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Fraudsters may have stolen £500,000 from a taxpayer-funded scheme aimed at accelerating the removal of dangerous cladding from buildings, the public spending watchdog has revealed. The National Audit Office said the government decision to prioritise speed in handing out money to building owners had increased its risk of losses from fraud. The warning came in an NAO report into the government’s progress in remediating dangerous cladding from blocks after the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017.
Striking Boeing workers will vote on an improved contract offer on Monday, which includes a 38% pay rise over four years and a bigger signing bonus, their union said on Thursday. More than 30,000 factory workers who produce Boeing’s strongest-selling 737 Max commercial jet and other planes have been on strike since 13 September and have rejected two earlier offers from Boeing. – Guardian.
The former cryptocurrency executive Nishad Singh, who once shared a $35m Bahamas penthouse with the FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was spared prison time by a judge on Wednesday for his role in the theft by his imprisoned former boss of about $8bn in customer funds from the now bankrupt exchange. The United States district judge Lewis Kaplan imposed the sentence during a hearing in Manhattan federal court. – Guardian.
Starbucks office workers will risk losing their jobs if they fail to comply with the company’s hybrid work requirement that employees are in the office three times a week. According to the Wall Street Journal an internal message sent to employees warns that an “accountability process” will start in January 2025. Consequences for non-compliance are “up to, and including, separation”, according to the company message. – Guardian.
A lack of social mobility is costing the UK £19bn a year, a report produced by the cross-party thinktank Demos and the Co-op has found. The Social Mobility Commission, which advises the government, defines social mobility as “the link between a person’s occupation or income and the occupation or income of their parents”. – Guardian.
Rachel Reeves has been urged not to carry out mooted funding cuts for nuclear sites including Sellafield amid safety concerns, as it emerged that the number of incidents where workers narrowly avoided harm had increased at the Cumbrian site. The GMB union has written to Reeves, the chancellor, before Wednesday’s budget to raise safety concerns after rumours emerged that the budget for the taxpayer-owned Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) could be reduced, which could result in cuts at nuclear sites including Sellafield and Dounreay in Scotland.
The government's debt pile is set to soar to "unsustainable" levels, the Chancellor's new fiscal rules not withstanding, official data reveal. During the previous week, Rachel Reeves binned the old methodology used to measure public debt, which will allow her to foist enormous additional liabilities on future generations of Britons. The new rules will let her borrow £50bn yet claim that she can balance the books. - The Financial Mail on Sunday.
City firms are only rarely docking pay and bonuses in cases of bad behaviour including sexual harassment, bullying and drug use, according to the industry’s watchdog, which recorded a 40% rise in complaints about non-financial misconduct last year. The findings are the result of the City regulator’s first survey looking at the issue, which was launched in the wake of high-profile allegations of sexual harassment, including those against individuals at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) lobby group.
Boeing workers have rejected the latest offer to end the more than a month-long strike that has crippled the already struggling manufacturing giant. In a blow to Boeing and the Biden administration, which has fought for a resolution to the dispute, 64% of the 33,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union voted to reject the contract, the union said late on Wednesday. – Guardian.
Hundreds of millions of pounds of local transport funding in England could be cut in next week’s spending review despite having been agreed with regional mayors, putting bus, tube and tram improvements at risk. The mayors, most of whom are Labour, are engaged in a last-minute lobbying campaign to stop the Treasury raiding their transport budgets as Rachel Reeves looks for immediate savings. – Guardian.
Britain’s financial watchdog has interviewed 20 social media influencers under caution, as it clamps down on “finfluencers” who may be touting financial services products illegally. The 20 were interviewed voluntarily using the Financial Conduct Authority’s criminal powers. Potential penalties include fines and imprisonment of up to two years. – Guardian.
Almost half of the UK workforce lack access to workplace health support including winter flu vaccinations and checks for cardiovascular diseases, a report has found. The analysis, by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), looked at data from the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (DBEIS) and found that more than 10 million UK workers lack access to services including basic health checks, vaccinations, and smoking or weight loss support, provided by their employer.
Government bond investors are signalling to the Chancellor that her plans for an additional £80bn of debt will not trigger and Liz-Truss style panic. But that will only hold true if she first establishes clear annual expenditure plans and lays out the economic case for the projects that she wants to fund. The new borrowing would be on top of spending cuts and tax hikes needed to fill a £22bn hole in the country's finances. Chief secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones, has promised that "independent checks and balances" will be instituted to ensure value for money.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is taking action to ensure her budget plan for a multibillion-pound increase in government borrowing to fund infrastructure projects avoids a Liz Truss-style meltdown in financial markets. Ahead of her tax and spending event on 30 October, the chancellor is convening on Friday the first meeting of a taskforce of leading City figures to advise on infrastructure projects. The government will also launch a watchdog to oversee public works and ensure value for money for the taxpayer.
Tesco has struck a deal to buy enough solar power to run 144 of its large supermarkets, buying almost two-thirds of the entire electricity output from the Cleve Hill solar park in Kent. The £450m solar park is being built on farmland near Faversham by Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, a London-based firm that invests in renewable and low-carbon energy in the US, UK and Australia. – Guardian.
The future ownership of the water industry should be decided by a citizens’ assembly to remove decision-making from boardrooms and impose democracy on the sector, a private member’s bill is to argue. Labour MP Clive Lewis, who in the past has called for water to be put back into public ownership, will introduce his bill on the future of water ownership and management later today. - Guardian.
Britain is at risk of experiencing a repeat of the sharp increase in energy costs which has fuelled the continuing cost of living crisis because it relies too heavily on gas, according to an expert panel of industry leaders. The Energy Crisis Commission has warned that the UK is still “dangerously underprepared” for another crisis because it continues to rely on gas for its power plants and home heating. – Guardian.
Spanish shipbuilding firm Navantia is in exclusive negotiations to buy Harland & Wolff, the owner of the Belfast shipyard that built the Titanic, in a deal that could rescue up to 1,000 jobs. It is understood the group could take control of the group’s four yards – in Belfast; Appledore, Devon; Arnish on the Isle of Lewis; and Methil, Fife – as early as next month. – Guardian.
Activist investor Bluebell has asked for BP chairman Helge Lund's head due to the oil giant's "embarrassing" share price performance. Whilst Shell or American rivals Chevron and ExxonMobil had doubled down on profitable fossil fuels, BP had followed a green strategy. Reports indicate that BP's new boss, Murray Auchinloss, was looking to pivot back to oil and gas in response to pressure from shareholders. Yet the company had not confirmed those reports and was not due to provide a strategy update until February.
The leaders of the world’s biggest green energy companies have promised more than £24bn of new private investment across Great Britain ahead of a meeting with the prime minister on Friday. Keir Starmer is expected to meet the green energy bosses on the sidelines of the first Council of Nations and Regions in Edinburgh to discuss the multibillion-pound projects just days before the government’s international investment summit next week. – Guardian.
