Thursday 31 August 2023

BUSINESS WITH PERSONALITY

MORTGAGE PAIN LOOKS SET TO STAY

MORTGAGE APPROVALS PLUMMET AS RATE RISES BITE

THE NUMBER of mortgage approvals fell sharply in July thanks to the impact of rising rates, with experts predicting the housing market will remain “sluggish” for months to come. According to Bank of England data, the number of mortgage approvals dropped 10 per cent in July, falling to 49,400 compared to 54,600 the month before.

July’s figure of 49,400 was below the 51,000 predicted by economists, and reinforces the increasingly bleak picture for the UK’s housing market, which is struggling under the weight of rising interest rates.

In an attempt to combat inflation, the Bank of England has hiked rates 14 times in a row, bringing the base rate to a post-financial crisis high of 5.25 per cent.

As a result, many households are having to pay hundreds of pounds a

month more to cover their mortgages. Around 1m families will pay at least an additional £500 a month to service their mortgage, the Bank estimated earlier this year.

“The affordability squeeze from high mortgage rates and high inflation remains acute, leaving many prospective buyers with no choice but to step back from the fray until they can make the numbers work,” Myron Jobson, senior personal finance analyst at Interactive Investor, told City A.M.

While mortgage rates have started to fall from their peak in July, experts said this had not yet had an impact on the market.

“Mortgage rates only steadied and began easing during the final 10 days of the month, which has helped to improve sentiment, but only to a point,”

Simon Gammon, managing partner at Knight Frank Finance, said.

“Fixed rates are generally still in the fives, which is far higher than borrow-

P19

OIL BE DAMNED GREENPEACE TO DISRUPT RUGBY WORLD CUP P24

ers are used to and is constraining their ability to meet current asking prices,” he added.

Reflecting the affordability squeeze, HSBC UK yesterday launched a new 40-year mortgage which offers borrowers lower monthly repayments, which may be more attractive with costs rising.

Andrew Matson, head of mortgages at HSBC UK, said they were hoping to make mortgages “more manageable” for borrowers.

While inflation is on its way down, the City expects the Bank of England to hike interest rates at least once more this year, with a 25 basis point hike all but certain for the next meeting in September.

“The scale of the recent rise in interest rates... means housing market activity seems destined to remain sluggish for the foreseeable future,” Martin Beck, chief economic advisor to the EY Item Club, said.

ALL NEW AT PRU Prudential boss impresses with fresh growth plan

CHARLIE CONCHIE

SHARES in insurance giant Prudential were given a boost yesterday after the firm announced a fresh growth push into Asia and Africa.

The firm announced a new strategic plan under new chief Anil Wadhwani –his first major update since taking the top job in February.

It said the new plan will build a “sustainable growth platform, through targeted investment in structural growth markets across Asia and Africa”.

Under the new plans, Prudential said

it was looking to grow new business profit at 15-20 per cent a year between 2022 and 2027.

The update came as the firm reported adjusted operating profits were up six per cent to $1.46bn (£1.15bn) in the period in the six months to the end of June. New business profits meanwhile, a key gauge of predicted profits on products, ticked up 39 per cent in the period to $1.49bn, above analyst expectations.

The update was well received in the City, with shares bouncing over three per cent in morning trading before closing up 1.5 per cent.

Another one? Tech firm snatched from London’s markets in £203m deal

CHARLIE CONCHIE

ANOTHER tech firm looks set to be snatched from London’s markets after bosses at Instem struck a £203m take-private deal with a US healthcare investor yesterday.

Instem, an AIM-listed life sciences software specialist, said the board

had agreed to an 833p per share cash offer and would now recommend the deal to shareholders.

US-headquartered Archimed has set up a new company called Ichor to buy the group and said it is looking to leverage Instem’s “deep industry knowledge and network” to accelerate its growth strategy.

David Gare, chair of Instem, yesterday said the deal would allow the firm to channel cash into growth without triggering fears over mounting losses.

“The offer from Bidco represents an attractive valuation and offers shareholders the certainty of cash today, while also fairly reflecting the

exceptional quality of the Instem business, its people and its future prospects,” Gare added. “Under [Ichor’s] private ownership, without the costs and regulation of a listed company, Instem will be able to pursue its organic growth strategy.”

The deal may unsettle some in the City following a slew of deals

plucking firms from London’s markets over the past 18 months.

London-listed firms remain cheap by global standards as a weak pound and the lingering impact of Brexit weigh on valuations. But the expected rise in take-private deals has failed to materialise at the pace some feared earlier this year.

LAURA MCGUIRE AND CHRIS DORRELL

BETTER WITH AGE? WHY IS HOLLYWOOD SO OBSESSED WITH GERIATRIC MEN

STANDING UP FOR THE CITY

To win back business, Sunak should tear up his current rulebook

BUSINESS and politics, politics and business.

Dance partners, perhaps, but all too often to different tunes: whilst the private sector rips off a salsa the public sector can feel a lot more comfortable with a more staid two-step.

Right now, however, it’s hard to get the two on the same floor, let alone dancing in time, at least when it comes to the Tories.

Perhaps it’s the overhang from

HURRICANE

THE CITY VIEW

Brexit, perhaps it’s the chaos unleashed by last year’s political drama, but it’s been far from a summer of love. So what next?

How do the Tories rebuild their reputation with business and have them turn away from the warm, if slightly platitudinous,

embrace of Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves?

A back-to-school playbook would look something like this –a clear tax and regulatory plan that they declare up front, in short order, and promise not to touch for five years. No more tax raids on energy industries. No more uturns on corporation tax. Giving businesses the certainty to invest in the UK rather than having them wary of whatever cockamamie scheme the Treasury

cooks up for the sake of tomorrow’s headlines.

Second, a clear pledge to back new technologies with equally innovative regulation. The exponential growth of artificial intelligence will make liberal employment law more valuable than ever, allowing firms to redeploy staff when new technology makes their jobs effectively redundant. And third, a plan to reinvigorate capital markets –in their

broadest definition. Giving retail banks incentives to lend to small business, and opening the door to private capital to flood into our private markets and indeed our listed ones, too.

Rishi Sunak may be a product of financial services but so far he hasn’t always acted like one. Let’s see if his summer break has given him time to reflect on what business needs, and deserves, from its government.

WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING

THE FINANCIAL TIMES

COUNTRY GARDEN POSTS

$7BN LOSS AS CHINA’S PROPERTY CRISIS DEEPENS

China’s largest private property developer by sales has revealed a record loss for the first half of the year as it battles to survive the liquidity crisis afflicting the country’s real estate sector.

THE GUARDIAN AIRLINES CALL FOR COMPENSATION REFORM

Airlines have urged reform of compensation rules after the “staggering” revelation that a single wrongly input flight plan to UK air traffic control disrupted hundreds of thousands of passengers’ flights.

THE INDEPENDENT

WHITE HOUSE: PUTIN AND KIM JONG-UN ARE DEEPENING RELATIONSHIP

The Russian president and North Korean dictator have exchanged letters and are planning to pledge a deepening of the relationship between their two countries, the White House has said.

FSB pleas for a ‘risk-taking’ attitude from government to boost small businesses

JESS JONES

BRITISH business organisations are calling for a tech revolution and pushing the government to supercharge economic growth.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has sounded the clarion call for the government to foster a “risk-taking” attitude and give small enterprises a leg up as they stumble over the high cost of adopting new technologies.

The FSB’s plea comes as their research has found the businesses most fuelling the economy have less access to government funding than corporate giants.

‘The Tech Tonic’ report shows 70 per cent of tech-savvy small ventures have integrated new tech innovations, generating a 15 per cent revenue rise on average for themselves.

But they say affordability is a major barrier to innovation. For a small firm, the average cost of introducing new technology is £27,000 over three years.

Among other things, the FSB has recommended the government commit over half of direct R&D funding to SMEs and start a tax-relief scheme for businesses actively trying to amp up their products and processes.

Tina McKenzie, FSB policy chair, said

US private payrolls growth slows in August as labour market eases

LUCIA MUTIKANI

“innovation must be for the many, not for the few”.

“We need a set of new policies and decisions to encourage new starters to innovate, and small businesses to take their new ideas and changes to the next level.

Similar calls are also echoing from the corridors of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).

The BCC is urging politicians to spur economic growth in the UK after finding over three quarters of businesses are not increasing investments due to stubbornly high interest rates and inflationary pressures.

US PRIVATE payrolls increased less than expected in August, the latest indication that the labour market was losing steam, though it remains tight.

Private payrolls rose by 177,000 jobs last month, the ADP National Employment report showed yesterday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast private employment would increase by 195,000. Data for July was revised to show 371,000 jobs added instead of the previously reported 324,000.

The labour market is gradually slowing as it adjusts to 525 basis

points worth of interest rate increases directed from the Federal Reserve since March 2022.

The government reported on Tuesday that there were 1.51 job openings for every unemployed person in July, the lowest ratio since September 2021, compared with 1.54 in June. A survey from the Conference Board also showed consumers’ views of the labour market were less upbeat in August.

The ADP report was published ahead of the Labor Department’s more comprehensive and closely watched employment report for August on Friday.

IDALIA Residents were yesterday forced to evacuate their homes in Florida after flood waters from Hurricane Idalia inundated the Big Bend area

London business confidence hits high for the year

CHRIS DORRELL

BUSINESS confidence in London has surged to its highest level since last May, as firms around the country become increasingly optimistic about the UK economy.

Business confidence in London rose 20 points during August to hit 52 per cent, according to the latest Lloyds Business Barometer.

Some 56 per cent of firms were confident in their own prospects while 46 per cent were optimistic about the wider economy, up 27 points on the month before.

Across the country, business confidence jumped 10 points in August to 41 per cent, its highest level since February last year, with all regions reporting a positive reading in August.

Confidence among retail firms hit an 18-month high at 44 per cent while among service firms it hit a 22-month

high of 42 per cent.

“The bounce in economic optimism this month is the standout point,” Hann-Ju Ho, senior economist at Lloyds’ commercial banking division, said.

“Our analysis shows that businesses felt relief that interest rates may be reaching their peak, alongside hopes that measures to tackle inflation are having an impact,” he said.

The Bank of England has hiked rates 14 times in a row, bringing it to a postfinancial crisis high of 5.25 per cent. Rising rates put up the cost of borrowing, both reducing demand for businesses and putting up the cost of financing.

Many experts now expect the Bank to hike rates just once more at its September meeting, bringing the base rate to 5.5 per cent.

Despite the most aggressive tightening cycle in decades, the UK economy has fared better than many economists had predicted.

Superdry shares suspended after delays to latest financial results

HENRY SAKER-CLARK

FASHION business Superdry has had its shares suspended after delays to publishing its latest financial results. The retailer and clothing brand had been required to publish its results for the year to April by a deadline of Tuesday 29 August, in line with stock market rules.

However, the firm yesterday said it

New borrowing slows as rate hikes take effect

CHRIS DORRELL

CONSUMER borrowing increased at a slower rate than expected last month as the Bank of England’s interest rate hikes hit demand for new loans. Bank of England figures out yesterday showed that the monthly increase in consumer credit was £1.2bn, £400m less than the £1.6bn increase seen in June.

Although borrowing on credit cards remained generally constant, new borrowing for other forms of consumer credit – such as motor finance and personal loans – fell to £600m, from £1bn the month before.

was unable to meet this and has therefore requested for the shares to be suspended by the Financial Conduct Authority on the London Stock Exchange.

Superdry added that it is continuing to work with its auditor, RSM, to complete “the final technical points” related to its audit. It said it expects to publish the results by the end of this week and see its shares restored.

Ashley Webb, UK economist at Capital Economics, said the figures show that “the drag from higher interest rates is starting to weigh more heavily on activity”.

The Bank of England’s 14 rate hikes to a post-financial crisis high of 5.25 per cent have chilled demand in the economy by making borrowing more expensive.

Higher rates also reward savers. £10.2bn was withdrawn from interest-bearing sight accounts in July, with £10.1bn moving into interest-bearing time accounts.

The fashion brand said it was working with its auditor to finalise its accounts

Embattled Direct Line taps Aviva exec as new lead

GUY TAYLOR

DIRECT LINE yesterday confirmed the appointment of Aviva exec Adam Winslow as its new CEO.

Speculation had been mounting after Sky News reported that the company, whose brands include Churchill and Green Flag, had been holding talks to appoint Winslow, CEO of rival Aviva’s international operations, since January 2021. His appointment follows the departure of Penny James in January, who stepped down after the FTSE 250 company hit a tumultuous patch, that saw an unexpected dividend cut and a tumble in its share price.

Winslow will rake in an annual salary of £820,000 and a pension allowance of nine per cent, with additional perks on offer.

He will take up the position in the first quarter of 2024, succeeding Jon Greenwood, who had served as acting chief executive since January.

Adam Winslow said the company was one of the “UK’s leading insurers with some of the most recognisable

brands in the retail and commercial market.”

“It’s a privilege to be invited to lead DLG into the future, particularly given its rich heritage and passion for serving its millions of customers.”

“I’m looking forward to working with my new colleagues to drive growth, deliver for customers and create long-term shareholder value,” he said in a statement to markets.

Danuta Gray, Direct Line Group’s chair, said: “The board conducted an extensive search and Adam Winslow stood out for his strategic understanding of the sector, outstanding track record of leading high performing businesses and his focus on driving operational excellence to consistently meet customer needs.”

The entire UK general insurance market has struggled amid soaring inflation over the last year, but Direct Line has performed particularly poorly compared with rivals. In March, the company’s shares crashed after it posted a £45m loss for the 2022 year, in what analysts described as one of the “worst years” in its history.

Rebel GAM group reveals choice for chief ahead of mass clear-out

CHARLIE CONCHIE

THE GROUP of GAM shareholders that helped torpedo Liontrust’s takeover has named its preferred choice to head the struggling Swiss asset manager, as GAM prepares for a total boardroom clear-out following the collapse of the deal.

NewGAMe, which own 9.6 per cent of the firm and includes French tycoon Xavier Niel, yesterday said veteran fund manager Randy Freeman would be its candidate for chief executive to replace

Peter Sanderson.

On Monday, ailing fund manager GAM said its entire board would step down after they failed to shepherd the firm through a takeover by London-listed Liontrust. Shareholders are set to vote on replacements for the board in an emergency September meeting.

A veteran of the fund management business, Freeman helped grow fund management outfit Centaurus to a group with some $5bn assets under management.

Veteran fund manager Randy Freeman is NewGAMe’s choice for the top job

TRACY GARRAD: AXA UK HEALTH > AVIVA CANDA JASON STORAH: AVIVA CANADA > AVIVA UK

ADAM WINSLOW: AVIVA UK > UK DIRECT LINE

Wilko rescue still hanging in the balance

LAURA MCGUIRE

JOB LOSSES at Wilko could reportedly be announced as soon as today, after an offer to buy the entire 400-strong estate failed to pass “basic checks”, members from the GMB union have warned.

The union representing thousands of Wilko staff has now said that redundancy talks, which were suspended earlier this week, could be restarted.

It follows a meeting the GMB had with the high street chain’s administrators PwC, which took place yesterday.

GMB said that PwC was still actively assessing a number of bids, but warned that one bid for the entire business was yet to “pass basic checks”.

It also warned that if extra details required from the bidder were not passed onto PwC by 5pm yesterday then “redundancies which were passed [on Tuesday] are likely to be restarted tomorrow”.

GMB Union said the roles likely to be impacted were in its support centre and distribution centre.

“Whilst this does mean that there are bids on the table for a significant proportion of the stores and the online business, we still cannot guarantee the future of any jobs moving forwards at this point,” it added.

There are currently two frontrunners in the race for Wilko, private equity firm M2 Capital and the owner of HMV Doug Putman, both of which would seek to retain the bulk of Wilko’s 400strong store portfolio.

Jonathan De Mello, founder of JDM Retail, said the administrator would be “under significant political pressure” to accept one of these bids, despite business concerns of maintaining a high number of ailing branches.

GMB said it will meet with the administrator again today.

PwC declined to comment.

M2 CAPITAL

Anglo-Canadian private equity company

M2 aims to retain all 400 Wilko stores, protecting all jobs

M2 is a restructuring specialist which owns no retail assets, though it does own a string of hotels under the Como brand

DOUG PUTMAN

Canadian businessman and owner of HMV Putman is looking to retain 350 stores, resulting in some job losses

Putman is no stranger to a retail rescue deal, having snapped up HMV in 2019 and Toys R Us in 2021

Rise in sales fails to deliver at The Works

LAURA MCGUIRE

DISCOUNT

retailer

The Works posted a slide in profits for the year as its chief financial officer, Steve Alldridge, announced his intention to leave the firm.

Alldridge joined the budget arts and crafts seller in June 2020 as interim CFO, a position that was made later made permanent in May 2021.

He will be replaced by Rosie Fordham who joined The Works in 2019 and has worked as both head of finance and interim CFO.

His departure comes as the retailer revealed that profit before tax for the full year sank to £5m, down from £14m when compared to the same period last year.

The business blamed inflationary pressures and increased business costs for the dip.

The results sent shares tumbling over 13 per cent yesterday.

However, The Works, which has over 500 sites across the UK, did report a rise in revenues, with sales coming in at £280.1m, up from £264.6m, thanks to a refreshed product offering.

UK urged to re-examine AI copyright laws to protect creative industries

JESS JONES

THE UK GOVERNMENT is under mounting pressure to scrap plans that would grant AI developers free access to copyrighted artistic materials for use in training their AI algorithms. Last June, the government’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) proposed a copyright exemption for the AI industry that would allow the unrestricted use of existing music, literature and art “for any purpose”. But MPs warned in a report this

planned exemption shows “a clear lack of understanding” of the UK’s creative industries.

Dame Caroline Dinenage MP, chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said there had been a “chorus of warnings” from musicians, authors and artists on the potential harm caused by a failure to protect their intellectual property (IP) from AI.

“The government must... develop a copyright and regulatory regime that properly protects them as AI continues to disrupt traditional

Kwasi offered advisory role at Fortescue Metals

NICHOLAS EARL

KWASI KWARTENG has reportedly been offered an advisory role at Aussie commodities giant Fortescue Metals Group, which is currently the fourth largest iron ore producer in the world.

Andrew Forrest, Fortescue’s founder and executive chairman, has approached the former chancellor –who could begin work with the company as soon as this year, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Kwarteng would not be Forrest’s first appointment of a politician, with Lord Sebastian Coe currently sitting on Fortescue’s board, while former Australian president Malcolm Turnbull is chairman of the group’s green energy arm, Australian Fortescue Future Industries.

There is no specific indication of the role Kwarteng would hold, but the Conservative MP is an outspoken advocate of green energy and mineral procurement.

Fortescue Future Industries has previously described Kwarteng as

a friend of the company.

The news comes just days after the departure of chief executive Fiona Hick after just six months at the helm, with the group posting its weakest profits in three years.

Her mutually-agreed exit was the 10th boardroom exit since 2020, with the company still reshuffling its senior team.

Forrest recently criticised the UK government’s decision to offer more oil and gas licences, warning that he would pull investments if it retreated from the green energy transition.

Earlier this year, Fortescue announced plans to boost the production of batteries and electric powertrains in the country.

“In accordance with the ministerial code, until the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments publishes advice Mr Kwarteng will not be taking up any appointments,” a spokesperson for Kwasi Kwarteng said when approached Fortescue has also been approached for comment by City A.M.

cultural production,” Dinenage said.  Many creative industries are concerned AI developers could exploit private IP and not fairly pay the original creators – a major factor in the ongoing Hollywood actors’ strike. A government spokesperson said: “We will take a balanced and pragmatic approach to the use of AI across creative industries, which allows both [industries] to continue to grow. We are working closely with stakeholders to understand the impact AI has on... creative businesses.”

ULEZ IF YOU WANT TO But for savvy commuters there’s another option: ebikes

Hydrogen levy scrapped in win for households

NICHOLAS EARL

THE GOVERNMENT has ditched its controversial ‘hydrogen levy’ following pushback from the energy sector.

The proposed tax, which would lumber households with a further £120 charge on top of their nearrecord energy bills to pay for hydrogen production, has been shelved by Grant Shapps.

The energy secretary tabled an amendment yesterday to the upcoming Energy Bill, which would prevent it being paid for via energy suppliers and their customers.

Instead it will be levied on the gas shipping industry, the government has said, and will take effect in 2025.

Shapps had previously signalled in June that a rethink on the levy was imminent, confirming to The Telegraph he did not “want to see people’s household bills unnecessarily bashed” to fund hydrogen generation.

Downing Street is targeting 10GW of hydrogen production by the end of the decade as part of its energy security strategy.

Right-leaning think tank Onward first calculated the levy would add £118 to energy bills by the end of the decade.

Jack Richardson, Onward’s head of energy and climate, said: “Dropping the hydrogen levy is the right decision to maintain public support for net zero.”

It took Big Tech firms just six days to pay off $2bn in fines, data shows

JESS JONES

BIG TECH companies have collectively been fined over $2bn (£1.6bn) so far this year for violating a number of rules and regulations. But new data shows this is a drop in the ocean for Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta, which were able to recover from these penalties in less than a week.

Six days and five hours’ worth of revenues is all it took for the tech giants to pay off $2.34bn in fines they have racked up so far in 2023, according to research from Proton, the company behind end-to-end encrypted email, cloud storage and VPN services.

When France handed Alphabet a €2m (£1.7m) fine in July, Google’s parent company had paid it off in four

minutes – less time than it took to read the verdict.

Meta scored the largest fine this year, after EU regulators demanded $1.3bn for violating GDPR. However, based on its annual revenues, it took just four days to pay off.

Proton’s research called for regulators to have more “teeth” and issue bigger fines.

Creative industries worry AI developers could use their work without paying fairly

ONE EBIKE subscription service has seen a business opportunity in Ulez –slashing its price to £12.50 for the first month. Swapfiets is part of a wave of firms offering subscription ebikes, which advocates argue are cheaper and greener than cars.

Kwasi Kwarteng was Chancellor of the Exchequer (briefly)

Former Co-op Bank boss Paul Flowers accused of carpet fraud in hearing

PAT HURST

FORMER Co-op Bank boss Paul Flowers has been accused of defrauding someone of carpets and by using cheques while acting under a power of attorney.

The case against the 73-year-old was detailed in court listings at a hearing at Manchester Magistrates’ Court, where the case was adjourned until next week.

Flowers was not present for the brief hearing yesterday because his lawyers

UK cybersecurity centre issues AI chatbot warning

JESS JONES

BRITISH national security officials have warned organisations to take care when integrating artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots into their systems due to their susceptibility to manipulation and cyber risks.

In a double blog post yesterday, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said all sectors should “exercise caution” when using large language models (LLMs), algorithms which use generative AI to produce human-like text responses such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

One post said there is “understandable” hype around AI, however “the global tech community still doesn‘t yet fully understand LLMs’ capabilities, weaknesses, and, crucially, vulnerabilities”.

AI-powered chatbots are often used in internet searches, customer service and sales, but they are not immune to misuse.  For example, NCSC’s research shows hackers can trick the AI models into performing unauthorised actions, such as making fraudulent payments, generating offensive content and revealing or corrupting confidential data.

Although LLMs have helped small and

medium-sized businesses take some of the workload off their shoulders, they often lack the digital skills to ensure the technology is safe and secure.

Research from software company Xero found that almost half of UK small businesses trust AI with identifiable customer information, while 40 per cent would share sensitive commercial information.

“If hackers use this new method to expose data it could have serious consequences for not only the business, but also its customers,” Dan Schiappa, chief product officer at cybersecurity firm Arctic Wolf, said.

Meanwhile cyber expert Oseloka Obiora, chief technology officer at Riversafe, said: “The race to embrace AI will have disastrous consequences if businesses fail to implement basic necessary due diligence checks.

“Instead of jumping into bed with the latest AI trends, senior executives should think again, assess the benefits and risks as well as implementing the necessary cyber protection to ensure the organisation is safe from harm.”

The warning comes ahead of the UK’s AI Safety Summit, set to be held this November, which will examine ways to mitigate the risks of AI.

said he had not received notification.

Flowers, a former Methodist minister and Labour councillor in both Rochdale and Bradford, was chairman of Co-op Bank between 2010 and 2013. He is accused of fraud by abuse of position.

The charge against Flowers listed in court accused him of “dishonestly abus[ing his] position [as Enduring Power of Attorney] intending thereby to make a gain, namely staircase, carpets and 11 cheques paid to the defendant, for yourself”.

Rafih Khan, prosecuting, told magistrates that a letter informing Flowers of the court hearing had been sent, but the defendant’s lawyers told the court his legal team had only been informed about it on Tuesday.

Chair of the bench Jane Whittington agreed to a defence application to have the matter adjourned for a week so Flowers could attend the next hearing. She said: “This case will be adjourned until 6 September, if you could warn your client he will be arrested if he does not attend.”

Oil prices unfazed by Gabon coup

POLITICAL unrest in Gabon – which could further tighten oil markets – failed to drive a rally in prices during yesterday’s trading, despite the looming threat of a global supply crunch amid swingeing OPEC production cuts.

A group of senior Gabonese military officers appeared on national television yesterday morning, claiming they had taken power minutes after the state election body announced president Ali Bongo had won a third term.

FTSE 100 reshuffle sees Marks & Spencer back four years after first dropping off

ANNA WISE

MARKS & SPENCER (M&S) has climbed back on to the UK’s FTSE 100 four years after dropping off the top stock index, while housebuilder Persimmon has been demoted following a rocky patch for the housing market.

The upmarket supermarket staged the return to the top tier after seeing its share price jump by more than two

thirds over the past year.

M&S will officially rejoin the FTSE 100 on 18 September following the quarterly index reshuffle, according to analytics group FTSE Russell.

It comes at a time of optimism for the historic high street retailer, which recently upgraded its profit outlook thanks to “strong trading”, having increased market share in both its clothing and home, and food,

businesses.

Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor, said: “Despite the cost of living crisis with consumers feeling the squeeze, M&S has been the star performer across UK retail this year, outshining rivals with a stellar share price gain of over 75 per cent so far this year, compared to Next for example, which is up around 17 per cent.”

Oligui Nguema would be the country’s new head of state.

Gabon, an OPEC member state, exported a monthly average of 160,000 barrels a day in May to July to Asia, according to Kpler shiptracking data.

Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank did not anticipate the instability in Gabon would necessarily hamper output.

“Gabon is a 200,000 barrels per day producer and I assume the first thing a

production. The market reaction has been non-existent with the focus instead of tight US supplies and Hurricane Idalia,” he said.

There has been a marked decline in US crude stocks, which lost around 11.5m barrels in the week up to 25 August, according to American Petroleum Institute figures. Investors are also waiting to see the effects of Hurricane Idalia, which could disrupt production in the Gulf of Mexico.

Flowers is accused of fraud by abuse of position PA

Lego gains on market despite tumbling profit

LAURA MCGUIRE

THE LEGO Group has suffered a steep fall in profits, figures from its half year results show, as demand for the plastic bricks maker showed signs of dwindling amid a tough economic climate.

Operating profit at the children’s toy brand reached DKK 6.4bn (£740m) during the first half of the year, down considerably from DKK 7.9bn (£910m) when compared to the same period last year.

However, revenue at the toymaker climbed, coming in up one per cent compared to the same term last year, with Lego continuing to gain market share in the toy market.

The rise comes in stark contrast to its listed rivals Mattel and Hasbro, which both reported double digit revenue losses in their half-year results this year.

A tougher return to pre-pandemic

shopping levels in its Chinese market played a role in its slowdown in profits, with Lego citing slower retail activity in the region.

It comes after the brand last year, encouraged by its pandemic success, revealed plans to open a number of stores in China and also opened a flagship store in Chongqing, China last October.

“Sales in China were impacted by a slower than predicted return to prepandemic shopping habits,” the company said.

Lego Group assured that it was continuing to trade in line with company expectations and said that consumer sales in its established markets such as the Americas grew.

“We are satisfied with our performance; especially as it has been a challenging six months for the toy industry,” Niels B Christiansen, chief executive of Lego, said.

YEAR SALES

Toyota gears up to hit record July production

GUY TAYLOR

TOYOTA Motor Corp yesterday reported a record month of production in July amid an easing of pandemic-induced supply chain snarl-ups –just a day after it closed all 14 of its assembly plants in Japan.

Global and overseas production at the world’s biggest carmaker rose 14.6 per cent last month to a monthly record of 809,400 as shortages in the supply of vital semiconductors subsided.

Global sales also jumped 7.8 per cent to 859,506 units, with the carmaker citing “strong demand for electrified vehicles”.

It comes after Toyota was forced to shut down operations at all 14 of its assembly plants in Japan on Tuesday – resulting in an output loss of around 13,000 cars – due to a tech breakdown that is now resolved.

Toyota has enjoyed strong demand and six straight months of growth in its worldwide sales – putting the woes of chip shortages during the pandemic firmly in the past.

In its first quarter results in early August, profits nearly doubled to a colossal £6.12bn.

EUSTON SUFFERS AS HS2 GRINDS TO A HALT

TEHREEM RIAZ (pictured), 53, has lived on London’s Drummond Street almost her entire life. The area –which is particularly well known for its Indian cuisine –has been a food haven for Londoners and a favourite of locals and office workers looking to soak in a vibrant atmosphere.

It is home to some of the capital’s oldest south Asian restaurants and is the birthplace of household brand Patak’s Pickles and the national Indian sweet shop, Ambala Sweets.

Riaz and her family, who hailed from Lahore, Pakistan, have run a small restaurant named after their home city’s winding Ravi river for over 40 years, serving home-cooked authentic Punjabi food including biryani, chicken tikka and fresh naan.

But that business, like so many others on Drummond Street, is under threat.

The long-delayed HS2 project’s Euston terminus sits at the eastern end of the street, and its construction has brought the area to a standstill.

Local businesses have struggled to cope with a toxic mix of invasive construction work, noise pollution and the demolition of key buildings, including two major hotels –the Ibis and the Thistle –which had been critical to bringing in extra customers for local restaurants.

An Impact Study of the street in 2019 found that 87 per cent of local busi-

nesses had reported a drop in footfall since the project began.

That, coupled with Covid-19 and changing commuter habits, has decimated trade and the region’s vibrancy in recent years.

It was “always buzzing” Riaz reflected, but has now become “extremely deserted”.

She had hoped for a brighter future for her family’s long-running restaurant, but told City A.M. its trading was down at least 40 per cent and that there had been times when “we are making absolutely no money whatsoever”.

“Our dream was that we would open up our business to a bigger audience, and people would be coming… and we’d get more footfall. And then first of all we had HS2 works starting, and then lockdown happened. And then it was like, you know, we fell off a cliff there,” Riaz said.

Riaz’s story is echoed throughout Drummond Street. Chutneys, a local Indian restaurant, told The Guardian in May that trade was down 60 per cent since the pandemic.

Poppy, a waitress who works at the restaurant, told City A.M. the business had seen a “massive drop” in customers, in part due to “construction work”

Riaz and her family have run Raavi Kebab on Drummond Street for the last 40 years, but invasive construction work from HS2 at nearby Euston station has driven down footfall and dented trading

blockages and “so many road closures”. She added that she was concerned about her financial future.

While local businesses struggle, the Euston section of the project has been marred by delay and ballooning costs, and no one has any concrete idea when it will finally be finished.

In March, transport secretary Mark Harper announced work would be halted for at least two years after the budget rose to £4.8bn from an initial £2.6bn.

That was another blow for local restaurants, which had relied on construction

workers for income as visitors to the neighbourhood declined.

For Simon Pitkeathley, chief executive of Euston Town’s Business Improvement District (BID), the uncertainty has been the biggest factor holding Drummond Street back.

“Once you know what’s gonna happen or you’ve got a reasonable degree of certainty as to what’s going to happen, then you can make plans around it,” he told City A.M.

“As I understand it, you know, everything’s up for grabs. So what might have been clear about the station design may be rethought, it’s not just about uncertainty about when the work may start again, it’s about what those works might be building.”

Pitkeathley estimates that around a third of Drummond’s restaurants have changed hands to different owners since the pandemic.

“It’s rarely one thing that affects all restaurants in the same way… but there is this overarching drop in trade that has forced those sometimes inevitable changes.”

Having worked across Camden and Euston Town, Pitkeathley is a veteran of the area and rued the loss of Drummond Street’s unparalleled vibrancy, as well as “the quality and authenticity” of its, surprisingly cheap, food.

“We’ve just risked losing something that is wonderful and authentic, just by negligence really… There is a genuine authenticity in Drummond Street and we just risk losing that because no one’s paying attention.”

Nearby Brick Lane, meanwhile, is thriving, being a way away from

the chaos of HS2, while still bringing in post-office workers due to its proximity to the City.

There is hope for the area however, with projects including The Drummond Street Neighbourhood –a collaboration between Euston Town BID and the street’s traders –seeking to revitalise its atmosphere through a series of community-led events this summer.

HS2’s woes show no sign of abating though, with a damming report from the Public Accounts Committee in July concluding that the government had no idea how to manage the “floundering” Euston project’s soaring costs.

An HS2 spokesperson argued that the station would bring “huge improvements for passengers and the local community, forming part of the last big regeneration in central London, spanning 60 acres”.

“In line with direction from the government, it was recently announced that construction of the new station would be delayed to ensure that it is delivered as efficiently and cost effectively as possible.”

“However, during this pause, where we can, we are looking to remove some temporary road closures and return these back for community use. Additionally, HS2 will be working to repurpose as much of the land around Euston as possible for temporary alternative uses while work is paused.”

HS2 also said it had supported the Drummond Street Neighbourhood Revival project through a £650,000 award from its business and local economy fund.

Local businesses are crying out for help as HS2 delays drive away business, writes Guy Taylor

There is a genuine authenticity in Drummond Street and we just risk losing that because no one’s paying attention

GUY TAYLOR

GATWICK Airport yesterday said pretax profits had jumped to £100.2m for the half year, up 65 per cent year-onyear amid soaring demand for travel, but warned it had been hit by air traffic control issues across Europe.

The UK’s second biggest airport welcomed 18.5m passengers in the six months to July, up 41 per cent year-onyear and helping turnover rise by nearly half to £423m.

Much of that came from its aeronautical segment, which reported revenues of £212.7m, while retail, parking and other non-aeronautical sources accounted for £210.6m.

Underlying earnings rose 59 per cent on 2022 to £235.7m.

Traffic flying out of the airport was still shy of pre-pandemic levels though, at 86 per cent, with the airport warning that traffic control (ATC) restrictions in Europe – such as from French ATC industrial action – had affected performance and service.

It comes as a network-wide failure of Britain’s ATC system continues to cause mass disruption this week, with thousands of cancellations and passengers left stranded.

Speaking to City A.M. yesterday, Gatwick’s chief executive officer Stewart Wingate said airlines had informed him displaced passengers “may not get back to the UK until the weekend” but insisted the hub had made a “rapid recovery”.

Aside from the events of this week, air traffic control disruption has been a feature across Europe this summer, with repeat walk-outs from French ATC staff hitting a slew of airlines and restricting airspace.

Wingate told City A.M. strikes were particularly damaging to the airport “because of our location and our rou-

Gatwick profits take off but boss says future rests on second runway

Gatwick’s post-pandemic recovery has turned up a notch over the past year on the back of soaring demand, with the group

the “highest month” of passenger traffic since the pandemic, reaching 97 per cent.

However, the “biggest thing” over the coming years, according to the airport chief, will be whether the “government endorses” its £2.2bn proposal to create a

airport

not only on volume of passengers, but also putting additional resilience into the operation here at Gatwick,” he told City A.M. That resilience would be a welcome relief for passengers who have been hit by this week’s chaos.

*SHIVERS* Pret fined £800,000 after employee stuck in freezer

PRET A MANGER has been fined £800,000 after one of its workers was left fearing for her life while stuck in one of its freezers. Westminster City Council said the employee became trapped in the walk-in commercial freezer, which typically has a temperature of18C, for two and a half hours while working at the Victoria Coach Station branch.

Councils told not to become ‘part time town halls’

COUNCILS have been urged to swerve introducing four-day work week schemes in a bid to dodge “part-time town halls”.

Campaigners at the Taxpayers Alliance (TPA) have written to every council leader in the UK asking them to pledge not to bring in a four-day work week.

Dubbed ‘Stop the Clock Off’, the campaign comes after a row over staff at Lib Dem-run South

Cambridgeshire District Council cutting their hours by 20 per cent for the same pay. Ministers intervened in a bid to force the organisation to end the four-day week trial, citing worries over value for money.

John O’Connell, TPA chief executive, said: “Residents are rightly worried that a part-time council could be coming to their town hall. As we’ve seen elsewhere, this experiment leads to poorer services, with taxpayers picking up the tab.”

Research by the TPA has indicated

a four-day week could cost £30bn a year in lost working time, and the group has refuted the claim it could increase productivity by 25 per cent.

However, Joe Ryle, director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, hit back, saying: “No one should trust the Taxpayers Alliance.A four-day week with no loss of pay has been shown to improve productivity”.

“Local councils are desperately struggling with job recruitment and retention and a four-day working week could be the answer,” he added.

Stewart Wingate is chief executive of Gatwick Airport

JESSICA FRANK-KEYES

A second runway will be the biggest thing for the future of the

SOMETHING BIG IS COMING

CITY DASHBOARD

YOUR ONE-STOP SHOP FOR BROKER VIEWS AND MARKET REPORTS

LONDON REPORT BEST OF THE BROKERS

Prudential’s results boost London markets after US jobs data

LONDONmarkets finished higher yesterday with the premier FTSE 100 index given a lift by strong results from insurance giant Prudential.

The FTSE 100 index climbed 0.1 per cent to close at 7,473.67 while the mid cap FTSE 250 index rose 0.5 per cent to end at 18,564.52.

Prudential was among the FTSE 100’s top risers, climbing 2.0 per cent after impressing investors with its earnings. Adjusted operating profits were up six per cent to $1.5bn in the first half of the year. New business profits meanwhile ticked up 39 per cent in the period to $1.5bn, above expectations.

The Asia-focused insurance giant also announced a new strategic plan including ramping up its growth across outside of Europe and prioritising dividends for investors.

Fellow insurer Direct Line fell 1.4 per cent after it appointed Adam Winslow as its new CEO, joining from Aviva.

Natural resources companies Fresnillo and Rio Tinto also saw gains, rising 2.9 per cent and 0.9 per cent respectively. Resource giants have performed well, despite concerns over the Chinese economy, as speculation grows the government will be forced to intervene.

Private payrolls rose by 177,000 jobs last month, the ADP National Employment report showed. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast private employment would increase by 195,000. This will bolster speculation that the Fed will pause its rate hike cycle.

appear in Best of the Brokers, email your 130

ON HOPES OF A US RATE HIKE PAUSE...

“Data is king right now in terms of market sentiment and the nonfarm payrolls snapshot out on Friday will crown the week. If it points to a fresh slowdown in hirings, we could see another spurt in stock prices,”

145 140 135

To WICKES 30 Aug 25 Aug

SUSANNAH STREETER, HARGREAVES LANSDOWN

NEWSLETTERS CITYAM.COM/NEWSLETTERS SIGN UP TO OUR THREE DAILY EMAILS - MORNING, NOON AND NIGHT The biggest stories direct to your inbox Breaking news, exclusives, scoops, interviews, blogs, opinion, sports, life & style, travel and more.

Embattled Direct Line has at long last announced a new CEO, poaching one of rival Aviva’s most senior executives, Adam Winslow. Winslow will oversee the firm’s turnaround after a torrid period, which saw high inflation dent its motor segment. Analysts at Peel Hunt said the new boss has a “strong background” and joins DLG as the “UK motor market is turning.” They say ‘buy’, with a target price of 150p.

OPINION

EDITED BY SASCHA O’SULLIVAN

Even on their favourite battlegrounds, the Conservatives have no new ideas

Will Cooling

THIS has been the quietest British politics has been for over a decade. With previous summers dominated by Tory or Labour leadership intrigue, novel pandemics, Britain leaving the European Union or Scotland trying to leave the United Kingdom, or whether Britain would bomb Syria, you have to go all the way back to 2012 for a year where politicians could enjoy the parliamentary recess in peace and quiet.

But this is not just about Westminster finally being able to catch its breath after a decade of turbulence, this is about a government that lacks purpose after a decade of errors. You get few arguments from Conservative politicians or commentators against the idea that Britain needs a change in direction if it is to address its many problems. But after thirteen years of Tory-led governments, what you get less of is ideas to address these problems.

And by problems I don’t expect Conservatives to turn round and start sounding like liberals or socialists. There are enough things going wrong with today’s Britain that there are issues where you would expect rightwing politicians to be at the forefront of developing responses to.

A few weeks ago, ministers uncon-

Elena Siniscalco

LEE arrived in the UK in January this year from Hong Kong, thanks to a British National Overseas visa. Despite having decades of experience in brand and event management, he hasn’t found a job. Even as his friends in accounting or programming were snapped up and he was ignored, he’s still hopeful. “I’m looking for something a bit downgraded - to prove what I can do and have some hands-on experience”, he says. He’s currently interviewing for jobs.

Yana arrived a year ago from Ukraine. She’s 33 and worked as a recruiter with international clients. She’s found a job in London, although back home she was head of department. She doesn’t mind the demotion, because it gives her exposure in the UK market. She considers herself fortunate: “I heard stories from people who were looking for 8 months, or a year, without having

vincingly trotted out the tired old slogans about “stopping the boats” to hide that they had no new ideas about how to stop asylum seekers crossing the channel or mitigate the impact their arrival has on coastal areas. The closest thing to a new idea comes from the Home Secretary, who argues that the time is ripe to leave the European Convention of Human Rights so that we can rush hearings and be less discerning about where we deport failed applicants to. But this is just a gimmick from those addicted to the Brexit psychodrama, hoping that such calls

can act as a new rallying cry to reunite the Vote Leave coalition. It doesn’t even attempt to grapple with the reality that in this area the ECHR does little more than attempt to standardise how European countries interpret their responsibility under various United Nations treaties on refugees. That is why non-European countries such as America and Australia have remarkably similar debates about asylum seekers to our own. Likewise, the government was happy to jump on the bandwagon in condemning Laura Letby’s failure to ap-

pear in court for the jury’s verdict or sentencing, with the Prime Minister calling the murderer of at least seven infant children, “cowardly”. But they had no answer on whether they were satisfied that life imprisonment was the appropriate punishment for her, or whether it would be preferable that she be executed. Even those on the right who made supportive noises towards the death penalty would couch it in calls for an “honest debate” or demands that “woke elites” stopped ignoring the will of the people. What there wasn’t, was any real attempt to

Our angst over migration means we’re still ignoring skilled staff for UK firms

any interviews.”

Neither had it easy, but overall they have been lucky - and they know it.

When they arrived among the hundreds of thousands of people who fled persecution in Hong Kong or the war in Ukraine, they were welcomed. Last year, more than 45 British businesses including M&S, Asos and Lush said they were willing to offer jobs to Ukrainians.

But there is another side of the coin. In the story of refugees and employment, there is a deep problem of preferential treatment based on nationality. Finding a job is much harder for refugees from Afghanistan, Syria and other African or Middle Eastern countries.

Although one in five British employ-

ers has hired a Ukrainian migrant, the overall employment rate for refugees is 5 per cent after their first year in the UK. Only 3 per cent of London businesses say they employ a refugee, according to a London Chambers of Commerce report.

Employment is the single biggest factor in successful refugee integration, according to the Oxford University migration observatory. Without a job, refugees can’t afford a home, and without a home they can’t find a community and settle down. Those who are lucky enough to find a job earn, on average, about half the amount that UK nationals do on a weekly basis, according to a Compas report.

Yet as Lee and Yana both acknowledged, the UK has been generous in wel-

coming people from their countries and giving them a job. Some workplaces’ attitudes are shifting, with 55 per cent of London businesses surveyed by the Chambers of Commerce saying they would employ a refugee if they had more information about the laws and how to support them.

However experts in the refugee employment field say the picture drastically changes when it comes to refugees from countries like Syria. Hannah Brooke, the head of partnership at Renaisi, the organisation that helped both Lee and Yana find work, says she sees it every day in her job. “Talented, highly qualified refugees from countries such as Afghanistan, Syria or Eritrea are often locked out of our workforces because of conscious and unconscious bias”, she

address the policy problem that initially led to the abolition of the death penalty and still acts as a deadweight on its support; the fear that death sentences would lead to innocent people being killed in the event of wrongful convictions.

And then you have the overall performance of the police, with surveys showing a stark loss of confidence in their ability to protect the public. But like a New Labour tribute act, all the leading members of the government could do was bark orders and ban things, with Suella Braverman demanding the police actually investigate all thefts whilst Rishi Sunak gave them yet more powers to tackle knife crime. Completely absent were any ideas about how to restructure the police or reform their working practices to strengthen their ability to maintain order.

You could keep going through a list of policy areas where the Tories should be the ones that care, should be the ones that make the running on the issues, and there’s just nothing there. Even more so than in 1996 or 1963, the party is a shell of its former self, shorn of all energy and ideas. I have never seen a party so intellectually worthless as today’s Tory Party, being utterly disinterested in developing new ideas, and incapable of refining old ideas into workable policies.

There is seemingly nothing left for them to do but to lose the next election and let Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party try to sort out the mess they’ll have left. The sooner that happens, the better it will be for everyone.

£ Will Cooling writes about politics and pop culture at the It Could be Said substack

says. This happens despite high levels of qualifications and skills. According to a report by Deloitte, 38 per cent of Syrian refugees who live in the UK have a university degree. Many of them are engineers or software developers.

We’re affected by all sorts of biases. Surveys have shown how Britons feel less morally obliged to offer asylum to Afghan, Syrian and Somali refugees than to Ukrainians. Six in ten people, according to a YouGov survey, believe the UK has a moral obligation to offer asylum to Ukrainian refugees. Instead 44 per cent believe the same is true for people from Afghanistan and 39 per cent for Syrians.

This attitude trickles all the way down to the workplace. But none of the problems plaguing the asylum system in the UK will be solved unless everyone, regardless of where they come from, is provided with the opportunity to thrive - and most simply, to make a living here. The economic case for this has been shouted from the rooftops time and time again.

Big firms like Amazon, Hilton and Marriott committed in June to hire 13,680 refugees over the next three years in Europe. Initiatives like this make a difference. But until they make a difference for everyone, they won’t be enough.

Rishi Sunak has promised to ‘stop the boats’ even as hundreds of migrants continue to arrive every day

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

A nation in love with WhatsApp

[Re: Ofgem fines Morgan Stanley £5.4mn for WhatsApp violations, August 23]

The latest regulatory fine for Morgan Stanley is yet another in a long line of communications-related compliance penalties doled out to global banks over recent years.

It adds further discomfort to an already painful regulatory headache. These fines aren’t just about the amount of conversations being had by traders, but also the way in which they are conducted – private WhatsApp discussions among energy

traders are rampant, leading to breaches in market transparency. Traders in OTC energy markets use WhatsApp, and have for over half a decade now, because of the nature of how they work. The reality of deal making in this market is that communication is all over the place, which leads to problems like the ones experienced by Morgan Stanley on this occasion. With the increased drive for more transparency, aggregating and centralising information in one place is no longer a ‘nice to have’ for those trading in these markets, it is a must have.

Stanislav Ermilov

Former energy trader at Mandara Capital LL, now chief exec of Tallarium

FLIPPED THE BIRD Wildlife charity turns on Sunak over new housing rules

Stop blaming the artists for the gentrification of British hipsters’ favourite hotspots

Tasos Kitsos

EVERYONE can think of an example where a large influx of creatives has been associated with gentrification, and the displacement of poorer residents with new higher income ones. Yet there is little understanding of how strong the link between the creative industries and gentrification is in general, and if there is a link, what are the underlying causes.

Together with Dr Max Nathan of UCL and Dr Diana Gutierrez-Posada of Oviedo University, I’ve used big datasets to explore the widely accepted arts-gentrification link to see whether this is observable at a large scale.

In the average neighbourhood, there is hardly a link at all between the creative industries and gentrificationit’s so small as to be effectively negligible. Creative industries workers themselves have stronger links to gentrification than creative businesses, but it is still very, very small.

Rishi Sunak and Michael Gove might not have counted them in their electoral forecasts before, but the new housing rules which water down environmental protections have infuriated the bird watchers. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds yesterday accused the government of being ‘liars’.

EXPLAINER-IN-BRIEF: AIRLINES ARE NOT THE CULPRIT OF THIS WEEK’S TRAVEL CHAOS

Everyone loves to hate the airlines. But in this week’s travel chaos, they’re not the main culprit. Yet they’ll have to pay for the mess, with the cost expected to be around £100m, according to the International Air Transport Association.

The mayhem seen this week was the fault of the agencies controlling the flow of flights and the airspace.

Everything started on Monday when an incorrect flight plan was filed into the National Air Traffic Services (Nats) system. The error should have simply

been rejected, but instead it caused the breakdown of parts of the system. Reports are now claiming that it was a French airline that filed the flight plan. The Nats system was reanimated three hours later, but the damage was already done. Hundreds of flights were cancelled, and delays were up to 12 hours.

A mistake of these proportions will leave a scar in the aviation sector. And a fight between Nats and the airlines about who’s meant to pay for the mess is shaping up.

The links are however much more pronounced in areas of London and other big cities. Some of the most creatively dense neighbourhoods – those with more than 50 per cent of businesses classed as creative - are in and around the capital. Perhaps unsurprisingly, we find that these places have the strongest link between the creative industries and gentrification.

The difference we noted between the impact of businesses and workers led us to explore their impact separately. We found that they are not located in the same neighbourhoods. Arts businesses tend to start up in expensive, already gentrified places whilst artists are often found in cheaper neighbourhoods, that are later gentrified. We also found that artists often at-

tract creative services workers (such as architects and IT consultants) in a process that often leads to the displacement of the artists themselves, who were originally drawn to the area.

In the majority of places, artists have little to answer for in terms of neighbourhood gentrification with other factors having a much bigger impact such as school performance, existing and new transport links and spillover from other neighbourhoods. This does not discount peoples’ lived experience, especially in areas where it can seem as if the creatives are an overwhelming majority, and the character of a neighbourhood seems to be changing very rapidly.

Good policy can make the difference between the creative sector leading to unbalanced gentrification, or creating a welcome economic neighbourhood renewal and an improvement in residents’ lives. Crucially, the arts and cre-

ative sector can be a positive partner in this. The solutions are linked to wider gentrification factors, are politically loaded, emotive and not easy. Empowering local authorities with greater powers in planning and community building can embed arts projects to the micro-local culture and “pride in place” activities can anchor residents to their existing communities.

Simultaneously, strong requirements for affordable commercial and residential space, together with active labour market policies can create the conditions for people to grow within their existing neighbourhoods. Taken together, these initiatives can mitigate gentrification and the local tensions sometimes associated with artists and the creative industries.

£ Dr Tasos Kitsos is an academic with the Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre

The link between creative industries and gentrification is so small as to be almost negligible

Creative industries have been blamed for gentrification of areas like Hackney

CULTURE

EDITED BY STEVE DINNEEN @steve_dinneen

JONNY LEE MILLER SHINES IN TOTALITARIAN SATIRE

THEATRE

BY STEVE DINNEEN

There are times when the Almeida’s new production

The Mirror feels a little like –whisper it – immersive theatre

You enter the stage through a flower arch to find a pretty believable facsimile of a low-key wedding.

There are tables filled with cocktail sausages and bowls of crisps and plastic glasses of wine. There are chintzy individual chairs in neat rows at the front of the theatre, where normally you would have flip-down pews. There’s a hymn sheet tucked into each seat welcoming you to the nuptials, alongside a troublingly authoritarian address, which the audience is encouraged to recite mid-way through.

A cellist plays and Jonny Lee Miller, clad in a prim suit and gloves, greets people as they arrive. It’s a neat way to draw you into this play’s world of twists and crosses and double crosses. The first of these comes when it’s revealed the wedding itself is a ruse, a

trick by a performing theatre troupe to hide an illegal production taking place somewhere in a province of a totalitarian England (I don’t think the Englishness is ever spelled out but a discordant version of Jerusalem is played on the cello, which is a dead giveaway).

“Tonight’s performance is being staged without a permit from the ministry,” Miller’s character explains conspiratorially.

The Mirror, written by Sam Holcroft and directed by Jeremy Herrin, is concerned with what it means to create art within confines and parameters: is it better to work within a corrupt system, to eke out marginal wins in the face of adversity, or to reject the system altogether and risk being silenced... or worse?

The play-within-a-play follows a young playwright (it’s all quite meta) who has submitted his debut work to The Ministry of Culture, colloquially known as The Ministry for Censorship.

It’s a piece of social realism observing the sex workers and drunks who live in his crummy apartment block – not quite what The Ministry is looking for.

But Director Čelik (also Miller, playing the role as a kind of Goebbelsmeets-Victor Meldrew) sees a spark in the young Adem (Michael Ward) and instead of blacklisting him, invites

him into his inner circle to learn from another playwright he has allowed to flourish. Under his protection, his ‘favourites’ are allowed to read books banned under the regime, including the works of Shakespeare, and artistically express themselves, so long as they don’t do it too much

The bulk of the action takes the form of readings – plays-within-playswithin-plays – with Čelik, his wet-behind-the-ears assistant Mei (who he fancies), and Adem acting out, hilariously badly, both Adem’s work and that of more accepted propagandists. Unfortunately, a peek behind the curtain doesn’t result in Adem and Mei idolising Čelik but rather seeing the entire system for what it really is.

It’s a slick satire, a genuinely, laughout-loud send-up of totalitarianism, filled with brilliant performances, not least from the ever-charismatic Miller. It almost feels churlish to point out that I don’t think it’s actually very good.

The text, always extremely pleased with itself, doesn’t bear much scrutiny, and beneath the charisma of the cast is a fairly flimsy examination of the role of artists in a world where censorship and violence is on the rise. Still, that trifle aside I can’t remember when I last enjoyed myself this much at the theatre.

DENZEL STILL HAS IT IN HIS NEW ACTION HIT

making mincemeat of various disposable foes.

BY VICTORIA LUXFORD

Barbie’s success is perhaps a herald of change in Hollywood after years of superhero dominance. However, one thing we can rely on is that audiences will always turn up to watch an older actor beat up some bad guys. Denzel Washington’s The Equalize is the 80s remake that became an unlikely franchise, cashing in on the same audiences that made Taken a cultural touchpoint.

The two-time Oscar winner returns for a third film as former marine and DIA officer Robert McCall. The movie finds him in a small town in Southern Italy, where he has finally found happiness away from his old life, surrounded by friendly locals who have accepted him as part of their community. Unfortunately, that tranquillity is disrupted when the mafia target the town. Once again, Robert must call upon his particular set of skills to save the day.

It’s a formula that works, and director Antoine Fuqua should be credited for creating something this entertaining three movies deep. The story is largely self-contained, and while there are references to the past it’s not something newcomers will have to study for. At its core, The Equalizer takes its cues from the Western genre, with Washington’s weary warrior

There is also something approaching pathos in this character’s continual search for peace, asking whether who he is can ever truly be in the past.

It lacks the visceral excitement that made John Wick a phenomenon, but the filmmakers pack enough retribution into 100 minutes to make this final chapter worth exploring.

This is Washington’s first big budget movie since The Equaliser 2 in 2018 (he released several smaller dramas during the pandemic). Despite closing in on 70, he maintains an unparalleled presence, even if the script is not quite up to someone of his standing.

Movie fans of a certain age should prepare to feel very old, with Washington reuniting with his child co-star from 2004’s Man On Fire, Dakota Fanning (now 29!). Playing a government agent who receives information from McCall, she enjoys an excellent rapport with her co-star that is sadly lacking in any of the villains. Led by Andrea Scarduzio as Vincent, they are the kind of ruthless, generic gangsters who have vague goals and ruthless tactics.

Ending on a note that suggests the franchise is finally done, The Equalizer sticks the landing with a familiar but satisfying end. Whether or not a fourth film comes will depend on box office success – Fuqua has even discussed a prequel with a de-aged Washington. That might be pushing it, but then again this is a trilogy and a star that has made a fortune defying expectation.

YOUR LONDON WEEKEND SORTED

1. 2. 3.

The BFI Southbank and Picturehouse Central cinemas will be celebrating the work of black British filmmakers this weekend at S.O.U.L Fest X ABFF Global London. There will be feature film screenings, panel discussions and new shorts on display, plus Q+As. Get ready to queue in your finery: it’s BBC Proms season at the Royal Albert Hall. There are still tickets left on the day for events like a late-night Bach showcase, but this Friday it’s Beethoven's Fourth Symphony. Tickets are available for just £8 on the day online.

Kew The Movies returns this weekend so you can sit back and watch a classic, with a glass of something bubbly, next to some hydrangeas. Expect Star Wars and Top Gun to play this weekend in the last evening viewings of the summer; tickets still available online.

The London Palladium's production of The Wizard of Oz comes to the end of its yellow brick road this Sunday. Manford plays the Cowardly Lion and Ashley Banjo is The Tin Man.

4.

Gerard Depardieu shows he still has some movies left in him with this warm spin on the French detective Maigret

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MAIGRET

DIR. PATRICE LECONTE

BY VICTORIA LUXFORD

Movie legend Gerard Depardieu steps into the trench coat of Jules Maigret, the famous French literary detective who has been adapted many times across the world, most recently as a UK TV movie starring Rowan Atkinson. This French language adaptation of the novel Maigret and The Dead Girl sees him on the trail of a woman mysteriously murdered after renting a dress for a big event. With little to go on, Maigret moves among the lost souls of Paris, and faces reflections of his own past.

Director Patrice Leconte recreates 1950s Paris as a place full of regret, where police roll their eyes at another young person who came to the capital with big dreams, only to find ruin. There’s a smoky romanticism to the world that’s evocative of classic detective movies, and while this doesn’t stray too

wildly from the formula, there is a comfort in the nostalgia. The script does a wonderful job of slowly revealing why Maigret is so invested, even if the identity of the killer isn’t quite as protected.

Depardieu is a polarising figure in cinema. Best known to English speaking audiences from 90s hits Green Card and The Man With The Iron Mask, his iconic status in French cinema has been muddied by personal scandal and poor acting choices.

Thankfully, this performance stands out from the crowd, lifting a standard detective story into something more personal. His take on Maigret is quiet and thoughtful, the actor’s large frame contrasting with a modest performance.

We see a detective who listens rather than shouts at his suspects, telling tales through small movements and delivering an emotional punch that isn’t always present in murder mysteries. While Jade Labeste impresses as Maigret’s collaborator Betty, Depardieu is what makes Maigret a mystery worth following.

AROUND THE WORLD: THE FIRST SLAM DUNK

WHY ARE ALL THE ACTION HEROES SO OLD?

Liam Neeson disarming two cops, cuffing them together and knocking them unconscious in Taken 3; Denzel Washington smashing a mobster over the head with a teapot in The Equalizer 2; Tom Cruise jumping off a cliff on a motorbike in MI7 What do these men all have in common, apart from being the kind of people whose pint you wouldn’t want to spill? They were all in their 60s when these scenes were filmed.

From John Wayne to John Wick, the action movie industry is hooked on old guys, men (and they’re almost always men) holding back the sands of time, performing feats of strength, endurance and courage that would crush people half their age.

RECOMMENDED

THE FIRST SLAM DUNK

DIR. TAKEHIKO INOUE

BY VICTORIA LUXFORD

Coming from Japan, where it became one of the most successful anime films of all time, The First Slam Dunk tells the story of a high school basketball team who must overcome painful memories ahead of a pivotal match.

The film tries to mirror the all-or-nothing mentality of sport and the personal struggle faced by sportspeople. It certainly gets the

first part right, using a 3D animation for the basketball sequences that give the action an immersive feel, combined with sound design that takes in every bounce and sneaker squeak.

It’s less polished when approaching the human side, with backstories that don’t always tie neatly to their sporting parallel.

Ryōta (voiced by Shugo Nakemura) gives the film heart as a scrappy point guard trying to overcome his brother’s death, but his arc doesn’t go the distance.

The First Slam Dunk will appeal to those with Hoop Dreams, or fans of the source material; a flawed but affectionate journey.

The trope was pushed to its absurd logical conclusion when Sylvester Stallone (68), Arnie (67), Harrison Ford (72) and Mel Gibson (58) lined up alongside an equally geriatric cast in The Expendables 3, an action movie with an average age of 57. Even the Bond franchise, the most successful of them all, has tended to opt for spies close to picking up their government pensions.

But why? In an industry obsessed with youth and beauty, what is it about grizzled blokes that quickens the pulse of action fans?

The obvious answer is that action films cost a lot to make and older, tried and tested actors make the most money. This holds up when you think about the buckets of box office dollars pulled in by the likes of Tom Cruise and Keanu Reeves. But as City A.M. film critic Victoria Luxford points out, it’s not always that simple.

Life&Style Editor

“A bankable name is no guarantee. The Gunman starring Sean Penn was a flop, and Kevin Costner sure didn’t work out in 3 Days To Kill.”

In narrative terms, there are advantages to older characters, who are more likely to have lived the kind of lives that could plausibly be threatened by villains.

“Older heroes have a more believable past,” says Luxford. “Action movie characters are often quiet men pushed too far. They also tend to be people with a ‘Particular Set of Skills’ –it’s less believable if they are in their early 20s.”

With action movies often low on dialogue and high on... well, action, audiences have to quickly buy in to the logic of the film. A nearly-50 Keanu Reeves cradling his puppy and looking at pictures of his dead wife gives you

an emotional connection to that character, as does a teary Liam Neeson sending his daughter off to university. There’s something at stake that you wouldn’t have were you to cast Harry Styles in the role. This logic also applies off-screen, with older actors bringing the weight of their careers with them.

“Liam Neeson and Denzel Washington were better known for quality biopics and Oscar dramas before becoming action heroes,” says Luxford. “And Bob Odenkirk’s Nobody traded off the idea that the Better Call Saul actor doesn’t look like a killer. It’s intriguing, and gives the implication that anyone could be a hero.”

My best guess is that action movies are the purest expression of the male power fantasy, created (largely) by ageing men for audiences (largely) made up of ageing men: what could be more thrilling, more life affirming, than seeing a bloke refusing to go gently into that good night, instead using his fists and his wits to crash through a series of dangerous and sexy sequences? It certainly beats helping the kids with their homework before putting the bins out and getting an early night cos your back hurts.

But surely younger audiences must be ready for something more?

“I’d love to see more queer and female action heroes, but the audience has to turn up,” says Luxford. “Films like 2017’s Atomic Blonde, starring Charlize Theron as a bisexual assassin, didn’t do as well as something like John Wick, despite being an excellent movie. “Audiences have to vote with their feet. Given John Wick 4 is among the biggest films of the year that might not be anytime soon.”

In an industry obsessed with youth and beauty, what is it about grizzled blokes that quickens the pulse of action fans?

With 68-year-old Denzel Washington leading The Equalizer 3, we ask why Hollywood is obsessed with geriatric men

Steve Dinneen

The coolest bags on the circuit

Customisable and with real racing heritage, these bags by Jordan Bespoke are track-ready, says Steve Dinneen

Sometimes good things really do come to those who wait. If you’re looking for the perfect present for someone this Christmas, now might be the time to get the process started.

Take fine Italian leatherware producer Jordan Bespoke – each of its creations are hand made, with an impossible amount of detail going into everything from the straps to the stitching, the zips to the lining.

It’s the brainchild of motoring enthusiast Simon Jordan (no relation to Eddie Jordan, although he has made items for him), who says he fell into the world of luxury leather products entirely by accident.

“It was 2005 and I was working for a UK Ferrari dealer,” says Jordan. “I organised the trip for some clients to go to Tuscany to watch the Ferrari Challenge World Finals. I was carrying a ropey old nylon bag with me and as these clients were all important people, it was going to be embarrassing to be seen with it when I left the hotel. One of the guys on the trip had this beautiful Italian leather bag, which I fell in love with. I asked him where he got it and the next day I was driving to Florence to get one of my own.”

Jordan immediately realised that he had something special on his hands. “I just thought – ‘these are amazing, I could sell these’”.

The next week he flew back to Florence and started buying up the factory’s best stock and taking it back to the UK to sell. He did this for three years, until the limitations of buying readymade products started to hold the business back.

“They just wouldn’t listen to anything

I wanted to do and I was getting to a point where I wanted to change the quality of every single component.”

The next step in the Jordan Bespoke journey was to visit various factories across Italy to find the one that could create products to his high specifications, agonising over every detail, from the leather itself to the metal Drings.

Today the most popular bag in the collection is the GTO holdall, whose style and dimensions are unique to

Jordan Bespoke; a high, handsome trapezoid with handles and a removable shoulder strap.

The next turning point for the business came in 2008, when Jordan made a decision that would help to define the company.

“I put a number 56 on it,” he says.

“I’m still passionate about Ferrari and that was the number of the Ferrari 125 S that won the marque’s first race on 25 May 1947 in the 9th Rome Grand Prix.”

Bags available from Jordan Bespoke, including the document case (main) and the GTO holdall, all available in fully bespoke versions

After this, racing drivers and motoring enthusiasts started coming to Jordan Bespoke to have their own numbers stitched to the side of their bags.

It doesn’t have to be a racing number, either. “I’ve had people want a number on the side to represent their birthday, or their anniversary, or something that happened on a particular day.”

The customisation process for getting your own bag made is as broad as your imagination.

“We use genuine seat belt webbing for the handles and shoulder straps: we’ve got every single shade of seatbelt webbing you can think of!”

Also available are bespoke touches including printed linings. The GTO holdalls start at £995 and a more bespoke version comes in around the £1,500 mark. Also available are helmet bags, document cases and tech cases, all with that distinctive Jordan Bespoke motoring flair.

As well as individual, one-off bags, Jordan Bespoke can also take on larger commissions. He’s produced matching bags for racing teams and even a series of carbon black bags for luxury yacht company Sunseeker. He also created a 3 piece Licence Collection for racing legend Tom Kristensen, the nine times Le Mans Champion winner, with titles for Porsche, Bentley and Audi

“My whole background has been repairing cars, restoring cars, being involved with race teams. I’m just an absolute anorak as a petrol head,” says Jordan. “My passion comes from standing and hanging around at race circuits all over the world.”

You can see that passion in each of these bags – order one now to make sure you get it in time for Christmas.

£ For more information and to order your own go to jordanbespoke.com. They will also be exhibiting at Goodwood Revival next week, located in the Paddock on Tim Layzell’s stand

BEST OF THE FEST: TOP ACTS FROM THE EDINBURGH FRINGE

be a pressing topic at the Edinburgh Fringe. One of the most unusually entertaining shows that incorporated AI was Vanessa 5000, in which performer Pauroso played a sex robot with corporate backing, naturally. The show plays at the Soho Theatre

until 2 September

LORNA ROSE TREEN’S SKIN PIGEON

WOODHILL

Woodhill Prison in Milton Keynes has a history of untimely inmate deaths and official reports have called it “unsafe”. Protest theatre troupe Lung have devised this piece to share testimonies from the bereaved families of some of the victims. At Shoreditch Town Hall from 20 September

If you couldn’t be bothered to pay over the odds for terrible accommodation in Edinburgh then you’re in luck, here are four of the best Edinburgh Fringe 2023 acts that have London transfers coming up.

COURTNEY PAUROSO’S VANESSA 5000

As conversations around the baffling futures of AI swirl, of course it would

Lorna won Dave’s best joke of the Fringe award for her one-woman show, which also garnered five-star reviews from lots of the major newspapers. The show is about how Treen has always pretended to be other people “for fun”, and invites us inside her mind to meet the characters for big laughs and even bigger costumes. Soho Theatre, from 19 October

STRATEGIC LOVE PLAY

The idea of awkwardness on first dates resonates with us all, and this play amplifies the most horrendously awkward parts. The two-hander plays out a first date in real time, with one partner hovering in small talk and the other keen to really get under the skin of the person opposite. At the Soho Theatre from 6 September

My whole life has been repairing cars, restoring cars, being involved with race teams

The best shows to emerge from the world’s biggest arts festival, by Adam Bloodworth

Powerful real-time thought leadership, insights and news delivery mechanism fuelling the most up-to date reporting, adding critical context for decisions that require consciousness, education and thought leadership.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION AND BECOME A PART OF ONE OF LONDON’S MOST TRUSTED NEWS SOURCES

VISIT: CITYAM.COM/IMPACT-AM/

London 2012 was a false dawn for Para sport

THERE are 363 days until the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Paralympics. Tickets go on sale on 9 October.

The most expensive events are €100 (£85), a sliver over a tenth of the price of the best seats for Olympic athletics. I can guarantee there won’t be only one tenth of the enjoyment. You might find hotels, trains and planes cheaper too.

With Olympic tickets still readily available for many events, the Paris organising committee may struggle to fill venues for the Paras, even with the gulf in pricing between the two sporting jamborees. The International Paralympic Committee has just issued its typical bullish year-to-go statement, but I’m concerned that the cause of disability sport isn’t moving forward from Games to Games.

Taking a parochial perspective, there

OPINION

RUGBY COMMENT

Ollie Phillips

ENGLAND could, realistically, be knocked out of the Rugby World Cup in France by 10pm on 17 September, 20 years on from their famous victory in the 2003 final.

The car crash that is the national team head across the Channel in the coming days to play Argentina and Japan in their opening two matches. After that they take on Chile and Samoa, but by then it could be all over. Losses in those two fixtures could spell a premature end to any distant dream of lifting the William Webb Ellis trophy in October.

So with the wheels already off the car, England and head coach Steve Borthwick must channel the spirit of teams gone by – of 2007 and 2019 – if they’re to surprise anyone and make the latter stages of the tournament.

In 2007 under Brian Ashton, England finished third in the Six Nations, then got tonked by South Africa in two tour matches in the southern hemisphere and lost two of their three warm-ups.

They were pumped 36-0 by South Africa in the World Cup but managed to make the final with knockout wins against Australia and France. Winning the trophy, though, proved a bridge too far.

LAST TIME OUT

In 2019 under Eddie Jones, England came second in the Six Nations and had impressive wins against Ireland and Wales in warm-ups but had the nation in a gloomy mood ahead of the side heading off to Japan.

Against expectations, Jones’s side reached the final but, again, lost to South Africa.

This year, following their poor Six Nations campaign, dire warm-up series and disciplinary issues, England must try to recreate that fighting spirit and place themselves into a bubble.

George Ford’s comments about training being an issue should cause alarm bells to ring, as should Ellis Genge’s online comments about being written off.

But maybe this is what

SPORT COMMENT

Ed Warner

was much talk around London 2012 of the British public loving disability sport. Too many took this as a given based on the success of those Paras. Subsequent experience suggests that Britons love the Paralympics but are largely oblivious to disability sport in the intervening years. Not their fault. Rather the collective failure of those of us in and around the leadership to find ways for it to really cut through.

The IPC is in the process of shedding direct responsibility for the organisa-

tion and governance of a handful of sports that it currently owns. These include the two heavyweights, Para athletics and Para swimming, both of which are slated to be established as independent entities and relocated from Bonn to Manchester. This satis-

fies those purists who want the IPC to focus on ensuring the success of the Games, and its attendant campaigns for disability rights, but risks further weakening the sports themselves, which already struggle for resources.

Para sport is of course about more than athletics and swimming, but their depth and breadth creates an opportunity for public awareness that all the smaller sports can feed off – including the likes of wheelchair rugby, which I chair in Britain. If the big sports fall short, it’s even harder for their niche counterparts.

Ask leading Paralympic athletes about competition structures and their experience in sourcing commercial income and you will hear complaints about both when comparing themselves to their able-bodied counterparts. Great Britain won 10 gold medals at the World Para Athletics

ENGLAND MUST CHANNEL SPIRIT OF 2007

Championships in Paris last month. Who knew? And what visibility was there in France itself, less than three months out from Paras ticket sales?

I’m instinctively nervous of multisport events, primarily because they tend to become overblown and hence prohibitively expensive to host. But it may be that the inaugural European Para Championships which took place in Rotterdam this month is an exception. These involved 10 sports, all competition having some link to qualification for 2024. Britain’s wheelchair basketball teams both qualified for Paris, the men winning gold. Again, who knew? Answer: too few. The challenge for the four years from Paris to Los Angeles is for us to find that cutting edge.

Ed Warner is chair of GB Wheelchair Rugby and writes at sportinc.substack.com

Borthwick and a coaching setup lacking in international experience need: to be completely cast aside from all chats about potential World Cup winners.

England need to work together, become a tight unit and stabilise. Then they can let rip.

FORCING HANDS

Despite his ban, Owen Farrell will

Borthwick is under pressure

feature, but I see this as Borthwick having his hand forced. He will need to rely on Ford and Marcus Smith in the early stages, against the tougher opposition, and it could spark some creativity.

But that will not be enough on its own, as is the case with any rugby team. England will need to fall back on their talent – which they have in abundance – and skill.

Their experience, too, will be paramount to any success in France over the next two months.

England have so many good players. Premiership winners, European Champions Cup winners, Six Nations winners – they have them all. So there really is little excuse for

their disappointing performances but I believe they can still pull it together and at least challenge at the tournament. They’re going to need a lot of work to get to that point, though.

There are nine days until England play Argentina, and it’s their biggest test of the pool stages.

It is sink or swim for Borthwick and his side, and it could be a pool exit like it was in 2015.

We all remember what happened to Stuart Lancaster and co back then.

Former England Sevens captain Ollie Phillips is the founder of Optimist Performance, experts in leadership development and behavioural change. Follow Ollie on Twitter and on LinkedIn.

I’m concerned that the cause of disability sport isn’t moving forward from Games to Games

England will need to fall back on their talent, skill and their experience at the World Cup

It’s Champions League draw day, so Frank Dalleres picks out the best and worst cases

ON THE face of it, today’s Champions League group stage draw will be just like any other: a gathering of club suits for a glossy and unnecessarily long ceremony peppered with former stars of European football and some stilted banter.

But there will be something unique about this year’s draw: it will be the last to follow the current 32-team, multigroup format before it is replaced by the controversial “Swiss model”, a single league comprising 36 sides, next season.

As ever, it will determine who England’s four representatives –Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal and Newcastle United – must overcome to reach the knockout stage, and there could be some nasty surprises in store.

Being in Pot 1 of the draw usually confers an advantage but this year there is little to choose between it and Pot 2, whose teams boast more European Cups and more clubs in the top 20 of Deloitte’s Football Money League. That could be bad news for holders City, in particular, while Newcastle have a potential nightmare scenario.

Here, we assess the best and worst possible outcomes for the Premier League contingent from the Champions League group stage draw.

MAN CITY City’s reward for finally lifting Europe’s top trophy last season is a place in Pot 1, meaning they are guaranteed to avoid Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League group stage draw.

However, Pot 2 contains 14-time winners Real Madrid, the pick of a clutch of teams that also includes Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Atletico Madrid and RB Leipzig.

Having signed smartly and started the season well, AC Milan are the team to avoid in Pot 3, while Bundeslgha leaders Union Berlin look a dangerous prospect in Pot 4. A kind draw would

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP STAGE DRAW

ESSENTIAL INFO

When: Today 5pm UK time

Where: Monaco’s Grimaldi Forum

How to watch: Via Uefa website

THE POTS

Pot 1 Manchester City; Sevilla; Barcelona; Bayern Munich; Napoli; Paris Saint-Germain; Benfica; Feyenoord

Pot 2 Real Madrid; Inter Milan; Manchester United; RB Leipzig; Borussia Dortmund; Porto; Atletico Madrid; Arsenal

Pot 3 Shakhtar Donetsk; Salzburg; AC Milan; Braga; Lazio Red Star Belgrade; Rangers or PSV Eindhoven Young Boys or Copenhagen

Pot 4 Real Sociedad; Galatasaray; Celtic; Union Berlin; Lens; Newcastle United; Young Boys or Rakow Czestochowa; AEK Athens or Antwerp

HOW IT WORKS

THE STUFF OF ENGLISH NIGHTMARES

Czestochowa, depending on the result of play-offs not completed at the time of writing.

MAN UTD AND ARSENAL

Both United and Arsenal are in Pot 2, meaning they face the same potential opponents but cannot be drawn with Real Madrid. Their worst-case scenario from Pot 1 would probably be Harry

rivals with new club Bayern. They will also be anxious to avoid Milan in Pot 3 and Berlin in Pot 4, although a trip to the cauldron of Galatasaray would also hold little appeal. Fate may dictate that Arsenal get Real Sociedad, ensuring a trip hom to San Sebastian for manager Mikel Arteta.

In an ideal world, Feyenoord look the

Boys or Copenhagen – depending on who qualifies – appeal from Pot 3.

NEWCASTLE

Excitement around the Magpies’ return to the Champions League might be doused on Thursday afternoon given that, as a Pot 4 team, they could end up in a group with Bayern, Real Madrid and AC Milan – the

The 32 teams will be split into eight groups of four. As usual, teams from the same country will be kept apart until at least the quarter-final stage. Pairings and any other restrictions will be announced ahead of the draw.

three most successful teams in the competition’s history.

Other permutations include Barcelona-Inter-Shakhtar and PSGDortmund-Lazio. Either way, it is likely to be a tough prospect for Eddie Howe’s team, albeit one the Toon Army are sure to embrace enthusiastically.

If fortune favours Newcastle, they could get surprise Dutch champions Feyenoord, Porto – certainly no mugs but one of the weaker teams in Pot 2 –and either Young Boys or Copenhagen. Aside from the end of the Champions League’s eight-group era, there is another reason for football fans to pay extra attention to this season’s European football.

Two extra spots in next year’s Swiss model format will go to the two countries with the highest club coefficient, which is determined by their teams’ performances in the three Uefa club competitions.

END OF AN ERA

The last ever Champions League group stage draw?

Greenpeace to target Rugby World Cup over oil sponsorship

EXCLUSIVE

MATT HARDY

GREENPEACE is planning to target next month’s Rugby World Cup as the campaigning group ramps up protests against “greenwashing” by oil and gas companies.

The organisation told City A.M. it would make its presence felt at the tournament’s official fan zones and outside stadia in France, where the action begins next week.

It follows a summer of UK sporting occasions, from the Ashes to Wimbledon and the Grand National, being disrupted by Just Stop Oil protests.

Greenpeace said it was not planning to copy Just Stop Oil’s tactic of pitch invasions as it looks to highlight TotalEnergies’ sponsorship of the World Cup.

“Greenpeace campaigners are looking forward to speaking to many rugby fans about TotalEnergies and the growing problem of sportswashing,” a spokesperson said.

“We’ll be outside the stadium and in the fan zones – and TotalEnergies and other fossil fuel polluters should be nowhere near.”

It comes after Greenpeace posted an animated video on social media yesterday depicting oil flooding a stadium as two rugby teams played in front of thousands of fans.

The clip features spoof match com-

FOOTBALL

mentary which states: “What kind of move is that from Total Energies? I don’t think that is in the rule book… unbelievable, surely this is foul play?”

The Greenpeace spokesperson added: “This video sends a clear message that the Rugby World Cup should not be an arena for fossil fuel companies to greenwash their climate destruction.”

The Premiership final in May was disrupted by Just Stop Oil while a raft of other sporting events have been the target of activists looking to raise awareness of environmental issues. French energy giant TotalEnergies stated its commitment to sustainability when it was an-

Miyazaki’s run comes to end at the US Open

MATT HARDY

afford to take a support team on tour with her.

coaching teams, it is a very expensive game.

nounced as an official sponsor of the Rugby World Cup in 2021.

Former chief executive of France 2023 Claude Atcher said at the time: “TotalEnergies wants to shift lines and play its full role in meeting the climate challenge.

“We want to move forward together towards the new energies that need to be at the centre of Rugby World Cup France 2023.”

TotalEnergies and France 2023 launched a car-sharing platform for the Rugby World Cup earlier this week. But that has done little to impact the objections to the partnership by Greenpeace.

Man City take summer spend to £200m with Nunes signing

FRANK DALLERES

MANCHESTER City are close to making Matheus Nunes their fourth summer signing after agreeing a transfer fee of £47m with Wolves for the Portugal midfielder.

A deal for the 25-year-old, who refused to train this week in an apparent bid to force through the move, would take City’s spending in the current window to £200m.

Manager Pep Guardiola stepped up his search for a midfielder after losing Kevin De Bruyne to a serious hamstring injury earlier this month.

As part of the agreement for Nunes, City youngster Tommy Doyle

is set to join Wolves on loan for the season ahead of a potential £5m transfer next summer.

Nunes only joined Wolves from Sporting Lisbon last year for a club record £38m, signing a contract until 2027 in the Black Country.

It continues a major exodus since the end of last term, with Nunes the 10th player to depart Molineux on a permanent basis.

City’s recruitment could pave the way for Cole Palmer to leave, with Chelsea reportedly keen.

Elsewhere, Monaco have completed the signing of striker Folarin Balogun from Arsenal in a deal worth up to £34m.

BRITISH qualifier Lily Miyazaki fell in straight sets at the US Open last night as her brilliant run at the tournament came to an end in Flushing Meadows.

Having come through a number of pre-tournament qualifying matches, Miyazaki’s first main draw saw her beat Russian Margarita Betova.

But the 27-year-old, Japanese-born tennis player fell to 15th seed Swiss star Belinda Bencic.

Her 6-3 6-3 loss ended a memorable run in New York.

The couple of days at Flushing Meadows, however, could be careerchanging for the Brit, who can now

She will shoot up the rankings, too, which could see her invited to a number of more prestigious tournaments.

"Being a professional tennis player takes quite a lot of money, obviously with the expenses of flying and hotels and stuff," Miyazaki's coach Craig Veal told BBC Radio 5 Live yesterday.

“Everything has gone up and up over the last few years.

“People see that number of the prize money and think, ‘Wow, it’s huge’.

“But by the time they get taxed on it, then take into account all the expenses for themselves and their

“It's tough for her to travel with someone on a full-time basis. I think this will hopefully allow her to do that a lot more regularly.”

Elsewhere at the final Grand Slam of the calendar year, Coco Gauff beat 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva 6-3 6-2 while unseeded Taylor Townsend toppled seed Beatriz Haddad Maia 7-6 7-5.

“I just learned to be aggressive, because if you give her something she is going to take advantage,” 19year-old American and sixth seed Gauff said on what she learned from playing her Russian opponent earlier in the season at the French Open.

England Women to be paid same match fees as men

FRANK DALLERES

ENGLAND Women cricketers are to receive the same match fees as their male counterparts in a move that will boost their pay by thousands of pounds.

The move was announced today by the England and Wales Cricket Board and will take effect immediately, starting in this week’s Twenty20 series against Sri Lanka.

England Men, who still benefit from much more lucrative central contracts, are reported to receive £14,500 per Test match and £4,500 for every one-day or T20 appearance.

“It’s really important that we con-

tinue to drive the women’s game forward and it’s fantastic to see equal match fees for England Women and Men,” said captain Heather Knight.

“The direction of travel for the women’s game has always been the most important thing, creating a sustainable product that people want to watch and play, and I’m sure this will make cricket an increasingly attractive sport to girls and young women as we continue to grow the game.”

The ECB said the pay hike for England Women was a result of recordbreaking interest in this year’s Women’s Ashes. The series against Australia attracted a total of more than 111,000 spectators.

The World Cup begins next Friday in Paris’ Stade de France

CRICKET