Britain has been through the wringer since last month’s mini-budget. Not only was Kwasi Kwarteng’s not-so-mini plan the trigger for a domestic financial crisis and higher mortgage costs for millions, it lit the blue touchpaper for his political downfall and that of his close friend, Liz Truss. It was all supposed to be so different. Truss had spent the summer promising to cancel the rise in...
Statistics tend to define the way we think about property. As a nation, we buy and sell more than 100,000 homes a month – more than 3,000 a day. House prices went up 7.8% in the year to June 2022, taking the average property value in the UK to £286,397. The average deposit for first-time buyers is now about £75,000. People aged over 65, who represent less than a quarter of the population, own...
At half-past 10 on Wednesday morning, Sky Brown, 13 years and 28 days old, tipped forward on her board and dropped into the scalded concrete bowl of the Olympic skate park. As she did it, the stadium DJ started to play the Stone Roses’ She Bangs the Drums, released 19 years before she was even born, so as she carved down, across and up that first curve the driving bass line thumped around the...