Coronavirus: Government begins to wind down furlough scheme September 1, 2020 Companies using the coronavirus furlough scheme will now have to contribute to workers’ wages as the government begins to wind down its emergency support. The job retention scheme, introduced in March, has paid 80 per cent of salaries for workers on temporary leave, capped at £2,500 per month. From today this will be reduced to [...]
Astrazeneca expands tie-up with Oxford Biomedica for Covid-19 vaccine September 1, 2020 Astrazeneca today said it has expanded its previous agreement with Oxford Biomedica to mass produce a potential vaccine for the Covid-19 virus. Gene and cell therapy firm Oxford Biomedica said the FTSE-listed pharma giant will give it £15m to reserve manufacturing capacity at its plant. Under the terms of the 18-month agreement Astrazeneca could pay [...]
The government needs to take nurseries more seriously as part of its education strategy September 1, 2020 As schools prepare to return, so soon after the A-Level fiasco, there is a huge focus on education. However, one very important part of the education sector, which has been underappreciated for too long, is that of day nurseries, pre-schools and childminders. These early learning providers cater for 2.1m children under the age of five [...]
Covid-19 could be the largest insured loss in history. How can the insurance industry adapt? September 1, 2020 Covid-19 has us all living through a live, catastrophic event. It is dramatic but makes the non-life insurance world a fascinating place to be. There will be significant insured losses from Covid-19 with obvious examples of the Olympics being postponed, Wimbledon and other sporting events being cancelled, and hundreds of thousands of travel insurance claims [...]
Pandemic hysteria is blinding us to the virus’s real risks August 31, 2020 I have long held off writing this column, as I well know it will lead to some hysterical responses. Nevertheless, the credo of any good opinion writer surely must be to be fearless, to fly in the face of received opinion if the cause is just. And there has rarely been a greater need for [...]
Coronavirus: global cases hit 25 million, as new infections grow in Spain and France August 30, 2020 Global coronavirus cases surged past 25 million today, with positive tests growing in India, Spain, France and Australia
Could AI help Rishi Sunak revive the UK economy? August 29, 2020 This was once meant to be the year the government balanced the books, a literal pay off for years of tight purse strings under George Osborne’s austerity programme. Instead, 2020 has seen government debt balloon to over £2 trillion. The coronavirus pandemic has meant UK spending has rocketed far beyond any previous peacetime records, leaving [...]
The nation’s health is priority number one, but we must continue the great work we’ve done to reduce plastics use August 28, 2020 Recent government figures revealed that since the introduction of the 5p carrier bag charge, new carrier bag sales have fallen by 59 per cent in the past year in England’s major supermarkets. This translates to shoppers buying, on average, just four new bags per year compared to 10 the previous year. This is a significant [...]
Employers must reassure staff that offices are not only safe, but the same buzzy environment they left six months ago August 28, 2020 Yesterday, Dame Carolyn Fairbairn, the boss of the CBI, issued a rallying cry to the Prime Minister to do something about Britain’s “ghost towns”. The message was simple — give people confidence to return to the workplace, or the once thriving businesses in the commercial centres of our cities will be doomed. She is absolutely [...]
Who gets to shape what comes next? After Covid, power in the UK must be decentralised August 28, 2020 We are all coming to terms with the impact of Covid-19 on our prosperity and life chances. We are relearning how we live, how society functions, and what and who we value most. We are learning how Covid has impacted our communities, and with that has come a realisation of injustices that exist in our [...]