Andy Burnham is set to signal his intent to bring Thames Water under public ownership.
In his speech to the Labour Party conference on Tuesday, he is also expected to say that the Government is exploring plans to give regions greater powers over how to bring utilities in their areas under greater public control, according to multiple Whitehall sources.
This will include the tightening of regulation.
The northern pub chain offering £3 pints in London
Amber Taverns is adding a boozer in Bromley, a southeastern suburb of London, to its repertoire of 175 pubs, mainly based in the North West and North East of England.
It comes as pubs get increasingly expensive in the capital, where almost two pubs are closing every day.
Bromley’s new local
The Blackpool-based chain pours pints as cheap as £2.50 – a stark difference for Londoners accustomed to an average £6.50 per pint.
It keeps costs down by buying “unloved” former pubs and sticking to the basics. No hot food means no kitchen and no extra costs.
The Saving Grace will open on the former site of the Barrel and Horn on Bromley High Street.
It follows a spate of new openings in the south of England, including The Erasmus Wolfe in Gosport, Hampshire.
The future of pubs
James Baer, chairman of Amber Taverns, said: “People do still want to very much go to the pub, it’s just a matter of offering good value and a warm welcome. Amber remains a testament to the validity of thriving community pubs.”
He added he thinks there will be more opportunity for the chain to expand in the south of England in the future.
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Angela Scanlon takes over Sara Cox’s Radio 2 drivetime slot
Angela Scanlon will take over the 4pm to 7pm slot on BBC Radio 2 every weekday from November.
Scanlon emerged victorious from a raft of presenters who covered the show over the summer, and will replace DJ Sara Cox.
What you need to know
Since Cox took up the mantle of BBC Radio 2’s breakfast show, the drivetime slot has been up for grabs.
Scanlon, who has previously hosted a Sunday morning programme on the station, has been appointed her successor.
She is also known for presenting The One Show, This Morning, the Get a Grip podcast and for starring in cing in 2023.
‘Every weekday, I’ll be in your ears’
Scanlon said it was “properly exciting” to host the show, adding: “Every weekday, I’ll be in your ears, your cars and your kitchens – on the school run, on the way home, or standing at the hob wondering what on earth to feed a small but hungry mob.”
BBC Radio 2 controller Helen Thomas said she was chosen because she is “incredibly warm and quick witted”.
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Putin’s drone threat to France should be a wake-up call
Russian affairs commentator
Russia has a wide range of choices if it continues stepping up its campaign against Europe.
It could develop its more furtive programme of attacks targeting countries including France, Italy and Britain with actions that are akin to low-grade state terrorism.
The shadow fleet threat
Spanish newspaper described Russian plans to mount attack drones in containers on its shadow fleet, to launch them against France, Spain and Italy.
The plot was disclosed following what’s been widely described as a warning to those countries from the CIA, although both France and Italy denied receiving any specific warning from the US.
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The weakest parts
- This month, Emmanuel Macron called leaders into the country’s crisis centre for a briefing on Russian threats.
- Many previously imagined that lying at the far end of Europe from Russia, France was not in immediate danger.
- But that overlooked Russia’s long-term investment in delivering damage at enormous distances through cyber and proxy attacks.
- That means Putin can strike not just at those parts of Nato that it can drive to, but at the weakest parts of the alliance.
Putin’s grey war
- A Russian “attack” can mean everything from a full-blown invasion of a Nato country, to what is already happening, like sponsoring more and bigger proxy and cyber attacks far behind the front lines.
Denmark’s Defence Intelligence Service has said there are no signs Russia is preparing for an “invasion” of another neighbour, but that the risk of some other form of military attack is “low but growing”.
Sunday morning’s arrests in a small village near RAF Fairford, with the involvement of counter-terrorism police, show the threat of hostile action in the UK is real.
Avanti West Coast trains to be nationalised
The Transport Secretary said the operator has been underperforming “for years” as it becomes the latest service to be brought back into public ownership.
Andy Burnham said the service had failed people “time and time again” with cancellations and overcrowding.
What you need to know
- Avanti West Coast train services will be nationalised from March 2027, when its contract ends.
- Its London hub is Euston station, with services running to Wales, Manchester, Liverpool, Blackpool and Scotland.
- All train services under Department for Transport contracts, including Avanti, are in the process of being transferred to public ownership.
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Reactions from the sector
“For years, we’ve heard stories of Avanti underperforming, with passengers left paying the price. Enough is enough,” Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said.
Conversely, Andy Mellors, managing director at Avanti West Coast, said: “We’re proud of what we’ve achieved over the last six years – from refurbishing our Pendolino fleet and introducing our new Evero trains to running more services than ever before.”
The results for customers
- Labour claims nationalisation will mean fewer delays and cancellations.
- This is thanks to a £10m investment in power and signalling maintenance, faster and more reliable services, upgraded facilities at Euston, and more stable internet connection on board trains.
Several rail firms around the country are already publicly owned, including Great Anglia and South Western Railway.
Chess prodigy, 11, becomes youngest woman grandmaster
A London schoolgirl has made history while representing England at the 46th Chess Olympiad in Uzbekistan.
Former chancellor, Rachel Reeves, called the young player “a chess superstar”.
Play by play account
Bodhana Sivanandan scored eight points across 11 games, qualifying for the title of woman grandmaster.
The International Chess Federation confirmed this performance made her the youngest person to gain the lifelong title.
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What makes a champion?
Neither of Sivanandan’s parents are good at chess. She taught herself to play during lockdown using YouTube tutorials.
She entered her first tournament at Harrow Chess Club in 2021.
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After she won the British Women’s Championship earlier this year, she said: “I want to become a [full] grandmaster as soon as possible.”
- She now has two of the three “norms” required to become an International Master, the next rank up on the path to becoming a grandmaster.
Women and child die attempting to cross Channel
A 10-year-old child and two women in their 30s have died just off the coast of France, near Calais.
Andy Burnham’s spokesman said the tragedy was a “stark reminder of the dangers posed by criminal gangs”.
What you need to know
- French authorities rescued 102 people from a dinghy which had left Bleriot Plage.
- At least 17 people, including children, have now died attempting to cross the Channel this year.
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The timeline of events
What happened this morning and when:
- The dinghy pushed off from Bleriot Plage, near Calais, on Monday morning.
- French maritime police received a distress call after the boat got into trouble in the water.
- A rescue ship and Navy helicopter were sent to the scene with a medical team.
- The emergency responders were unable to save the child and two women.
- French officials said the deaths were likely due to crushing rather than drowning, due to overcrowding on the boat.
The official response
The Prime Minister’s official spokesperson said: “We’re deeply saddened to hear about the deaths in France today.
“It is a stark reminder of the dangers posed by the criminal gangs who exploit vulnerable people for profit, and we will continue to work relentlessly.”
An investigation has been opened into the incident.
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However, the Prime Minister is expected to stop short of putting Thames Water into a special administration regime (SAR) – a process that would allow Britain’s largest water company to continue operating under government supervision while its long-term future is decided.
Thames Water serves 16 million customers across London and parts of southern England. It has faced severe criticism for accumulating a debt pile approaching £20bn while allowing infrastructure to decay and discharging billions of litres of raw sewage into the Thames.
These problems have raised wider questions about how the water industry should be funded and managed, with growing calls for greater public control and investment to ensure that essential infrastructure is maintained properly.
Asked in a pre-conference interview whether it was time to step in with public ownership of Thames Water, Burnham told reporters on Friday: “Like the railways, we have another example in water where privatisation has failed and people can see that very clearly in relation to water.
“So, as we go into the Labour conference, we will set out more thinking about the change that we need to see in the running of water across the country.
“But it is clear to me that what we’ve had in the last 30 years is nowhere near good enough and is actually letting the public pay.”
Asked about MPs pushing for SAR, the Prime Minister said he was looking at “all of the options,” but added: “It’s challenging because the effect of privatisation was that it locked in a very poor system.”
Burnham also refused to rule out looking at options for bringing South West Water into public ownership.
Asked what the firm would have to do for that to happen, he said: “I’m well aware of the strength of feeling in the region. I was in the region in the summer. It was a difficult summer for people in relation to water supply. There’s a lot of feeling about how we’ve gone wrong with water in this country, and I share it.
“What we need to do is start to lay out a programme for reform, and we will, and we can expect to hear an answer to that in conference.
“The country feels very strongly about it. I don’t think the model that we’ve got is the right one, but we just need to put out the proposals for reform.”
Thames Water’s creditors – a consortium called London & Valley Water – have previously offered to inject fresh equity of £3.35bn into the company, and said any move towards public ownership would “increase uncertainty for employees, destabilise the supply chain, delay the turnaround and make it harder to deliver the improvements customers deserve”.
New ‘Great British Grid to get energy costs down’
Meanwhile, Burnham will set up a new publicly owned “Great British Grid” in a bid to bring UK energy costs down so they fall in line with European nations within a decade.
In his leader’s speech to conference on Tuesday, the Prime Minister will unveil plans to create GB Grid, a new body under the Great British Energy umbrella. It would be the first publicly owned player in electricity networks since privatisation under Margaret Thatcher.
The move will give “more public control” to help reform the “broken energy market,” Burnham is expected to say, adding that it aims to boost competition and speed up grid connections for businesses, which have complained that delays have hampered investment.
Burnham will say: “We have a cost crisis. We all know it. The price of energy is crippling for businesses, and British billpayers pay some of the highest energy costs in Europe.
“We have an energy system where prices are dictated in markets miles away, while families and businesses here shoulder the costs. Once again, the British public has lost control. Within 10 years, I want our energy costs to be in line with other nations in Europe. That means we must reform a broken energy market so it serves the public interest.”
The Prime Minister also aims to achieve a faster rollout of renewables, and a boost to network infrastructure.
Labour will give businesses rights to “self-build” their connection infrastructure and make GB Grid available to co-invest, taking away the need to wait for network companies.
GB Grid will work with the private sector and network firms.
“It will increase competition to drive down costs and speed up delivery so businesses can connect faster and grow quicker. This is what more public control can do,” the Prime Minister will say.
Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh said the move was “another step towards mending the decades of Tory policies which ripped out public control from our energy systems. The only way to bring down bills for good for homes and businesses is through clean power we can control.”