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New Stamp Duty Rates

The new stamp duty thresholds and applicable tax rates which came into effect on 4th December 2014 are as follows:

• Up to £125,000 = 0%
• Up to £250,000 = 2%
• Up to £925,000 = 5%
• Up to £1.5m =10%
• Over £1.5m = 12%

London’s Economic Geography Has Changed – FT

The FT reports on how London’s economic geography has changed in the 21st century. The inner city has developed rapidly. Its core is growing faster than its periphery. Immigration from around the world is part of this story, but so too is the influx of younger people of childbearing age, attracted to the lifestyles of gentrified inner areas such as Hackney and Lambeth and their improving schools. There has been a new, diverse baby boom in the capital. And unusually, the past 10 years have seen more people arrive in inner London from the rest of England and Wales than leave.

Click link to go story on FT.com

Haggerston Riviera

Uh-oh. The stretch of the Regent’s Canal between Haggerston and De Beauvoir has been branded the Haggerston Riviera. Check out their website.

The Haggerston Riviera

Pop-up shopping containers opening on the canal by Broadway Market

The Dalstonist is reporting that a pop up shopping mall called Containerville will be opening on the Canal close to Broadway Market. Read more here.

East London From The Air

Impressive footage of Hackney from the air…

London’s £12bn Olympic park opens up to the public

After 10 years and costing over £12bn the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park opens to the public on Saturday 5th April, revealing “the biggest new park in Europe for 150 years” with 560 acres of public space, 4,300 new trees and five sporting venues.

Click link to go to the Park’s website:

http://queenelizabetholympicpark.co.uk/

BoE shifts strategy on interest rates

The Bank of England on Wednesday abandoned its six-month-old strategy of pledging to consider raising interest rates only when unemployment falls to 7 percent, saying it would now consider a range of factors.

Mark J. Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, also stressed that a rate increase was still some way off. Click to view story on NY Times

Don’t say Mareditch, Beardy

A local Estate Agent is calling Hackney Central ‘Mareditch’. The Evening Standard is getting all alliterative and saying Hackney Central is all about: “burgers, boozers, bikes and, of course, beards”. Meanwhile the Dalstonist forbids using ‘Mareditch’…

Click to go to a good beard gallery on the Guardian

The Great Migration to London

The Guardian is running a story on London’s magnetic pull for young people all over the UK, illustrated by the statistic that one in three 22-30 year olds leaving their UK hometowns end up in London. Click image to go to the story.

Net flows of people to London. Click image to go to Guardian story