Greensill dished out a taxpayer backed Covid loan to neighbour December 13, 2021 Collapsed lender Greensill Capital gave a government backed Covid loan to the neighbour of founder Lex Greensill. Greensill is already under investigation for allegedly abusing its position while in charge of lending money under the Coronavirus Business Loan Interruption Scheme to dish out £400m to businesses linked to Sanjeev Gupta. It has now emerged that [...]
PM Boris Johnson and wife Carrie announce birth of second child December 9, 2021 The Prime Minister and his wife Carrie have announced this morning the “birth of a healthy baby girl at a London hospital earlier today.” It is their second child, after boy Wilfred was born in 2020. This is a developing story and will be updated
Embarrassed Royal Navy orders flagship to head home after journey from hell and loss of £100m fighter jet December 9, 2021 The aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, with seven warships and a submarine, is on its way back to the UK after a dramatic first journey, which has been dogged by incidents including the loss of a £100m fighter jet at sea. The Royal Navy flagship set off from Portsmouth Naval Base following a visit by [...]
FCA’s boss reveals the watchdog is having a hard time signing up data and tech specialists December 9, 2021 City watchdog the FCA has revealed it is struggling to hire in-demand technology specialists. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) chief executive Nikhil Rathi told MPs on the Treasury Select Committee that it was having to “manage the challenges” of hiring, particularly for data and technology roles. Rathi said the “hot” jobs market and moves by big [...]
City A.M. PA Awards: This year’s pandemic-era winners December 9, 2021 City A.M.’s PA Awards crowned five winners on Wednesday, who were recognised for their dedication and effort to their businesses after a turbulent year. There was around eight times more nominations than in previous years, after personal assistants (PA) were among the “hardest hit” amid the pandemic, awards judge and founder of C&C Search Lucy [...]
Pfizer and BioNTech confirm third booster jab ‘neutralises’ Omicron December 8, 2021 The manufacturers of a coronavirus vaccine used across the world have today confirmed a third dose “neutralises” the Omicron variant. Pfizer and BioNTech said receiving a booster jab produces similar levels of protection against the virus yielded from two doses of the vaccine. “Results from an initial laboratory study demonstrating that serum antibodies induced by [...]
Tax disadvantage affecting Scottish partnerships to be removed December 8, 2021 | City Talk In 2020 ICAS called for a tax disadvantage affecting Scottish partnerships to be removed, so we were pleased to see the recent government announcement that the relevant legislation will be amended. What’s the problem? The UK capital gains tax regime allows a roll-over style relief for CGT where joint owners of land exchange their interests [...]
End of an era: Taylor Wimpey CEO Pete Redfern stepping down after 14 years December 8, 2021 Taylor Wimpey said this morning that Pete Redfern will step down as CEO, after more than 14 years in the role. The company said he will leave the business once a successor has been appointed ” to ensure a smooth and orderly transition.” The board said it will consider both internal and external candidates. Pete [...]
South Africa upbeat as battle of the Covid mutations rages: Omicron deaths still zero despite new coronavirus variant spreading twice as fast as deadly Delta December 8, 2021 Scientists and policy makers in South Africa and across the region are cautiously optimistic that the rapidly spreading Omicron variant is not going to cause a bloodbath as, so far, no deaths have been linked to the new Covid mutation. Despite a record number of new infections – more than 40,000 people tested positive in [...]
Major Amazon Web Services outage hits Prime Video, Netflix and Disney+ December 7, 2021 Amazon and services including Prime Video and Alexa have been hit by network outages affecting thousands of users.