Comcast profit drops as Covid-19 shutdown offsets broadband boost April 30, 2020 Comcast today reported a sharp drop in profit for the first quarter as the shutdown of cinemas and theme parks due to the coronavirus outbreak offset a rise in broadband usage. The US media giant posted net income of $2.1bn (£1.7bn) in the first three months of the year, down almost 40 per cent year [...]
Restaurant bosses to beg ministers to extend UK coronavirus lockdown April 29, 2020 Restaurant industry bosses are set to urge the government not to end the UK coronavirus lockdown too soon, warning the move would cause permanent closures. Celebrity chefs Rick Stein and Tom Kerridge are among the restaurateurs to sign a letter to business secretary Alok Sharma and Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove, which will be sent [...]
Private equity groups: EU state aid rules could block coronavirus loans April 27, 2020 Private equity firms are increasingly concerned that viable but highly-indebted or loss-making British firms, potentially including high-street names, will be ruled out of coronavirus business loan schemes due to European Union state aid rules. European lobbying groups representing the industry are set to write to the EU this week to try to ensure such firms [...]
Steelworks MP calls for changes to loan scheme after Tata bailout request April 27, 2020 The Labour MP for Aberavon, which contains Tata Steel’s Port Talbot steelworks, has written to chancellor Rishi Sunak asking him to lift the cap on the size of loans large companies can receive to limit the coronavirus damage. Yesterday it was reported that the firm, a subsidiary of giant Indian conglomerate Tata, was seeking £500m [...]
Boris Johnson returns to work under pressure to ease UK coronavirus lockdown April 27, 2020 Boris Johnson faces a flurry of meetings about the UK coronavirus lockdown upon his return to Downing Street today after his own severe battle with the infection. The Prime Minister returns to work today after three weeks of fighting off a coronavirus infection that could have killed him. After confirming his positive diagnosis on Twitter [...]
Tata Steel seeks £500m in government cash for Port Talbot plant April 26, 2020 Tata Steel needs £500m from the government to survive the coronavirus economic slowdown, MP for Aberavon Stephen Kinnock said. Kinnock asked first secretary Dominic Raab in parliament last week to lift the amount lent to businesses under the coronavirus large business interruption loan scheme (CLBILS) from £50m to £500m to help Tata Steel with lost [...]
City grandees call for coronavirus lockdown to be eased April 26, 2020 A group of City of London grandees have urged the government to ease the coronavirus lockdown amidst fears a prolonged shutdown would “do more harm to people’s health by putting them out of work”. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will return to work tomorrow as Downing Street looks to formulate the next phase of its coronavirus [...]
Coronavirus: UK must prepare for ‘new normal’, says Dominic Raab April 26, 2020 Dominic Raab has warned that Britons will need to adapt to a “new normal” as Boris Johnson prepares to go back to work tomorrow for the first time since being hospitalised. Raab said today that the UK “won’t be going back” to how it was before Covid-19, echoing statements from chief medical officer Chris Whitty [...]
Green light for £250m Netflix and Amazon film studio complex in Kent April 23, 2020 Developers have been given the green light to build a £250m film complex in Kent to provide much-needed studio space for streaming giants such as Netflix (NFLX) and Amazon (AMZN). Local councillors last night approved plans for Ashford International Film Studios, which will boast 240,000 square feet of production space. Derelict railway works The complex, [...]
Coronavirus: England and Wales weekly deaths hit 20-year high April 21, 2020 England and Wales experienced their highest weekly death toll since 2000 earlier this month, with coronavirus responsible for a third of the 18,516 deaths. The total for the week ending 10 April was 2,129 higher than the previous week, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). And it is 41 per cent higher than [...]