Business
Building of three new towns will start before election, Labour pledges
The construction of three new towns will begin before the next general election, Labour has pledged.
A taskforce has recommended 12 locations in England for development, with three areas – Tempsford in Bedfordshire, Leeds South Bank, and Crews Hill in north London – identified as the most promising sites.
Housing Secretary Steve Reed is expected to announce the plans in a speech on the opening day of Labour’s annual party conference.
Labour has put housebuilding at the centre of its vision of how to get the economy growing, promising to build 1.5 million new homes by 2029.
Tempsford is home to 600 people and currently has around 300 houses. Its parish council chairman David Sutton said residents had been kept in the dark about the potential plans, including how many new homes could be built.
“The biggest problem we’ve got at the moment is that even today, as an announcement’s being made, we’ve been given no idea whatsoever of the scale of what we’re being asked to live amongst,” he told the PA news agency.
“Nobody’s come to talk to us at all.”
The promise of a “new generation of new towns” was included in Labour’s election manifesto last year.
The 12 proposed developments range from large-scale standalone new communities, to expansions of existing towns and regeneration schemes within cities.
Sites in Cheshire, South Gloucestershire, East Devon, Plymouth and Manchester are among those which have been recommended for development.
The chosen sites will be subject to environmental assessments and consultation, with the government confirming the final locations and funding next spring.
Labour said each new town would have at least 10,000 homes and they could collectively result in 300,000 homes being built across England over the coming decades.
The government has welcomed a recommendation from the New Towns Taskforce that at least 40% of these new homes should be classed as affordable housing.
A New Towns Unit will be tasked with bringing in millions of pounds of public and private sector funding to invest in GP surgeries, schools, green spaces, libraries and transport for the new developments.
The taskforce has recommended new towns are delivered by development corporations, which could have special planning powers to compulsory purchase land, invest in local services, and grant planning permission.
This follows the model of the regeneration of Stratford in east London during and after the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “For so many families, homeownership is a distant dream.
“My Labour government will sweep aside the blockers to get homes built, building the next generation of new towns.”
In his speech, the housing secretary will promise to “build baby build”, while “taking lessons from the post-war Labour government housing boom”.
“This party built new towns after the war to meet our promise of homes fit for heroes. Now, with the worst economic inheritance since that war, we will once again build cutting-edge communities to provide homes fit for families of all shapes and sizes,” Reed is expected to say.
After World War Two Clement Attlee’s government planned the first wave of new towns, including in Stevenage, Crawley and Welwyn Garden City, to relocate people from poor or bombed-out housing, with development corporations assigned responsibility for building them.
The announcement comes as Labour members gather in Liverpool for the party’s annual conference.
It will be Reed’s first major speech since he took over from Angela Rayner as housing secretary, after she resigned for failing to pay enough tax on a flat purchase.
It has been a bruising few weeks for Sir Keir, who is facing questions over his leadership and the direction of his party.
With Labour trailing behind Reform UK in the polls, the prime minister has stepped up his attacks on Nigel Farage’s party.
Arriving in Liverpool on Saturday, he warned Reform would “tear this country apart” and said the conference would be an opportunity to set out his alternative to the “toxic divide and decline” offered by the party.
Kayla Epsteinand
Osmond Chia
Getty ImagesUS President Donald Trump has said Venezuela “will be turning over” up to 50m barrels of oil to the US, after a surprise military operation that removed President Nicolás Maduro from power.
The oil will be sold at its market price, Trump posted on social media, adding that the money would be controlled by himself and used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the US.
His comments come after he said the US oil industry would be “up and running” in Venezuela within 18 months and that he expected huge investments to pour into the country.
Analysts previously told the BBC it could take tens of billions of dollars, and potentially a decade, to restore Venezuela’s former output.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday: “I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America.
“This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!”
His comment came a day after Delcy Rodríguez, formerly Venezuela’s vice-president, was sworn in as its interim president. Maduro has been brought to the US to face drug-trafficking and weapons charges.
On Monday the US president told NBC News: “Having a Venezuela that’s an oil producer is good for the United States because it keeps the price of oil down.”
Representatives from major US petroleum companies planned to meet the Trump administration this week, the BBC’s US partner CBS reported.
Analysts who previously spoke to the BBC were sceptical that Trump’s plans would have a major impact on the global supply – and therefore price – of oil.
They suggested that firms would look for reassurance that a stable government was in place, and even when they did invest, their projects would not deliver for years.
Trump has argued in recent days that American oil companies can fix Venezuela’s oil infrastructure.
The country has an estimated 303bn barrels – the world’s largest proven reserve – but its oil production has been in decline since the early 2000s.
The Trump administration sees significant potential for its own energy prospects in Venezuela’s reserves.
Increasing the country’s production of oil would be expensive for US firms.
Venezuelan oil is also heavy and more difficult to refine. There is only one US firm, Chevron, currently operating in the country.
Asked for comment about Trump’s plans for US oil production in Venezuela, Chevron spokesman Bill Turenne said the company “remains focused on the safety and wellbeing of our employees, as well as the integrity of our assets”.
“We continue to operate in full compliance with all relevant laws and regulations,” Turenne added.
ConocoPhillips, a major US oil company that no longer has a presence in Venezuela, “is monitoring developments in Venezuela and their potential implications for global energy supply and stability”, said spokesman Dennis Nuss.
“It would be premature to speculate on any future business activities or investments,” Nuss said.
A third company, Exxon, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
While justifying the seizure of Maduro from Caracas, Trump also claimed that Venezuela “unilaterally seized and stole American oil”.
Vice-President JD Vance echoed those claims on X after Maduro was taken, writing that “Venezuela expropriated American oil property and until recently used that stolen property to get rich and fund their narcoterrorist activities”.
The reality is more complex.
US oil companies have a long history in Venezuela, extracting oil under licence agreements.
Venezuela nationalised its oil industry in 1976 and in 2007, President Hugo Chavez exerted more state control over the remaining foreign-owned assets of US oil firms operating in the country.
In 2019, a World Bank tribunal ordered Venezuela to pay $8.7 billion to ConocoPhillips in compensation for this 2007 move.
That sum has not been paid by Venezuela, so at least one US oil company has outstanding compensation which is owed to it.
But BBC Verify’s Ben Chu said the claim Venezuela has “stolen” American oil is too simplistic, as experts said the oil itself was never actually owned by anyone except Venezuela.
Sainsbury’s has announced it is launching a new graduate programme focused on developing skills in artificial intelligence.
The FutureMaker programme, which will take on nearly 50 graduates in the firm’s store support centre, will last for two years and aims to help graduates develop critical digital and artificial intelligence (AI) skills, which the retailer views as vital for supporting future business growth.
The decision to focus the new graduate programme on digital and AI skills was informed by “extensive research” into the future needs of the business, the company said.
Graduates on the scheme will also develop skills in areas including data and analytics, as well as business decision-making.
It comes after warnings earlier this year that UK graduates were facing the toughest job market in years, according to job search site Indeed.
The number of roles advertised for graduates was down 33% on the previous year, its lowest level in seven years.
By focusing its programme on these skills, Sainsbury’s hopes to open more accessible pathways for graduates, improving their digital confidence by demystifying AI and machine learning and enabling more responsible use of these tools.
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “As a proud people-first business, our colleagues are at the heart of everything we do.
“We’re committed to investing in early careers and have spent time identifying the skills our future leaders will need to help us build a sustainable retail talent pipeline.”
In 2024, the retailer announced a partnership with Microsoft to enhance customer and colleague experience with AI, including “upskilling programmes for Sainsbury’s colleagues, helping them learn and grow in the new AI-driven economy”.
Clodagh Moriarty, Sainsbury’s chief retail and technology officer, said of the partnership at the time: “It’s one of the key ways we’re investing in transforming our capabilities over the next three years, enabling us to take another big leap forward in efficiency and productivity.”
But the supermarket stressed that the new graduate programme was not specifically connected to that partnership.
Applications for the graduate scheme open on January 9.
Over the past two years, Sainsbury’s has announced two rounds of job cuts, axing 1,500 jobs in February 2024 and 3,000 jobs in January 2025, as part of plans to simplify its business and cut £1 billion in costs in a challenging economic environment.
Part of its overhaul has also included increasing investment in automation and AI.
CCI has invoked section 48 of the law, which extends liability to senior executives in charge of company operations. Under this provision, individuals can be held personally accountable and face penalties of up to 10% of their average income over the last three financial years if the violations are proven.Last week, TOI had sent questionnaires to several companies that are under probe but they did not respond to the queries.Based on the investigation by its director general (DG) investigation, the CCI issued an order to the 31 steel companies named in the probe. The firms were directed to submit their audited financial statements, including balance sheets, income and expenditure accounts and profit & loss accounts, for the period from 2015-16 to 2022-23. They have also been asked to provide certified details of turnover linked to the alleged violations, this information is usually used to assess potential penalties, if any.
Sources: WR Tate leaving Buckeyes for NFL draft
Fabletics launches first athlete-curated collection with Ja’Marr Chase
Browns in reset mode: Here’s what we know after ouster of Kevin Stefanski
-
Entertainment1 week agoGeorge Clooney, his wife Amal and their twins granted French citizenship
-
Sports1 week agoMorocco reach AFCON last 16 | The Express Tribune
-
Entertainment1 week agoBondi shooting families demand national probe into Australia’s ‘rise in antisemitism’
-
Politics1 week agoThree Turkish police officers, six Daesh militants killed in clash, amid national crackdown
-
Entertainment1 week agoPSX hits record high on UAE rollover optimism
-
Business1 week agoA major drop in the prices of petroleum products is likely with the arrival of the New Year. – SUCH TV
-
Entertainment1 week agoBeyoncé is now a billionaire, according to Forbes
-
Tech1 week agoTop Home Chef Promo Codes This Month