Betfair Official Blog

Budget week sees the offices of the major banks begin to empty

Our man in the city blogs from an empty office, and gives his verdict on the recent research emerging from London's financial hub...

Throughout the office there is a buzz. Well there would be if anyone was here. The Cheltenham Festival starts today, the biggest corporate junket of the year, with more drunk bankers than our recent Xmas Party. And that is saying something.

Everyone wants tips. Tips, tips, tips. The only tips I dish out are to the cabbie who drives me home each night. Providing he keeps his mouth shut. Except when abusing cyclists of course.

Whilst everyone else flaps about at Cheltenham, lucky me will be here doing some work on the Budget, that time of year when we get told how much a pint of Cristal has gone up. And how much tax has gone down. A new Chancellor - oh the excitement. I've started on the caffeine tablets already, and its not due for 28 hrs.

Thanks to Mr Alistair Dar-ling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, we all sponsor Newcastle United FC. Thats going well. And whats with the man's eyebrows which seem to follow you round the room. First Norman Lamont and now Dar-ling. Eyebrows. Big ones. Bigger than your head. What is it about Chancellors with big eyebrows and economic disaster? Are the two linked - lets hope Noel Gallagher never moves into number 11.

Brian from research arrives. He has seen a poll in the Times. "Did you see that 60% said that they were now more likely to check supermarket prices?" he asks.

"No!" I shout. "Fascinating though. Got any more?"

"Did you know that the decline in confidence is further illustrated by the 45% of respondents who said that they were less likely to change their car, and the 60% of women who said that they were spending less on clothes?"

"No - bloody hell, that is big news! Keep 'em coming." But the retort merely echoes down the corridor. Brian is gone to get some more fact. And I wonder if the High Street is really doing all that badly, and hence if its time to go long on budget shops?

Brian returns. His mouth opens. I can see bits of crisps stuck to his teeth. "The housing market experienced its most severe downturn since the housing slump of the 1990s last month, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) says."

Good. More business for banks, I conclude. "More surveyors saw house prices fall in February than any other time since June 1990. The RICS gauge of house price trends fell to minus 64.1% last month, down from minus 54.8% in January. In June 1990, the balance was minus 64.5%," he continues, his words now colourless wallpaper to my ogling of an attractive secretary crossing the floor opposite.

Brian says facts are what the City is built on. I say it's speculation and clay.

Brian looks happy and continues. "Lehman Brothers has begun this week to dismiss 5% of its workforce."

He's killing me...

Kerching