Lloyds Bank dedicates £100m to involve small businesses in Hinkley Point construction May 18, 2018 Lloyds Bank has announced that it will dedicate £100m in cheap loans to help small businesses take advantage of supply chain opportunities in relation to the construction of the nuclear power station Hinkley Point C. The construction of the EDF Energy-owned power plant in Somerset will add £200m per year into the regional economy and [...]
PayPal in talks for $2.2bn takeover of iZettle May 17, 2018 PayPal is preparing to take over Swedish payments app iZettle, just a week after it announced plans to float. An announcement of the $2bn deal is expected as early as tomorrow, after Sky News reported that the two companies were in talks. The price PayPal is thought to be bidding would value iZettle at double [...]
Government promises support for UK tech scene as London named one of world’s best tech hubs May 17, 2018 London’s position as one of the leading technology hubs in the world was cemented yesterday as a new report ranked it alongside Silicon Valley and China. The UK was in the top three countries for total capital investment in digital tech companies last year, behind only China and the US, according to the Tech Nation [...]
Drop in apprenticeships sparks calls for reform of levy-based system May 17, 2018 The 25 per cent drop in the number of apprenticeships in the space of a year has sparked criticism that the introduction of a levy-based system has adversely affected the scheme. Data released by the Department for Education (DfE) reveals that the number of apprenticeships dropped from 309,000 in the six months to February last [...]
FTSE 100 hits record high on oil price, dollar strength, and lack of interest rates rise May 17, 2018 The FTSE 100 closed at a record high this afternoon, beating a previous record set in January. The index hit 7,787 points, surpassing a high of 7,778 set on 12 January of this year. “The death of the bull market has been greatly exaggerated, not for the first time in recent history,” commented Laith Khalaf, [...]
Accounting anomaly buries HS2 contract labour costs in government transparency data May 17, 2018 The actual monthly costs for the controversial High Speed 2 (HS2) project have been buried in the government’s transparency data due to an accounting anomaly that one pressure group has called “nonsensical”. The Department for Transport (DfT) uploaded its payroll and headcount data publicly in April, giving a breakdown for costs for staff and non-payroll [...]
UK government will speed up application process for shale gas extraction May 17, 2018 The UK government announced yesterday that it would speed up application process for shale gas extraction to support the development of the industry. One of the main reasons for the push is that since Britain’s North Sea output is declining, the UK is looking into the possibility of extracting natural shale gas through fracking. Lynn [...]
Morrisons could pay 40 per cent of legal costs in data breach case if upcoming appeal fails May 17, 2018 Morrisons has been ordered to pay 40 per cent of claimant legal costs if it loses an appeal in the ongoing case over a massive data leak by one of its employees. Morrisons is currently fighting a landmark data breach case in which it was found vicariously liable for the actions of disgruntled employee Andrew [...]
Total and Maersk pull out of Iran over US sanctions uncertainty May 17, 2018 The energy giant Total and the world’s largest container shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk announced that they would both pull out of Iran claiming that future US sanctions would make business there impossible. These decisions came after US President Donald Trump decided to pull the US out of the Iran nuclear deal on 8 May, which [...]
Asda reports steady sales growth ahead of Sainsbury’s merger May 17, 2018 Asda reported steady sales growth today as the supermarket looks forward to its proposed tie-up with Sainsbury’s. Comparable sales growth was up 3.4 per cent in the three months to the end of March. This was helped by the early timing of Easter, but Asda said sales still grew by one per cent when adjusted [...]