Government resists calls for Eurostar bailout despite £400m debt pile April 6, 2021 The government has resisted calls for a bailout for cross-Channel train operator Eurostar, despite the company teetering towards bankruptcy. Eurostar has until June to repay £400m loans that it took out to bolster a collapse in revenue after passenger numbers plummeted during the pandemic. Chancellor Rishi Sunak last year unveiled a scheme called Project Birch to [...]
UK launches £75bn Covid Recovery Loan Scheme April 6, 2021 Businesses will from today be able to apply for new government-backed Covid-19 “recovery loans” through a £75bn scheme. The new loan programme will see businesses able to apply for loans of between £25,001 and £10m, with the government taking on 80 per cent of the default risk of each loan. The new loan scheme, announced [...]
Whitehall agrees deal to set up hybrid offices as civil servants push to keep remote working April 5, 2021 Whitehall agrees deal to set up hybrid offices as civil servants push to keep remote working
Sunak questioned over Greensill Capital’s links to Covid loan scheme April 5, 2021 Greensill Bank clients get $3bn payout as Labour puhes for tighter lobbying rules after David Cameron lobbying probe
Screenshot: Will London ever be ready for tech IPOs? April 2, 2021 This week **Media Moment of the Week: Volkswagen’s awkward U-turn **Will London ever be ready for tech IPOs? **Amazon goes bonkers for bots Media Moment of the Week: Volkswagen’s awkward U-turn There are few things as grating as the forced joviality of April Fool’s Day and it should, in this writer’s opinion, be cancelled. That [...]
Glastonbury to be handed cash boost in latest Covid culture funding April 2, 2021 Glastonbury will be handed £90,000 in government support as part of the latest tranche of emergency funding aimed at supporting Britain’s struggling cultural institutions. The iconic festival, which has been cancelled this year but will host a livestream performance in May, is one of more than 2,700 organisations to share in a £400m pot of [...]
Podcasts that helped us survive lockdown April 1, 2021 Podcasts have been one of the defining mediums of recent years, evolving from an online alternative to live radio to a thing all of its own, intimate and confessional, beamed into bedrooms, gyms and underground carriages across the world. In the last year we’ve relied more than ever on our favourite hosts talking quietly into [...]
Exclusive: Royals recruited to help fight post-Brexit rivalry with Emmanuel Macron March 31, 2021 The Royal Family have been drafted in by the government to help attract more firms to the UK post-Brexit and to help fight a growing rivalry with Emmanuel Macron, after the French President put on a series of events aimed to steal investment away from the UK. The Royals will co-host a green investment summit [...]
Deliveroo shares slump 30 per cent on long-awaited stock market debut March 31, 2021 Deliveroo shares plunged by as much as 30 per cent on its long-awaited market debut, wiping more than £2bn off its valuation. The delivery firm’s shares closed out their first day of trading well down at 287p, a sharp drop from the offer price of 390p per share. The listing had been hotly anticipated given [...]
Greensill: What is the David Cameron lobbying row all about? March 30, 2021 Labour is calling for an inquiry amid reports former Prime Minister David Cameron used his contacts to lobby for support for Greensill Capital through the government’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility. Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng insists Cameron “did absolutely nothing wrong” in his dealings, adding that “everything was above board” with the former prime minister’s connection [...]