Ceres Power Holdings is my star performer for November 2025. A rise in the share price of more than 100% in just over 2 months. Even Rolls-Royce can’t beat that. Which gives me a dilemma. Do I cash in part of my shareholding to lock in the profit? Or do I hold my nerve? Just like playing Blackjack. Another card please! But I’ve got a hunch that it’s gone as high as it’s going to go. So I’d better cash in 50% and play the rest. It’s a mistake I made with Rolls-Royce when their shares hit 200%, and I cashed in 50% of my holding and played the rest. If I’d held my nerve, I might have got 100% of 650%. Because that’s how high Rolls Royce shares have flown. But I’m not complaining.
I’ve never understood why so many people get addicted to online gambling. Playing the stock market is so much more fun. Even when I’m gambling with small change. When Bloomsbury Publishing’s share price increased 100%, I cashed in 50% of my holding. I’m glad I did. After that the share price began to tumble and I sold the rest of my holding a couple of weeks later. I also had lucky escapes with Cineworld and Boohoo
Three months ago I’d never even heard of Ceres Power Holdings, until I was looking for some renewable energy companies in which to invest. I certainly haven’t seen it being tipped anywhere.
At a time when so many major UK pharmaceuticals are planning to upsticks and move their operations to the United States, it is also refreshing to see that some companies are still listing on the London Stock Market. The three new listings are Shawbrook Bank; Beauty Tech and Princes Group. What attracts me about Shawbrook is that it is a bank with a focus on small business finance. And what can I say about Princes Group? Except that I just love a tuna sandwich. So far I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to buy shares in these new listings through my share ISA. But that may only be because those shares are so new. I’ll keep trying.
When a share has been tipped, it is already too late. Everybody is piling in. So the skill for anyone with a share ISA is to use their own gut feelings to try to identify those shares which may be tipped in the future. For me, it is not so much following recommendations but that crucial zigzag line. Is it creeping upwards? Or is it beginning to plateau? One of the things I’ve noticed is that the best time to buy a share is about 8.45am on a weekday, when adjustments have factored in and the share price is at its lowest. I also think that it’s important to have an awareness of world events and how these are likely to affect share prices over the medium term. That’s not to say that I’ve never followed up share-tips.
As a fledgling investor in the years before covid crashed the markets, it was an Investors Chronicle tip which prompted me to buy some shares in Rolls-Royce. The value of which has since increased six fold. My only regret is that after they had doubled, I sold about 40% of the stock in the expectation that the rise could not continue. But it did. And more. That was followed by another Investors Chronicle share tip, which prompted me to invest in BAC Industries.
Then came Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And America’s shakiness over its continued Nato commitment, which Britain had foolishly taken for granted, when its own military capability was hollowed out in the Cameron years. Things like an aircraft carrier without any aircraft because what had remained of Britain’s harrier fleet had their wings cut off. What was the sense in that? It was in response to that dangerous madness that I invested a few hundred pounds in Scotland based Babcock International Group, which I had discovered from my own research and whose share price has also risen
I am an ethical investor. I try to invest in companies which either manufacture in the UK or which source UK manufactured products. It is those companies which create our jobs. Something I don’t understand is why Ed Milband’s green energy revolution is so dependent on Chinese manufactured hardware. It is why, a couple of months back, I looked around for companies which manufactured energy renewable hardware in the UK. I came up with three companies in which I invested. Of those, my most successful investment has been Ceres, which has seen a significant rise in its share price. One of the things I’ve never understood, is why European economies impose ever increasing regulation on their own domestic industries whilst at the same time allowing those same domestic industries to be undercut by countries whose workforce do not enjoy the same employment protections. In some cases even with a suspicion that slave labour has been used in the manufacture of those outsourced products. What is the excuse for anyone importing anything made by slave labour? I’m reminded of the 18th century sugar boycotts. Maybe we should learn something from that. My ethics will also not allow me to invest in banks, finance companies, investment trusts or online gambling. Forget it!
But investing in UK manufacturing or companies which source UK manufactured products, is becoming ever harder to do. I noticed that since Trump’s tariffs came into effect, many UK pharmaceuticals are planning to up-sticks and move their operations across to the United States. I can also see that happening in the future with the UK film industry, which is now facing 100% tariffs from the United States. Only a week back, I invested in Pensana, one of the few companies outside China which specialises in the extraction and refining of rare earths, of which China currently has a 90% monopoly. It is those rare earths which are critical to the UK’s development of it’s own high-tech. Then a couple of days ago, I read that Pensana had cancelled its project to build a UK rare earth refinery because it is getting a much better deal if it relocates to America. I’m not sure how this is going to affect its share price. I might just hang in there and see what happens. At the moment it’s all a bit volatile.
Faced with tariffs not only from America but also from Europe, particularly as regards UK steel production, it would seem to me that the only way our government can protect British manufacturing from annihilation is to use its own buying power to increase the domestic market. By insisting that government departments and others in the public sector, source manufactured products only from UK companies where it is possible to do so in preference over cheaper products from elsewhere. Why not? That is what Trump is doing. And we are seeing it work for the American economy. Our public sector is also in a unique position to do that. Wake up! Ed Miliband!
Since it replaced the centuries old Stamp Duty in 2003, Stamp Duty Land Tax has become one of the UK’s most complex taxes.
Within 14 days of completion of any significant property transaction, it is the responsibility of the buyer or leaseholder to file a stamp stamp duty land tax return and pay any applicable duty on the transaction. This is usually uploaded electronically by the conveyancer who completed the purchase, save that legal responsibility for ensuring that everything contained within the return is correct and that the correct duty is paid, is placed firmly on the client-purchaser, not the conveyancer who acted on the purchase.
In terms of complexity, a stamp duty land tax return can be compared with any complex self-assessment tax return. And it is the responsibility of the taxpayer to get it right as in most cases, HMRC take the information provided on trust unless there is something specific which raises query.
Most purchaser – clients are not tax experts and will rely on the advice given by their conveyancer as to how much stamp duty land tax they will be required to pay. However they must still make sure that the information they provide to the lawyer is correct, particularly as regards any second homes. Once the client has seen and approved the draft stamp duty land tax tax return, the conveyancer will upload it on the HMRC portal. Almost instantaneously, that conveyancer will receive back an electronic certificate in form SDLT5, confirming that the stamp duy tax return has been uploaded and received, even if the duty itself has not yet been paid. It is that SDLT5 which will then enable the conveyancer to register the transaction and pay the stamp duty from money held on account from the particular client. There are also some cases involving trusts, where the issues are so complex, that the conveyancer should advise their client to seek specialist tax advice before approving the stamp land tax return for upload.
Because of the complexity of some conveyancing transactions, there is always a risk of miscalculating the amount of duty chargeable on a particular transaction. The risk applies both ways. There’s firstly the risk that you may overpay stamp duty on a transaction because your conveyancer has not identified a legitimate relief to which you are entitled. Or you may accidentally fail to declare something which would otherwise have had the effect of increasing the tax liability which would otherwise be payable. Either way, the mistake is expensive.
As someone who has spent more than 30 years of a legal career working with local authority in-house teams, the statistics contained in this report ring true for me. But behind every statistic, there is a story, which I now attempt to explain from my own experience and discussions with others.
It is not about being cheap and cheerful.
Providing ‘more for less’ requires an understanding of what a corporate client really wants from an in-house legal service. It is not about being cheap and cheerful. If that were the case, no legal work would ever be outsourced. A corporate client wants value for money. But not only value for money. They also want a quality service which lifts the burden from their own shoulders and provides a timely turnaround. And a corporate client is prepared to pay more for that type of service. For me, the benchmark comparison for a good in-house team should be that which the client could obtain from a private sector firm of equivalent size, expertise and resource. What is also important to a corporate client is the added value which only an in-house legal team can provide. An on-site presence. An understanding of the client’s ‘business’. Making yourself part of the client ‘team’. Presenting to elected members. Navigating the council’s constitution. Dealing with those tiresome freedom of Information requests and registration of assets of community value.
It’s about the technology
For me, having the right technology and systems in place are key to providing a client with more for less. Because it is that technology and the systems which go with it, which creates the environment in which fee earners are able to work quickly and efficiently and which, in turn, produces lower unit cost. A problem for legal services managers is that many of these systems are not under their direct control. All they can do is report a failure and wait for someone else to come and fix it. Walking up and down looking for a printer that works and then lining up behind two other fee earners, is hardly an efficient use of lawyer time. Some of that technology is already free to download and use on any modern computer, such as voice dictation.
I’ve noticed that local authority legal teams always appear several years behind their private sector counterparts when it comes to adopting new technology. Whilst there may be exceptions, I would think it safe to assume that most local authorities have not yet adopted the electronic signing and attestation of documents which is now the standard in most private practice. The adoption of such systems is not expensive and saves money as well as time. Using DocuSign not only avoids the need for a corporate seal and a wet ink signature, it also avoids the need to prepare and circulate hard copy engrossments and can bring forward a completion by more than a week.
Staff Recruitment and Retention
Whilst salary levels for local authority lawyers are significantly lower than those working in private practice, what must be factored in is the Local Government Pension Scheme. Whilst this final salary scheme may no longer be as generous as it once was, it is still better than anything you are likely to get elsewhere.
Headline locum hourly pay rates may be higher than the equivalent salaries paid to permanent staff but remember that from that hourly headline rate, anyone working off payroll has to fund the costs of their own employment,before any money can go into their pocket. This will include employers’ National Insurance, rolled up holiday pay, and making their own pension arrangements. Any tax advantages which staff might once have enjoyed from working off-payroll disappeared with IR35. So maybe the pay difference is not as significant as it first appears. Even the 15% commission paid to the locum agency is not money for nothing, as it covers the administration and due diligence which would otherwise have to be carried out by the council’s own HR and payroll teams
By contrast, the locum market enables legal services managers to quickly upsize or downsize to meet day-to-day operational requirements without the paraphernalia of a long-winded recruitment or redundancy process. For a good locum, the issue is not how long a particular assignment lasts but whether there will be something to move on to after it has ended. It is about personal marketability. The ability to quickly adapt to a team’s requirements and make a real contribution to getting the work done. The first thing I notice when looking at a locum CV is the length of previous assignments and, more importantly, whether any of those previous assignments have been repeated or extended. If the answer is, ‘none’, that for me sends its own message. When it comes to ‘diva tendencies’, the worst locums I have come across are the semi-retired grandees. The former chief executives coming new to transactional work but who refuse to be told.
Retention of good staff has always been a problem for me, much more than the permanent recruitment of new staff. I believe it’s because of the limited opportunities which local authorities provide for internal promotion, where every opportunity has to be advertised to the World and where even the best candidate can be pipped at the post by someone who may be less able but whose answers score better in a structured interview. Then, the only way for that internal candidate to achieve promotion is to adopt a scatter gun approach, by sending multiple applications to other local authorities until someone bites. A system which is hardly conducive to corporate loyalty.
Getting into management.
I found it disappointing that only 38% of local government lawyers aspire to management, even though leadership is a valuable life-skill which can only be learned by doing. Management is your chance to make a difference. To put in place the changes you always wanted to make but never had the seniority to make. A chance to experiment with your own ideas instead of implementing someone else’s. Taking credit when something goes well and responsibility when it does not. Something I have always tried to do when taking up a new management’s role is to repair some of those client relationships which had previously become soured.
Third party income
Something not mentioned at all during the survey is the opportunities for a legal team to help meet its budget by maximizing third party income. The costs of many transactions can be loaded onto the party receiving the benefit of that transaction. Examples include section 106 planning agreements; highway agreements; statutory lease extensions; leasehold sub-dealings, such as licences to assign or underlet. Licences for alteration or change of use. In fact, any transaction carried out at the request of another party.
Whilst an in-house legal team cannot make a profit on such transactions, it is important they are at least cost- neutral for the local authority. It is about accurately assessing the amount of work likely to be involved and seeking a professional undertaking for that amount. And then being able to work within that quoted budget so that there is no cost overrun.
On a final note, what I have always valued from my work with in-house legal teams is the general culture of courtesy which has always existed between local government officers at every level.
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V.Charles Ward is a Senior Property Lawyer with HB Public Law and author of Local Authority Conveyancing: Law and Practice (UK)
First Published in Local Government Lawyer – August 2025
I hesitate to use the phrase ‘small investor’. ‘Tiny’ would be better. Even miniscule. I trade out of my share ISA. So what am I telling you?
Always rely on your own research and professional judgement. Don’t be led by what someone else is telling you. Magazines like ‘Investors Chronicle’, are great for generating ideas for someone coming to it new. But remember that as soon as IC recommends a share, its price will shoot up. So take a step back and wait a few weeks before making that decision. Some of the online recommendations always seem to me to be over optimistic, as if they want to pull you in.
I opened up my share Isa about a year before covid. When that struck, my account dipped £5,000 overnight. So did everybody else’s. I wondered whether it might be a great time to buy. But every time I bought a share, thinking that it was already at rock bottom, it would go down a little further. But eventually things picked up, as it did for all of us.
I also try to be an ethical investor. I always try to invest in companies which manufacture in the UK. I also look for geopolitical changes to guide me towards companies in which to invest. Following the recent America and India trade deals, I looked at the whiskey Industries, whom I think are likely to most benefit. Even though I’m not a whiskey drinker. At the moment there’s a lot of news about weight loss drugs and how demand is outstripping supply. So far the only talk is about demands on the NHS. But I guess that it won’t be long before some of the pharmaceutical companies will be launching their own over-the-counter equivalents. So I want to get in there. I wanted to invest in the American company, Eli Lilly, which is a leader in the field, but my Isa platform wouldn’t let me. So I guess that I’m going to have to settle for AstraZeneca.
I’ve also started to look at companies who manufacture renewable energy euipment in the UK. I found a few and have invested.
For me, the most important indicator of a share’s performance is the official graph. As long as the line keeps going up, I will hang in there. But as soon as it begins to plateau, I will think about what I need to do. Maybe it’s time to cash in part of that shareholding and keep running the rest of the shares in that company. When I’m investing in a new share, I try to start with a few hundred pounds to see how it works out. Then, if the value increases, this gambler will shove some more money on the table. Hope this is helpful.
BRUCE AND HOLLY 