We truly live in the strangest of times.
The 100 or so guests at TvPropFest last Thursday were upbeat and the oft-used one-word, icebreaker question to get conversation going was much in evidence during the networking.
“Busy?”, someone would ask. The answers were almost invariably positive and, in some cases, respondents reported they were exceptionally busy.
Indeed, a look through this week’s stories reveals Ingleton Wood expanding in Oxfordshire due to demand, hugely exciting film studio developments in Shinfield and High Wycombe, a report by Ridge indicating that tech firms have to consider location based on the talent pool such is demand for tech services and the sale of a shopping centre in Farnborough for a major redevelopment.
But for this to be the case in a cost-of-living crisis and an energy crisis, not to mention whatever else lies in wait around the world, the two scenarios would appear to be at odds.
The chaos our politicians have given us for nearly three years, still seems to prevail under what appears to be yet another short-lived Premiership.
The recent, ominous moves by the Bank of England, which just seems to have realised that printing money to solve all immediate financial problems is unwise, will not be the last.
The UK has a national debt of more than £2.5 trillion. The US has $31 trillion. Of course, these are both fast increasing figures. There is no possibility of the debts ever being paid so it doesn’t take a great deal of academic rigour to work out that something very unwelcome is going to happen.
What is hard to fathom is how politicians and the various experts we have relied upon throughout history could be so reckless. The modern world seems to be built on debt with no regard for the consequences.
The current demand and workloads firms are experiencing bring to mind the old cartoons where Roadrunner would speed off a cliff but not immediately fall. However, he would suddenly stop and plummet.
Is our current success and workload going to do that? If it is, then at least the Thames Valley is the best place to be.
Or this is just an overly pessimistic view of the world in 2022? How do others see the future of the local, national and international economies? How is the mismatch between a thriving business world and calamitous political and financial strategies explained?
We’d like your thoughts by commenting below or by emailing alan@ukpropertyforums.com. It would be great to be wrong.
© Thames Tap (powered by ukpropertyforums.com).
Sign up to receive your free weekly Thames Tap journal here.
