LONDON’S most luxurious apartments in the Old War Office, Whitehall are set to go on sale this week, a report said.
Owned by the Hinduja Group, the 85 lavish apartments retain many of the building’s original features and adjoin Raffles London, the British debut of the Singapore-based hotel group that covers the other half of the building, The Sunday Times (6) said.
Shalini Hinduja, the daughter-in-law of Gopichand Hinduja, who with his brother, Srichand, runs the global trading conglomerate, told the paper the toughest part of conducting the sale would be to price the property that has a great historical value and the best views in London.
A bid for a two-bedroom apartment of up to 3,000 sq ft would start from about £5 million, but for the vast three-bedroom homes or the duplex penthouses, Hinduja said her guess would be anywhere from £50m to more than £150m.
“It’s like selling artwork,” she was quoted as saying.
War time leader Winston Churchill, TE Lawrence (of Arabia), and Lord Kitchener all worked in the building’s oak panelled rooms.
Churchill served as secretary of state for war from 1919-21. His old office in the building can be used by residents for meetings and private dinners. The office has preserved a copy of the Mountbatten desk he worked at before moving across the road to Downing Street, the report said.
The building has thrilling nods to history everywhere.
The sale is certain to attract some of the wealthiest buyers in the world, The Sunday Times said.
The restored chandeliers are based on those at Hampton Court and many of the marble fireplaces came from Cumberland House and Buckingham House on Pall Mall.
Each apartment has a distinctive shape and layout. They all have full-height doors and are fitted with bomb-proof glass in the windows. The kitchens, designed by Smallbone of Devizes, are dark-stained walnut with brass fittings. The floors in all the main rooms are herringbone pattern oak.
Most homes look out over the city and the central quadrangle.
The upper three floors that are new-build have private gardens and terraces. Residents without outside space can use the private garden near the quadrangle.
All the renovations were overseen by the architectural firm EPR led by Scott Paton, the developer OHL Desarrollos and apartments’ interiors done by design studio 1508 London, the report said.
Raffles staff will service the flats. Apartment buyers will also be able to enjoy the rooms, restaurants and bars in the hotel, whose interiors are designed by New York-based Thierry Despont.
The building was originally designed by the Scottish architect William Young in 1898, and his son Clyde took over the project after William’s death in 1900. It took five years to complete the project and cost £1.2m at the time.
A decade ago, the government had put the Old War Office building up for sale as part of a £5 billion Whitehall cost-cutting programme.
In 2014, the Hinduja Group bought it on a 250-year lease in 2014 for a reported £350m.
“This was a building that wasn’t being used. It had been closed. We’re giving it new life, purposeful life. It’s a rebirth,” Hinduja said.
She added that the hotel will be open to the public and there will be tours of the historic suites ten days a year.
The Hinduja Group is also building “a memorial room”, to showcase the building’s history with archive photographs lent by the Imperial War Museum, she said.
India’s $283 billion IT industry, which contributes more than 7 per cent to the country’s GDP, has for over three decades provided services to major clients including Apple, American Express, Cisco, Citigroup, FedEx and Home Depot.
INDIA’s IT sector is facing uncertainty as US lawmakers consider a 25 per cent tax on companies using foreign outsourcing services.
Analysts and lawyers said the proposal has led to customers delaying or re-negotiating contracts, raising concerns in India, the world’s largest outsourcing hub.
They said the bill is unlikely to pass in its current form but could trigger long-term changes in how American firms purchase IT services. Companies heavily dependent on outsourcing are expected to resist the move, setting up lobbying and possible legal battles.
India’s $283 billion IT industry, which contributes more than 7 per cent to the country’s GDP, has for over three decades provided services to major clients including Apple, American Express, Cisco, Citigroup, FedEx and Home Depot. The industry has also faced criticism abroad over jobs shifting to India.
Last week, Republican Senator Bernie Moreno introduced the HIRE Act, which proposes taxing companies that hire foreign workers instead of Americans. The bill also aims to prevent firms from claiming outsourcing expenses as tax-deductible, with the revenue directed toward US workforce development.
The proposal comes at a difficult time for Indian IT, which is already seeing weak revenue growth in its key US market as clients cut non-essential spending due to inflation and tariff concerns.
“The HIRE Act proposes sweeping changes that could alter the economics of outsourcing and significantly increase the tax liability associated with international service contracts,” said Jignesh Thakkar, EY India’s compliance head.
In some cases, combined federal, state and local taxes could raise the levy on outsourced payments to as much as 60 per cent, Thakkar added.
“While its partisan proposal may seem initially attractive, it’s ultimately an artificial cost which makes organisations less competitive and profitable globally,” said Arun Prabhu, partner at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas.
The idea has been gaining traction. This month, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro reposted a call from far-right activist Jack Posobiec for tariffs on services as well as goods.
“When political noise turns into regulatory risk, clients quickly insert contingencies, reopen pricing and demand delivery flexibility,” said Saurabh Gupta, President of HFS Research. “Clients will simply take longer to sign, longer to renew, and longer to commit transformation dollars,” Gupta said.
Backlash expected
Industry watchers said US firms are likely to push back strongly against the bill and challenge it legally if it is enacted.
“A bill like this would probably face a lot of backlash from US companies that rely heavily on outsourcing, who would likely bring litigation to challenge various aspects of the bill, if it were ever to be passed into law,” said Sophie Alcorn, CEO of Alcorn Immigration Law.
Analysts noted that sweeping restrictions are unlikely due to the difficulties of enforcement. “More likely is a diluted version, with narrower provisions or delayed enforcement,” said HFS Research CEO Phil Fersht.
The bill could also affect US firms’ global capability centres (GCCs), which have developed from offshore back offices to high-value hubs for research, finance and operations.
“It will be hard to pull back from existing work, but new set-ups and expansion may get impacted,” said Yugal Joshi, partner at Everest Group.
The proposed tax will affect the cost advantage that drives GCC location decisions, said Bharath Reddy, partner at CAM.
“However, the lack of availability of appropriate human capital in the US will continue as a problem, and which can be addressed in the near future only through outsourcing,” he added.
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'Our economy isn't broken, but it does feel stuck,' Reeves said, speaking alongside the release of a finance ministry report on business property taxation, known as rates.
CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves said on Thursday she is considering changes to business property taxes to support small firms looking to expand, as part of her plans to boost growth.
Reeves’ comments come ahead of her annual budget on November 26, at a time when concerns about possible tax rises and inflation are weighing on businesses and households.
Economists expect Reeves will have to raise tens of billions of pounds in additional revenue, citing higher borrowing costs, weaker growth prospects and parliament’s rejection of welfare cuts.
"Our economy isn't broken, but it does feel stuck," Reeves said, speaking alongside the release of a finance ministry report on business property taxation, known as rates.
The report suggested reducing sudden tax increases for small businesses when they expand.
"Tax reforms such as tackling cliff-edges in business rates and making reliefs fairer are vital to driving growth," Reeves said in a statement.
Other options under review include changes to how the tax is calculated and additional reliefs when a property’s value rises after improvements. Further details will be set out in the budget, the ministry said.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, welcomed the proposals but said the government should provide clarity on a promised reduction in rates for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses.
"Until we get clarity on these changes, which isn’t expected until the budget, many local investments in jobs and stores are being held back," she said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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Reeves pledged to keep a tight hold on spending to reduce inflation and borrowing costs amid concerns over Britain’s fiscal outlook.
CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves has said the government must support the Bank of England in bringing down inflation while also focusing on growth, ahead of a budget later this year that is expected to include tax rises.
Last week, Reeves said the economy was not “broken” as she announced November 26 as the date for her annual budget.
She pledged to keep a tight hold on spending to reduce inflation and borrowing costs amid concerns over Britain’s fiscal outlook.
Inflation in Britain was the highest among the Group of Seven economies at 3.8 per cent in July. The Bank of England expects it to peak at 4 per cent this month before gradually falling back to its 2 per cent target by the second quarter of 2027.
Prime minister Keir Starmer has said Labour inherited a difficult economic situation from the Conservatives after last year’s election.
Tax increases on businesses, efforts to cut welfare spending, and ongoing arrivals of migrants on small boats have hurt the government’s standing.
Starmer reshuffled his ministerial team last week in an effort to reset his government, though Reeves remained in place. At the first meeting of the new team, Reeves said that controlling inflation was a key priority.
“The government was focused on going further to support the Bank of England in reducing inflation, controlling public spending and driving growth,” a Downing Street spokesperson said after the meeting.
British 20- and 30-year gilt yields reached their highest levels since 1998 last week, with investors watching Britain’s fiscal situation and worried Reeves’ budget could slow growth without generating much tax revenue.
Economists have also warned that some possible tax measures in the budget, such as higher fuel duties and other levies, could add to inflation in the short term.
Previous government decisions on energy policy, as well as increases in employers’ national insurance contributions and the minimum wage, have also been linked to Britain’s high inflation rate.
(With inputs from agencies)
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US president Donald Trump (R) and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi hold a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House on February 13, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump urged EU officials to hit China with tariffs of up to 100 per cent as part of a strategy to pressure Russian president Vladimir Putin, according to a US official and an EU diplomat.
China and India are major purchasers of Russian oil and, as such, they play a vital role in keeping Russia's economy afloat as it continues to pursue its expanded invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2022.
Trump made the request, which was conveyed via conference call, to EU sanctions envoy David O'Sullivan and other EU officials. The EU delegation is currently in Washington to discuss sanctions coordination.
The EU diplomat said the US had indicated it was willing to impose similar tariffs if the European Union heeded the US request.
"They are basically saying: We'll do this but you need to do it with us," the diplomat said.
The US request, if heeded, would result in a change of strategy for the EU, which has preferred to isolate Russia with sanctions rather than tariffs.
China firmly opposes the US applying such so-called economic pressure, its foreign ministry said at a regular press briefing on Wednesday, adding that it also opposed the using of China in discussions on Russia.
Trump, whose request was first reported by the Financial Times, has frequently threatened to impose tariffs on India and China as punishment for their purchases of Russian crude.
While Trump did hike tariffs on India over the summer by 25 percentage points in part due to its economic relationship with the Kremlin, Trump has yet to pull the trigger on the more punishing options he has floated.
At times, he has complained that Europe itself has not fully decoupled from Russia, which supplied about 19 per cent of EU gas imports last year although the bloc says it is committed to fully ending its dependency on Russian energy.
Later on Tuesday (9), Trump suggested that the US could in fact boost trade with India, writing in an evening social media post that the U.S. and India are working to address trade barriers between the nations. He added that he was looking forward to speaking with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.
(Reuters)
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Donald Trump and Narendra Modi shake hands as they attend a joint press conference at the White House on February 13, 2025.
Trump says he will speak to Modi in the coming weeks amid trade talks
Modi calls US and India "close friends and natural partners"
Trade officials from both countries may restart meetings in September
US-India trade reached $129 billion in 2024 with a $45.8 billion US deficit
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump said on Tuesday his administration is continuing negotiations to address trade barriers with India and that he would speak to prime minister Narendra Modi, indicating a possible reset after recent friction.
Trump said he looked forward to speaking to Modi in the "upcoming weeks" and expressed confidence that the two sides could reach an agreement.
"I feel certain that there will be no difficulty in coming to a successful conclusion for both of our Great Countries," he said in a post on social media.
Modi responds with optimism
On Wednesday, Modi said Washington and New Delhi "are close friends and natural partners." He added that teams from both sides were working to conclude the trade discussions soon.
"I am also looking forward to speaking with President Trump. We will work together to secure a brighter, more prosperous future for both our people," Modi said in a social media post.
India's shares rose over 0.5 per cent after the remarks from both leaders.
Trade deal uncertainty
Trump had said for months that a trade deal was close, but later doubled tariffs on Indian imports to 50%, raising doubts about the future of the U.S.-India relationship.
In recent weeks, Trump and top US officials criticised India for buying oil from Russia, saying New Delhi was funding the war in Ukraine, a charge India denies.
At the same time, Modi has engaged with China and Russia. He visited China last month for a summit hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping and was also seen with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Analysts cautious
"While the social media statements by Trump and Modi signal a potential rapprochement between the U.S. and India, it is still premature to assume that a resolution will arrive swiftly," Madhavi Arora, economist at Emkay Global, said.
"With Trump, we will need to wait for more concrete signals that a deal is in the offing."
Meetings to restart in September
Trade officials from India and the US may meet in September to restart in-person discussions, CNBC-TV18 reported, citing sources. A US trade negotiators’ visit to New Delhi scheduled for August 25-29 was cancelled after talks stalled.
India's trade ministry declined to comment on reports of new meetings.
According to US Census Bureau data, two-way goods trade between the US and India reached $129 billion in 2024, with a $45.8 billion US trade deficit.
Tariffs and EU pressure
Trump recently said India had offered to reduce tariffs on US goods to zero but described the offer as late, saying the country should have acted earlier.
Reuters reported that Trump urged the European Union to impose 100% tariffs on China and India as part of pressure tactics against Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Indian officials in New Delhi said they do not expect the EU to take measures against India and that assurances had been given that EU trade talks would not be disrupted.