Good morning,
Home REIT has published a full rebuttal to claims made by short seller Viceroy Capital. Chair Lynne Fennah said it was “with deep frustration that the board is having to spend time and resources responding to these baseless and misleading allegations”.
HMRC is chasing 5,500 overseas companies that it suspects have underpaid property taxes. It is sending “nudge letters” to chase missing income tax, Ated, and capital gains running to the tens of millions.
The government is facing another rebellion over its Levelling Up Bill. This time a cabal of Conservative MPs is vowing to block any compromise on the wind farms issue. At this rate it is unlikely that the bill will return to the Commons before the end of the year.
The Local Government Association, meanwhile, has called for urgent clarity from the government on the allocation of levelling up funds after “continual” delays in Whitehall. Local authorities need to have spent the first sums by April, but still have now idea when they will receive the funds.
And Thurrock Council will be forced into a fire sale of buildings, land and other assets as it grapples with a £500m deficit.
SEGRO has launched a £350m, 19-year bond, priced at 175 basis points above gilts, with an annual coupon of 5.125%. The issue was six times oversubscribed.
And cafe-bar operator Loungers is planning even greater expansion, including its new roadside brand, Brightside.
Goldman Sachs has said it will move a small number of traders from its London offices to Milan(£). Some commentators worry that this could be the start of a gradual weakening of London’s position as a financial hub.
And the Bank of England’s governor has said he was not briefed by Liz Truss’s government ahead of September’s mini-Budget. Andrew Bailey said the whole process was “extraordinary” and “abnormal”.
The government is to pay a Chinese state company £100m to buy out its stake in the Sizewell C nuclear plant, as the “golden age” of Anglo-Sino relations comes to an end.
A horse barn erected by Geri Horner, aka Ginger Spice, has been granted part-retrospective planning permission despite complaints from neighbours.
And finally, the seller of a three-bed flat in Bristol has provided prospective buyers with a 5,013-word description of it, including the detail that the jade in the the en suite will help “connect to higher vibrational energies that assist in health, love and business”. Gosh. No wonder they are asking £800,000.
