Plans for West End revamp unveiled as Crossrail expected to bring in extra 250m visitors January 20, 2014 Trying to move down Oxford Street at the weekend or any day for that matter is getting rather like trying to move down a busy tube carriage during rush hour. No wonder then that with the imminent launch of Crossrail expected to bring 250m extra visitors West End leaders are thinking about how to improve [...]
City Moves for 20 January 2014 | Who’s switching jobs January 19, 2014 Maker Studios The media company has hired former AOL executive Rene Rechtman as president of international, a new role to help develop its growth strategy and strategic relationships overseas. Rechtman left his role as CEO of AOL’s branded content division, BeOn, last November. Markel The insurance company has announced the appointment of Charles Bragg as [...]
MoD to spend £48m on new IT after blunders January 14, 2014 THE GOVERNMENT yesterday confirmed that it will be paying Capita £47.7m to produce a new IT platform for the Army to recruit online, despite the outsourcing firm’s troubles with running the existing programme. This is the latest high-profile gaffe to rock the Ministry of Defence, which was lambasted by the Commons defence committee yesterday for [...]
New HS2 chair is looking for cost savings January 14, 2014 THE NEW chairman of HS2 pledged to cut some costs from the £42.6bn rail project yesterday. Sir David Higgins said “there is no other way” to improve transport links to the north of England and that dropping the project would be “disastrous for the whole country”. “The first thing I want to look at is [...]
Capita wins £145m congestion charge contract ahead of toll-hike January 14, 2014 Capita, which helped set up the congestion charge for London in 2003, has won back the contract to run the scheme, five years after losing it to IBM. The outsourcing group reckons the contract is worth £145m in revenues over five years – meaning it’s likely to make up just 0.9 per cent of Capita’s annual [...]
MPs stand up for British institutions after French Embassy slurs January 14, 2014 Last week, City A.M. editor Allister Heath wrote this piece: France’s failed socialist experiment is turning into a tragedy In response, the French Embassy has launched something of an (un)diplomatic rejoinder: 10 accounts on which City A.M. has got it wrong on France The embassy has levelled that France has a better health service, roads, [...]
Capita wins back congestion charge contract January 14, 2014 Outsourcing giant Capita is to take over running the London congestion charge scheme. The five-year deal with Transport for London is expected to make the company £145m in revenue. Capita ran the initial congestion charge scheme from 2003 but lost the contract to IBM in 2009. According to a statement this morning, the firm [...]
HS2 firm spent £300m on rail link since 2011 January 12, 2014 THE COST of building HS2, the new high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham, could spiral out of control, a campaign group has warned. The Taxpayers’ Alliance has published figures showing that HS2 Ltd, the publically-funded company set up to develop the rail link, has spent £300m since January 2011. Of this figure, over £1m [...]
Activist to pitch breakup plan to First’s investors January 12, 2014 AN INVESTOR pushing for change at FirstGroup will try to sell his break-up plan to other shareholders this week, paving the way for a heated capital markets day later in the month. Thomas Sandell, whose hedge fund revealed a three per cent stake in FirstGroup in November, will this week be in London to set [...]
Gimme 5 January 12, 2014 …FREE APPS FOR ENTREPRENEURS Asana asana.com/apps WHAT: Task management app offering real-time interaction across a company. WHY: “I can get more done with less effort. It keeps me on the pulse of what’s going on back at the office,” says Will Swannell, founder of venue booking service Hire Space. Citymapper citymapper.com WHAT: A transport app [...]