Banks, law firms and accountants to be ranked on social mobility success October 24, 2016 Top City employers will be ranked on their progress in boosting social mobility and recruiting candidates from disadvantaged backgrounds, in a new government-backed scheme. The Social Mobility Commission, a government body, and the Social Mobility Foundation, a charity, have teamed up to produce a new index of the country's biggest employers to assess their efforts [...]
Treasury names Katharine Braddick as replacement for Charles Roxburgh as financial services head October 24, 2016 Katharine Braddick has been appointed as the new director general for financial services, the Treasury has announced. She replaces Charles Roxburgh, who was appointed as the second permanent secretary to the Treasury in June. Braddick, who was formerly the director for international and EU financial services, joined the department from the Bank of England in 2014. Read [...]
MPs will this week grill Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin as part of an industrial strategy probe October 24, 2016 Businesses including Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin will be invited to give evidence to MPs in Coventry later this week as part of a probe into the government's industrial strategy. MPs on parliament's Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee will take evidence at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) in the East Midlands city on Thursday. Witnesses [...]
Brexit doesn’t mean the end of the City October 24, 2016 Thirty years ago this week, Canada underwent a transformation that would set it on a path to global dominance in financial services. The Big Bang, as it became known, was enabled by new technology, regulatory reform, political will and entrepreneurial endeavour. Over the ensuing three decades, the City came to represent the [...]
Hard versus soft Brexit is a fallacy: There are over 40 ways to leave the EU October 24, 2016 Writing about how Brexit will unfold is like trying to provide a running commentary on submarine warfare – speculative, largely pointless, and predictably over-focused on the strategic picture. An expression Brexit secretary David Davis will have to keep deploying in the coming weeks will be his new favourite, “froth”, as writers attempt to fill column [...]
What should chancellor Philip Hammond prioritise in his Autumn Statement? October 24, 2016 Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, says infrastructure. Whether small or large, infrastructure schemes boost local business confidence, regenerate areas, create business opportunities for a vast array of UK firms, and “crowd in” related private sector investment. Given decades of underinvestment, chronic delays, deficient digital networks and lagging productivity, an infrastructure-focused stimulus [...]
Theresa May promises Brexit meetings with national leaders as she faces a “constitutional crisis” warning October 24, 2016 Theresa May will today reveal a new forum for the UK government to meet with devolved administrations over Brexit, even as a new report warns she is facing a constitutional crisis. Leaders of the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish governments will be invited to join a new committee led by Brexit secretary David Davis. May will unveil [...]
It’s time to flesh out May’s industrial strategy, British manufacturers warn October 24, 2016 Britain's manufacturers are calling on the government to dramatically hasten plans to introduce a new industrial strategy. Prime Minister Theresa May has stressed the importance of supporting industry since coming to power this summer, introducing a muscular new government department to shepherd work. But manufacturer trade body EEF has today warned that May and her [...]
Chris Grayling is set to signal an appetite for new runways at UK regional airports this week October 23, 2016 Transport secretary Chris Grayling is this week expected to signal fresh appetite for expansion at the UK's regional airports as well as in the south east. A special cabinet committee headed by Prime Minister Theresa May meets tomorrow to decide whether Gatwick or Heathrow should be expanded to give the south east more airport capacity. [...]
Tata’s Port Talbot steelworkers have been boosted by the emergence of new cost figures October 23, 2016 Endangered steelworks in Port Talbot have been handed a boost by the emergence of new figures backing work at the plant. Tata is locked in talks over the future of the site, with hopes high for progress on a potential joint-venture with ThyssenKrupp. The negotiations had raised fears of work being transferred from the UK [...]