Source: www.talkingretail.com
Hay Festival 2012: Sir Terry Leahy 'It is the customer who decides where to shop' - Daily Telegraph
She claimed that 276 jobs are lost every time a major Tesco is built in a town.
“If you are going to measure your life by your success at Tesco, surely you are going to look back at the effect your incredibly aggressive marketing policies have had on the towns you leave behind?” she said.
But Sir Terry claimed that in fact supermarkets are good for the High Street as it ensures people remain in town to shop rather than going elsewhere.
“The towns that Tesco invests in do better. If you do not let modern facilities into the town people go elsewhere. Not every business is guaranteed to survive. One day Tesco will be out of business. But good businesses can thrive with competition,” he said.
“All markets are about winners and losers. There is a price to pay if you are loser.”
“So the question is, is there a net benefit [if the supermarket wins]. I think there is – there is investment, better quality of service and cheaper food.”
Following the recent planning reforms, Sir Terry backed plans for the controversial “presumptions in favour of sustainable development”.
“In order to make the change to a low carbon economy there has to be investment,” he said.
Sir Terry said ultimately the customers are responsible for the actions of Tesco because “Tesco was not created by a politician, Tesco only grew because millions of people chose to shop there.”
“We do not kill anything off,” he said. “It is the customers who dictate where to shop.”
He also denied that Tesco has been overly aggressive in sourcing from farmers or selling to customers.
“If Tesco is too big, too aggressive too monopolistic then customers will go somewhere else they do have a choice 95 per cent of customers can choose one of the three main supermarkets and they do that every day.”
Plan B for Hay are currently drawing up alternative plans to fund the building of a new school without selling the town centre site to a developer.
Richard Evans, another town councillor, said Hay-on-Wye has only retained its charm as the “town of books” because it has not had a supermarket in the centre.
He said supermarkets like Tesco are killing the traditional market town.
“People come to Hay because there is not a supermarket. There is a butcher, a baker, a grocer and of course all the book shops. Supermarkets like Tesco kill off small towns,” he said.
“I wonder how [Sir Terry Leahy] sleeps at night knowing what he has done for the last 14 years.”
Sir Terry praised the work of the Coalition to manage the economy but said Britain was in danger of being taken over by bureaucracy.
“There is too much business and produce regulation in the UK. Regulation is growing faster than the economy and that in general is not a good thing. I think it is in part because politicians do not trust citizens to make decisions.
“If they trusted people more they would have to regulate less. Particularly in bigger organisations like the NHS. It is a tragedy if you have highly talented people highly controlled by central management.
“Part of problem is that you have wonderful people in the public sector but the management is too centralised.”
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
Paris or London? Where is the best place to start… up? - The Independent Blogs
Acting almost as the closing event of Digital Shoreditch festival, the Startup Caravan, sponsored by The Bridge and Frog Valley, embodies the tremendous diversity of the European digital community and the unquenchable thirst for sharing and learning from one another.
Started at the Innovation Warehouse in trendy Smithfields at 9 am, the Caravan finished in the wee hours of the following morning at the fancy Google Campus and was clearly a success.
Twenty entrepreneurs were successively fed information on London’s attractiveness for starting up a tech business. They were exposed to the possible barriers to investment for a French startup and some of them even had the occasion to pitch at Digital Shoreditch festival in the afternoon.
Not surprisingly, the three pillars of any entrepreneurial ecosystem did not fail to be mentioned during the discussions. Rooted in the financial power of the City, the fast growing number of tech startups is also due to the extraordinary density of lawyers and of high-tech and prestigious universities. All of the above most naturally foster and cater for the creation and high concentration of incubators and pre-incubator structures.
From an investor perspective, the questions asked were more pressing and down to earth:
What is the best way for a French start-up to raise money, or be attractive for UK-based investors?
The key takeaways were leaning towards the harsh side for the French wannabe entrepreneurs.
“French startups are still mainly focused on local markets, with rarely international or global ambition, making them not necessarily competitive for us,” noted Sitar Tell from Doughty Hanson Technology.
“We are mostly looking for fast exportable products or business models and some of what we see are too French-specific, ’’ echoed Sean Seton-Rogers from Pro-Founder.
“The current tax benefit given to investors in UK startups tends to bias the investment decision, for an equally good idea and an equally good team, most would choose to benefit from the Enterprise Investment Scheme. The best ways of tapping into the rich business angel network still remains to consider creating a holding structure in the UK,” reflected one informal investor.
These are interesting comments that went to the core of the difference in perception of entrepreneurship between the French attitude of ‘play it safe, see if it works first’— because if you fail you will clearly be stigmatized – and the English mentality of ‘go big or go home’, similar to that in the US.
On the entrepreneurs’ side, the response was clearly enthusiastic.
“London has such an energetic vibe, a lot is happening, and things often move faster,” commented Tobias Nevin from Everfeel – an innovative online gaming startup offering a new real-time social gaming experience, based on immersive 3D role plays with voice dialogue between players.
“’For me, London is a symbol of gutsy finance, where appetite for ambition and risk is more on the agenda; London is also a clear pathway to North America, with the traditional ties to Silicon Valley, as well as a springboard for global growth in general,” he added.
“Coming to London is a breath of fresh air; an energetic fix. It is also a great networking platform for second round of funding needs, in a funding market embracing more disruptive type of products,” smiled Antoine Sakho from Skimm! – a mobile payment app start-up.
The recent change of Government in France was also on the agenda. “Entrepreneurship and the need to push for it, was never really a founding theme for any of the presidential candidates,” reflected Sakho, while Nevin echoed that “it would be a stretch in the France system where companies are classed and often prioritised by size to orient the future growth of the economy towards ‘small and unknown’ startups.”
“And you know, yes Fleur Pellerin is the newly appointed minister of SMEs and innovation, but by the time she has founded a committee, agreed on rules and found a portfolio of companies with something ‘tangible’ to show, it is not going to help young startups. They are operating in the here and now, with immediate cash issues and at time limited track-records,” reflected Sakho.
This is the core of the issue for young French tech entrepreneurs.
They do not feel supported in their own country, and might be considered as ‘discretionary’ investment for UK investors already cherry picking in the rich London based startups ecosystem.
Regardless of a highly virtual and connected world, the ‘tyranny of distance’ is still pretty much alive when it comes to investment. What if the real value of an initiative like the Caravan was awareness-building within the investment community for it to become truly global ?
Tagged in: caravan, digital shoreditch, entrepreneurship, start-up, startups, techSource: blogs.independent.co.uk
London Gets Gold for ID Fraud - Yahoo Finance
NOTTINGHAM, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwire -05/23/12)- London could be set for a rise in identity fraud this summer as new figures from Experian CreditExpert reveal that 7.7 million Britons from outside the capital are set to descend on some of the UK's worst areas for ID theft - while 1.9 million Londoners plan to escape.(1)
London, the boroughs around many of the Games venues in particular, is already home to the UK's worst ID fraud hotspots, with rates of attempted fraud up to 11 times higher than the national average. These include East Ham (11 times higher), Woolwich (6.5 times higher) and Stratford itself (six times higher).(2)
There will be a mass influx of people into these areas, carrying personal information in the forms of UK bank account details, and credit card details. This leaves individuals at a high risk of Identity Fraud with individuals, in unfamiliar surroundings, exercising less caution than they would normally adhere to in their normal surroundings. This presents a massive opportunity to fraudsters, with visitors likely to have passports and other pieces of personal identification about their person, be freely using smart phones and unsecured WiFi hotspots, and also potentially sharing hostels or rented accommodation with strangers all of which increase the risk of identity theft.
Visitors are therefore advised to keep a close eye on their personal information, and on their credit report following their visit for any signs of unusual activity. CreditExpert also provides alerts if your personal details appear anywhere unexpectedly online so it is easy to protect yourself pro-actively.
TOP FIVE RISKS TOP FIVE TIPS TO STAY SAFE ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Passports Think about how much sensitive information you really need to have about your person - if your hotel booking has your card number and address, do you need to carry it around with you, for instance? Likewise, don't take your passport out with you unless you absolutely have to. If you are staying in a hotel for the Games, ask for sensitive documents to be securely stored in the hotel safe when you are not using them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PIN codes Make sure that no-one else can see you enter your PIN code at ATMs and chip and pin machines, particularly in large crowds. Do not write down or carry your PIN code with you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Smartphones If you have a smartphone, you'll certainly want to photograph and tweet your time at the Olympics, but be particularly careful what you share when connected to an unsecured wireless network. Also ensure you switch off Bluetooth and roaming settings when not required and ensure you use a password. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post If you're going to be one of the lucky ones visiting London for a few weeks to enjoy the Games, think about what you'll do with your post. Intercepted post is one of the key ways in which fraudsters can take people's detail, so it could be worth setting up a redirect for the duration of the Games. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Face-to-face Check the credentials of anyone asking for your personal information, whether by phone, face-to-face or over the internet. If in doubt, don't do it!
The Experian CreditExpert research reveals that no fewer than one in six Britons (16 per cent) is planning on visiting London during the Olympics, half as tourists and half to attend the Games themselves. Seventeen per cent of people coming to the capital have not been for more than a decade, with a further three per cent making their first ever trip to the city.
Nearly six out of 10 (59 per cent) will be staying for several days. Although one in four (25 per cent) will be staying in hotels and one in five (21 per cent) with friends, a significant minority (four per cent) will risk staying in a hostel and two per cent will be renting a property or someone's spare room - some 154,000 people.(3)
And although they are concerned about large crowds (23 per cent) and the expense of London (20 per cent), just three per cent are worried about identity fraud.
The risk of ID fraud among visitors is arguably heightened by the decision of many Londoners to quit the capital during the course of the Games. One in 14 (seven per cent) are looking to leave London for the duration of the Olympics, with a further one in six (17 per cent per cent) planning to get out of the city for at least some of the period.
But it's not just newcomers who need to be careful. The one in 20 Londoners taking on a lodger or renting out a room or their whole property need to be aware they are putting themselves at risk of ID fraud by inviting a stranger into their home and are advised to ensure personal details are locked away and post collected promptly.
Peter Turner, Managing Director at Experian Interactive, commented: "This is set to be a once in a lifetime summer. But that doesn't mean people should let their guard down - just because you are holidaying in the UK, you should still take the same precautions you would if you were on a city break to Europe.
"Identity fraud is one of the fastest-growing crimes of the 21st century, and anyone could be at risk from fraudsters getting hold of their personal information, particularly if they are in an unfamiliar area, renting a flat short-term or a room in a B&B. Likewise if you are a homeowner letting a spare room just for the Olympics, do ensure all your personal details are kept safe from visitors."
"This is why it is so important to have proper safeguards in place to protect your identity. With Experian CreditExpert if the worst should happen you will be alerted to any significant changes to your credit report so that you can react quickly and keep the risks to a minimum."
Identity fraud hotspots
Top 10 10k households Top 10 in 10k households nationwide Cases London Cases ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Slough 25 East Ham 78 London (all) 22 Woolwich 46 Gravesend 20 Stratford 43 Birmingham 17 Ilford 33 Luton 16 Walthamstow 27 Manchester 15 Harrow 27 Leicester 14 Cheapside 26 High Wycombe 13 Lewisham 26 Peterborough 13 Hatfield 26 Windsor 12 Enfield 26
To avoid becoming a victim of identity fraud this summer, Experian CreditExpert suggests some further tips:
1. Keep an eye on your credit report It's a history of all your credit accounts and will highlight any irregularities such as suspect applications for credit and rises in card balances. You can view your credit report free with a 30 day trial with Experian CreditExpert.(ii)((i)New customers only. Monthly fee after trial ends) 2. If in doubt, don't click If an email purporting to be from a hotel or linked to the Games seems suspicious, contact the relevant organisation and don't give out personal details. Your bank, credit card provider and any reputable business will never ask for confirmation of details by email. 3. If you do become a victim of fraud Don't forget you can sign up to Experian's CreditExpert whose dedicated victims of fraud team will work on your behalf to resolve the issue.
Notes to editors:
1. The UK adult population is 48,091,600 (ONS). Sixteen per cent of adults are set to come to London during the Olympics. Therefore: 0.16 x 48,091,600 = 7,694,656 or 7.7 million.
The population of Greater London is 7,753,000 (ONS) 24 per cent of Londoners are looking to leave the capital during some or all of the Games. Therefore: 0.24 x 7,753,000 = 1,860,720 or 1.9 million
2. Based on analysis of information from the National Hunter anti-fraud data sharing system and the Insurance Hunter database.
3. 0.02 x 7694656 = 153,893 or 154,000
Key benefits of Experian CreditExpert membership:
- Experian is the UK's most trusted credit reference agency
- Experian is the credit expert with more than 30 years of experience
- Free 30-day trial of CreditExpert(i)((i)New customers only. Monthly fee after trial ends)
- Unlimited access to your Experian Credit Score
- Weekly alerts of changes to your credit report
- Access to an award-winning, UK-based customer services team
- Identity Protection Insurance of up to GBP 75,000(ii) ((ii)terms and conditions apply)
- Expert advice and tools to help improve your credit rating
- Intelligent price matching to credit products suited to your credit history
- Consumers can apply directly from the website: www.creditexpert.co.uk
About Experian
Experian is the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to clients around the world. The Group helps businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. Experian also helps individuals to check their credit report and credit score, and protect against identity theft.
Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended 31 March 2012 was US$4.5 billion. Experian employs approximately 17,000 people in 44 countries and has its corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; California, US; and Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Source: finance.yahoo.com
Tesco Terry proves we don't need job quotas - Daily Mail
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A new report into social mobility says companies should be shamed into giving top jobs to children from disadvantaged backgrounds, even when their grades are poorer than better-educated colleagues.
Former Labour minister Alan Milburn, hired by Nick Clegg, says workers should tell bosses if they had free school meals as part of a bid to catapult them up the career ladder.
How absurd and patronising. For proof of that, you need look no further than the former boss of Tesco, Sir Terry Leahy, whose autobiography, Management In 10 Words, was serialised in the Mail this week.
Example: Former CEO of Tesco, Sir Terry Leahy, was born into poverty but through education found enormous success
Leahy and his three brothers were raised in a two-bedroom prefab on a Liverpool council estate. The family was so poor that Terry lived in his school uniform until he was 16.
Yet at home, his parents taught him ‘the importance of manners, education, hard work, common sense and respect for others’. At primary school, he was inspired by his teacher, Mr McCann, to think of life beyond the council estate.
‘He made me realise that if you work hard, you can do as well as anyone else,’ he said. He won a scholarship to Liverpool’s top grammar school, which he says was his ‘salvation’.
Alan Milburn warned in a report that the next generation of young professionals was becoming a 'mirror image' of the privileged elite
Having studied business, he couldn’t find work near his home, but he didn’t give up. He got a job stacking supermarket shelves in South London — and just over 20 years later he was Chief Executive of Tesco. ‘At an early age, I’d learned that if I wanted to achieve something, I had to look to myself,’ he wrote. ‘Self-help, not “please help” was my mantra.’
If only it was the mantra of this Government and its Labour predecessors, which failed to support the two things that helped make Leahy the man he is: a traditional family background and a chance to go to grammar school.
That’s what frees bright children from the cycle of poverty and under-achievement, not parachuting them into jobs they are not equipped for.
Sir Terry Leahy's book 'Management in 10 Words' charts his rags to riches success story
As the Centre for Social Justice reported this week: ‘Poverty is about more than money — family breakdown, debt traps and failing schools blight the lives of our children.’
I’ve met many examples of successful people raised in poverty, but — thanks to loving married parents who supported them and a grammar school education — have reached the top of their professions.
Nothing would insult them more than to think they got their jobs because of state-imposed social engineering. They want to be rewarded on merit, not charity. They believe it’s not where you come from that counts, but where you’re going.
Alas, with this shambolic Coalition in charge, the poorest and most deserving are going nowhere.
David Beckham arrives home in Britain from LA and whisks his mother off to their local pie and mash shop. No sign of the jellied eel, though. Or, as David calls her, ‘Victoria’. Too Posh for pies, perhaps?
Good son: David Beckham took his mother to a traditional pie and mash shop for lunch
Footing the bill, Ulrika?
Desperate to renew her wedding vows with her third husband Brian, Ulrika Jonsson said she wanted an intimate affair — just family. That’s clearly why she sold pictures of the private occasion to Hello! across nine pages.
In the accompanying interview, she plugs the resort, her dress designer, her husband’s outfit designer and the jeweller who made the ring.
Ulrika decided they’d all go barefoot. No doubt they couldn’t they find anyone to give them free shoes.
Raunchy: Kylie Minogue claims she is 'quite reserved'
After 25 years in showbiz, Kylie Minogue says she’s misunderstood. ‘Deep down I am quite reserved,’ she reveals. A word in your ear, Kylie: Shy girls tend not to wear a cobweb for a dress at the age of 44 to promote their latest single.
Fresh from winning best actress for her role as Princess Fiona in the musical version of Shrek, Amanda Holden says she’d love to take the lead role in Shakespeare’s Measure For Measure.
‘The problem is I’ll never get cast as her as no one would ever take me seriously as a nun.’
No pet, no one would ever take you seriously as a Shakespearean actress.
Rihanna says she has sexual fantasies about Cheryl Cole doing her housework. ‘I would like to watch her cleaning things on the floor, picking up stuff, bending over.’ Meanwhile, Cheryl, promoting her new single, has confessed that Rihanna is her ‘girl crush’. Enough! At least we can be grateful the truly talented Adele doesn’t need lesbian innuendo to sell her albums.
Former PM Tony Blair accused journalists of a personal vendetta against his wife Cherie when he was in office. ‘Attacks on her went too far, they were wrong,’ he said.
Would this be the same Cherie Blair who got a government spokesman to mislead the Press about the purchase of discounted flats she bought with the help of a convicted conman? The truth is that while her husband was in office, Cherie behaved without dignity, decorum — or common sense.
A committee has decreed that calling people ‘fat’ should be on a par with race hate crimes and punishable with prison sentences.
No problem there, then — we’ll just have to call them greedy and lazy.
Prince William has spoken of his sadness that his mother wasn't able to attend his wedding
Jubilee watch
Speaking of his great sadness that his mother had not been at his wedding, Prince William said she still had ‘the best seat in the house’ at the service.
The same would not be true had Diana been alive for next Tuesday’s Jubilee Thanksgiving service at St Paul’s. Stripped of her HRH title when she divorced, Diana would be seated near the Middletons, if she was lucky, and have to watch her beloved sons walk down the aisle with Camilla, the woman who destroyed her marriage and our future Queen.
That’s the same aisle, of course, that Diana once walked down as a bride. Somehow, I doubt she’ll be smiling down on this occasion.
Perhaps the most hurtful charge against the Queen — and one that she has never been able to answer — is that she was a distant, neglectful mother. So how fitting Prince Charles should use his BBC1 tribute to her last night to put that myth to rest.
He showed movie footage of their childhood holidays revealing happy, giggling children and an adoring mother.
Thank you for setting the record straight, Sir.
It must have been an agonising decision for Amy Winehouse’s parents to put her 2.7 million home up for sale. Her father Mitch said: ‘It’s tough. Amy loved that house. But it’s too much of a financial drain. It’s a wonderful family house, full of love.’ Sadly, that is not true. It was a house full of unlimited booze and drugs, depression, pain and finally death.
Heading for a fall?
Frolicking with her toyboy on the beach, Sharon Stone, 54, has obviously decided it’s not enough to look half her age, she has to act it, too. Kissing and stroking Martin Mica, 27, she even did headstands to please him. Isn’t there something sad about middle-aged women who bend over backwards to hold on to younger lovers? It can only end in tears. Or a slipped disc.
Westminster Noticeboard
Four U-turns in a week from our flip-flop Chancellor George Osborne, but help is at hand. Scientists have discovered a technique that enables rats with broken spines to function again.
Ed Balls says he will fight for same-sex weddings in church. This despite the guarantees given by his government when introducing civil partnerships that they would not force churches to go against their beliefs and allow the marriage of gay couples.
The day the full horror of the Syrian child murders was revealed, William Hague joined Angelina Jolie to watch her movie about the abuse of women in the Bosnian war. Surely our Foreign Secretary’s duty is protecting women and their children in today’s world, not sucking up to actresses flogging their films.
It took David Cameron just 25 minutes to clear Jeremy Hunt over his obscenely close relationship with James Murdoch. That’s 24 minutes longer than the Culture Secretary took to give the BSkyB deal his blessing.
Fighting for her job after claims she fiddled her expenses, the first sighting we have of Baroness Warsi is in a mosque wearing the traditional hijab. A moment of prayer or a stunt from savvy Sayeeda to remind Dave that having parachuted her into Cabinet as the first Muslim female in a British government, she’s unsackable?
To ward off a backbench rebellion, the PM is privately consulting senior Tories over a plan to give voters a referendum on Europe in his next manifesto. Just like he did in his last manifesto — and what became of that promise?
The morning Justice Secretary Ken Clarke announced the retreat on secret courts, he was pictured ‘chillaxing’ — slang for chilling and relaxing — at Trent Bridge. Reclining in his chair, he reminded me of another picture this week — a hedgehog called Roly Poly, who’s grown so porky he can no longer even curl up to protect himself.
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
London 2012: June events calendar and diary - Daily Telegraph
David Nash at Kew, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens; June 9 – April 14 2013
The works of sculptor David Nash will go on display at Kew Gardens this month, with sculptures, installations, drawings and film in place in the open air, garden glasshouses and on-site exhibition spaces. Nash is renowned for his work with wood and the exhibition will see the artist work on a ‘wood quarry’ in Kew, where he will create new pieces for the exhibition using trees from Kew Gardens that have reached the end of their natural life.
Bt Artbox Project, throughout London; June 18 – July 16
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s traditional red telephone box is an icon of British design but this month it gets a temporary revamp from select artists and designers. Keith Tyson, Romero Britto, Zandra Rhodes and Giles Deacon are among those selected to participate in the BT Artbox Project, which will see them decorate a full-size, fibreglass replica of the K6 telephone kiosk, which will then be displayed in different areas of the city.
Codebreaker - Alan Turing's life and legacy, Science Museum; June 21 – June 2013
One hundred years after his birth, Alan Turing is celebrated with a free year-long exhibition at the Science Museum. Examining his life and legacy, the exhibition considers his contribution to computer science – which still holds influence today – and remembers his wartime codebreaking successes. The exhibition will display one of the most comprehensive collections of Turing-related artefacts, including machines he developed and worked on.
BP Portrait Award 2012, National Portrait Gallery; June 21 – September 23
The National Portrait Gallery follows its exceptionally popular Lucian Freud exhibition with the BP Portrait Award. This is the most prestigious portrait competition in the world, with a £25,000 prize going to the work judged to best showcase contemporary portrait-painting technique. Admittance is free.
New London theatre and performing arts openings
London 2012 Festival, throughout London and nationally; June 21 – September 9
The London 2012 Festival is the cultural complement to the London 2012 Olympic Games and the culmination of the four-year Cultural Olympiad. Throughout the capital, and throughout the country, thousands of events will take place to ensure millions of people will have the opportunity to participate in this exceptional summer. Highlights in London include the BT River of Music festival, which will see act including the Scissor Sisters and the Noisettes perform at six separate Thames-side locations, and an enhanced West End LIVE in Trafalgar Square which will this year see the casts from every one of London’s West End musicals perform for free. You can see coverage of the festival as it progresses on our London 2012 Festival portal.
Southbank Centre Summer Festival; June 1 – September 9
The Southbank Centre has another summer’s entertainment sorted with its Festival of the World. With a focus on learning, the event seeks to showcase how art can transform lives with a programme that’s challenging, moving and engaging. Highlights include Bryn Terfel’s four-day celebration of Welsh culture and Unlimited, the largest series of commissions by disabled and deaf artists ever undertaken in the UK.
New London restaurant and bar openings
Chase and Country Tails Terrace, Harvey Nichols; June 4 - July 15
Hopes are high for a good summer and if clement weather does grace us then the Chase and Country Tails Terrace at Fifth Floor Harvey Nichols is going to be popular. Created by Chase Distillery, the terrace’s traditional English-countryside look is inspired by the Herefordshire countryside where the company is based. More a bar space that serves food than a restaurant, the terrace will serve drinks featuring Chase spirits and mini tasting dishes created by Fifth Floor restaurant executive chef Jonas Karlsson.
Beard to Tail pop-up restaurant, 24 Chart Street; June 12-15
Shoreditch cocktail bar Callooh Callay tries its hand at the food trade with the four-day opening of the Beard to Tail pop-up restaurant. The meat-heavy menu is set to feature plenty of hearty, homely dishes with mains priced at £8-£13. The space will accommodate only 35 covers. Annoyingly bookings aren’t taken but you can expect the cocktail list to provide compensation. The pop-up precedes the opening of a permanent Beart to Tail restaurant, currently set for September 2012.
The Cube by Electrolux, Southbank Centre; June 1 – September 30
A Room for London, the boat-shaped, one-bedroom hotel, is perched atop the Queen Elizabeth Hall already; now The Cube by Electrolux plonks itself above the adjacent Royal Festival Hall. A pop-up restaurant sponsored by the appliances manufacturer, it will feature dishes created by Michelin-starred chefs stationed across the British Isles, including Sat Bains, Claude Bosi and Tom Kitchin. Guests who dine here will be served at least five courses with matching wines, and only 18 people will be accommodated at a time. Lunch at the Cube by Electrolux costs £175 per person, while dinner costs £215. Bookings can be made through the website.
Eat London afternoon tea, Wyndham Grand; June 1-30
Chocolatier Damian Allsop newly created Eat London chocolate bars are influenced by London’s cultural diversity (coffee and banana crunch are used for the Brixton bar; ginger, peanut and soy for China Town) and to celebrate their launch the Wyndham Grand London Chelsea Harbour hotel has launched an Eat London afternoon tea for the month. The tea features traditional teatime treats that have again been adapted to represent different parts of the city and costs £28 per person. On June 9, Allsop will be present at the hotel to run a two-hour chocolate masterclass – that costs £40 per person.
Afternoon Rock tea, W London hotel; June 1 onwards
The W London hotel is now serving Afternoon Rock tea, its variant of traditional afternoon tea. Launched to coincide with this summer’s Jubilee and Olympic festivities, the tea celebrates all things British with a menu that’s inspired by great British rock bands. Served on a three-tier stand made from original vinyl records, items served are named after rock albums and songs. London’s Burning, for example, is a chocolate pudding and hazelnut crunch; Cherry Bomb is a chocolate, mascarpone and cherry dessert inspired by The Runaways’ 1976 song.
Other London openings
ZSL London Zoo Lates, London Zoo; June 1 – July 27
From now until the end of July, London Zoo will be open late on Fridays and the venue is offering a packed Zoo Lates programme of events to celebrate. Running from 6pm-10pm the adults-only event will feature live comedy and cabaret performances on site, a silent disco (loud music disturbs the animals) and, of course, the opportunity to observe the hundreds of different animal species resident in the zoo.
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
London launches world's largest 'low-emission zone' - EurActiv.com
The scheme, which begins on 4 February 2008 and will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, will initially apply only to large diesel trucks weighing over 12 tonnes.
Cameras around the zone will check their number plates against a database of vehicles registered as meeting the EU's 'Euro' limits on emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) – two pollutants found in exhaust fumes that are blamed for serious health and environmental problems.
Those exceeding the limits will be fined a daily fee of £200 and risk a further £1,000 fine if they fail to pay up. Truck-drivers from abroad also risk paying the fine unless they register their vehicle in advance and it meets the required standards.
The scheme will be extended to cover buses and coaches in July and to large vans and minibuses in October 2010.
Transport for London (TfL), which is implementing the £49 million project, says it will improve quality of life for Londoners and reduce the number of people suffering from asthma, cardio-vascular disease and other health conditions, cutting healthcare bills by £250 million.
"Levels of particulate matter in many parts of London are way over EU standards […] Air quality is the worst in Britain and among the worst in Europe […] The Mayor has a legal obligation to take steps towards meeting national and European Union air quality objectives which are designed to protect human health," explained the body.
But hauliers say the new rules will be very expensive despite having achieving only a "minimal benefit".
"This scheme achieves very little that would not have been achieved anyway as the result of enhanced EU engine standards. Londoners, and lorry operators, are having to pay an enormous price […] for a trivial improvement in air quality. The biggest pollution from traffic in London comes from cars and the scheme does not apply to them," said Gordon Telling, head of policy for the UK's Freight Transport Association.
70 towns and cities in eight European countries including Norway, the Netherlands and Germany already have or are planning low emission zones. But London's scheme, covering a 1,577-square kilometre zone inhabited by 7.5 million people, will be "the largest in the world by a significant margin", according to TfL.
The implementation will be closely followed at EU level as the Commission is preparing a package of measures aimed at greening transport in Europe's cities (EurActiv 26/09/07). One measure under consideration is the introduction of harmonised rules on urban green zones that would enable local authorities across Europe to implement similar schemes to the one in London, while preventing a fragmented patchwork of different zones and standards.
Source: www.euractiv.com
Lessons from London: cutting carbon emissions without the financial risk - The Guardian
As public sector organisations face a period of unsurpassed austerity, managers are bombarded with directives to not only cut costs and improve efficiency, but to reduce carbon emissions and lower energy consumption at the same time.
In London, mayor Boris Johnson has committed the city to targets that could make it the greenest conurbation in the world, reduce the capital's CO2 emissions and energy consumption by 60% by 2025.
As a significant part of London's CO2 is emitted from public sector buildings, there needs to be a focus on making those buildings more efficient. This will require action from local government – figures estimate that up to 80% of premises belonging to councils, health, and education authorities will still be in use in 2050.
One answer lies with the Greater London Authority's retrofitting scheme, known as RE:FIT, which alone could lead to a reduction of 100,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions by 2015.
The programme works by helping public organisations equip their buildings with energy-saving technology that did not exist when the buildings were first built. Retrofit measures include new building management systems, combined heat and power, photovoltaic solar panels, low-energy lighting and new, efficient boilers.
A pilot exercise applied these tools to 42 buildings currently used by Transport for London, the Metropolitan Police and the London Fire Brigade. This has been followed by work near completion on a further 44 buildings with the London boroughs, universities, hospitals and cultural organisations.
The potential energy and cost savings of retrofitting are substantial: for the organisations that took part in the pilot, the installation of the new technology helped them to identify savings of over 7,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum, generating annual cost savings of more than £1m.
It is anticipated that a total of 100 public sector buildings will have completed or signed up to the programme by May 2012, with 43 organisations already committed to the programme.
The RE:FIT scheme itself places councils at a very low financial risk. Approved energy service companies, which provide the retrofitting work, guarantee that the alterations to these buildings will deliver the agreed reduction in energy over an agreed payback period. This helps transfer the risk from the public into the private sector.
It also gives participants access to specialist skills and support. Financed via £2.67m from the European Investment Bank's ELENA (European Local Energy Assistance) fund, a development unit established to oversee the rapid implementation of the programme – and act as its public face.
This unit provides a single point of expertise and helps participating authorities understand how the scheme can be applied to their assets and provides support during the preparation of tenders and the procurement of suppliers that will help to save them energy. It oversees all projects being undertaken through RE:FIT, reporting back on their overall impact and success so new public sector retrofit schemes can learn from its progress.
This development unit is also responsible for managing the performance of the energy service companies. This is all done at no cost to those taking part.
Plans are underway to retrofit a further 297 buildings in London during the next year, with a target for a total of 600 public buildings to be given an energy-efficiency makeover as part of the programme by 2015. These include town halls, libraries and museums, and could lead to estimated savings of up to £6m on energy bills each year with reductions of 36,000 tonnes of carbon – the equivalent of taking around 60,000 vehicles off London's roads.
• For more information visit paconsulting.com/greeningbusiness
David Rees is head of local government services at PA Consulting Group
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Source: www.guardian.co.uk
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