Homes plan for Bolton Church Wharf site set to be sold for £4
The Local Democracy Reporting Service reports that the scheme is supported by £5m in funding from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority brownfield housing fund, which is pledged to help regenerate the long-dormant riverside site.The development is set to be built in four phases. Rob Watson, director of Watson, said: "We are delighted to have submitted plans for such a transformative project. "Church Wharf is not just about new buildings, it's about revitalising Bolton town centre with much-needed housing, dynamic commercial and leisure spaces, together with a hotel that will bolster the local economy, enhancing the lives of the community."Watson is also currently developing Creams Mill in nearby Little Lever.
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Sky News
33 minutes ago
- Sky News
Octopus Energy sparks £10bn demerger of tech arm Kraken
Octopus Energy Group, Britain's largest residential gas and electricity supplier, is plotting a £10bn demerger of its technology arm that would reinforce its status as one of the country's most valuable private companies. Sky News can exclusively reveal that Octopus Energy is close to hiring investment bankers to help formally separate Kraken Technologies from the rest of the group. The demerger, which would be expected to take place in the next 12 months, would see Octopus Energy's existing investors given shares in the newly independent Kraken business. A minority stake in Kraken of up to 20pc is expected to be sold to external shareholders in order to help validate the technology platform's valuation, according to insiders. One banking source said that Kraken could be valued at as much as $14bn (£10.25bn) in a forthcoming demerger. Citi, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are among the investment banks invited to pitch for the demerger mandate in recent weeks. A deal will augment Octopus Energy chief executive Greg Jackson's paper fortune, and underline his success at building a globally significant British-based company over the last decade. Octopus Energy now has 7.5m retail customers in Britain, following its 2022 rescue of the collapsed energy supplier Bulb, and the subsequent acquisition of Shell's home energy business. In January, it announced that it had become the country's biggest supplier - surpassing Centrica-owned British Gas - with a 24% market share. It also has a further 2.5m customers outside the UK. Sources said a £10bn valuation of Kraken would now imply that the whole group, including the retail supply business, was worth in the region of £15bn or more. That would be double its valuation of just over a year ago, when the company announced that it had secured new backing from funds Galvanize Climate Solutions and Lightrock. Shortly before that, the former US vice president Al Gore's firm, Generation Investment Management, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased their stakes in Octopus Energy in a transaction valuing the company at $9bn (£7.2bn). Kraken is an operating system which is licensed to other energy providers, water companies and telecoms suppliers. It connects all parts of the energy system, including customer billing and the flexible management of renewable generation and energy devices such as heat pumps and electric vehicle batteries. The business also unlocks smart grids which enable people to use more renewable energy when there is an abundant supply of it. In the UK, its platform is licensed to Octopus Energy's rivals EON and EDF Energy, as well as the water company Severn Trent and broadband provider Cuckoo. Overseas, Kraken serves Origin Energy in Australia, Japan's Tokyo Gas and Plentitude in countries including France and Greece. Its biggest coup came recently, when it struck a deal with National Grid in the US to serve 6.5m customers in New York and Massachusetts. Sources said other major licensing agreements in the US were expected to be struck in the coming months. Kraken, which is chaired by Gavin Patterson, the former BT Group chief executive, is now contracted to more than 70m customer accounts globally - putting it easily on track to hit a target of 100m by 2027. Earlier this year, Mr Jackson said that target now risked being seen as "embarrassingly unambitious". Last July, Kraken recruited Amir Orad, a former boss of NICE Actimize, a US-listed provider of enterprise software to global banks and Fortune 500 companies, as its first chief executive. A demerger of Kraken will trigger speculation about an eventual public market listing of the business. Its growth in the US, and the relative public market valuations of technology companies in New York and London, may put the UK at a disadvantage when Kraken eventually considers where to list. One key advantage of demerging Kraken from the rest of Octopus Energy Group would be to remove the perception of a conflict of interest among potential customers of the technology platform. A source said the unified corporate ownership of both businesses had acted as a deterrent to some energy suppliers. Kraken has also diversified beyond the energy sector, and earlier this year joined a consortium which was exploring a takeover bid for stricken Thames Water.
BBC News
40 minutes ago
- BBC News
Homes and offices approved for Cummins factory site in Stamford
Plans to build more than 300 homes, a care home and offices on the site of a former factory have been approved by South Kesteven District Council (SKDC).St Martin's Park, in Stamford, was formerly home to the Cummins generator derelict factory buildings will be demolished to make way for the new houses, which will be built by three developers. SKDC, which bought the site in 2018, approved the three proposals at a planning meeting on Thursday. The £8m purchase of the brownfield site by SKDC has been controversial after it emerged the authority had paid more than the asking the latest plans, Morris Homes will build 167 properties on the 36-acre (14.7 hectare) site, while Inspire Villages will construct 150 apartments for people over 55 who require Land Ltd will build 23 residential properties, offices, a cafe and a convenience store, the Local Democracy Reporting Service Murray, the principle planning officer at SKDC, said: "This is a very good, high-quality development. The developers have been looking at keeping the design in character with the rest of Stamford." Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Click here, to download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and here, to download the BBC News app from Google Play for Android devices.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
People who work four days a week are actually getting more done, experts say
You're probably reading this at the start of your weekend. But now imagine that weekend had started a day earlier... and did so every week. Sound good? That could be the new reality many companies, and employees, face in the future, after the four-day business week took another step towards implementation in the UK. This year, 17 businesses of different types have been trialling the move, organised by the 4 Day Week Foundation. Almost 1,000 different employees were involved, all retaining their normal salary - and after the culmination of that study, all 17 companies have opted to keep going, following an earlier trial which saw 5,000 people adopt the scheme permanently. Not all are doing straight four-day weeks. Some were trialling nine-day fortnights. And there are clearly some industries which would face challenges to alter schedules and regulations. But the initial results for those taking part appeared positive, with nearly two-thirds (62 per cent) of employees saying they noted a 'reduction in how often they experienced burnout'. Firms who took part in the trial have cited customer satisfaction and employee performance as reasons for continuing, with one expecting mass adoption across the next decade. Vicky Walker, chief people officer at Westfield Health, told The Independent that less work has shown to mean more output. 'Studies have shown that a shorter work week can lead to enhanced efficiency and focus among employees. People may be more motivated to complete their tasks and increase productivity. There's now a growing recognition for flexibility and work-life balance and this trial is a step in the right direction,' Ms Walker said. 'These flexible benefits can also help attract new talent and improve employee retention rates, which for some businesses, is a key business target.' There is, however, much more to consider for employers and the wider economy, before we see it adopted on a larger scale. 'Ultimately, what matters for the economy is hours worked multiplied by productivity per hour. If people are simply working their weekly hours in four days rather than five, then there should be little economic impact. If they are working harder - fewer hours for the same output - then we could see an uptick in productivity, but that wouldn't necessarily translate into growth because of fewer hours,' Thomas Pugh, chief economist at RSM UK, told The Independent. This is essentially the French model of the system, Mr Pugh explained - but success in it will naturally lead to businesses asking one pertinent question: 'If you can be as productive in four days as in five, then why not be as productive over the full five days?' There also remain questions over the potential for staggered days off - 'Do people want Wednesdays off, for example?' - and of course whether a firm's opening hours would still match up to those of their clients. It's not a 'solution to the UK's economic problems', Mr Pugh added. Andrew Timpson, a tax partner at RSM, pointed out there would be implications if reduced hours meant reduced pay - and not just for the Treasury. 'If base pay is reduced, there could be an impact on salary sacrifice and pensions,' he said, 'plus if employees are earning less then the tax take will reduce. Some employees may also find themselves slipping under thresholds which will change the personal allowance, or other aspects such as child benefit.' The discussion outside of finance has also taken centre stage. A study by BHN Extras recently concluded over a third of UK workers (34 per cent) said they would accept a pay cut for a shorter commute and only 23 per cent enjoyed their commute. The survey suggested both the cost and the sentiment was stronger in London, but would knocking a day off the commute into work be a big draw for all? It won't be one for everybody, nor every business. Implementation costs and rescheduling alone may make it prohibitive, while there's no doubt that some management may not appreciate the thought of it, let alone the reality. But just like working from home, hot-desking and zero-hours contracts before it, the four-day week looks set to play some part in the future of UK business - and like all those others, divide plenty of opinion on the way.
