Top story
Drinks industry refuses to swallow government line on alcohol pricing
Despite general agreement that something must be done about Britain’s booze culture, opinions remain divided over plans to introduce a minimum unit price. By the end of this month, a new wave of alcohol promotions will be launched in supermarkets targeting Christmas pay packets. That big push should coincide with the long-awaited launch of a Home Office consultation on how to implement government plans to enforce a minimum charge per unit of alcohol. And, in January, a delayed judicial review will attack Scotland’s more advanced moves to legislate to increase the prices of the cheapest alcohol being sold in supermarkets and off-licences. The challenge in Scotland has been spearheaded by the Scotch Whisky Association - a trade body whose policy-making council is dominated by major drinks groups such as Johnnie Walker-owner Diageo, Pernod Ricard’s Chivas Regal and Edrington, the home of Famous Grouse. Meanwhile, EU wine producers, concerned about how their exports to Britain will be hit, have launched their own campaign in Europe, albeit one that caused eyebrows to arch when the initial objection came from the seemingly unlikely quarter of Bulgaria. Conspiracy theorists even pondered if the former communist state challenged British policy with the assistance of the global drinks industry lobby. The Bulgarian embassy declines to comment on that theory, although a spokeswoman for SABMiller, the brewer behind 86 beer and cider brands, including Peroni Nastro Azzurro, is more forthcoming. She explains: “Working with recognised industry trade bodies across Europe, SABMiller has sought to present the facts about minimum pricing. In such an important public policy debate, it’s vital that governments and regulators understand the unintended consequences that might ensue from what the UK government acknowledged is little more than an experiment.” However, despite the objections, the Home Office insists it will be launching its consultation this autumn. “The government is committed to the introduction of a minimum unit price,” a spokesman says. “The proposal has the backing of the Royal College of Physicians and the Association of Chief Police Officers and could mean 50,000 fewer crimes and around 900 fewer alcohol-related deaths per year by the end of the decade.” These health and crime statistics are the typical arguments presented by those who favour minimum pricing, and they frequently draw from research conducted by Sheffield University. The academics’ latest update in January stated that “increasing levels of minimum pricing show steep increases in effectiveness”, especially when combined with a ban on “price-based promotion, including straight discounting from list price in addition to multi-buy offers”. Introducing a 50p minimum unit price, the research predicts, would cause consumption to fall by 5.7%, or 7.8% if combined with a promotion ban. However, it is not quite as simple as that. Those opposing the plans predictably hint at alleged flaws in the Sheffield report, and suggest minimum pricing would not work in reality in the way the model suggests, and that we are already drinking less as a nation. But while the arguments are obvious, those lining up on each side of the debate are not. The Portman Group, the drink industry lobbyist that includes Diageo, Carlsberg and Heineken among its members, is twitchy about discussing the issue at all, as its members cannot agree on the topic. One, Molson Coors, has publicly stated that it broadly supports the proposals. Meanwhile pub groups, which casual observers might expect to welcome the move as most of their alcohol is already priced higher than suggested thresholds, are also split. Rooney Anand - the chief executive of pub operator and brewer Greene King, and one of the more outspoken supporters of the policy - argues: “It is time to take decisive and targeted action in the fight against the worsening relationship with alcohol that we see in Britain today.” Few disagree with that sentiment, but colleagues within his own industry still vehemently oppose minimum pricing. One is Tim Martin, the candid chairman of JD Wetherspoon, who believes the whole policy is a political PR stunt. “[Minimum pricing is] nuts,” he says. “It is obfuscation by trying to pretend that the government is dealing with the issue. All that will happen from a pub’s point of view is that the tax inequality [when compared with supermarkets] will remain. Tax equality between pubs and supermarkets would be much more effective than minimum pricing. [Minimum pricing] is a placebo that won’t have any effect on the underlying problem. It’s utter bollocks, basically. If you want people to pay more for their beer, there is one solution: get them to go to pubs. The problem with Cameron and Osborne is they haven’t worked in a fucking pub.”
The Observer
VAT
West Cornwall Pasty Company is charging VAT despite winning tax battle
It was seen as a humiliating climbdown for the Government and a massive triumph for British bakers. Proposals aired earlier this year to impose VAT on Cornish pasties and sausage rolls caused such an outcry that the move was dropped after just a few weeks. Cooked food left to cool was no longer VAT-able. However, last week the West Cornwall Pasty Company quietly started charging VAT to its customers anyway.Having switched off its hot cabinets when the new rules came in at the beginning of October, the chain has now turned them back on again, meaning that the pasties stay hot - but they are also subject to VAT. A spokesman for the company said: “We have been listening to our customers and over the past month they been telling us that they expect pasties to be served hot and they would rather pay VAT and be guaranteed this. For that reason we have turned our cabinets back on to ensure that every pasty we serve is of the very best temperature and quality. Unfortunately however, this means that we have had to increase the price of our pasties in order to pay the 20% levy.”However eagle-eyed customers have spotted that the price of a sausage roll has increased by 10p more than the 20 per cent VAT charge, meaning it has jumped from £2.25 to £2.80.The company said that overall prices had been kept under the 20% increase, including the meat pasty that has gone up by less than 10%. Rival Greggs has no plans to keep food hot so its sausage rolls and pasties will remain VAT exempt.
Mail on Sunday
Pubs
Beer duty threat to PM’s local
Historic pub in Prime Minister David Cameron’s backyard faces closure as the landlord can’t even pay himself. A boozer at the heart of Cameron’s Cotswold’s constituency could be another casualty of the beer duty escalator. Early evening at The Chequers, and the locals are in - with one exception. Cameron still hasn’t turned up. Which is a pity. Because if the PM ever joined the regulars at the bar at teatime they would have a lot to chat about. And why, after 500 years on a street corner in Chipping Norton at the heart of Cameron’s Cotswolds constituency, the future of The Chequers looks so uncertain. The pub could be another casualty of the beer duty escalator, which will add 5% tax next year - a burden on landlords that the Sunday People insists should be scrapped. Local Ian McFall, 40, promises he wouldn’t talk politics with the PM - “We’re too civilised for that,” he says. “But I would ask him to explain why the pint he had just bought me is so expensive. And I’d want him to hear why a pub like this is so important to us. It’s not a drinking place. It’s a meeting place. We don’t want to lose it.” Landlord Jim Hopcraft has been preparing his accounts and, again, the figures make grim reading. The £3.50 he gets for every pint of London Pride bitter he sells includes nearly £1.14 in tax. That’s money in the government’s pocket, not Jim’s. During the two years he has been running The Chequers he has not been able to pay himself a wage. The best hope for landlords like him, he says, would be for the government to end the duty escalator. Otherwise, with 7,000 of the nation’s public houses already gone, The Chequers, with its low-slung oak beams and stone walls dating back to the 1500s, might be at risk of joining them. “If we have to go, probably the brewery would want to find another landlord. But customers might drift away, it might be tempting to sell it. It could become a Tesco Express, or a block of apartments.” Dad-of-two Jim is preparing a video for the Prime Minister which includes a tour of the building from the ancient cellars to the newly refurbished restaurant, with the stark message: This is your local too, Mr Cameron, please don’t let it die.
Sunday People
Pizza/Health/Restaurants
American invader gains ground in Britain’s pizza war
Papa John’s is poised to make its first UK profit after 13 years. The competition may be hot, but the expanding pizza market has defied the recession. Today, Papa John’s has 4,000 delivery outlets in 33 countries. While the chain’s founder and chief executive John Schnatter had his home town licked after opening just a handful of shops, convincing Britain of the merits of Papa John’s has been much tougher. On this side of the Atlantic, competition is intense and Domino’s and Pizza Hut have been dominant. Nonetheless, Papa John’s is poised to make a profit for the first time since it entered Britain in 1999 through the acquisition of the Perfect Pizza chain. Many of the sites acquired were converted to the American company’s brand, but it has taken a long time for the Papa John’s name to match the public profile of its bigger rivals. “The only disadvantage we have [in Britain] is that this market is so big,” Schnatter said during a flying visit to London to celebrate the opening of the 200th Papa John’s franchise here. It seems a perverse comment from a man whose business is spread across America. However, he argues that scale is vital to build awareness — and in a city as big as London, with a population of eight million, it has needed dozens of stores to impinge on people’s consciousness rather than the three it took when he started in Jeffersonville, Indiana. “In Britain, people are finally noticing Papa John’s in the market,” said Schnatter, who argues that this achievement should not be underestimated. “We’ve had 27 quarters, getting on for 28, of positive like-for-like sales growth,” he said. “Frankly, considering how much bigger Domino’s and Pizza Hut are, and we’re in a recession, I am amazed at our success and at the momentum building up.” The trick will be to maintain the upward trajectory. Pizza Hut may have been distracted by Yum! Brands, its parent company, trying to sell a chunk of its 700-strong British operation, but Domino’s has not made life easy for its upstart rival. “At a local level, there has been some pretty intense competition,” said Lance Batchelor, chief executive of Domino’s, which has about 750 outlets in Britain and Ireland. Batchelor refuses to enter a “tit-for-tat” debate about who has the better product, insisting that his company will simply focus on “great pizza and wonderful service”. “If we do that, we win,” he added. Schnatter may have something to say about that. However, the biggest concern for the chains is less to do with which has the freshest mozzarella and more about how long they can keep growing as Britain limps out of recession. Domino’s recently announced like-for-like sales growth of 3.7% in the UK for the third quarter of the year, a slowdown from the 8.1% reported in the previous three months. This sparked a 4% fall in the share price and led Batchelor to admonish the City for its short-termism. Figures from Mintel, the market research group, suggest that any pessimism in the Square Mile is misplaced. Between 2006 and 2011 — which includes the first three years of the financial crisis — Britain’s pizza delivery and takeaway market rose 20% to £827m. Mintel predicts that the value of the market could rise to £1.1bn by 2016, but the forecast comes with a caveat. It points out that the takeaway market “has a strong focus on discounting”. Schnatter, whose marketing strategy revolves around boasting about using “better” ingredients than rivals, insists that customers are willing to pay for quality. He says Papa John’s improving finances in Britain are evidence that the approach is working. According to the most recent accounts, the British arm lost £1m in the year to December 2011, roughly half the figure for 2010, on sales - franchise fees - of £23m. It is on track to move into the black this year and hopes to open 150 more stores within three years. It has taken longer than anticipated to achieve success on this side of the Atlantic. The group wrongly expected the acquisition of the Perfect Pizza chain to give it a perfect start. Schnatter, 50, said a lot of its problems in this country were “self-inflicted”. In particular, he claimed that previous executives here were allowed to do things as they thought best, even if it was not necessarily from the John Schnatter coaching manual. “We were told that, in Britain, the product needed to taste a certain way, that people would not like our pizza. Also, we had to do a lot more potato products, a lot more chicken products.” This, it turned out, was wrong, so “we changed a few things”, the chief executive said. “We had to get [all the franchisees] doing it the Papa John’s way.” Now strongly on track, the operation forms an important plank of Schnatter’s international strategy. “There are three markets I believe in wholeheartedly,” he said. “I believe in Russia, the Americas and the UK.”
Sunday Times
Could Eton Mess be off the menu at Eton?
A review of school meals might be extended to private schools as well as academies. The men asked by Michael Gove to review school meals are considering defying the Education Secretary over academies’ food standards. Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent, in an interview with The Independent on Sunday, denied it was “rolling pins at dawn” with Jamie Oliver, a staunch critic of Mr Gove over school food, and said they hoped he would back their recommendations when they are launched next spring. Dimbleby, who was asked by Mr Gove to review school meals after meeting on holiday in Morocco, and Vincent, his co-founder of the healthy fast-food chain Leon, have told the Education Secretary they are looking at including academies and free schools in a new school-food blueprint. The pair told The IoS that even private schools could be included. Vincent said he had spent “70 per cent of my time” on the school food plan, including spending £8,000 of his own money on travel expenses and, during one school visit, buying a saucepan for its kitchen. “I think that Michael Gove is decent. I think Jamie Oliver is decent …and sometimes there is a tendency for decent people to create strange fights in the media or in this crazy sort of matrix world that we create. And I find it a very challenging job, a very important job, to get over that, to allow these good people to work together.”
Independent on Sunday
Moor Park eyes MWB
The financial woes of MWB Group Holdings have sparked renewed interest in its highly regarded Malmaison and Hotel du Vin chains, this time for the whole thing rather the minority stake previously up for grabs. Word is that Moor Park Capital Partners, a property investment firm run by three former Nomura executives, is one of three serious bidders for the £180m-plus business.
The Times
Alcohol
Celebrity excess aiding cut in alcohol consumption
The drink-fuelled excesses of some celebrities are helping to cut alcohol consumption among those in their late teens and early twenties, researchers believe. Far from wishing to emulate stars from sport and showbusiness who are photographed staggering out of nightclubs, experts say a growing number of under-25s dislike such behaviour and seek to avoid repeating it. It is one of several reasons cited for a sharp drop in the levels of drinking among 16 to 24-year-olds. According to figures published by the NHS, the percentage of men who had had an alcoholic drink during the previous week fell by a third between 1998 and 2010. For women, the figures were down by a quarter in the same period. The decline was particularly marked in 2009-10, the latest available figures, with the number of men who said they had drunk alcohol during the previous seven days dropping from 56% to 48% and for women from 51% to 46%. The percentage of men aged between 16 and 24 who said they had consumed eight units or more on a single day during the preceding week fell from 39% in 2009 to 22% in 2010. For women, the percentage dropped from 23% to 17%. As well as rejecting celebrity excess, younger people are influenced by tough economic conditions which mean they have less disposable income and fear they cannot turn up for work with a hangover. A further factor is the growing number of young Britons from ethnic backgrounds in which alcohol is either forbidden or is drunk in moderation. Tom Smith, policy programme manager with the charity Alcohol Concern, said: “While some young people are continuing to drink heavily, growing numbers are choosing to drink less or to abstain. Less disposable income and the growing numbers of young people who come from different cultural backgrounds where alcohol is either forbidden or far less prevalent appear to be the main reasons for the change. But other factors could include a rejection of the celebrity culture of excessive drinking and a need to work harder than previous generations.” Studies show young people are increasingly socialising in places where alcohol is not the focus of activity, with pubs and nightclubs giving way to coffee bars, the cinema, sports clubs and gyms. While alcohol consumption for the under-25s has fallen markedly, there has been an increase in some age brackets. For example, the proportion of women aged 25 to 44 who consumed more than six units on at least one day in the preceding week rose from 11% in 1998 to 20% in 2010. For women aged 45 to 64, it increased from 4% to 11% over the same period. The proportion of men aged 25 to 44 who drank more than eight units on at least one day the previous week fell from 29% to 25% but for those aged 45 to 64, it rose from 17% to 19%.
Sunday Times
Brits work up a thirst for US ale
American beers are booming over here with sales of £30m. American craft ale, which is often strong, extremely hoppy and carbonated, now accounts for about 9% of the $96bn (£60bn) US beer market. These small batch-produced ales have become hugely popular in the UK, with sales increasing 86 per cent last year as grocers started stocking bigger craft brands such as Sierra Nevada and Brooklyn Brewery. Sales volumes are expected to go up by another 20 per cent this year, taking the market comfortably through the £30m barrier in Britain. Real ale aside, virtually every other beer market is in decline. “US microbreweries are churning out some fantastic beers,” says American Craft Beer Company finance director Ed Firth. “The trend is that people are drinking less, but drinking better, and as we see a move towards minimum pricing these premium brands’ prices will become more aligned with the mainstream.”The beer duty escalator means that the tax on a pint increases 2% more than inflation every year, which will raise the Treasury an extra £35m in 2013 alone.However, the British Beer & Pub Association says that the gain is easily wiped out by job losses, as people can no longer afford the price of a pint, an argument that reached the floor of the House of Commons in a debate on Thursday. There is the benefit that the relative price gap between fully flavoured beer and watery mass-produced lagers no longer seems so obstructive. Julian Grocock, chief executive at the Society of Independent Brewers, says: “Americans themselves call lagers like Budweiser a ‘commodity beer’. If that sounds like I’m being disparaging it is, because I am being disparaging.” Britain’s imports of citrusy, extremely bitter India Pale Ales - a hugely popular style across the pond - such as Maryland’s Flying Dog Raging Bitch were actually inspired by the UK’s Campaign for Real Ale. In 1971, Camra held its first annual general meeting to promote traditional styles of ale at the Rose Inn in Nuneaton, a move that inspired beer-lovers in the US who had seen large-scale consolidation lead to the mass production of tasteless lagers. So the industry has gone full circle, with thirsty Brits downing the Rogue Brutal IPAs and Stone Brewing Arrogant Bastard Ales that the UK helped to inspire.
Independent on Sunday
C&C set for London
The owner of Magners Irish cider and Diamond White has told investors it will move its main listing from Dublin to London early next year. Top 20 shareholders have long called on C&C Group chief executive Stephen Glancey to make the change, to access the Square Mile’s greater liquidity. Dublin’s benchmark ISEQ20 Index has struggled through the financial crisis, with building materials giant CRH and convenience food group Greencore having already defected to the UK. C&C already has a secondary listing in London though the bulk of its shares are traded in Ireland. The swap has been delayed this year as it worked on a $305m (£190m) purchase of Vermont Hard Cider Company, which owns US leading brand Woodchuck. Now C&C is expected to announce the switch of stock exchanges early in 2013.
Independent on Sunday
Jim Beam results ahead of expectations
Third-quarter results for the American spirits group behind Jim Beam and Courvoisier were ahead of expectations, with comparable net sales up 4% and underlying earnings up 17% amid accelerating investment.
The Times
Record rent for Piccadilly whisky shop
The chairman of Celtic football club has agreed a record rent on London’s Piccadilly to bag a site for a shop that sells rare malts costing thousands of pounds a bottle. Ian Bankier, part-owner and executive chairman of Glenkeir Whiskies, will open a branch of the Whisky Shop opposite the Ritz. The chain has 20 stores across Britain. The most expensive bottle on offer, Royal Salute Tribute to Honour, is priced at £150,000. Piccadilly has seen a flurry of rent records as retailers and restaurants look beyond Bond Street for well-heeled customers. The Whisky Shop’s 1,000 sq ft letting is understood to be priced 7.5% higher than the recent record set by Caffé Concerto. The landlord is Crosstree Real Estate Partners, which is backed by the billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli. Crosstree was advised by Briant Champion Long, the property consultant. The Whisky Shop was advised by Union Land. Bankier was chief executive of Burn Stewart Distillers, which was bought in 2003 by CL Financial, the owner of Angostura Bitters.
Sunday Times
Leisure
Creditors to Music Festival left £7.5m out of pocket
Creditors to Music Festivals - the Aim-listed company behind the Hop Farm Music Festival and the Benicassim Festival in Spain - were left £7.5m out of pocket when it went into administration last month.Despite having Bob Dylan headline last summer’s sell-out Hop Farm event, the group was put in the hands of administrators at Shipley’s on October 3.The festivals themselves - subsidiaries of Music Festivals - did not go into administration. Ticket seller Entim was owed £823,000 at the time of the collapse, according to a creditors’ report.Vince Power, who founded Mean Fiddler and owned 23% of Music Festivals, is owed £750,000, a loan he provided just four months ago. There is expected to be about £2m left in the company to distribute to creditors.
Mail on Sunday
Property
Robert Tchenguiz tries to rebuild a frozen empire
Robert Tchenguiz tells the Sunday Telegraph how he plans to put his business back together and make sure the SFO is held to account. Robert Tchenguiz is struggling to move on. Sitting on the fifth floor of his Mayfair office block, Tchenguiz is still dwelling on the day he was arrested by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). More than 18 months have passed since the morning in March last year that 130 officers raided the home and offices of him, his brother Vincent and his colleagues. Millions of pounds have been spent in legal fees to clear his name. The botched investigation has shredded the reputation of the SFO while clearing the Tchenguiz brothers of any wrongdoing. Despite all that has happened, in one crucial and painful way, nothing has changed. “What we said when I was arrested is what we are saying now,” Tchenguiz explains, reading the press release put out on the day he was arrested. “I hold the SFO responsible for loss and damage which my family, my business and my reputation have suffered.” While there is satisfaction in his voice, satisfaction that he has been entirely vindicated in the position he took last year, there is also anger. As Tchenguiz explains, in the seven years leading up to his arrest he did nearly 60 deals, each averaging over £100m. Since his arrest he has done none. “Once you are arrested, your world changes, business stops. The experience of being arrested is not something that you can take lightly. Socially it affects your life. People don’t know if you are right or wrong. The way the SFO did it, it was like a slam dunk, like they had all the information. Your business world ceases to exist. Any business, future, unfinished, if you are a buyer, seller, it all stops. Nobody wants to deal with someone that has this cloud over their head - especially when it comes from the SFO. This is not a driving offence.” He has lost key lieutenants in Aaron Brown and Mark Grunnell. His staffing numbers have fallen by 80% and the strength of his relationships with key City institutions has been severely tested. “When you arrest a businessman it stays with you forever,” he says. While the anger and desire for retribution is still fresh, Tchenguiz realises that life, pre-March 2011 has to resume. He is rebuilding his team, looking for new deals and the financial backing to make them work. Two weeks ago it was reported that Tchenguiz was close to completing a deal to buy the building housing Santander’s Madrid headquarters. The deal could be the catalyst he needs to push further deals through. “Hopefully we will get going with our business again,” says Tchenguiz, adding: “It is an opportune time to do business. If you have capital behind you there are interesting things to do and the market has shrunk. If there were 100 players back in 2006 there are maybe just three now.”
Sunday Telegraph
Land Sec close to Printworks deal
Land Securities is close to revealing a £100m deal to buy Manchester’s Printworks, the city centre leisure complex that includes an Imax cinema and Tiger Tiger nightclub. The FTSE 100 property giant is understood to have struck an agreement with the Printworks’ owner, Resolution Property, an investment firm backed by American Ivy League universities such as Harvard and Yale. Land Securities, whose portfolio includes Cabot Circus shopping centre in Bristol and the “Walkie-Talkie” skyscraper development in London, has been pushing into the entertainment sector. Last year it took a stake in X-Leisure, the fund that owns Brighton Marina and the Xscape indoor ski slopes in Milton Keynes, Leeds, Castleford and Glasgow. Withey Grove, where the Printworks stands, became known as “the other Fleet Street” in the late 1800s as newspaper owners realised the importance of having a northern base. The Printworks changed hands between Viscount Kemsley, whose empire included The Sunday Times and The Daily Sketch, Roy Thompson, the Canadian media magnate, and Robert Maxwell, whose Mirror Group occupied the site until 1988. It was redeveloped by the Richardson family in the late 1990s after Manchester’s city centre was damaged by an IRA bomb, and opened with a roster of bars and restaurants in 2000. As well as the Imax and Tiger Tiger, it has eateries such as the Hard Rock Cafe.
Sunday Times
Economy
North South divide widens
Milton Keynes is in the local authority area most likely to lead Britain out of recession over the next five years, according to the first detailed analysis of regional growth by Experian, the data firm.The newstudy will make uncomfortable reading for the government, which has just published Lord Heseltine’s review of industrial policy. The report recommended a big shift of power away from central government to the regions to help rebalance the economy. Experian’s study suggests the great divide is becoming more entrenched. The 10 areas it identifies as most likely to pull Britain up by the bootstraps over the next five years are all in southern and southeast England. Milton Keynes, a new town most famous for its roundabouts and concrete cows, claimed top position out of 353 local authorities ranked according to Experian’s growth forecasts. Output is predicted to expand by an average of 3.1% a year and employment by 1.9%, compared with a UK average of 1.9% and 0.8% respectively. Experian’s list of the poorest-performing areas, meanwhile, is dominated by towns in north England, Wales and Scotland — all forecast to underperform the national average in terms of both economic output and employment growth. “With manufacturing hit by the eurozone’s slowdown, the northern regions and the Midlands are likely to fare worse than the south in the near term,” said William Thomson, chief economist at Experian. North Ayrshire, in southwest Scotland, has found itself at the bottom of the heap. It is likely to be the worst performing authority over the next five years, with employment falling by an average of 0.4% a year and output declining by 0.2% a year. Six of the ten worst performing regions are in Scotland, which has been hit hard by public-sector job cuts and the renewed downturn in manufacturing this year. The latest purchasing managers’ index for the sector fell to its lowest level since July, suggesting the outlook is, if anything, deteriorating. And in Scotland, unlike the rest of Britain, unemployment has been rising — by 0.2 percentage points to 8.2% from June to August. The poor performance of north England, Wales and Scotland over the medium term is disappointing given that shorter-term data has been more positive. Experian also looked at company sales data in 2010 and 2011 to find towns that had bounced back the most from the recession. Authorities such as Newport, Cleveland and Hull led the way.The sectors that are likely to lead the recovery over the next five years are those in which east and southeast England dominate — information and communications, finance and insurance, and professional services, such as accountancy and law. These make up a combined 40.8% of regional output in the southeast compared with 31.8% in Scotland and 27.4% in northeast England. London will continue to dominate the economic landscape and most of the top 10 growth hotspots are satellites of the capital. “Growth over the next five years is very much a London story although satellite towns need to focus on the right sectors, have good transport links and access to a skilled labour force,” Thomson said.
Sunday Times
And finally
The gastropub that inspired Ian Fleming
The pub where Ian Fleming wrote You Only Live Twice is ¬staking another claim to fame as the first in Britain to win a ¬Michelin star. The Duck Inn at Pett Bottom in Kent gets a mention in the novel as being near James Bond’s childhood home. It bears a blue plaque commemorating the fact that Fleming used to sit at a table in there writing while enjoying a drink and a smoke. The creator of 007 died in 1964. He was a gourmet and had he lived would certainly have been delighted the pub was awarded a Michelin star for seven consecutive years from 1974 until 1981. This triumph was never -officially recognised. Rebecca Burr, UK editor of the Michelin Guide, said: “The Duck Inn was obviously well ahead of its time, as pub food in the Seventies was often not very good. However, the pub (serving good food) ¬symbol was not introduced to the Michelin Guide until 1998.” As a result the official title for being the first Michelin-starred pub went to the Stagg Inn at ¬Titley in Herefordshire in 2001.
Sunday Express
