First shipment of medical supplies arrives in Covid-stricken India from the UK April 27, 2021 The first shipment of emergency medical supplies have landed in India today from the UK, as the country’s infection rates have soared in recent weeks. The supplies form part of a global campaign to curtail India’s sudden increase in infections, with the US offering to export 60m of AstraZeneca vaccine doses. India has reported over [...]
Boris Johnson to chair Cabinet as allegations mount April 27, 2021 Boris Johnson will chair a meeting of the Cabinet later today after a series of damaging claims over the Prime Minister’s conduct during the pandemic. In recent days Number 10 has been rocked by a number of allegations, including from former aide Dominic Cummings, about Johnson’s approach to the pandemic. Yesterday it was claimed that [...]
Mortuaries in India overwhelmed as desperate relatives plead for oxygen outside hospitals April 27, 2021 Indian families are being left to ferry people sick with Covid-19 from hospital to hospital in search of treatment, as the country suffers a surge in infections with oxygen in short supply. On social media and in television footage, desperate relatives can be seen pleading for oxygen outside hospitals or weeping in the street for [...]
Pandemic-resilient companies employ higher-paid, higher educated staff April 26, 2021 Companies that coped better through the pandemic were more likely to employ people who were paid better, had higher education and were born in Poland or India. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that workers in industries classed as “resilient” to the pandemic were paid £628.89 per week on average, compared with [...]
The office is not dead – far from it, say City insiders April 26, 2021 As the economy starts to reopen, the City is slowly coming back to life. A range of banks and Square Mile-based firms have started to formalise work from home policies and implemented flexible working arrangements. Businesses in every sector have been debating concepts of what the post-Covid office could look like with pessimists doubting its [...]
House prices: New build homebuyer demand explodes on England’s south coast and in Wales April 26, 2021 Homebuyer demand for new build homes has climbed 9 per cent in the last year, with coastal towns in the south of England and Wales leading the charge. Across Britain, 38.7 per cent of all new build homes are already sold subject to contract or under offer, a 9 per cent jump on the same [...]
Furlough cash: Businesses repay £760m as HMRC cracks down on fraudsters April 26, 2021 A total of 3,777 businesses have repaid over £760m in furlough grants to HMRC, according to new data shared with City A.M. this afternoon. Since the introduction of the furlough scheme in March 2020, £53.8bn has been claimed by employers as it protected over 11m employees, said accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young, who compiled the [...]
Govt tells bereaved families inquiry into its handling of pandemic is ‘not appropriate’ April 26, 2021 The government said this afternoon that it currently has “no capacity” to launch a public inquiry into the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, it has told bereaved families. An inquiry “now is not appropriate” as people who would need to give evidence are “working round the clock” to keep society safe, families were told in [...]
Busy terraces mask dire straights at restaurants, says new data April 26, 2021 You may be struggling to get a reservation at your favourite restaurant, but that doesn’t mean the sector has recovered from the pandemic, according to new data. Booked out terraces are putting a positive facade on an industry still in crisis, with orders estimated to be at just 60 per cent of pre-lockdown levels. Data [...]
97 per cent of office workers want a work from home arrangement post-pandemic April 26, 2021 Nearly all employees who are currently working from home prefer to keep doing just that, even when offices are open. According to a survey conducted by Nyenrode Business University, Open University and Moneypenny, 97 per cent of all office workers wants to maintain a work-from-home mode, with 9 per cent preferring to work from home [...]