HS2 deluged by 11,000 complaints on postcards April 9, 2014 Spare a thought for the post room at Golder Associates, the company hired by the Department for Transport to assess the environmental effects of High Speed 2. The consultancy recently received some 7,500 postcards entitled “Don’t miss your chance to tell David Cameron the only AONB [area of outstanding natural beauty] on the route of [...]
Labour’s £20bn pledge to devolve power to the nation April 7, 2014 LABOUR leader Ed Miliband will today unveil a central pillar of the party’s manifesto for 2015, with a plan to devolve control of £20bn to regions around the UK. Revealing the interim conclusions of Andrew Adonis’s growth review, Miliband will pledge to hand new powers over transport, housing, infrastructure and the work programme over to [...]
Fast-drying concrete cost Victoria Line passengers 100,000 hours, says TfL April 7, 2014 The spillage of some fast-setting concrete saw London's Victoria Line halted in January this year, as a signal room was flooded with the stuff. “We understand that a foot of concrete burst into the control room having been poured into an escalator void,” a spokesman for the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, [...]
Letters to the Editor – 03/04 – Royal Mail, City villages, Best of Twitter April 2, 2014 Royal Mail It’s impossible to accurately price something in the absence of a market, but that does not excuse the government for wasting taxpayer money on the Royal Mail float. Business secretary Vince Cable’s search for long-term investors inevitably reduced demand. And it should come as no surprise that many investors identified as long-termists didn’t [...]
Sales of new homes in Canary Wharf soar April 2, 2014 Residential activity in Canary Wharf is booming, according to new figures from property consultants JLL today which show that the business-focussed district enjoyed one of the highest levels of sales of new homes last year. New unit sales have increased from 400 in 2012 to 1,050 in 2013, pushing values up to an average of [...]
Exova valuation could reach as high as £650m April 1, 2014 EXOVA, a laboratory-based testing company, has said its valuation might be as high as £650m, according to the advisers to its forthcoming London flotation. The indicative price range for the Edinburgh-based company, which works mainly for oil and gas, aerospace and other transport industries, is 210p to 260p. The management team is led by Ian [...]
London 2030: An optimist’s vision of the next urban renaissance April 1, 2014 LONDON faces acute problems of growth. We are building barely a third as many new homes as we need. Yet there is no credible plan for the other two-thirds. In 17 boroughs, the average rent is more than half the average wage, and the typical first time buyer is 32. Peak congestion is unbearable across [...]
Crossrail extends to reading March 28, 2014 LONDON’S new east-west railway will run to Reading, the Department for Transport announced yesterday, giving the Berkshire town more direct links to the capital. Crossrail, which opens fully in 2019, was originally intended to terminate at Maidenhead, but will now take in two extra stops in the west.
Letters to the Editor – 28/03 – Crossrail 2, Virtual future, Best of Twitter March 28, 2014 Crossrail 2 [Re: London will come to a standstill if we delay Crossrail 2, yesterday] Far from demonstrating a lack of political will on Crossrail 2, the mayor has long been the driving force behind getting this vital project moving. He strongly believes it is critical to boosting capacity and galvanising economic growth, which is [...]
Celebrating the art of living March 28, 2014 Here are some of the public artworks commissioned by property developers to inspire Londoners at home THE TOWER AT SAFFRON SQUARE, CROYDONThis 43-storey skyscraper in Croydon is set to grace London’s skyline in 2016. Residents can expect “five-star hotel living” set against arty interior design. The architecture of the building is inspired by the iconic [...]