Government
- Utility groups and their shareholders will not have to foot the bill for many of the environmental clean-up costs incurred by their predecessor companies following an influential decision by Britain's top court. The House of Lords yesterday allowed an appeal by National Grid Gas against an earlier High Court ruling that found the utility should contribute to the costof cleaning up sites contaminated by former gascompanies, active decades ago. While the case itself concerned a specific dispute between NGG and the Environment Agency over contaminated land at Bawtry, Doncaster, lawyers acknowledged that the issues had much wider implications. In particular, there were ramifications for thousands of sites contaminated decades ago by utility companies, that were then restructured, and whose assets were transferred because of nationalisations, privatisations or local government reorganisations. Afterwards, lawyers said the decision by the law lords meant the public would have to bear the brunt of the clean-up bill. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2ffe0830-2514-11dc-bf47-000b5df10621.html
- Land worth almost £2bn around the Olympic Park in east London will be sold off after the 2012 games in a move that could take some of the sting out of the escalating costs of the event, which last week hit £9.3bn. Ministers announced on Wednesday that the Stratford land sales should reap an expected £1.82bn after the games were over. If this figure is reached, some of the cash will be used to repay £675m which was controversially raided from the National Lottery earlier this year as the cost of the event spiralled ever higher.The £675m figure came on top of £1.5bn already promised by the Lottery Fund, prompting some art groups to complain about a drain on their finances. The situation was criticised in a report by the Commons' culture, media and sport committee, whose chairman, John Whittingdale, said it would be a "tragedy" if funding to museums and galleries were cut off. The new deal emerged in a memorandum of understanding issued on Wednesday by Ken Livingstone, London's mayor, and Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, and filed in the House of Commons library. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/bacdb332-24d0-11dc-bf47-000b5df10621.html
- One of the most influential figures in the housebuilding industry is calling on the Government to bring back the Miras tax relief scheme to help overstretched first-time buyers. The proposal is accompanied by a call for tax relief for parents who stump up cash to help their children to move on to the property ladder. These are the most radical recommendations in a ten-point plan to help young buyers that David Pretty, a director of the Home Builders Federation and the newly installed chairman of the New Homes Marketing Board, will present to Gordon Brown next week. Mr Pretty, who retired in December as chief executive of Barratt Developments, told The Times that the reintroduction of mortgage tax relief at source (Miras) "must only happen once there is clear evidence that the supply of new homes is increasing". Seven of the ten recommendations seen by The Times are aimed at boosting the numbers of new homes being built each year in England. These range from the sell-off of government land at a discount that can be passed on to first-time buyers and key workers, to fast-track-ing planning applications for affordable housing. Another recommendation is a call to scrap stamp duty for first-time buyers. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/money/property_and_mortgages/article1996625.ece
- The old school is still an invaluable asset in getting one of the top jobs, according to a report published today. Britain's private schools may only educate 7 per cent of the country but their former pupils still have a stranglehold over more than half of the best jobs. The findings emerge from a survey by the Sutton Trust, the education charity which campaigns to get more students from deprived backgrounds into the leading universities. It looked at the leading 100 people in five professions - judges, politicians, journalists, medics and chief executives, taking its information from Who's Who. The results show that 53 per cent of them were educated at private schools while only 17 per cent came from comprehensives, which educate about 90 per cent of the country. But there are signs that - apart from journalism, where the influence of the private sector is growing - their numbers have fallen slightly when compared with 20 years ago. http://education.independent.co.uk/news/article2717283.ece