2018 in preview: Carolyn Thornley-Yates, Hinckley & Rugby Building Society
Carolyn Thornley-Yates, head of sales and marketing at Hinckley & Rugby Building Society, looks into her crystal ball and gives us her three business predictions for next year.
1. House prices will generally continue to rise during 2018, but the increase may fail to keep pace with inflation. The full effects of the devaluation of the Pound is still working its way through, with retailers likely to pass onto consumers more of the cost increases they initially absorbed. Oil (and therefore petrol and diesel prices at the pumps) could rise higher. Against a background of everyday prices outstripping wage growth, house prices may rise slightly but fall in real terms thanks to a sustained year of inflation.
2. It has four letters but it’s not exactly a word you can swear with. During 2018 many businesses will be cursing GDPR. The new data protection regulations are due to come into force in May and its effects are widely underestimated. If businesses haven’t started preparing yet, they’ve got a headache-inducing busy few months ahead. Oh, and if you needed any more incentive to play ball, fines for non-compliance are potentially huge – up to four per cent of annual turnover.
3. I’d like to think that by December I will be chauffeured to work by a driverless car. Unless the roads are blocked by snow, in which case I’ll fly in aboard my pilotless drone. Yeah, right. More chance of cadging a lift from Santa and his flying reindeer.
