Is £2bn enough to fix the housing market? October 11, 2016 Last week the government announced plans for a £2bn accelerated construction fund that will be used to guarantee housing schemes, including deals to purchase homes that do not sell. The guarantee, which will be achieved by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) directly selling any ‘government purchased homes’ on the market, to the private rented [...]
National Grid to spend £1.9bn to keep power lines out of sight in Lake District and wider Cumbria in Moorside power plant connection project October 24, 2016 National Grid has announced plans to spend £1.9bn to keep power lines out of sight, some of which will pass through the Lake District, to connect a proposed nuclear power station to the electricity grid. More than half of the £2.8bn being spent on the 102-mile cabling scheme to link NuGen’s Moorside plant in Cumbria [...]
Plutus Powergen share price powered up by deal with Big Six energy firm for renewable fuel and gas project funding November 21, 2016 Shares in Aim-listed utility Plutus PowerGen (PPG) lit up today after it announced a funding partnership with an unnamed Big Six energy group. The major energy supplier has offered to fund up to 20 per cent of any of PPG's 20MW renewable fuel or gas powered energy projects going forward, PPG announced today. Its shares shot up [...]
Blackout Britain: Don’t blame the EU alone for the UK’s energy crisis September 29, 2016 Today, the government will release its monthly statistics on total energy production in the UK. This new data will no doubt reflect the poor state of the UK’s energy system, which has suffered from a series of highly damaging state interventions that have burdened consumers with unnecessary costs and left the UK with a worrying [...]
Don’t pass Heathrow’s third runway costs onto customers, warns British Airways boss October 13, 2016 As speculation grows over the government's anticipated airport expansion decision next week, British Airways has said it would be "totally unacceptable" for carriers and passengers to bear the cost of construction. Alex Cruz, chief executive of BA, told the British Air Transport Association that while a third runway at Heathrow Airport was "overwhelmingly" the obvious choice, [...]
Getting ready to decorate this year? Well it’s time to get serious about your bauble game November 23, 2016 If you enjoy idly browsing the shelves of high street stores, you have American entrepreneur Frank Woolworth to thank. The 19th century dime-store magnate pioneered the practice of self-service shopping, whereby customers can handle goods without the assistance of a clerk. Woolworth also enforced the idea of fixed pricing, rather than haggling, as the common [...]
Small housebuilders are struggling to find appropriate land to build on September 20, 2016 The biggest challenge for small and medium housebuilders in the UK is the lack of suitable land to build on, a survey has found. The report from the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) has revealed two thirds of medium sized developers can't find land to develop, making it impossible to build enough homes to meet [...]
Why the solution to India’s energy challenge lies in coal power plants January 13, 2017 India's huge development and energy challenges mean there are economic and development arguments for investing in new coal power plants for the foreseeable future. More than 240m people in India have no electricity, and even for those who have, the quality is far below standards acceptable in developed countries. India’s residential electricity consumption lags behind [...]
Scrapping Hinkley Point would save taxpayers £1bn a year, according to a new report August 26, 2016 Axing plans for two new nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point could save UK taxpayers £1bn a year, according to a new report. Prime Minister Theresa May slammed the brakes on the project last month, despite the board of French energy giant EDF approving construction. And ahead of a final verdict from Downing Street next month, a [...]
Brexit hasn’t impacted the number of companies going pop too much. Yet… October 28, 2016 The number of companies going bust is edging up as experts predict that it is only a matter of time before numbers may rise more rapidly as a result of the Brexit vote. The latest data, released by the government's insolvency service, reveals that there were 3,633 corporate insolvencies in the three months since Britain's decision to leave [...]