Tax and cost worries weigh on Barratt shares

Perhaps it is down to concerns over the expiry of the stamp duty tax break in October, or worries over an increasing reliance on Help-to-Buy, or the potential impact of the proposed April 2022 launch of the Residential Property Developer Tax, but investors do not seem unduly moved by Barratt Developments’ strong full-year results. Perhaps it is just down to the absence of any incremental good news, but the shares are not responding to publication of healthy profits, a net cash balance sheet and a dividend that equates to a historic…

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Insider: Families weigh pros, cons of travel sports’ growing role

The youth sports world has changed dramatically since I grew up in the 1980s and ’90s. All the way through my senior year of high school, I played football, basketball and baseball. Once basketball season was over, you’d put your stuff away and — for the most part, with the exception of some summer leagues and camps and pick-up games — not worry about it again until the next season. If you’re from that generation, or before, you can probably relate. Which makes it so fascinating to me now to…

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