UK’s post-Covid small business support programme sees slow take-up February 9, 2022 Rishi Sunak’s post-Covid scheme to boost productivity among small British businesses has seen it reach just a tenth of its target in its first six months. The Help to Grow scheme, launched in August last year, is intended to support 30,000 small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) by offering business training in areas like marketing [...]
Major disruption on DLR following customer incident February 9, 2022 Hundreds of commuters were affected this morning by a major disruption on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR). According to Transport for London (TfL) services are not running between West India Quays and Mudchute following a customer incident at Heron Quays, while minor delays are affecting the rest of the DLR network. Despite TfL’s reassurances that [...]
Explainer-in-brief: Jacob Rees-Mogg’s promotion is a post-Brexit peace offering February 9, 2022 Jacob Rees-Mogg’s new cabinet role as the minister for Brexit opportunities will be welcome news for Tory Brexiteers and MPs on the party’s right. The appointment of Rees-Mogg, a Thatcherite and Brexiteer, in today’s reshuffle shows that Boris Johnson intends to accelerate the government’s efforts to shed EU regulation post-Brexit. There have been grumblings by [...]
Letters: Don’t mask the variant problem February 9, 2022 [RE: Javid calms new variant fears as government announces NHS vaccine U-turn, Feb 1] The new variant is rightly being treated with great caution by the WHO. There is evidence that the sub variant could be more infectious than the earlier strain of Omicron, but it does not appear to lead to more hospitalisations. The recent [...]
UK summer flight bookings almost close to 2019 levels as Brits look at travelling with optimism February 9, 2022 UK summer flight bookings have gone back to almost pre-pandemic levels, as Brits look at foreign travelling with a newfound optimism despite a series of economic crunches. According to data from travel trend firm ForwardKeys, bookings for the summer of 2022 lagged behind only 16 per cent compared with 2019 levels. While many travellers still [...]
Health minister Gillian Keegan apologises for in-person meeting despite positive Covid-19 result February 9, 2022 Minister Gillian Keegan has apologised for continuing an in-person meeting after testing positive for Covid-19. The minister for care and mental health took to Twitter to publicly apologise and be “upfront” about her “mistake” last night. Keegan had attended a meeting with three fathers who had lost their daughters to suicide, and took a “precautionary” [...]
Light freight handling could reach 20m parcels if Thames’ potential unlocked February 9, 2022 When it comes to light freight handling, the River Thames has a lot of untapped potential which needs only to be unlocked, said a new research. Commissioned by the Thames Estuary Growth Board and the Port of London Authority, the ‘Light Freight on the River Thames’ report highlighted that using the river to handle 20 [...]
Hunting for “10 baggers” – how the UK beat the US February 9, 2022 The ups and downs of US technology stocks dominate headlines. Before this year’s tech correction it would have been hard to miss the news, for instance, that Apple’s market capitalisation had exceeded $3 trillion. That was not too far short of the entire value of the UK stock market. What is less well known, however, [...]
EN+ Group reports steady progress amid inflationary pressures February 9, 2022 En+ Group has reported stable operational results in its full-year trading update amid global inflationary pressures.
Barratt boss confirms over 200 buildings fall under cladding safety review February 9, 2022 The boss of housebuilder Barratt has confirmed that more than 200 legacy properties fall within its safety review in a bid to fix the UK’s cladding crisis. Chief executive David Thomas said the company was in talks with government around its plans to get housebuilders to fork out the cash to undergo safety works on [...]