9 minute read
Patron News
patron news New creative venue for
Kingston Riverside
Riverside Walk is excited about a new creative venue set to open its doors in 2023 on Kingston riverside next to the Kingston Bridge. The new space is sited underneath John Lewis in an area currently known as The Undercroft. With funding from the Mayor of London and the support of Kingston Council local charity Creative Youth has begun work to clear and fit out the space.
It will be offer flexibility of use to encompass performances in as wide variety of art forms as possible as well as space for workshops, rehearsals, presentations and work. The space will be managed by Creative Youth but open to others to use and explore. A close partnership with both Kingston University and Kingston College will enable young creatives to find a space for their ideas. It will also be available to local businesses and communities.
The area also houses the footing from the original Kingston Bridge, for over 500 years the only crossing of the Thames between London Bridge and Staines. This new venue will help to regenerate an area of Kingston’s riverside and bring the liveliness of the area of restaurants through to the other side of the tunnel underpass.
Stamp Duty threshold
The Chancellor’s mini budget and announcement regarding Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) Pearson Hards report how this affects the housing market.
The housing market, including estate agents and conveyancers have long been wondering how long the recent housing bubble could last. In 2020 when the Chancellor at the time, Rishi Sunak, announced a stamp duty holiday for all properties up to £500,000, this was enough to sure up the market during the difficulties encountered by the Coronavirus pandemic. It allowed the level of transactions taking place during the latter part of 2020 to the middle of 2021 to far exceed expectations. Since the summer of 2021, professionals involved in property have been wondering how long it could last. So the question is, will the recent announcement by the new Chancellor help the market sufficiently to continue the upward trend? The increase on the Stamp Duty threshold from £125,000 to £250,000 which was announced on 23 September was intended to support the housing market which is facing difficulties with interest rates on the increase and the cost of living crisis fuelled by energy increases. So far the markets have not reacted positively to Kwasi Kwarteng’s radical budget. Indeed they have spiralled even further after he announced a few days after the budget that he intended to make further tax cuts in future, with no cost saving measures to counter balance his spending. It remains to be seen what the effect of the housing market will be.
Hatice Mustafa, Partner and head of Residential conveyancing says “We have been anticipating a possible downturn in the market would happen in the coming months. It will remain to be seen whether this offsets that, or just pushes prices higher.” In the past when the stamp duty threshold has increased, this has often led to house prices increasing. With mortgage deals being pulled by banks and lenders, people may be unable to afford the increased borrowing that will be needed to buy a property. One thing is for sure, the housing market does not react positively to uncertainty and that is what is currently happening.
For more information, contact: hmustafa@pearsonhards.co.uk
Holland Hahn & Wills at Denbies
Vineyard
HH&W were delighted to welcome clients to an event at Denbies Vineyard at the end of September. A tradition interrupted by Covid, it was fabulous to welcome over 75 clients to join us for a train tour of the vineyard and some wine tasting, followed by a delicious lunch. We always enjoy the opportunity to thank our clients for their loyalty, and relish the chance to catch up in an informal environment. Many of our clients have made friends at these events, so are thrilled to see friendly faces year on year!
Kingston Charitable
Foundation
Kingston Charitable Foundation are delighted to announce the appointment of a new Patron, Chris Hirsch. Chris has been a wonderful supporter of Kingston Charitable Foundation, since even before the launch in January 2021, helping in practical ways and indeed always there with wise words and suggestions. Chris was born in Surbiton, has lived in North Kingston for the last 30 years and knows so much of the history of our community.
He brings with him invaluable skills and knowledge from his career in Chartered Financial Planning and Wealth Management, but it is also his warmth, and love of community that makes him the perfect new appointment as Patron. Chris said: ‘I am honoured to become a Patron of this wonderful charity, which concentrates on the beating heart of Kingston – its people’. Another exciting role to keep Chris out of mischief!
State of the art learning resources
We were delighted to open the doors of the remodelled entrance to the Kingston Hall Centre to our 2022/23 cohort of students at
the start of the academic year. The space has already added a new vibe to the College with students enjoying the light spacious areas of the atrium. The Learning Centre is buzzing with students utilising the state of the art learning resources. Having the employability hub and student support centre at the forefront of the building ensures that our students have key information and services to hand.
We are looking forward to inviting our business community through our doors to upcoming events shortly.
Rangling throught
the Tough Mudder for Charity
IQ in IT had an incredible time battling the mud at the Tough Mudder, raising money for the Kingston hospital charity.
We had been given the opportunity to fundraise money for the Kingston Hospital Charity to help raise funds for the Paediatric department at Kingston Hospital. They were in desperate need of some digital play equipment. Distractions such as music, games, and TV have been medically proven to effectively reduce pain and anxiety in children during clinical procedures. Distraction therapy also helps minimise the feeling of seperation when a child must stay overnight. Technology is amazing in helping people’s minds and body and we wanted to help vunerable children gain access to life-changing technology.
Our team spent weeks training for the event and it paid off. On the 25th of Septmber, from start to finish, they were challanged with obstacles such as the ‘Block Ness Monster’, ‘Kiss of Mud’, and ‘Funky Monkey’. From falling into mud, and more mud, the end results were tiredness but fufillment in taking part in a challenging yet fun event for a good cause. We managed to get lots of videos and pictures of us in action as well so make sure to look out for them on our social media! By the time of the event, we had managed to raise 57% of our goal. Since then, we have managed to raise it to 67%! It’s not too late to donate, we still have the donation page up at our Just Giving page: https://www.justgiving.com/
team/runasadmin.
Find out more about IQ in IT https://IQinIT.uk/ Email us: Team@IQinIT.uk
patron news Kingston University
tops UK table for graduate start-ups
Kingston University has received further national recognition for its enterprise expertise after being ranked top for graduate start-ups out of all UK higher education institutions.
The latest Higher Education - Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) survey, which gathers data on UK universities’ engagement in the economy and knowledge exchange, found Kingston supported 298 graduate start-ups in 2020-21, placing it top ahead of the Royal College of Art.
Kingston University is consistently ranked as having one of the highest number of graduate start-ups in the UK. Its Head of Enterprise Education, Dr Martha Mador, said the University’s enterprise activities encouraged students’ creativity and to apply their specialist knowledge real-world problems. This was key for equipping students with core skills in problem solving, critical thinking and communication, which are the most highly valued by employers as set out in the University’s Future Skills report,released this summer.
“From Kingston University’s Future Skills research, which surveyed 2,000 business leaders and 1,000 students, it’s clear employers want graduates who can come up with creative solutions to problems,” Dr Mador said. “That’s what entrepreneurs do – they identify something that’s not quite right, then come up with a solution. The two things together make the opportunity, and help drive business innovation.”
Kingston University is well known for supporting students to develop business ideas, with initiatives such as the HackCentre, through which they create solutions to real-world problems, and the Bright Ideas competition, where students’ product concepts are pitched to industry leaders.
Find out more about Kingston University’s Future Skills campaign at kingston.ac.uk/futureskills
Earlier this month, Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting UK held its inaugural culture festival for employees. The event, which took place in its Kingston offices, was also available to those colleagues who were unable to join in-person.
Building on the historic success of our wellbeing days, we convened a day where our people could take a moment’s pause to benefit from inspiring speakers, wellbeing advice and delicious, healthy food and drink.
The day began with an emotionally charged discussion with Michael Maisey. Michael is an ex-armed robber who turned his life around to become an author and founder of The CIP (Change is Possible) Project. This project is a peer-led community support group which helps people with mental health, addiction, PTSD and childhood trauma. His thought-provoking story left our colleagues moved and inspired.
We also explored the importance of mind over matter with our own colleague and recordbreaking walker, Richard McChesney, heard fundraising updates and research insights from Cancer Research UK (CRUK), as well as muchneeded tips for a blissful night’s sleep from Rachel Williams.
We were privileged to be joined by fellow Patron member of the Kingston Chamber, Katie Lovatt, Head of Marketing & Operations at Holland Hahn & Wills. Katie helped our people to think about the many questions which exist around personal finance, as well as some best practice tips around personal financial management. We concluded the day with a panel discussion featuring a number of our own colleagues and focused on the importance of being your authentic self.
As if we needed more, there were Peloton bike challenges, massages to soothe, a delicious graze table and mocktails for all.
Neil Parsons, UK Managing Director, remarked, “Culture is probably the most important thing for me as MD of the business. We want to attract great talent. We want to treat one another with respect and I’m proud to be involved in days like today. We’ll definitely do this again!”
