Babcock sells engineering business to KBR for £293m Babcock sells engineering business to KBR for £293m Defence giant Babcock has today announced that it will sell engineering subsidiary Frazer-Nash Consultancy to fellow infrastructure player KBR for £293m. The sale is the first step in a plan to cull £400m worth of contracts over the next 12 months to fix the FTSE 100 firm’s battered balance sheet. Shares in the London-headquartered firm [...]
Exclusive: Waterloo and City line set to fully reopen “very, very soon” Exclusive: Waterloo and City line set to fully reopen "very, very soon" Transport for London’s (TfL) Commissioner has said that crucial commuter artery the Waterloo & City line could fully reopen by the end of the year. “The fact that the City is now getting busier means we are actively looking at when we can increase to full service on the Waterloo & City line so I [...]
“It’s existential”: TfL boss says Government failure on long-term funding deal would be “betrayal” of London Exclusive: TfL boss warns of "existential" transport crisis without deal THE man in charge of the capital’s creaking transport network has said that it will be a “betrayal” of London if TfL does not get a long-term funding deal this year. Commissioner Andy Byford warned that if the government did not agree a multi-year package with the operator it would set back the UK’s recovery [...]
Mind the funding gap: Can the TfL boss secure London’s Tube network’s future? September 21, 2021 It’s only September, but one date is very much etched in the mind of Transport for London (TfL) Commissioner Andy Byford: 11 December. That’s when TfL’s latest £1bn funding package runs out, the third short-term deal the government has bestowed on the capital’s transport network, despite repeated pleas for a multi-year settlement instead. And although [...]
Lime: The e-scooter firm looking to make the car obsolete September 21, 2021 London has seen many changes over the last 18 months. Some of these may not last long, now that life is heading back to normality, but others feel like they could be set to stay. Perhaps the most obvious of these have been the changes made to the very fabric of the capital, which has [...]
Exclusive: London’s first ever data charter launched September 20, 2021 One of London’s leading business associations has today launched the capital’s first ever Data Charter to help businesses tackle some of the biggest challenges facing the city. Drawn up by law firm Pinsent Masons for London First, the charter provides a framework for private and public companies across the city to collaborate and share data. [...]
Slot wars on the cards as Asian regulators threaten retaliation over new EU rules September 17, 2021 The aviation industry could be on the brink of a new trade war after Asian regulators warned they could retaliate over EU plans to force carriers to use 50 per cent of their take-off and landing slots during the winter season. Having frozen slot rules during the pandemic, the bloc in July announced that airlines [...]
Gas price surge forces industrial sites to close September 17, 2021 Two industrial sites that produce a combined 40 per cent of the UK’s fertiliser have been forced to halt operations due to recent record gas prices. The Times reported that CF Industries had shuttered its plants at Billingham in Teesside and Ince in Cheshire as a direct result of the price spikes. The closures came [...]
People falling off escalators over fear of catching Covid-19 sends TfL injuries up September 17, 2021 London Underground bosses have warned that people falling off escalators due to not holding on to the handrail over fears of catching Covid-19 is one of the biggest safety risks facing the network. Since the lifting of lockdown restrictions earlier this year the number of accidents of this type has soared due to the “perception [...]
Independent Scotland would have to find extra £8.5bn in savings September 17, 2021 An independent Scotland would have to find a whopping £8.5bn in additional savings upon leaving the Union, a new report from the Institute for Government has found. Before Covid-19 struck, the Scottish deficit stood at 8.0 per cent, but the IfG warned that it was unlikely that Nicola Sturgeon’s government would be able to borrow [...]