Kier Group shares tumble despite record orders March 11, 2025 Kier Group shares tumbled this morning despite the firm hiking dividends by a fifth and reporting a record £11bn order backlog. The London-listed group said it would pay investors an interim dividend of 2p, up 20 per cent from last year’s 1.67p. Kier Group’s record £11bn order book rose two per cent year-on-year and means [...]
What’s in the government’s new planning reform bill? March 10, 2025 The government has promised to unleash the biggest building boom in a generation through its wide-ranging planning reform bill, which will head into parliament today. Drafted in response to a crisis which has seen a massive shortage of affordable housing, as well as rising house prices and rents to due undersupply, the bill intends to [...]
If we want our economy to grow, our skyline must go up, up, up March 10, 2025 The City's skyline is always changing, but if we want our economy to grow bigger, it must go higher, writes Chris Hayward.
Eurostar halts London-Paris trains for rest of day after unexploded bomb found March 7, 2025 Eurostar has suspended services between London and Paris for the rest of Friday after the discovery of an unexploded Second World War bomb near tracks in the French capital. Thousands of passengers are disrupted as the cross-Channel operator was scheduled to run 32 trains in either direction throughout the day. A large crowd of people [...]
West is best: Why West London is primed for growth March 6, 2025 West London has high-growth businesses, great transport links and brownfield sites ripe for development. No wonder it’s top of the Mayor’s list for investment, says Peter Mason We are at a tipping point for London’s economy. We need more homes, but equally, we also need the jobs and economic growth that will allow people to [...]
Sadiq Khan’s plan to ‘turbocharge’ London’s economy is wilfully naive March 3, 2025 Sadiq Khan’s London Growth Plan is an admirable and ambitious vision for the capital, but its bold projections should be taken with a pinch of salt, says James Ford When running for his historic third term last year, Sadiq Khan claimed to be the “most pro-business Mayor ever”. Now he is putting his money where [...]
Addison Lee returned to profit ahead of £270m takeover February 28, 2025 London’s premium private hire cab service, Addison Lee, returned to the black in the year before being acquired by transport giant ComfortDelGro for almost £270m, it has been revealed. The business, which has a network of 7,500 drivers and 5,000 vehicles, achieved a pre-tax profit of £1.8m in the 12 months to 31 August, 2024. The [...]
HS2 is beyond saving and poses risk to UK’s reputation, MPs conclude February 28, 2025 HS2 is beyond saving and must be studied by future governments as a “cautionary tale” on how “not to run a major project,” a cross-party group of MPs has concluded. In one of its most damming-ever reports, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said it was “long past the point” of offering recommendations on how to [...]
The UK needs a rules-based zoning system for planning February 28, 2025 Under the discretionary planning system created in 1947, no part of England has ever been able to harness private sector development to meet housing targets at the scale we now need. It’s time for a radical overhaul, says Andrew Carter The government has rightly made improving workers’ take-home pay a measure of success for this [...]
Gatwick expansion raises questions over Heathrow third runway, Khan says February 27, 2025 Sir Sadiq Khan has said the government’s pathway towards approving plans for use of a second runway at Gatwick “begs the question” over the need for a third runway at Heathrow. The mayor of London made the comments following the launch of his London Growth Plan at Imperial College this morning which sets out how [...]