Rolls-Royce launches partnership with engineering giants Amec Foster Wheeler, Nuvia and Arup to build fleet of mini nuclear reactors January 8, 2017 FTSE 100-listed engineering giant Rolls-Royce has teamed up with a raft of British engineering groups to design and build a fleet of mini nuclear reactors. Amec Foster Wheeler, Nuvia and Arup will work with Rolls-Royce, together with the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, in the effort to make small modular reactors (SMRs). The engineering partnership [...]
Business secretary Greg Clark to hone in on industrial strategy in raft of meetings with companies next week January 5, 2017 Business secretary Greg Clark is expected to hold meetings with a raft of companies next week to discuss industrial strategy ahead of a green paper due out later this month. City A.M. understands Clark will be in meetings throughout the week with business figures from a range of industries to discuss the UK's nascent industrial [...]
Prime Minister Theresa May to visit President-elect Donald Trump in the US next month January 5, 2017 Prime Minister Theresa May will visit President-elect Donald Trump in the US next month. The PM will visit Washington DC after Trump's inauguration, which is on 20 January, a senior Number 10 source told Sky News. Trump invited May to visit him "as soon as possible" in a phone call the day after the US [...]
Central London bulked up on budget gyms last year with 46 per cent of new openings in the low-cost sector January 5, 2017 Londoners may want to get healthy (especially after the Christmas and New Year excess fest), but they also don't want to break the bank while they do it. Almost half (46 per cent) of the new gyms that opened in Central London last year were budget gyms, classed as having membership plans costing less than [...]
Ministry of Defence awards £30m contract to UK Dragonfire consortium to build a prototype “laser weapon” January 5, 2017 The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has awarded a £30m contract to a consortium of European companies to build a prototype "laser weapon". The contract for the laser directed energy weapon will assess how the system can pick up and track targets "at various ranges and in varied weather conditions over land and water". If the [...]
Cuadrilla Resources starts work at Lancashire fracking site near Blackpool January 5, 2017 British energy firm Cuadrilla Resources started work at its shale gas exploration site near Blackpool in Lancashire today. Permission to start hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, at the firm's Preston New Road site was granted in October last year by communities secretary Sajid Javid, who overruled an earlier decision from Lancashire County Council. It was one of two [...]
Oil prices lift as Saudi Arabia looks to bolster Opec deal with customer talks and US crude inventories have unexpected fall January 5, 2017 The price of the black stuff lifted more than one per cent today as Saudi Arabia started talks to support an Opec-led production cut and a report showed the amount of oil the US keeps in reserve fell last week. Global benchmark Brent crude was up 1.5 per cent, or $0.83, to $57.29 a barrel [...]
Babcock International’s French arm scoops €500m defence contract with French Air Force January 5, 2017 The French arm of defence and support services group Babcock International has scooped a €500m (£425m) contract with France's air force. Under the 11-year contract, which begins immediately, Babcock France will provide and maintain a training platform and related services for the French Air Force (l'Armée de l'Air). The FTSE 100-listed firm had been tipped to get [...]
Loyalty costs: Energy consumers sticking with standard variable tariffs rack up combined bill of £3.6bn a year January 5, 2017 Loyalty costs when it comes to energy bills, according to new research from comparison site uSwitch. Customers staying loyal to their supplier’s standard tariff without looking for the cheapest deal are paying a combined £3.6bn more for their energy each year than they need to. British Gas has the most standard variable customers, around 6.6m [...]
The oil price rally has pushed petrol and diesel prices to their highest levels in 18 months January 5, 2017 Petrol and diesel prices rose by around 3p a litre in December, taking the fuels to their priciest levels since July 2015. An oil price rally triggered by a production cut among members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) at the end of November pushed up the wholesale costs for both fuels [...]
