Boris Johnson’s flagship London dock scheme on brink of collapse
In May 2013, Boris Johnson announced a flagship £1.7bn scheme for Chinese investors to transform east London docks into the capital’s third financial district.It was the biggest commercial property deal he had announced during his time as London mayor and he pledged it would be a “beacon for eastern investors”.While Johnson’s proposals for a new island airport in the Thames estuary and a new bridge linking Scotland and Northern Ireland never got off the ground, he hoped the Royal Albert Dock project would boost his mayoral legacy.“It’s bitterly disappointing and we need to establish what has gone wrong and whether the proper due diligence was done on the project.”There were concerns when City Hall first announced the project about its profitability, but it was hoped there would be a plentiful supply of Chinese funds to ensure its success.Johnson said at the time the commercial, retail and leisure complex on publicly owned land was intended to create thousands of jobs and bring in billions of pounds of investment for the UK economy. He said the 19th-century docks and waterways were once again be the “arteries of trade and commerce”.
Give Boris Johnson time to fix his crises, says Iain Duncan Smith
Boris Johnson must stay in place to deal with the “hugely damaging” No 10 parties scandal and the cost of living crisis because they are his responsibility to fix, according to the former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith.The Conservative grandee said he wanted cabinet ministers to “temper their ambitions” and allow Johnson the time to sort out “the big, big crises that are hitting the government”.He said a leadership contest would be destabilising at the moment. But asked whether it was possible to recover the reputation of the party with Boris Johnson remaining as prime minister, he told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme: “None of us know the answer to that question ... Respect and trust you have to earn, and when you lose it, it’s a very difficult task to get it back across the board.“And so that’s going to be a huge task. The government and the prime minister have set out to try and do that.”Duncan Smith’s remarks came after a disastrous week for Johnson in which he lost five senior staff members and a string of MPs declared they had lost confidence in him.
Millions in UK face fuel poverty despite Sunak support, say experts
Millions of UK households are expected to be dragged into fuel poverty for the first time despite the support announced by Rishi Sunak to soften the blow from soaring energy bills.Several charities warned that the chancellor his plan was badly targeted and offered too little support for those most in need. The scale of the shock to low-income households would drive hunger, rent arrears, and ill health, and pile extra demand on to already stretched food banks and homeless shelters, they said.How the UK energy price cap is calculated – and how it affects your billRead moreThe Resolution Foundation thinktank said cases of fuel stress – where energy bills in a household exceed 10% of disposable income – would double to 5 million in April despite the steps announced by Sunak on Thursday.The Treasury’s intervention was designed to ease the pressure of a £700 increase in the regulated energy price cap to nearly £2,000 a year.Without the chancellor’s plan – which offers most consumers £350 of relief on their bills – fuel stress would have trebled to more than 6 million, the thintank said. However, it criticised Sunak’s decision to favour a moderate amount of help for a large number of people, rather than deeper support for those most in need.“The government’s package of measures might cushion the blow for some but it’s not enough to protect people who already need a food bank,” said Garry Lemon, the policy director at the Trussell Trust food bank network. He called for the planned 3.1% rise in benefits from April to be doubled to 7%.
Cost of living crisis: Bank of England calls for wage restraint as inflation soars – business live
Bank of England: We need to see restraint on pay risesThe Bank of England is calling on workers and bosses to show ‘restraint’ on wage rises, even as the country faces its toughest squeeze in decades.Speaking to the Today Programme, governor Andrew Bailey says the Bank wants to see “quite clear restraint” in the bargaining process.Bailey, who is paid around half a million pounds a year, insists that the UK is not experiencing a wage-price spiral, but pressures are building.A day after the Bank raised interest rates to 0.5%, and warned that inflation will hit 7.25% in April, Bailey said controlling wage increases is key to keeping a grip on inflation.We are looking to see quite clear restraint in the bargaining process. Otherwise it will get out of control.It’s not at the moment but it will do.”I’m not saying, don’t give your staff a pay rise, Bailey insists. This is about the size of it.But won’t wage restraint prevent companies from hiring workers, at a time when many are struggling to fill positions?Bailey says he wants to see wage restraint across the economy.I’m not saying nobody gets a pay rise, don’t get me wrong. But what I am saying it, we do need to see restraint in pay bargaining, otherwise it will get out of control.Yesterday, the Bank of England warned that UK households face the worst squeeze on their disposable incomes for at least 30 years, with real post-tax labour income expected to shrink by 2% this year.
Winter Olympics 2022: 10 things to look out for in Beijing
Jamaica will enter a four-man bobsleigh team in the Olympics for the first time in 24 years after nicking the final qualifying spot, offering a feelgood reboot for the island nation whose debut at the 1988 Calgary Games inspired the Disney film Cool Runnings. Just making it to Beijing might seem like accomplishment enough for Shanwayne Stephens, the team’s 31-year-old pilot and Royal Air Force lance corporal who emigrated to Great Britain with his family in 2002: certainly after improvised training methods at the height of the pandemic that included pushing his girlfriend’s Mini Cooper around the streets of Peterborough. But having touched down in China after undergoing their final preparations at the University of Bath, his goal is plain. “It’s got to be medalling,” Stephens says. “It’s everybody’s dream, it’s what we’re here to do. So why not aim high?
Winter Olympics 2022: 10 things to look out for in Beijing
Jamaica will enter a four-man bobsleigh team in the Olympics for the first time in 24 years after nicking the final qualifying spot, offering a feelgood reboot for the island nation whose debut at the 1988 Calgary Games inspired the Disney film Cool Runnings. Just making it to Beijing might seem like accomplishment enough for Shanwayne Stephens, the team’s 31-year-old pilot and Royal Air Force lance corporal who emigrated to Great Britain with his family in 2002: certainly after improvised training methods at the height of the pandemic that included pushing his girlfriend’s Mini Cooper around the streets of Peterborough. But having touched down in China after undergoing their final preparations at the University of Bath, his goal is plain. “It’s got to be medalling,” Stephens says. “It’s everybody’s dream, it’s what we’re here to do. So why not aim high?” BAG