything for your money in the UK, even outside of London – especially with the stamp duty increase and interest rates where they are.' A lack of faith in the future of Britain's economy is another reason young people might feel put off laying down roots in the form of bricks and mortar, adds Knight. 'We are an island. We no longer have EU support, the economy is sinking, it's worrying. The cost of living is ridiculous. I came back from three years of travelling in October, and I was shocked by how much prices of everything had gone up in such a short period of time.' The cost of homeownership It's not just the price of getting on the ladder which is putting off would-be buyers, but the costs associated with owning and maintaining a home. Owner occupiers' housing costs (OOH) rose quickly between 2021 and 2024, and continue to rise faster than inflation. Renters are increasingly aware of what they would be taking on if they bought property, explains Bamford. 'With the cost of living, and everything being more expensive, I hear stories about friends who have bought and there are so many more things you're responsible for. If my boiler breaks, my landlord comes and sorts it out.' Sherwood adds: 'In Twickenham, there are lots of flooding issues; even if I could afford a house there, there are loads of costs that could come up and be a massive burden because of that. Then I'd be tied to the property because I'd have that mortgage.' While Sherwood acknowledges that she is foregoing a degree of financial stability that comes with a mortgage, she prefers alternative approaches when it comes to investing for the future. 'So much could change [in the coming decades] from regulations, to [property] market fluctuations, to personal circumstances. I would rather invest in stocks and liquid assets for a sense of financial security.'
Telegraph
7 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
The ‘real' drinking pubs serving £5 pints and no fancy food
The Pocket is a tiny pub in north London. Inside, you'll find dark wooden floorboards and panels, an upright piano and a mahogany bar flanked by several stools. It feels as if the pub has been here for years, but it opened in April. There's an impressive range of beers including eight cask lines, but the food offering is minimal: Scotch eggs, sausage rolls, pasties and pickled eggs. It's a boozer, a proper pub, an old-man's pub if you will. You might have another name for them, but wet-led pubs (which no-one ever calls them, though it's the industry term for places whose primary source of revenue is drink rather than grub) are back. This year, London has seen a plethora of openings, mostly refurbishments of previously shuttered pubs. As well as The Pocket in Islington there's The Hand & Marigold in Bermondsey, the Blue Maid in Borough and the Coach & Horses in Stoke Newington. They follow the launch in 2023 of the diminutive and atmospheric Macintosh Ales, also in Stoke Newington, and The Robin in Crouch Hill. Beyond the capital you'll find the Horseshoe in Chipping Sodbury, the Duchess of Kent in Erith, Kent, the Goats Head in Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire, The Vine in Peterborough. I could go on. All have reopened since the pandemic without offering an extensive food menu. It is a tough time for pubs. The British Beer and Pub Association has warned a pub a day will close this year, citing punishing business rates. It estimated that £1 in every £3 taken on beer went to the Treasury. Increasingly, pubs are run by large chains. For decades publicans have turned to food for profit, and most openings these days are gastropubs. Now a swathe of operators, many free of ties to pubcos, are bucking the trend, opening drinking pubs where the food menu boils down to cheese sandwiches, pork pies and pickled eggs – and the beers are the real draw. The Pocket's owner, Pete Holt, has owned two much-loved London boozers, The Cock Tavern and the Southampton Arms, for years, as well as the Howling Hops brewery. His pubs are all drinking pubs. 'They're simple, no nonsense,' he tells me. 'We focus on one thing, which is beer and cider from small independent breweries, and try to do that well. I don't like dealing with chefs: I think they interfere with it being a pub.' Holt reckons the drive for food has been partly driven by the need for tied pubs to buy beer from big breweries at high prices, reducing profit on drinks. He buys beer and cider solely from independent breweries, and The Pocket's beers start at £5.29, a reasonable price for the area. 'People are a bit tired of homogenous chains. Beer-led pubs hark back to a time before gastropubs,' Holt says. Ali Von Lion documents London's pub scene on the London Pub Explorer Instagram page and runs walking tours of the city's boozers. He has noted a long-term decline in local pubs, with chains now dominating the scene. Post Covid, many pubs removed bar stools, enabling them to serve drinks quicker but reducing conviviality. 'To see wet-led pubs coming back is really good,' Von Lion says, citing the Hand & Marigold, which opened on the site of a pub he once frequented. 'They've done a really good job – it's got character and soul, the beer selection is second to none.' The Kings Head in Bristol is a historic pub, open since the 1600s. It boasts an attractive back bar dating from the 1860s and, like the Southampton Arms, was recently named one of the best 500 pubs in England by the Telegraph. Since 2022, it has been run by a local independent brewery, Good Chemistry Brewing. Its co-owner Kelly Sidgwick says the previous iteration 'wasn't really doing itself justice' and closed during lockdown. After taking on the lease, Sidgwick wanted to 'show its beauty and history'. The team painted the ceiling, changed the lighting, pulled up carpets and made 'the beauty of the pub shine'. It now focuses on independent British beers. 'We want it to be somewhere people can feel comfortable just having a drink,' Sidgwick explains. 'Lots of pubs can make you feel like if you're not eating you're not welcome. That's not what pubs are about.' There's no kitchen at the Kings Head, just cheese and onion sandwiches on the bar and a weekday meal deal offering a pint of cask, a roll and a packet of crisps for £7.50 – excellent value in this day and age. Recently, the team added an extra cask line – a renewed interest in cask beer is partly behind the return of the boozer. For Von Lion, boozers offer something more authentic and less sanitised than a glitzy gastropub. He has noticed younger generations flocking to old-school pubs like the Army & Navy in London, where the floors are carpeted and the beer prices aren't extortionate. Simon Cereda, who runs the Simon's Pub Tour Instagram account, agrees: 'There's been a post-Covid fetishisation of old-man pubs, the Guinness wave and all that. I think it speaks to people wanting a place where spontaneous socialising happens, with lower barriers to going out, where bookings aren't required.' He argues that wet-led pubs generally provide a better atmosphere. Punters share tables and converse – although sitting in the corner with a newspaper is just fine. There are, of course, downsides to not serving much food. Holt says by 8pm ravenous drinkers leave in search of dinner; Sunday lunchtimes can be quiet. But with three beloved boozers, the benefits outweigh the downsides. And he's found a solution: all of his pubs, and those run by Good Chemistry, allow guests to bring their own food. 'Food does bring people in and make them stay longer,' admits Sidgwick. But for now, her boozers are running just fine.
