| How to fill empty stadiums With TV coverage showing Commonwealth Games athletes performing in front of near-empty stadia, how do you attract a crowd? bbc.co.uk |
Britain Opens Inquest Into 2005 London Attacks The inquest into the suicide bombings that killed 52 people began on Monday after more than five years of delay. nytimes.com |
Severn barrage plan likely to be sunk Government expected tomorrow to refuse to back controversial £21bn tidal energy project with public financePlans for the world's biggest tidal energy project, spanning the Severn estuary between Somerset and Wales, are likely to be dashed tomorrow when the government announces its refusal to back the controversial £21bn project with public finance.The 10-mile-long scheme, which the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) believes could provide 8.6GW of renewable electricity - equivalent to 5% of the UK's needs and two or three nuclear power stations - has long proved controversial. Engineers first proposed plans for a barrage across the Severn in the 1930s. The scheme has divided environmentalists, some of whom say it would destroy an internationally important marsh and mudflat habitat, increase local flooding and reduce fish stocks.The department will publish its decision on whether or not to back the project tomorrow morning, but sources close to the process have told the Guardian they cannot conceive of the government backing it with public finance at a time when it is focused on cutting the budget deficit. The department's own documents state that the Cardiff-Weston barrage could not be built without government funding. The financing and ownership options report, published in December 2008, says: "A larger scheme would not be constructed without public sector intervention [because] the private sector would not have the capacity to finance or build the scheme without government support."Jonathon Porritt oversaw a 2007 report that backed the giant barrage while he was chair of the government advisory body, the Sustainable Development Commission, which was itself abolished last week. Last night he said: "If the government is not prepared to find any mechanism to put public funds into the pot, it will die.."It's a good way to generate a lot of clean energy," he said. "If it is a choice between a [large] barrage on the Severn and two nuclear power stations, then it is clear to me which is better - it is the barrage."Last month, the Observer revealed the large barrage was unlikely to go ahead and that ministers were expected to recommend that further feasibility studies be carried out on one of four much smaller projects, which would cost about £3bn and have a capacity between 0.6GW and 1.4GW. But ministers are not expected to give any guarantee that the selected option will go ahead. "It will make pretty depressing reading," according to a source who had seen the report.The four smaller options include two shorter barrages further upstream from the Cardiff-Weston barrage, and two lagoon proposals, which capture water in an artificial lake and do not block the entire estuary.• Shoots barrage: would generate about 1GW, equivalent to a large fossil fuel plant.• Beachley barrage: further upstream again, just above the Wye river, would generate about 0.6GW.• Bridgewater Bay lagoon: would impound a section of the estuary on the coast between east of Hinkley Point and Weston-super-Mare, would generate 1.36GW.• Fleming lagoon: a similar scheme which would generate the same power from a section of the Welsh shore between Newport and the Severn road crossings.Roger Hull, spokesman for the Severn Tidal Power Group, a consortium of engineering and construction companies that has supported plans for Severn tidal projects for over 20 years, said that even these smaller-scale projects would require considerable government funding. "The renewable energy available from the tides in the Severn estuary are enormous and we as a nation should be making use of them," he said.The government is committed to generating 20% of the UK's energy from renewable sources by 2020 in order to cut the nation's greenhouse gas emissions and limit the impact of climate change. Days after becoming prime minister, David Cameron said he wanted his government to be the "greenest ever"; ruling out the largest Severn barrage would mean that more of the other low-carbon sources of energy, such as wind, solar and nuclear, will have to be developed.Nik Shelton, of the RSPB, which opposes the Cardiff-Weston barrage, said: "We want the Cardiff-Weston barrage turned down for ecological reasons, not economic ones, as the latter leaves the door open for this destructive scheme to be resurrected at a later date."Steph Merry, head of marine renewables at the Renewable Energy Association, said last year that only the giant barrage made sense. "You need something that is a large-scale project on the same scale as a power station in order to meet the renewables targets. The Severn barrage, or something similar, is the only way of achieving that. It's much bigger than any other marine renewable or solar or wind."The 2007 SDC report controversially suggested the wetlands lost under a Cardiff-Weston barrage could be compensated for by the sacrifice of low-grade farmland in East Anglia, Wales and elsewhere, which was already proving impractical to defend against sea level rises. It also argued the large barrage could provide a much-needed additional river crossing.Wave, tidal and hydropowerRenewable energyEnergyEnergy industryDamian Carringtonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
League approves Portsmouth sale Portsmouth are sold to Balram Chainrai, Levi Kushnir and Deepak Chainrai after a deal is struck to allow the club to exit administration. news.bbc.co.uk |
Co-operative Group considers sale of life assurance business Co-op Group appoints Deutsche Bank as advisor on review of its insurance arm, which has policies worth around £18bnThe Co-operative Group is considering the sale of its life assurance business, which has nearly three million customers in the UK, with policies worth around £18bn.The diverse group, whose interests range from supermarkets to banking, has appointed Deutsche Bank as an advisor on a strategic review of the insurance arm. It is understood the mutually owned group has received a number of expressions of interest since issuing an information memorandum, with would-be bidders including Resolution and Phoenix, the investment firms keen to consolidate the insurance industry. However, the Co-op has not entered into serious sale talks and has not ruled our retaining the unit.The insurance arm is housed within Co-operative Financial Services, which was created by a merger with the Britannia building society last year to form a business that now offers current accounts, mortgages, pensions and life insurance.The financial services business saw profits rise by 50% to top £75m in the first half of the year, but the figures were accompanied with a downbeat economic forecast from the group's chief executive. Peter Marks said conditions would not improve until 2011 "at the earliest". Co-op's travel arm has been the hardest hit, with profits falling by more than two-thirds to £400,000 in the first half following the volcanic eruption in Iceland. Group-wide pre-tax profits fell by 30% to £169.2m.Co-op has launched the review of its insurance business at a time when the insurance industry is a regular subject of takeover speculation. The Royal Bank of Scotland has begun vetting potential advisers over the potential sale of Direct Line, while RSA has bid for Aviva's UK, Irish and Canadian general insurance operations and Prudential scrapped a $35.5bn (£22.6bn) acquisition of AIA in Asia.The group has made some aggressive corporate moves in recent years, led by the Britannia merger and the £1.6bn takeover of Somerfield, a move that reinforced the Co-op's position as the UK's fifth largest grocery retailer with 3,000 stores in £7bn in annual sales. Although the newly acquired stores have missed sales targets, the group has countered criticism of the deal by boosting profits through accelerating cost cuts.Earlier this month Co-op merged its travel and foreign exchange business with Thomas Cook as the under-performing division was hit by weak consumer sentiment and tough competition as rivals scrambled to woo holidaymakers with cheap deals.Co-operative GroupInsurance industryBankingMergers and acquisitionsPrudentialDan Milmoguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |