The answer to Britain’s housing crisis is more houses – not risky mortgages October 11, 2020 Housing experts were left scratching their heads this week after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his flagship policy to get young people on the housing ladder: bigger mortgages. Johnson plans to turn “generation rent” into “generation buy” by offering long-term, fixed-rate mortgages of up to 95 per cent of the value of the home. He [...]
Major Tory donor, head of Garden Bridge and Brexit advisers receive top gongs in Queen’s Birthday Honours list October 9, 2020 One of the largest Conservative party donors, the head of the failed £40m Garden Bridge and 10 Brexit advisers were among the senior figures to receive awards in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours list. Tony Gallagher, who has donated almost £4m to the Conservative party over the last 13 years, was awarded a knighthood for [...]
Tory mayoral candidate vows ‘mental health covenant’ for TfL staff October 9, 2020 Tory mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey has pledged to offer more mental health support to Transport for London (TfL) staff if elected mayor as figures show increasing levels of psychological distress among the workforce. Bailey told City A.M. that he would create a “mental health covenant” for TfL workers in a similar vein to existing programmes [...]
TfL boss that oversaw Crossrail and Garden Bridge fiascos set for an honour October 9, 2020 A controversial former TfL boss appears to be in line for an honour, after Sadiq Khan tweeted his congratulations before the tweet was hastily removed. The Queen’s birthday honours list will be be announced tonight, however it appears the mayor of London jumped the gun this morning by announcing that former TfL commissioner Mike Brown [...]
Stagecoach sees bus revenues at 60 per cent of pre-pandemic levels October 9, 2020 Bus operator Stagecoach said that revenue on its regional bus services had recovered to up to 60 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. However, due to the continued uncertainty over new coronavirus restrictions in the UK, it said that its full year outlook was unchanged from June. The announcement sent shares down four per cent in [...]
Time running out for TfL to secure emergency government funding October 9, 2020 Time is running out for Transport for London (TfL) to secure emergency central government funding, with cash from its last bailout set to dry up in nine days. TfL is in negotiations with the Department for Transport over the funding settlement, with mayor of London Sadiq Khan asking for £5.65bn over the next 18 months [...]
Coronavirus: Greek islands added to England’s travel corridor and no countries relegated to quarantine list October 8, 2020 Greek islands added to England's travel corridor and no countries are added to quarantine list
Railway passenger numbers fall to lowest levels since mid-1800s October 8, 2020 The number of people using the UK’s railways fell to the lowest levels in almost 200 years between April and June as the coronavirus lockdown decimated passenger demand. Just 35m journeys were made in the three month period, down more than 400m on the same quarter in 2019. According to the Office of Road and [...]
London minister hits out at Sadiq Khan for ‘mixed messages’ during Covid October 8, 2020 Boris Johnson’s London minister has hit out at Sadiq Khan for sending “mixed messages” and for being two-faced in his dealings with the government. Paul Scully said today that Khan had “worked collaboratively” with the government behind closed doors during the Covid pandemic, but that he too often then goes on to attack the Prime [...]
Uh-oh, spaghettio: Could Italy be next in line on UK quarantine list? October 8, 2020 Italy could be the next country to be added to the quarantine list after the number of coronavirus cases surged past the UK’s threshold for reimposing restrictions. Over the last seven days, the number of cases per 100,000 has ticked up to 31.0, according to travel consultancy the PC Agency. Transport secretary Grant Shapps has [...]