Ride-hailing firms have ‘moral imperative’ to give drivers’ workers rights, says Heidi Alexander July 2, 2021 London’s deputy mayor for transport has said that ride-hailing firms have a “moral imperative” to offer their drivers basic workers’ rights. Speaking to City A.M., Heidi Alexander said that City Hall would like to see minicab operators like Bolt and Ola adapt their business models to embrace the Supreme Court’s historic judgement on Uber. Her [...]
Sodexo nets enlarged Test and Trace contract worth £400m July 2, 2021 Sodexo has become the latest service provider to have its contract to run test and trace facilities for the NHS extended. The outsourcer announced overnight that selected to operate a further 121 fixed and mobile Covid-19 testing centres, which makes it the biggest provider of such services in the country. It added that the new [...]
Jet2 will not fly to ‘amber list’ countries until 19 July July 1, 2021 Package holiday firm Jet2 will not fly to “amber list” countries until 19 July, the company confirmed today, due to ongoing travel restrictions. The FTSE listed firm said it would await the next UK government review of the traffic light status of overseas destinations, which it expect on or around July 15. At the moment, [...]
Business committee writes to CMA over private equity takeover concerns July 1, 2021 A spate of recent private equity interest in the UK’s supermarkets has prompted the chair of the parliamentary business committee to question whether the competition watchdog has sharp enough teeth to deal with such bids. Over the weekend, buyout specialists Clayton, Dubilier & Rice made an unprompted £5.5bn offer for Morrisons, which rejected the bid. [...]
HS2 faces new legal challenge from Siemens over £2.8bn contract July 1, 2021 HS2 has reportedly been hit by another legal challenge, this time by German industrial group Siemens, over a £2.8bn contract to build trains for the new rail link. The new lawsuit comes just days after the firm behind the project confirmed it had settled a previous dispute with Spanish firm Talgo out of court. The [...]
Oil prices hit highest levels in three years July 1, 2021 Global oil prices hit their highest levels in three years today as fuel demand continued to pick up amid the reopening of the global economy after the pandemic. Both worldwide standard Brent crude and US benchmark WTI topped $75 today, touching their highest prices since October 2018. The latter’s price picked up a further 2.2 [...]
Double jabs will be a ‘liberator’ for travel, Johnson insists July 1, 2021 Boris Johnson this morning insisted that “double jabs will be a liberator” when asked whether fully vaccinated people would be able to travel to and from amber list countries by July 26 without having to isolate on return. Speaking while visiting Nissan’s plant in Sunderland, the Prime Minister said: “Everybody who is frustrated about travel over [...]
Shell to ‘quit California joint venture with ExxonMobil’ July 1, 2021 Shell is reportedly planning to quit its California-based joint venture with fellow oil supermajor ExxonMobil as it looks to accelerate its transition away from fossil fuels. Four sources told Reuters that the FTSE blue chip had informed Exxon that it intended to exit subsidairy Aera Energy, in which it holds a 52 per cent stake. [...]
Sunak to set out vision for UK financial services as new green bonds unveiled July 1, 2021 Rishi Sunak will today lay out plans to make Britain the most “advanced and exciting” country for financial services in the world in his first ever Mansion House address. The speech comes after the Treasury revealed the first details of the government’s plan for the UK’s first ever green sovereign bond – or gilt – [...]
City of London ‘set for exemption from new global tax rules’ June 30, 2021 The City of London is set to win an exemption from new global proposals for taxing multinational companies in a boon for the Square Mile’s largest banks. The FT reported that Britain’s pitch for a carve-out for its financial services sector has been accepted in the ongoing talks at the OECD in Paris. But sources [...]