Network Rail investigated for ‘poor performance’ in Midlands and north west January 21, 2020 Network Rail is being investigated over poor performance on train lines in the northwest and the Midlands. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has put the company on a warning over the performance on Northern and TransPennine Express routes. Network Rail is publicly-owned, and operates the UK’s physical rail infrastructure, such as tracks, signalling [...]
Trump Davos 2020 speech: US could do ‘tremendous’ trade deal with UK January 21, 2020 President Donald Trump used his Davos 2020 speech today to say he is looking forward to negotiating a “tremendous new deal” with the UK after Brexit. Speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos, President Trump said the UK has a “wonderful new Prime Minister who wants very much to make a deal”. Read [...]
Aldi announces pay rise and recruitment drive January 21, 2020 Aldi has announced it will increase the hourly rate paid to in-store staff members and hire more than 3,800 employees this year as it pushes ahead with its UK expansion plans. The budget supermarket said all employees will earn a minimum hourly rate of £9.40, a 30p per hour increase from the previous minimum wage [...]
Upper Crust owner SSP sales rise on strong UK passenger growth January 21, 2020 Upper Crust owner SSP Group reported a slight rise in sales at the end of last year as the travel hub food operator benefitted from growing passenger numbers in the UK and North America. Like-for-like sales in the three months ended 31 December grew 1.2 per cent, in line with expectations, the company said this [...]
Easyjet raises first half guidance after outperforming on passenger revenue January 21, 2020 Low-cost airline Easyjet this morning said that they had raised their first half revenue guidance after outperforming expectations for their passenger revenue. Easyjet’s shares rose over four per cent in early trading. The figures: Total revenue for the quarter rose nearly 10 per cent to £1.43bn, up from 1.3bn in the same period last year. [...]
UK property transactions soar after General Election January 21, 2020 UK property transactions soared at the end of last year, according to government data, as both sellers and buyers made the most of renewed confidence following the General Election result. Residential property transactions in December jumped 6.8 per cent year-on-year to 104,670, a 6.2 per cent rise on November’s number. The total number of non-residential [...]
Why London black cabs might ferry you around the Tokyo Olympics January 21, 2020 Londoners visiting Tokyo this summer will find a small part of home on the streets of the Japanese capital, after a fleet of London black cabs comes to the city in time for the Olympic Games. The London Electric Vehicle Company, the UK-based maker of the plug-in hybrid version of London’s black cabs which is [...]
Talktalk sells broadband business to Cityfibre for £200m January 21, 2020 Broadband provider Cityfibre this morning announced the acquisition of Fibrenation, Talktalk’s fibre networks rollout business, for £200m. The deal, which was delayed in November after Labour announced plans to nationalise BT, means that Cityfibre’s rollout target has risen from 5m up to 8m premises in the UK. As a result of the purchase, Talktalk, which [...]
UBS profit slides as Swiss bank misses 2019 targets January 21, 2020 Profit at Swiss banking giant UBS fell five per cent for the full year, as the Zurich-headquartered bank missed its targets for 2019. Net profit for the year was $4.3bn (£3.30), down from $4.5bn in 2018. Although profit in the final quarter of 2019 rose 129 per cent, this was largely the result of comparisons [...]
Facebook creates 1,000 new jobs in London as it targets growth January 21, 2020 Facebook will create 1,000 new jobs in London by the end of the year. Over half of the new jobs will be in technology, including software engineering and data science, as well as development of its Workplace and Whatsapp platforms. Other roles will be in the “community integrity” team, which aims to detect and remove [...]