Premier Inn owner scoops up almost £1bn to bolster against pandemic June 10, 2020 Whitbread investors have agreed to supply more than 90 per cent of its £1bn cash call, the Premier Inn owner announced today, as it attempts to beef up its balance sheet amid the coronavirus crisis. Existing investors scooped up 91 per cent of the discounted 1-2 fundraiser issued by the hotel group in a bid [...]
Coronavirus: More than half of Brits expect a recession March 30, 2020 More than half of Britons now expect the economy to tumble into recession within a year due to the coronavirus outbreak, a poll has shown, with pessimism about household finances rising at the fastest rate on record. Pollsters Yougov said 52 per cent of people in the UK think the economy will be in recession [...]
You’ll soon be able to charge your car at the pub, as long as you stick to the Diet Coke, but London’s electric vehicle infrastructure is still in need of some juice December 18, 2018 One of the country’s leading pub chains has announced it’s planning to roll out electric vehicle charging points to boozers up and down the country. For Londoners, it’s jarring enough to be reminded that pubs outside the M25 even have their own car parks, let alone ones that will soon dispense a fleet of perfectly silent [...]
Coronavirus lockdown: Office workers to be last to return to work May 3, 2020 Offices will likely have to wait several more months to open as the government prepares to next week unveil its roadmap to ease the coronavirus lockdown. Boris Johnson will announce the government’s strategy for easing coronavirus social distancing measures at the end of the week. The Sunday Times reports that sectors such as construction, and [...]
Amazon workers told to work overtime to meet coronavirus demand March 17, 2020 Workers at Amazon’s warehouses in the UK are being told to work overtime as the company meets the surge in demand amid the coronavirus outbreak. The GMB union said workers across at least four different sites were informed that they had to work “compulsory overtime” from Monday, according to the BBC. Amazon will also hire [...]
Back to Business: Jason Atherton on how he dealt with lockdown and how his empire will strike back July 24, 2020 In the first of a new series of how chefs are dealing with the strange ‘new normal’ we now find ourself in, Jason Atherton talks about the chaos covid caused to his supply chain, and the silver lining of getting to spend time with his newborn daughter. Remind us who you are I’m a Michelin [...]
TfL to run reduced service during coronavirus outbreak March 17, 2020 Transport for London (TfL) will run a reduced service on its network during the coronavirus outbreak, mayor Sadiq Khan has said. Weekday public transport in the capital will be cut back to a “Saturday-type service” over the next few days, Khan told Sky News today. This means weekday Tube and bus services will run at [...]
Best of travel: Eating and drinking with the St Petersburg locals February 3, 2021 To tide us over until we’re able to travel again, we’re republishing classic travel stories from our archives. This week we revisit Ashwin Bhandari’s trip to St Petersburg, the cultural heart of Russia. Read more: Jaguar XF P300 review: revitalised luxury at a surprisingly low price ••• There are not many places that have left me [...]
An F-Shaped recovery – How Freelancers are powering Britain’s brilliant bounce-back July 7, 2020 This wasn’t just any ordinary crisis – the financial hit the UK has taken from COVID-19 has been shorter, sharper, and deeper than any we’ve seen before. According to the Resolution Foundation, the mere seven working days of lockdown in the first three months of 2020 gave the UK it’s biggest quarterly economic contraction since [...]
New Year’s Eve in London 2019: Where to watch the fireworks December 28, 2019 While the official tickets to watch London’s firework display from the banks of the River Thames have long sold out, there are plenty of spots around the city to watch the action for free. This year’s event opposite the London Eye is the fifth in succession that has been all-ticketed, but travel disruption and overcrowding [...]