The BOA had a deputy lawyer – Shahhab Ubbin – in the selection panel room as an observer and Hunt, who suggested that it would take a least 24 hours to carefully consider the outcome, said he was awaiting Ubbin’s report.
However, GB Taekwondo were still quibbling until late on Tuesday night over the conditions insisted by the BOA for this third meeting.
The BOA believe selectors have previously considered undue weight on a head-shot rule and insisted this time all factors were considered with equal weighting.
Cook had earlier written to the Minister for Sport Hugh Robertson and Lord Moynihan expressing his concerns ahead of Wednesday's Olympic selection meeting. He wrote the letter complaining of the process, before he was given less than 24 hours notice to prepare for the latest selection meeting, held in Manchester.
The 21 year-old sent the letter to Robertson before he was informed at 11am on Tuesday of the selection meeting, which began at 7.15am on Wednesday.
A spokesman for Cook wrote on his website: "We can confirm that Aaron Cook wrote a private letter to Lord Moynihan yesterday morning, copying both Sue Nicholls from UK Sport and Hugh Robertson MP, the Minister for Sport & Olympics, expressing his concerns for the current selection process of British Taekwondo for the -80kg spot for Team GB in the Olympic Games and his treatment.
"We can also confirm that, following this letter, Aaron and his coach Patrice were told of today’s selection meeting at 7.15am and had less than 24 hours to prepare”.
“Aaron is disappointed to hear that Lutalo Muhammad has received hate mail. No real fan of Aaron Cook would send such mail. We have always stated that we see Lutalo’s involvement in this mess as being a direct result of the decision by the Performance Team of British Taekwondo to recommend Lutalo for selection – wrongly in our opinion.
"Like Aaron, Lutalo is also a victim. Lutalo is an athlete of immense promise for the future.
“We have only ever discussed facts. Lutalo’s record as a Taekwondo athlete in the Olympic category of -80kg does not compare to Aaron’s. Lutalo has never won an international event in the Olympic weight category of -80kg.
"There was not one athlete in Lutalo’s -87kg victory at the European Championships who will be at the Olympic Games. Lutalo is not ranked in the Top 100 according to the Olympic ranking. Aaron won the European & Olympic Test Event in the -80kg Olympic weight category.
"Aaron has beaten seven of the Top 15 of his Olympic Rivals in their most recent fights and lost to one, whilst Lutalo has not beaten any of them. Aaron is ranked Number 1 in the World and Olympic Rankings because he is the best Taekwondo athlete at his weight class in the world. These are all facts, not opinion.
“We hope that the Selection Panel today think long and hard about their individual votes and that their votes are based on results and performance, as per the Selection Criteria of British Taekwondo and the guidance of both the BOA and Sports Resolution.
“The sport of Taekwondo needs a fair and equitable process today. There will be a lot of pressure on the Selectors to be able to justify their decisions.”
Round-up: Vauxhall Ellesmere Port favourite to build the Ampera, and latest on Clinton Cards and North Wales Business Club - Daily Post
Vauxhall leads Ampera race
THE Vauxhall plant in Ellesmere Port will reportedly start building the Ampera Extended-Range Electric Vehicle in 2015 or 2016.
The Ampera is currently only built at a factory in Detroit, USA.
However, industry speculation suggests parent company General Motors (GM) is considering building the E-REV and possibly other electric cars in Europe come the 2015-16 period.
The Cheshire plant is now considered GM's favourite choice for taking on this new production run, after it was confirmed the site would build the next generation Astra, adding 700 jobs to the already 2,100 strong staff line-up.
Currently the Cheshire-based plant builds the new Vauxhall Astra, which happens to share the same platform as the Ampera.
Card workers await takeover
CLINTON Cards workers across North Wales will find out in the coming days whether their jobs are safe.
US firm American Greetings is expected to take over the last 400 Clinton Cards shops - including Rhyl, Holywell and Llandudno - later this week.
The company - once one of Clinton’s main suppliers - will reportedly pay nothing for the stores but run them as a separate business.
Card factory and WH Smith were touted as buyers but AG put itself first in line by snapping up the collapsed firm’s £35million debt.
Administrators Zolfo Cooper are closing 350 stores, with 3,000 jobs lost.
The collapse of Clinton’s, which will be sold by Friday, came shortly after high street firms Game, Peacocks and Blacks Leisure folded.
Sign up for a summer lunch
NORTH Wales Business Club will hold its summer lunch event on July 13 at Bodysgallen Hall Hotel in Llandudno.
Guest speaker is Dr Barrie Kennard, director of the Centre for Excellence for Leadership and Management Skills in Wales, who recently authored a report on Higher Level Skills Development in Wales.
Tickets £27; applications to Jean Barlow, Tal y Fan, 98 Deganwy Road, Llandudno, North Wales, LL30 1NA.
Alternatively, email: barlow777@btinternet.com.
Vauxhall buff Alisdaire completes drive of his dreams - thesouthernreporter.co.uk
IT took Selkirk veteran car enthusiast Alisdaire Lockhart 22 years of painstaking work to recreate the famous Prince Henry Vauxhall, writes Andrew Keddie.
But all that toil and attention to meticulous detail paid off in spades last week when Alisdaire fulfilled a lifelong ambition by driving his remarkable vehicle on a 620-mile journey through rural Sweden.
In so doing, he emulated the feat of Vauxhall’s legendary founding managing director Percy Kidner and celebrated in style the centenary of the model’s participation in the inaugural Great Swedish Winter Reliability Trial of 1912.
Back in April, we told the story of Alisdaire, who lives in the town’s Ettrick Terrace, as he prepared for his date with destiny.
Only 60 21-horsepower, three-litre Prince Henry models – widely acknowledged as the first British sports cars to exceed 100mph – were ever manufactured by Vauxhall and only a handful exist today.
In 1988, Alisdaire, at that time resident in Bedfordshire and a passionate afficionado of the famous UK motoring marque, set his sights of following in the tyre tracks of Kidner 100 years on.
Using original parts specially transported from Australia, he began the re-creation of the famous model, finally completing the task in Selkirk, where he relocated five years ago. And his dream of taking part in the commemorative centenary reliability trial in Sweden, organised by the Kungliga Automobil Klubb (KAK), has finally come true.
Having travelled with his prized vehicle on the ferry from Harwich, Alisdaire lined up for the first day of the trial at the Tjoloholm Rally, south of Gottenburg, on Sunday, May 20.
He told us: “The following morning, we drove along the southern route of the original event, through Jonkoping and Linkoping, arriving in Stockholm on the Tuesday for a reception at the KAK headquaters where the car was photographed with the original trophies for the event. Thereafter, the car was driven back to Gotheburg by the northern route for the return to the UK on Saturday, May 27.
“On the commemorative run, I was accompanied by Kay Mordza of the Svenska Vauxhall Register, who was a great help with all the arrangements in Sweden, and my co-driver Andrew Duerden of the Vauxhall Heritage Centre in Luton.
“In total, we covered 620 miles in 22 hours of driving time spread over four days. With the open roads and low volume of traffic in Sweden, it was easy to cruise at 55-60mph without any mechanical trouble, with fuel consumption of around 30 miles per gallon.
“To my immense pride and pleasure, my Prince Henry, now safely back in its garage in Selkirk, proved a nimble little runner and was great fun to drive with easy gear changes and a lively performance.
“It must have been very impressive in its heyday of just over 100 years ago.”
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Print this pageLondon 2012: torchbearers picked by sponsors keep flame of commerce alive - The Guardian
Throughout their descriptions of the 70-day Olympic torch relay, the London 2012 organisers talked of having tracked down "8,000 truly inspirational people from across the UK". But while most of the torchbearers were picked through this process, some people – including one of the world's richest men – managed to get on the torch relay by another means: working for, or being affiliated with, one of the London 2012 sponsors.
More than 1,200 spaces were allocated to the International Olympic Committee, the British Olympics Association, and to staff working for Games sponsors – whose picks included company directors, Russian newspaper editors, and even an official at the US's Food and Drug Administration.
Help Me Investigate the Olympics, a crowdsourced news coverage site dedicated to London 2012, looked into torchbearer slots handed out by one particular sponsor, Adidas.
While, generally, slots had been given to junior or mid-level employees, Adidas had also selected Christos Angelides, the £900,000-a-year senior director at Next, which has a retail partnership with Adidas covering the Olympics. Other Adidas slots went to people in the marketing team who had worked on the company's sponsorship.
The group's findings, posted by Paul Bradshaw, also noted descriptions of staff's work performance in their nominating stories, mentioning that one torchbearer had "made a fantastic contribution to the Adidas group business". Another "breathes Adidas … Her positive attitude and 'money in [the] till' approach is legendary" and a third mentioned "achieving my sales targets in every market I have worked in".
A spokesman for Adidas said the firm was restricted by Locog rules and could only offer its torchbearer slots to employees or those in its network. He added that owing to the low average age of the company's staff, not many of their children were old enough to carry the torch.
Other sponsors struck further afield for their choices: among Coca-Cola's selections were the Las Vegas resident Dr Debra Toney, who among other roles sits on a committee of the US's Food and Drug Administration.
Coca-Cola also selected Evgeny Faktorovich, the deputy editor-in-chief of a Russian paper that "supports all social initiative held by Coca-Cola" and Vonta Vontobel, the president of the Brazilian Bottlers Association of Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola, as an official torchbearer partner, was able to allocate places to members of the public – it was responsible for allocating 1,350 slots.
"Over 90% of our allocation has gone to members of the public through our Future Flames campaign, which celebrates inspirational people by giving them the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to carry the Olympic flame," said a spokesman. "A small number of our allocation has been given to some of our employees through a nomination campaign, and to our campaign ambassadors who have helped to find our Future Flames. Our remaining places have been given to our partner organisations and their affiliates."
ArcelorMittal, another organisation supporting the Olympics, was given six torchbearer slots. Two of these went to the company's founder, Lakshmi Mittal, the world's 21st richest man according to Forbes magazine, and his son Aditya, the group's chief financial officer. Among the others, however, were the US technician Angel Alvarez, who donated his kidney to a fellow worker, and Polish employee Filip Kuzniak, who cycled 600km to raise money for a colleague's daughter.
Among 50 torchbearers selected by BP were Gillian James, a member of the company's North Sea leadership team, and Carl Halksworth, the creative director of Landor, BP's design agency partner for the Olympics. As BP sponsored a particular section of the route, near Aberdeen, the remainder of its picks were made up predominantly of "onshore and offshore BP staff, young relatives of staff, business partners, and nominees from local schools, universities and charities".
The electricity giant EDF, meanwhile, included the group's former director of HR and communications among the 71 staff members chosen to carry the torch on the company's behalf.
A London 2012 spokesman said: "Staging the Olympic Games is a huge undertaking and we couldn't do it without the support from our commercial partners. The rights packages for some partners include a small number of torchbearer places that had to be filled through internal campaigns.
"The same torchbearer selection criteria applied across the whole relay – ie personal bests and/or contribution to the community."
London hotels "pricing themselves out of market" for Olympics - Reuters UK
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - Bookings at London hotels for the Olympic period are down by around a third on last summer, with travellers being put off by high prices, a British travel agent said on Wednesday, dampening hopes that the Games will help to revive Britain's economy.
Credit ratings agency Moody's said last month that the Olympics would provide only a temporary boost to corporate earnings but said hotels would be a clear beneficiary.
However, past Games have shown evidence of a displacement effect - with regular tourists put off by fears of overcrowding and high prices during an Olympics.
Hotel wholesaler JacTravel is forecasting visitor arrivals to London in July to be more than 35 percent down on 2011, and August to be almost 30 percent down.
JacTravel's chief executive Mario Bodini said that Olympics expectations had been overly optimistic.
"It's a great event; great publicity for the country, but what we need is sensible hotel pricing, and to make sure it goes back to normal very quickly," he told Reuters.
The travel agent said a four-star hotel room in central London is normally priced between 80 pounds and 120 pounds ($120-180) per night during in the peak summer season, but this year the range is 200 pounds to 415 pounds.
JacTravel's customer base includes travel agents, tour operators and online hotel booking engines, and therefore acts a useful barometer for the inbound tourism market.
JUBILEE PEAK?
Hotel prices in London were distorted when local organisers block-booked 40,000 of London's 100,000 rooms for Games athletes, officials, media and sponsors. In January 2012, 20 percent of these were released back onto the market.
"The demand is still there internationally for people to come to the UK," said Mary Rance, chief executive of trade association UK Inbound, which represents tour operators and hotels.
"There's plenty of availability in London, more than enough hotel rooms, but rates have to be commercially viable ... Hotels and tour operators have to work together better to maximise the opportunity and fill those beds."
Rance worries that many visitors to the UK this year may have already come. Britain has just celebrated the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, the other major event of the summer.
UK Inbound conducted a members' survey last week which found that between May and August 2012 almost half said their tourism bookings were "slightly lower" or "considerably lower" than the year before, (27 per cent and 21 per cent respectively).
Conversely, 52 percent responded that their bookings were either "considerably higher" or "slightly higher" year on year between January and April.
Tour operators' worries about a visitor shortfall contrast with available flight data. Research last week by travel reservations group Amadeus found a 13 percent rise in bookings for flights to London for the Olympic period compared with the same period a year ago.
These figures were based on global air reservations booked through travel agencies, not direct bookings, and do not take into account potential traffic on low-cost carriers.
A significant portion of the travellers who have already booked could be the 11,000 athletes staying in Olympic-village accommodation, and spectators staying in private residences.
UK agents say the spike in air bookings can also be accounted for by Games visitors making unusually early reservations whereas summer holidaymakers wait until nearer the time to book and it is these visitors which the UK hospitality industry fears will fail to turn up in sufficient numbers.
($1=0.6506 British pounds)
(Editing by Keith Weir and Greg Mahlich)
New Opel/Vauxhall Astra saloon revealed - AUTOCAR.co.uk
Opel/Vauxhall has revealed this new Astra saloon – but the four-door is not destined for sale in the UK. The Opel Astra saloon will instead be sold in select western European markets, including Germany and Spain, where 'notchbacks' are popular, as well as Eastern Europe, Russia and Turkey.
The Astra saloon is offered with four petrol and three diesel engines. The most powerful engine is a 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol unit with 177bhp. The most frugal is a 94bhp 1.3-litre oil-burner with CO2 emissions of 99g/km and 76.3mpg.
Opel has also confirmed its new family of turbocharged four-cylinder 1.6-litre petrol engines will be launched in the new Astra four-door from early 2013.
The Astra saloon, sister car to the Buick Verano, is 4658mm long, 1814mm wide and 1476mm high. That makes it 239mm longer than a standard Astra five-door. The four and five-door models share the same 2685mm wheelbase, but the extra length allows for an increase of 90 litres in boot capacity. The 460-litre volume can be increased to 1010 litres by folding the 60:40 split rear bench flat.
Visually, the Astra four-door is identical to the five-door from the rear doors forward. The rear screen has a sharp rake to better integrate the boot. There’s also an integrated rear spoiler and an ‘inner wing’ shape for the rear lamps, an Opel hallmark.
The new model is set to make its public debut at the Moscow motor show in August.
Fitzrovia cemented as hotspot for London art galleries - The Guardian
Fitzrovia, north of Oxford Street, has fast grown to become one of London's key contemporary art hubs. More than 30 galleries have opened in the past four years, including five in the past three months. The area looks set to cement its reputation this month with the launch of Fitzrovia Lates. Forty galleries will open until 9pm on the last Thursday of every month, offering a programme of tours, talks and performances.
Yet as more galleries announce plans to open in or relocate there, one of the most successful, Modern Art on Eastcastle Street, is leaving, prompting warnings to other galleries not to flock there "like sheep" in the hope of finding commercial success.
Stuart Shave, founder and director of Modern Art, whose artists include former Turner Prize nominee Karla Black, has earned a reputation of relocating at the right time. Originally based on Redchurch Street in Shoreditch, he was the first gallery to open on Vyner Street in Hackney in 1998, which subsequently became a thriving hub of the east London art scene.
Since Shave moved into Eastcastle Street in 2008, among the first wave of younger galleries to move into the area, it has undergone a similar, if more well-heeled, transformation, with his private views attracting the likes of Claudia Schiffer. Last June saw the opening of Whisper Gallery, run by Ronnie Wood's son Jamie, which sells affordable limited-edition prints rather than the original pieces favoured by Shave's collectors. This year's arrivals on the street include the second London space of the renowned Haunch of Venison gallery, also based in nearby New Bond Street and New York, and the Carroll/Fletcher gallery, opened by two former Credit Suisse traders in March. Explaining their choice of location, co-director Steve Fletcher said: "There are very few profitable art galleries that are destinations on their own."
Jane England, director of England & Co gallery, which relocated to Great Portland Street from Notting Hill earlier this year, said she understood why Shave was moving. "A couple of galleries that are not up his street have moved next door."
Although he will not comment directly about any of the galleries that have sprung up around him, Shave, tellingly, says of his new space in Clerkenwell, due to open later this year, "there isn't the capacity to have another gallery next door".
Shave, whose Fitzrovia overheads are £250,000 a year, also warned smaller galleries moving to the area that the costs could inhibit their programming. "If you're dedicated to working with more challenging artists, putting on an unsellable exhibition can cost £40,000–£50,000."
He added: "There's no mystique or allure that gets added on when you move to the West End. It's all to do with inverted snobbery, thinking that you've grown out of the East End."
Josh Lilley, who opened his eponymous gallery on Riding House Street in Fitzrovia in 2009, is convinced that the area offers more for smaller commercial galleries than the East End. He recalls being introduced to Jerry Speyer, chairman of the New York Museum of Modern Art (Moma), by someone from an East End gallery. When Speyer next came to London, he visited Lilley but did not have time to go out east to the other gallery.
"We've had £1.5m of sales in three years, which is considerable when almost everything we sell is £10,000 and under," says Lilley.
However, Alison Jacques, who relocated her gallery from Mayfair to Fitzrovia in 2007, said she applauds Shave's decision to move from the increasingly crowded Eastcastle Street. "No one really wants someone doing something on your coat tails."
Like Shave, she questions the wisdom of galleries moving from larger spaces in the East End to smaller spaces in central London. Her gallery was specifically designed for her roster of artists: "I'm a gallerist not a shopkeeper."
Jacques added: "Do your own thing. Fitzrovia is full of galleries. I think it's an amazing moment for a gallery to open in the East End or to establish themselves in a new area. You only have to look at Stuart [Shave] or Jay Jopling's White Cube in Bermondsey – you'd never have been able to create that space in the West End. It's those kinds of gallerists that stand out from the crowd."
London 2012: Great Britain name powerful rowing squad - BBC News
Great Britain have named 48 rowers in the squad for the London Olympics, with four places still to be decided.
Remaining selections in the men's and women's eights will be finalised "in due course", said a Team GB statement.
Katherine Grainger“There is a sense that the upcoming home Games will be on a different scale to anything we've ever seen before”
Britain will compete in 13 of the 14 rowing events at Eton Dorney, with the men's four and men's lightweight double scull defending titles.
The host nation hopes to improve on the record haul of six medals that saw them top the rowing medals table in Beijing.
"We go to the start in London ready to defend our status as the leading rowing nation from Beijing but we are under no illusion as to how tough winning medals, especially gold medals, will be at this Games," said David Tanner, GB Rowing Team performance director.
As expected, Andrew Triggs Hodge, Tom James, Pete Reed and Alex Gregory will attempt to win a fourth consecutive gold medal for Britain in the men's four, following in the footsteps of Sir Steve Redgrave, Sir Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell among others.
The crew have won both World Cup races this year but were pushed hard by Australia in Lucerne last time out.
"I'm thrilled to be part of the biggest British team ever at our London Olympics," said Reed.
"I have been training for this all my life one way or another. I am a proud lieutenant from the Royal Navy, a proud Olympian and a proud Briton. I'm racing to win."
Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger are firm favourites in the women's double scull, with Scot Grainger looking to win a first gold after taking silver at the last three Games.
Britain row to Beijing glory
"It's been an incredible honour and privilege to be part of the past three Olympic Games and, as wonderful as they have all been, there is a sense that the upcoming home Games will be on a different scale to anything we've ever seen before," said Grainger.
World and Olympic champions Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter will defend their men's lightweight double scull title, while Helen Glover and Heather Stanning are currently the world-leading women's pair.
Greg Searle will get the chance to go for gold in the men's eight 20 years after he won the coxed pairs title in tandem with his brother Jonny and tearful cox Garry Herbert in Barcelona.
Searle, 40, returned to the sport in 2010 having last competed at an Olympics in Sydney 12 years ago.
Only seven rowers have been named in the men's eight, leaving the door open for Constantine Louloudis to be named as stroke despite having missed both of this year's World Cup regattas with a back injury.
A world under-23 champion, it is hoped Louloudis could give Britain the edge after they pushed world champions Germany hard in Belgrade and Lucerne over the last month.
Ten rowers have been named for the women's eight, with selectors likely to use the upcoming Munich World Cup to assess their options once again before making the final decision.
Team GB rowing squad:
Men's Pair - George Nash, Will Satch
Men's Four - Alex Gregory, Tom James, Pete Reed, Andrew Triggs Hodge
Men's Eight * - Richard Egington, James Foad, Matthew Langridge, Alex Partridge, Tom Ransley, Mohamed Sbihi, Greg Searle, Phelan Hill (cox)
* one further rower will be added at a later date
Men's Single Scull - Alan Campbell
Men's Double Scull - Bill Lucas, Sam Townsend
Men's Quadruple Scull - Charles Cousins, Stephen Rowbotham, Tom Solesbury, Matthew Wells
Women's Pair - Helen Glover, Heather Stanning
Women's Eight * - Jo Cook, Jessica Eddie, Katie Greves, Lindsey Maguire, Natasha Page, Louisa Reeve, Emily Taylor, Victoria Thornley, Annabel Vernon, Olivia Whitlam, Caroline O'Connor (cox)
* Eight from the ten rowers listed will be confirmed as racing in the eight. The two rowers not racing in the eight will be selected as reserves.
Women's Double Scull - Katherine Grainger, Anna Watkins
Women's Quadruple Scull - Debbie Flood, Frances Houghton, Beth Rodford, Melanie Wilson
Lightweight Men's Four - Chris Bartley, Peter Chambers, Richard Chambers, Rob Williams
Lightweight Men's Double Scull - Mark Hunter, Zac Purchase
Lightweight Women's Double Scull - Katherine Copeland, Sophie Hosking
London Luxury-Home Price Gains Slow After Property-Tax Increase - Businessweek
Luxury-home prices in central London rose the least in nine months in May, after the British government increased a tax on purchases of 2 million pounds ($3.1 million) or more, Knight Frank LLP said.
Values of houses and apartments costing an average of 3.7 million pounds climbed 10.7 percent from a year earlier, the London-based broker said in a report today. That was the smallest gain since August 2011. Prices rose 0.7 percent from April, bolstered by buyers from mainland Europe.
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne raised the tax, known as stamp duty, to 7 percent from 5 percent in March. The threshold for the new tax rate is now the average asking price of a home in Kensington and Chelsea, one of London’s most affluent neighborhoods, property-listings website Rightmove Plc said when the government announced the change.
“The market has absorbed the 7 percent duty rate fairly well,” Liam Bailey, head of residential research for Knight Frank, said in the report. Prices for homes valued at more than 2 million pounds rose 1.6 percent in the past two months, while those for all luxury properties gained 2.7 percent, he said.
Europe’s debt crisis has prompted overseas investors to acquire real estate in London to preserve their wealth. Luxury- property prices in the city have increased about 12 percent since the market’s peak in 2008, including 4.7 percent this year, as a scarcity of homes for sale drove up values.
German Buyers
“We are now seeing a noticeable uptick in interest from France, Italy, Spain and even German-based purchasers,” Bailey said in the report. That contributed to the 19th monthly price increase in a row.
The crisis, now in its third year, threatens to destroy Europe’s 17-nation currency union as Greece contemplates exiting the euro and Spain sees its bond yields rise and banking industry falter. The euro zone’s collapse could cause prime central London property values to fall as much as 50 percent, Development Securities Plc (DSC) said in a May 31 report, as capital flows out of the city to less expensive markets.
“The ‘safe-haven’ effect has clearly played its role in attracting foreign money into London’s most desirable post codes,” Chief Executive Officer Michael Marx said in the report. “However, the property industry knows -- perhaps better than most -- that nothing goes on forever.”
Foreign Residents
Foreign buyers accounted for about 60 percent of home purchases in London’s most expensive districts in the four years through 2011, according to London-based Development Securities. As a result, more than half of the residents of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster are from outside the U.K.
House prices across the country rose in May for the first time in three months as a lack of homes for sale supported values, Nationwide Building Society said May 31. Values gained 0.3 percent from April and fell an annual 0.7 percent to an average of 166,022 pounds.
Knight Frank compiles its luxury-homes index from its own appraisal values of a sample of the same properties in the 13 most expensive neighborhoods of central London, including Belgravia and Knightsbridge.
To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Spillane in London at cspillane3@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Blackman at ablackman@bloomberg.net.
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