Tuesday newspaper round-up: Customer service complaints, floating windfarms, Halifax
Customer service complaints have hit their highest level on record and are costing British businesses more than £9bn a month in lost staff time, research has found. As firms struggle to cope with global supply issues and a staffing crisis, the Institute of Customer Service found more consumers were experiencing service issues than at any point since its customer satisfaction index began in 2008. – Guardian
Floating windfarms could be built off the coasts of Cornwall and Pembrokeshire after the Queen’s property manager identified a clutch of sites in the Celtic Sea that could host them. The crown estate, which generates money for the Treasury and the royal family, has published five “areas of search” that will be narrowed into development plots to host wind power generation. – Guardian
Boris Johnson must give approval for a pioneering Rolls-Royce mini nuclear reactor project in the next six months or risk delaying a project vital to his green energy revolution, the company has warned. Rolls will be unable to meet a target of deploying its first reactor by 2029 unless ministers place an order before the end of the year according to Tom Samson, the project's chief executive. The company's small modular reactors (SMRs) are expected to play a key part in the Prime Minister's plans for an energy revolution. – Telegraph
A furore about the use of pronouns on staff badges at Halifax has failed to result in a customer exodus, The Times has learnt. Halifax became embroiled in a row last week after it said on social media that customers who disagreed with its policy of allowing employees to display their chosen pronouns were free to close their accounts. - The Times
More than one in three UK company directors disqualified over a two-month period had abused the government’s coronavirus loan or job support schemes, according to an analysis of official data. The Insolvency Service banned 37 directors in April and May for fraudulent claims. The disqualifications represented almost 35 per cent of the directors struck off and compares with 140 directors who were banned for abuse of Covid schemes in the year to the end of March: 17 per cent of the total. - The Times