Author: Blake Anderson

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Nigel Farage has set out a radical tax policy giving new or returning non-doms the chance to pay a £250,000 one-off fee to shield them from paying tax and encourage them to stay in the UK.The Reform UK leader will claim that the proceeds will be given to the lowest paid in the country, although one tax expert warned the policy would cost the exchequer £7bn a year.Under the plan, to be detailed on Monday, non-doms would pay a one-off entry contribution…

This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s guide to LondonSure, hitting a backhand overhead smash is hard, but have you ever tried booking a tennis court at peak time in central London? Such are the challenges faced by the average park tennis player in the capital, among whose ranks I count myself. While I still haven’t mastered the former — many hours watching Rafa Nadal reels have done nada — I have at least found a solution to the latter in the form of the new generation of mobile tennis clubs, popping up at park courts across the city.You can…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Villa, Garrion Bridge, offers over £695,000What A listed Victorian villa with five bedrooms, three bathrooms and a conservatory. The 1.3-acre garden features a summer house, a greenhouse and a log cabin/gym.Where The Lanarkshire hamlet of Garrion Bridge; it’s a 10-minute drive east of Larkhall town and 30 minutes south-east of central Glasgow.Why The property retains original features including mosaic-tiled flooring in the vestibule and hall, a wooden staircase, etched glass, cornicing, and fireplaces in the sitting room and drawing room.Who Strutt &…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The writer is UK prime ministerThe world has entered a new economic era. In many ways it is more dangerous, with growing threats to our security. But it is also a world of enormous possibility. Technological advances in life sciences, clean energy, artificial intelligence and more, are profoundly reshaping our economy.It’s a golden opportunity. We can harness these great forces and use them to make our economy both fairer and stronger. The race is undeniably on, but Britain is well positioned to…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Thames Water’s plans to build a privately financed £2.2bn reservoir in Oxfordshire will be challenged by campaigners in the High Court on Wednesday in a landmark case that could upend the company’s drought management plans.The new reservoir — which would cover an area the size of Gatwick airport — was last week designated as a “nationally significant” infrastructure project, meaning it will be considered by the government, not the local planning authority. Groups including the Campaign to Protect Rural England and anti-reservoir activists…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The government has pledged £275mn to create new education programmes and apprenticeships to train up thousands more skilled UK workers by 2029, as part of a long-awaited industrial strategy to be unveiled on Monday.This will include the creation of Technical Excellence Colleges and new courses in areas such as defence and engineering.Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said on Sunday the industrial strategy “will help transform our skills system to end the over-reliance on foreign labour, and ensure British workers can secure good, well-paid…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.There are a number of ways to reach the Isle of Wight from the mainland. But few can be as exhilarating as being collected from Lymington Pier by former Yarmouth Harbour commissioner Phil Keen and racing across the Solent on his rib. Keen is the co-owner of The Terrace, a restaurant overlooking Yarmouth Harbour where I’m heading for lunch. But first he is showing me the sights. Here are the Needles, the three chalk stacks pushing out of the water at the westernmost…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.It has long been the job of the pub landlord to listen as regulars drown their sorrows. Now, it’s the publicans themselves who need a sympathetic ear: people are drinking less while running costs for establishments, notably taxes, have rocketed. But, as drinkers well know, it is always darkest just before opening time. Over the past 10 years, shares in each of the five listed UK pub groups have lost ground. If a brave investor had backed the same groups in the…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The UK government’s promise of an extra £1bn to help disabled people into work is not matched by new money from the Treasury, casting doubt on ministers’ ability to deliver divisive welfare reforms while still tackling other priorities such as youth unemployment. Ministers have framed unpopular cuts to sickness and disability benefits as a “moral mission” to help people into fulfilling work rather than consigning them to a life on benefits. They say that by 2029-30, there will be £1bn of new funding per…

Sensors dotting an actor’s black suit transpose his movements on to an animated creature. A huge monster curls his paw over a ruined church wall, seamlessly blending the virtual and the real. A curved screen surrounds the audience with a lifelike range of mountains and forests.These are digital sets at Belfast’s new £72mn Studio Ulster, one of the most technologically advanced virtual production centres in the world, which is pitching itself as a one-stop shop for moviemakers, game designers, animators and film editors.Northern Ireland’s film and TV industry made its name with medieval fantasy blockbuster Game of Thrones, shot on…