Weekly round-up 7 May 2014

Channel Tunnel's 20th, A21 gets go ahead and the David's dodgy ankles - find out more in our round up of the week's news.

Jackie Whitelaw
06 May 2014

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1. Tuesday saw the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Channel Tunnel. Some 325m passengers have used it in the last two decades, less than the numbers predicted. But operator Eurotunnel moved into the black with revenues of over £0.8bn in and profits of £16.5M in the last financial year and is beginning to pay down its £3bn net debt. See Editor's comment.

2. Numbers of people in Spain using high speed trains has surpassed those using domestic flights, according to reports. Passengers on long distance and high speed routes jumped from 22M in 2012 to 25M last year and numbers are up another 18% so far in 2014 according to Felix Martin who runs the national train company RENFE’s passenger services in north east Spain. Overall domestic travel including trains, planes and buses was down 16% last year. Spain has the largest high speed train network in Europe.

3. Go ahead has been given to widening to dual carriageway the A21 between Tonbridge and Pembury in Kent. Advance work could start in the Autumn, Department for Transport said. The £117M scheme (2010 prices) topped the DfT list of unfunded projects offering best value for money with a benefit cost ratio of 11. National Trust external affairs director Richard Hebbditch pointed out that the route would mean the loss of 22 acres of ancient woodland, one quarter of that lost with HS2 but in just 4km.

4. The number of large scale housing estates being given planning approval has risen over the two years since the National Planning Policy Framework came into effect.  A Glenigan study – ‘Residential planning and the NPPF’ – found that English local authorities approved 194,700 planning applications in the year to the end of March, a 9% increase on the average number of approvals in the two years before the changes.

5. Around £440M of work will be brought forward into 2014-15 to help lessen the boom and bust impact of cyclical investment in the UK water industry government confirmed last week. The next AMP cycle starts in 2015.

6. Network Rail has announced plans to bring Waterloo International rail terminal back into use as part of its £300M Wessex Capacity Programme. Work is expected to start next year.

7. Labour should renationalise the rail industry if it wins the next election, a group of 31 prospective MPs has said in a letter to the Observer. Labour leader Ed Milliband said Labour was looking at all options but would “not go back to old-style British Rail”. The Conservatives said recent estimates suggested renationalising the railways would add at least £10bn to the UK’s budget deficit.

8. Households will be granted up to £7,600 each from a £120M pot of money available from June to install double glazing, new boilers and insulation. The grants are being made available as the government attempts to encourage energy efficiency after the slow take up of its Green Deal loan scheme which has been shunned by homeowners in part because interest on the loans is perceived as too high. 

9. Michelangelo’s statue of David is in danger of collapsing under its own weight due to weak ankles according to reports from Italy. The Renaissance sculpture created between 1501 and 1504 weights 5.5t and has started to display signs of micro fractures in its legs with researchers in Florence warning that it could collapse.

10. Auditors warn that construction companies and their clients must end the vicious cycle of pricing contracts unrealistically low if the sector is to pull its weight in generating economic growth. These are among the recommendations in Audit Insights: Construction, a report today (Wednesday) from accountancy organisation’s ICAEW. Phil Westerman, a member of the ICAEW working group behind the report and a partner at Grant Thornton UK LLP, said: “Construction firms have to bid realistically and responsibly; they need to get the costing of bids for contracts right. To do so, they have to stress test their cost projections and get to know and understand their entire supply chain better. They have to factor in how changes in one end of the supply chain could impact further down.