Up next in 10
An IT consultant has been ordered to repay £50,000 to his employer after being accused of stealing the personal details of tens of thousands of Soho House Members. City Editor, Simon Hunt has the exclusive.
Meanwhile the boss of one of Britain's biggest construction trade bodies has told City AM that Labour's housebuilding target of 1.5m new homes is now unattainable. We bring you Retail Reporter, Felix Armstrong's interview.
Plus: new data suggests an uptick in rich parents paying their children's university tuition fees. On A-level results day, we speak to Henrietta Grimston, Chartered Financial Planner at Saltus.
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0:00
Hello and welcome back to Business As Usual, brought to you by Halkin, with me, Martin Kimber
0:04
And me, Matt Kenyon. Coming up on the podcast today, an IT consultant is forced to repay £50,000
0:11
after he was accused of stealing the personal details of tens of thousands of Soho House members
0:17
Can Andy Burnham and Angela Rayner still reach Labour's 1.5 million new homes target
0:23
We'll hear from a construction boss. Plus, it is A Level Results Day. We will ask why more wealthy families than ever are paying for their kids' university education
0:33
Now, in just a moment, we're going to tell you why a pet food business has issued warnings on Wednesday
0:38
about the effect of the solar eclipse on our furry friends. And we'll speak to a financial advisor about why more wealthy parents than ever
0:46
are paying for their kids' university tuition fees out of their own pocket
0:50
That's later on in the show. And let's not get ahead of ourselves, because first
0:53
we're going to be talking about a pretty wild exclusive about London's most popular and arguably
0:59
least exclusive private members clubs. So it's an exclusive from our very own city editor Simon
1:04
Hunt. Simon, welcome. Hello. About a major alleged data breach at Soho House. Simon
1:12
what on earth is going on here? Now, we should say there are still some legal wranglings going on
1:18
with this particular case. Have I said alleged enough? Well, I think we'll have to
1:23
I will have to use the word a fair bit over the next couple of minutes. But in short, this is a story about an IT consultant
1:30
called Amit Sharma, who worked for an IT firm called Aspire Infolabs
1:35
They were contracted by Sohouse to try and improve some of their systems and software
1:41
As part of that, Mr. Sharma had access to a lot of personal data of members of Soho House
1:48
including things like names, addresses, credit card details, that sort of thing. And he had a bit of a falling out with Aspire
1:55
decided he wanted to leave the company, wanted quite a big settlement to exit
2:01
And when he didn't get the amount of money he wanted, he allegedly took the personal details of Soho House members
2:11
and wrote to the members and to Soho House and said, I'm going to publish all of this information
2:17
I'm going to leak it unless I get more money. And he wanted a seven-figure sum to compensate him for having the details
2:28
So that could be 1 million. That could be 9.99 million. Yes
2:32
That's a lot of money. Presumably legal proceedings are ongoing at the moment
2:38
Yes. So Soho House obviously were a bit alarmed about this. They contacted the Information Commissioner's Office, which is the body responsible for data management and data leaks, that sort of thing
2:50
They said it would be a police matter. So Soho House phoned the police who arrested Mr. Sharma and he was detained overnight and he had his electronics seized
3:02
According to a court judgment that was published last month, Mr. Sharma wrote to the lawyers of the IT firm
3:10
and said that he had deleted the data and wrote, I have learnt my lesson
3:17
So that's good to know. It's always good to learn one's lesson. But he was ordered to repay the £50,000 severance payment
3:25
that he was given by the company when he left. This is my favourite case put before the information commissioner's office
3:30
since your party submitted itself for alleged misuse of its own membership portal
3:39
For clarification, Jeremy Corbyn's your party, not Simon Hunt's party. That's a good clarification to make
3:44
Yeah, well, there you go, Matt. That's what waits for you if you ever make off with all the newsletter subscribers, Dave
3:50
If you ever leave the company. I get the seat of Islington North. Yes, exactly
3:55
Simon, this leads us nicely on to another little gem of a story. which big perk have people who pay for Revolut's most expensive subscription lost this week
4:05
Yeah, so famously Revolut have a lot of different tiers of subscription with various different perks in it
4:10
Things like Tinder. I know you're a big user of that yourself, Martin
4:14
And what else have they got on there? It's Tinder Gold, actually
4:19
There's a newspaper subscription. I think there's a cloth passing as well
4:24
One of the perks they have had on the app for years, I know because as a user, I've taken advantage of it myself, is a WeWork subscription
4:34
So you get access to, I think it depends on the tier of membership, but either one pass a month or several, depending on if you're on the more pricier ones
4:43
But they've had a bit of a falling out with WeWork. WeWork wanted to charge more for this service
4:49
They said, we're not having that. So they've canceled it. And now their subscribers to Revolut will not have access to those WeWork sites anymore
4:57
WeWork has been obviously a notoriously troubled company. It was notoriously troubled operations and finances over the last few years
5:05
That is not something you really have to say allegedly for. What's changed most recently that's, I suppose, damaged this relationship between the two companies
5:12
I think it's just simply that, you know, from the perspective of Revolut, they have so many different subscriptions in this bundle
5:19
I imagine the margins on it are quite thin. So, you know, if one person in this, in their bundle
5:25
suddenly says we want to charge twice as much that can destroy the whole business model for them So maybe they looked at the data and thought actually a relatively small number of our members are actually using
5:36
uh this we work just this guy who goes off to a we work in the middle of the day i've had
5:42
for like two years i've used the we work once maybe twice you know am i really taking advantage
5:47
of it i suspect there are a lot of other people uh in the same boat and so the moment they put
5:51
the prices up revolute thought we've had enough of that although there have been rumors on the
5:56
grapevine that Revolut is planning its own service at which subscribers will be able to go some kind
6:03
of real estate thing don't know precisely what we'll have to wait and see what that is but there
6:07
may well be a new WeWork coming soon we'll be looking out for that announcement as and when
6:11
so another thing the clock is ticking on that Fraser's Hugo Boss deal what's the latest
6:17
yeah so as we mentioned on the podcast previously Fraser's group owned by the billionaire Mike
6:24
cashly have been trying to buy hugo boss um they tabled an offer of uh eight 38 euros per share
6:33
which would be a two billion euro takeover offer the board of hugo boss roundly rejected that and
6:40
today is a deadline by which shareholders of hugo boss have to decide whether or not they wish to
6:45
personally accept the terms of this deal um fraser's group already own 30 percent so they might
6:51
I mean, I suspect they won't get it beyond the 50% mark. That means they have overall control
6:56
But it wouldn't surprise me if the share of their ownership of the business gets a bit bigger after the deadline today
7:02
Well, we will bring you all the latest on that deal as when we have it later on
7:07
Simon, one last thing. Why was a pet food company warning on Wednesday about the dangers of the eclipse to your pets
7:16
Well, this is the real story of the week. I can't believe we buried this in fourth place
7:21
on our running order but uh this is a company that has warned that dogs may mistake the sudden
7:27
darkness for an early bedtime with some pets becoming unsettled expecting food or attempting
7:33
to follow their usual evening routine i know i'll be hitting my bedtime routine don't sort of sleep
7:41
throughout the day anyway is that the point of being a dog you take a nap during the day
7:45
they're not taxpayers they're not cleaving to a nine to five in the office
7:51
no i've read about 6 18 which is when the the eclipse on wednesday was um that's kind of dinner
7:59
time anyway for dogs isn't it i don't know you're barking up the wrong tree asking me about this
8:04
stuff but all right simon that's quite enough of that thank you very much for joining us as ever uh we'll be talking about dogs in the eclipse again very soon i'm sure the next eclipse
8:12
I think if I'm writing my research of this scale in the UK, it will be in 2090
8:18
How many dog years away is that? About 8,000. My friend Derek's dog, Kelvin, isn't going to live to see that one, sadly
8:27
Right, coming up after the break, one in seven high net worth parents are now supporting their children with the cost of higher education
8:34
That's up from one in 10 six months ago. We'll speak to a financial advisor, but first, is Labour on track to meet its house building targets
8:42
We'll have the latest right after this. Your office says a lot about your business
8:47
Halkin's serviced offices sit in London's best locations, designed to a standard you'd expect from a five-star hotel with service that goes the extra mile
8:57
Discover Halkin. Prime addresses, exceptional workspace design, award-winning service. Welcome back. Now, in just a few minutes, we'll speak to that financial advisor on new figures that suggest more wealthy families are paying for their kids' university education
9:11
And we'll ask whether it's best to get that debt paid down ASAP
9:16
But first, our retail reporter, Felix Armstrong, has been exploring whether Labour is on track to meet its 1.5 million new home target set forth in the manifesto
9:26
He spoke to Steve Mulholland, Chief Executive of the Construction Plant Hire Association, which is the trade body responsible for firms that hire out construction equipment, and began by asking whether Labour's lofty house building target is still even possible
9:43
No. Right. It never was possible, Felix. In December 2024, I gave my first interview on it
9:51
And just if you look historically at how many homes the UK has built, even in the peak periods, the boom times throughout the late 50s, 60s and early 70s, we never achieved those sort of figures
10:04
And we're struggling to reach 200,000 at the moment per annum. And so why do you think the government set such an ambitious target if it was never possible
10:14
I don't know. I can guess. So I had the, after the autumn 2024 budget
10:21
I had an audience with the Treasury and we asked them where did they get that figure from
10:26
and they did say they had consulted with industry when we asked which part of industry
10:31
they were very coy and did not give us a straight answer so we can guess that it might have been
10:38
a part of the industry maybe the volume house builders who given the pre-autumn 2024 budget
10:47
might have thought, yeah, this is a possibility. What subsequently happened post-budget
10:52
with the billions were divvied up to the public sector, the rising NI and the drop in the level the removal of business property relief What we explained that day in the Treasury which we think we were completely unaware of
11:08
was they had probably listened to the 1% of the people who deliver and not listened to
11:14
the supply chain who actually build these houses for them, because they're the guys
11:19
that employ the labour, the materials, the plant directly and do the actual building
11:23
works, all the tradespeople on the supply chain. And it's not the household names that actually do the physical work in most cases
11:31
And post-budget, these guys were reeling because all of a sudden their employment costs had gone through the roof
11:36
And the tax policies have had a real detrimental effect, as has been shown by the lack of house sales, the lack of building
11:45
And we still have huge planning and regulation problems in and around the building sector
11:50
So it was a perfect storm. And unfortunately, what was said back in December 2024 still stands true to this day
11:58
And although the government will say it's gone some way to reforming planning
12:02
you've spoken in the past about a skill shortage facing the industry that's also posing a barrier to this target
12:08
Can you explain what the issue is there? The skill shortage right now isn't posing a barrier because there are not enough homes getting built
12:17
and employment is in decline, unfortunately. The industry that we work in, house building, if it gets going, it feeds into infrastructure, general construction as well
12:27
It feeds into the growth of the economy, but it needs these houses to be, whether they're getting rented, whether they're getting bought, it needs people to have the means to do that
12:36
And with the cost of living crisis that we're in, that's not happening at the moment. within our own industry we know that if the targets if 1.5 millions to be achieved and
12:45
hopefully it will be um one day it won't happen in this parliament and if the national infrastructure
12:51
plans are to be achieved which we are we're behind all of these of course we are and we actually
12:55
thought with a new government coming in it would kick-start all this it's actually managed to do
13:00
the opposite because of some um the phrase that kept getting used almost two years ago was
13:06
unintended consequences. I think you could argue that's maybe just you've not been speaking to the
13:10
right parts of the industry to figure out exactly how it ticks. So we're still on that sort of
13:16
crusade, if you like, of trying to educate as best we can within our own industry that the
13:21
supply chain is absolutely key. And there's some changes coming through on that. The supply chain
13:28
average age is in the early 50s now for construction workers. That will create a shortage in itself
13:34
half a million due to retire in the next 10 years or so but what we do need is an uplift in demand
13:39
and to create the the sort of boom time that we all thought was going to come in in house building
13:44
and late 24 into early 25 so that the skills can be trained because they need to be trained on site
13:51
you can't just send we've failed in the past by just sending people to further education colleges
13:56
and such like. The rhetoric that's coming out of the new Prime Minister
14:02
getting 14-year-olds into technical education and school and what have you, that's very, very welcome
14:08
And in the long term, that will benefit the industry and it will benefit society
14:12
But it has to be paired with businesses being able to afford to take these people on
14:17
being able to afford to continue to buy the labour, the materials, the construction equipment needed
14:22
to get these homes moving and the general infrastructure. And housebuilders have been vocal about the demand side issues
14:30
with this target as well. And we had Bellway earlier this week calling for Burnham
14:35
to cut stamp duty. Do you think that would help boost demand? Absolutely
14:39
We've got the highest taxation in the industrial developed world right now
14:45
We've got energy costs that are through the roof. Anything would help at all
14:49
Stamp duty would be an absolute game changer. so in the private sector obviously social housing and council housing is a separate issue because it
15:01
would be a different business model that would be required for that but it would certainly help
15:05
hugely to get the market moving again. And at City AM we're running our Toast Awards celebrating the
15:09
best bars and restaurants in the city. What's your favourite place to eat in the city of London
15:14
There's a fantastic Argentinian restaurant not far from our offices where we occasionally go
15:19
Alphansina's and I would highly recommend that it's right opposite the Elizabeth line at Barbican
15:24
great and finally it is A-level results day so first of all best of luck to anyone getting their
15:30
results and to any nervous parents watching over the shoulders of their children as they open those
15:35
envelopes I did not find the Jeremy Clarkson tweet I couldn't yeah that comes up every year
15:41
and he'll tweet it again on the note of higher education some new research revealed that one in
15:48
high net worth parents are now supporting their children with university costs. That is up from
15:54
one in 10 just six months ago. And this new research also shows that around two thirds of
15:58
those earning between 50 and 100,000 pounds a year believe that university provides good value for
16:04
money. But that is down from 74% in the same time span. Henrietta Grimston is a chartered
16:12
financial planner at the wealth management firm Saltus. Saltus conducted the research
16:17
What do you make of this research? It feels like quite a big drop off
16:22
And also quite a big rise in terms of all the people paying for this
16:26
It's consistent with what we're seeing with our clients. So over the last few years there has been this growing trend of families saying we really concerned about the debt that our whether it children grandchildren are going to be graduating with and we want to see some way of supporting them through that And I suppose because it has become an issue which
16:43
is now unavoidable for government, that the interest on tuition fees, which was a real
16:48
consensus issue when it was introduced, campaign groups are now very much building up. Do you think
16:53
this is a simple case of parents just not wanting to load up their children with this financial
16:59
burden down the line? Or do you think there are other aspects to it as well? So that is definitely
17:03
a big consideration. It's, you know, what happens at the end when they know they've got additional
17:07
challenge those children are going to be facing around how do they get onto the property markets
17:11
that are saving for their own retirement. So there's definitely a financial aspect to it
17:16
The flip side to this interesting is the accountability piece. So if you can step in
17:20
and financially support your children, how do you still make sure they're motivated to get the best
17:24
out of that time at university? So it's not always as simple as just the money's there, we can help
17:28
them. I'm interested by the point you make about accountability and I suppose the motivation. I suppose on the flip side of are they going to be motivated if they're not directly paying for it
17:36
that could also be the argument that they feel so guilty that it's being paid for, that actually, oh God, I better do some work and get a first at the end of all of that
17:44
Yeah, that could also happen as well. I think with most of them though, it's the balancing act
17:49
between I don't want them to feel they've got a free ride, but at the same time, they are genuinely
17:53
concerned about the debt at the end. And there's different ways you can approach that. So you could
17:57
say to the child from day one you're taking out a loan and you're funding your education in the
18:03
background the parents then thinking actually when they graduate I'm gonna I'm gonna repay that loan
18:07
for them I'm not gonna give them that burden going into sort of their adult life but I'm gonna give
18:12
them that responsibility whilst they're at university are you seeing some families prioritize
18:16
some kids over others in terms of who they're paying for there because I mean let's say you've
18:22
got you know brothers matt and martin matt's very smart he shows a lot of uh promise he he looks like
18:28
he's gonna do go and do ppe oxford martin not so much but maybe he's getting sort of abc at his a
18:34
levels um you know are you seeing parents think oh we should probably pay for both or none or are
18:39
you seeing some be like oh we'll pay for the cleverer one or so again i would say most parents
18:44
try and treat their kids equally um but they do acknowledge that not university is the university
18:49
is not necessarily the route that every child is going to go down. So if you choose to support one child financially through university
18:55
you may take the view of actually I'm going to give, say, a larger house deposit to the one that doesn't go down that route
19:00
So most parents will try and equalise it at some point in the future. I remember when I was, so like 10 years ago when I was finishing school
19:07
there was a real narrative around university of this will always be a great thing
19:11
Everyone should do it. It doesn't really matter where you go. Just go. Obviously, that's now been slightly disproven
19:16
And that Blairite argument of 50% of children, of teenagers who go to university is now a bit discredited
19:22
Have you found that there are parents that you speak to who are having more harsher and more candid conversations with their children about whether university actually is for them before they dive in and make this massive 50, 80 grand investment in their futures
19:36
I think what's really interesting on that point is actually the children themselves are recognising that. They're sitting there and saying, actually, do I want to leave with 50 plus grand of debt or can I go for a different route
19:44
we've got some young cohort in our business who have made that decision and they've seen
19:49
friends go off to university. They're now three years into their career. They've got some
19:53
qualifications, they've got some experience and they haven't got the debt. So yeah, definitely
19:56
the younger people are realising that as well. Just finally, as a financial advisor, so I was
20:02
the first year group to go on to plan two and to benefit from Nick Clegg's ironclad promise to cut
20:10
tuition fees. After 30 years of plan two, your debt gets completely wiped by the government
20:18
Are you advising some of your clients that actually it might in some cases just be better
20:22
to like salary sacrifice yourself so far down that you're putting all that into pension and
20:28
you're not paying off hardly any of the capital. And actually, the waiting game is the best strategy
20:33
in terms of getting rid of this debt rather than ploughing 80k into it
20:38
That would be an interesting strategy. It's not the type of thing that we'd necessarily advise our clients do
20:43
because in most cases, the reason you're going to university is because you want to increase your potential for earning in the future
20:48
So generally, it's about getting the maximum from that education. I know Plan 2 is hugely controversial
20:54
It's been in the press a lot over recent weeks. No, I don't
20:59
I think out of all of the ones that are there, it looks the harshest probably on balance
21:04
because it's not as simple as just saying, you know, there's an interest rate
21:08
And once you earn a certain amount, you're going to start paying things back. It's got a variable interest rate
21:12
And weirdly, the more you earn, the higher that interest gets. So it's a bit of a kind of a two-sided coin of saying, well, you know, you earn more, you start paying back
21:20
That's good. But at the same time, we're actually increasing your interest as well. So it doesn't look as fair as the others
21:26
Well, it's a deeply thorny issue. And it's one that as beaming schoolchildren step out into the world
21:32
they'll be dealing with in a few years as well. Henrietta, thank you very much for joining us
21:36
Thank you. Well, that's just about all we have time for. Thank you very much for listening to or watching
21:41
Business As Usual brought to you by Halkin. Please do not forget to subscribe to City AM's
21:47
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21:52
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21:56
We'll be back in your podcast feeds tomorrow at 6am. But for now, goodbye. Goodbye
22:02
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