Closing summary
Time to recap…
A fire at an electrical substation which led to the closure of Heathrow Airport last week is no longer being treated as a “potentially criminal matter”.
The Metropolitan Police said:
Following enquiries to date, officers have found no evidence to suggest that the incident was suspicious in nature.
As such, we are no longer treating this as a potentially criminal matter, although we continue to support other partners, including colleagues from National Grid, London Fire Brigade and SSEN, with whom we remain in close contact.
The UK government has approved a £9bn road tunnel between Kent and Essex called the Lower Thames Crossing, ending years of delay.
The move has been welcomed by business groups, who say it will improve connectivity, but criticised by opponents who say it will increase carbon emissions and not lower congestion.
British retailers have reported the sharpest drop in sales volumes in eight months in March, in a sign that consumers are cutting back.
Tesla’s car sales in Europe have fallen by over 40% so far this year.
Shell has been criticised after its CEO’s pay jumped to £8.6m last year.
Earlier today, energy minister Michael Shanks heaped pressure onto Heathrow over its response to the fire, suggesting there was “significant redundancy” built into the energy infrastructure surrounding the airport.
Shanks told MPs (via the FT):
“The local network operator and National Grid were able . . . to find a workaround to connect all households within a matter of hours.
We need to look at the resilience of the outside network connecting into Heathrow, but the private network within Heathrow is what they need to review.”
