The Skanska Costain STRABAG Joint Venture (JV), working for Britain’s HS2 project, this month released details of their new 30-acre logistics hub. The site, partly developed by Skanska (a BSCC Patron member), will be used to help dispose of the 5.6 million tonnes of earth which will be excavated in the process of construction for 26 miles of new London tunnels for HS2. After the waste has been processed at ...
Read More
Conservative Party Conference Britain’s largest party, which has now been in government continuously since 2010, is currently holding their ‘annual conference’ in Manchester. The Conservative Party has adopted the new slogan of ‘Build Back Better’ (following on from ‘Get Brexit Done’, prior to 2021) but has been trialling out ‘Getting on with the Job’ over the course of the week-long conference. One of the key plans outlined to the party’s membership, ...
Read More
After nearly a year and a half of working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic, employees are finally starting to return to the workplace. From 29 September, there is no longer any recommendation from The Swedish Public Health Agency that employees should work from home. In the UK, government guidance that employees should work from home was lifted in July (August in Scotland) but employers were recommended to facilitate a ...
Read More
Vattenfall, a BSCC Patron member, has decided to further increase its emission reduction targets for 2030 and beyond. The aim is to reach net zero by 2040 in a bid to help keep global warming at a maximum increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius and has been approved by the SBTi. Vattenfall’s CEO and President, Anna Borg, described this step as delivering “fossil free living within one generation” and that the ...
Read More
Labour Party Conference Britain’s second largest political party, the Labour Party, is currently hosting their annual conference which decides upon the party’s platform and policy positions for the year through daily votes. The event has been running in Brighton since Saturday (25th September) and will conclude this Wednesday (29th September). Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, is working to shift the party closer to the political centre following their disappointing election ...
Read More
UK Holiday Bookings Rise Britain’s largest airline, IAG, saw it’s share price rise 10.73% on Monday (20th September) following the government announcement that the US will be easing its COVID travel restrictions to passengers from the UK and EU. All UK and EU travellers will need to evidence their double vaccinations alongside further proof of a negative COVID test taken within three days of the flights. PM Johnson announced his delight ...
Read More
Stockholm houses up 21.6% Stockholm apartments up 11.7% Stockholm city centre 104,000 kr/m² London average house cost: £500,000 London private property up 3.7% Vacancies on Objetkvision up by 10% 44% in Stockholm wish to reduce their m² per worker Commercial vacancies up by one percentage point in the UK Vacancies double what they were before Covid-19, higher than Q4 2009 Private Property During the past year there has been a significant ...
Read More
UK Tax Increases Last week PM Johnson outlined a new 1.25% health and social care tax to help contribute towards reforms in the named sectors. The policy is anticipated to raise an extra £12bn per year for the Government and has a specific focus upon reducing the backlog of NHS appointments pent up during the pandemic. An obstacle faced by the PM was that raising taxes went against one of his ...
Read More
Supply Chain Delays Freight delays are hampering the global economic recovery and the UK has the additional hurdle of Brexit changes to mitigate. The logistical challenges faced are further exasperated by the rise in demand which has widened the gap between output and orders to a 24-year high. Iconic Swedish brand IKEA revealed supply struggles on around 1,000 product lines to UK customers with blame placed on Brexit and the shortage ...
Read More
The British-Swedish Chamber of Commerce is delighted to share that Mikaela Kumlin Granit arrived this week in London in her new role, having been appointed in April, as the Ambassador of Sweden to the United Kingdom. This comes as Torbjörn Sohlström steps down from the role following five successful years in the position and will now return to Stockholm to work with the Swedish Foreign Ministry. Mikaela Kumlin Granit grew up ...
Read More