£3.4billion electricity ‘superhighway’ between Scotland and England will go ahead after Ofgem’s approval
A £3.4BILLION electricity “superhighway” between Scotland and England will go ahead after receiving regulator Ofgem’s approval.
The 311-mile link from Aberdeenshire to North Yorkshire is the biggest single investment for power transmission infrastructure in Britain.
And the cables, mostly undersea, will carry enough renewable energy to power two million homes.
They will run from Peterhead in Aberdeenshire to Drax in North Yorkshire and be able to carry electricity in both directions.
However, it is likely that most will travel from Scottish wind farms to England. The link is a joint venture between Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks and National Grid.
Ofgem fast-tracked its approval as the link is part of major plans to turn Britain’s electricity network green by the end of the decade.
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Jonathan Brearley, boss of the energy watchdog, said: “Ofgem is fully committed to supporting the Government to meet its aims of getting clean power by 2030.
“Today’s announcement is a further step in putting the regulatory systems and processes in place to speed up network regulation.”
The link will be needed to move renewable energy around the grid on days when demand is high or the wind does not blow.
Construction will begin later this year and it is set to be ready to use by 2029.
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The regulator also gave a tentative thumbs-up to a £295million funding package for a set of upgrades to the grid in Yorkshire.
Separately, the Electricity System Operator has announced plans to connect wind power from the Celtic Sea, off the southern coast of Ireland, to grids in South Wales and South-West England.
ESO’s Julian Leslie said offshore wind was “vital” to achieving the target of clean power by 2030.
3K HOME SELL-OFF
AMERICAN investment giant Blackstone has sold 3,000 homes worth a total of £405million to Britain’s biggest pension fund, Universities Superannuation Scheme.
The Liverpool-based USS has more than 400,000 members, mainly former and current university lecturers and staff, and manages funds of around £90billion.
The sale is one of the biggest in the UK housing sector so far this year.
£800m BID TO BOOST INTERNET
HUNDREDS of thousands of rural homes and businesses with poor internet connections will get a broadband boost through a new £800million investment.
Around 312,000 premises in remote areas across Britain will get access to massive gigabit-capable broadband.
The move is part of the Government’s ongoing Project Gigabit — started by the Tories — in a bid to modernise internet infrastructure.
It aims to make the lightning-fast broadband accessible to the whole of the UK by 2030.
Tech Secretary Peter Kyle said: “The UK’s broadband roll-out has not happened fast enough and has overlooked too many areas, especially in Scotland and Wales.”
The latest phase will include rural areas of Wales for the first time. A £288million deal has been signed with telecoms firm OpenReach to connect nearly 97,000 homes and businesses, with more to come.
PRICES UP AGAIN
SUPERMARKET price inflation has climbed for the first time in over a year and half.
Prices rose by 1.8 per cent in July compared to last year, the first time grocery inflation has risen rather than fallen since March 2023.
They climbed across 182 products while 89 fell. Analysts Kantar said the increase follows 17 months of rate falls from the 17.5 per cent high.
Air fare and hotel price rises will raise the inflation rate for the first time in 2024 today — to 2.3 per cent — Pantheon Macroeconomics said.
BELLWAY AXE CREST TAKEOVER
A MEGA merger between two housebuilders is off — after Bellway walked away from its potential £720million takeover of rival Crest Nicholson.
Newcastle-based Bellway bid again for Crest last month after two past approaches had been knocked back.
But after talks between the two companies, during which Crest said it was “minded” to accept the 273p per share offer, Bellway decided not to put a firm offer on the table.
Bellway made no explanation for its withdrawal from the potential tie-up.
It said that it “remains confident that its robust balance sheet and operational strength, combined with the depth and quality of its land bank, will enable Bellway to deliver volume growth in the years ahead”.
Crest said it is still optimistic on its own “stand alone prospects” going forward.
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Crest had last month rejected a potential merger deal from rival housing developer Avant Homes — which is owned by New York hedge fund Elliott.
Earlier this year, two of Britain’s biggest housebuilders — Barratt Developments and Redrow — agreed to a tie-up worth £2.5billion, which was claimed would accelerate housebuilding in the UK.
AMAZON HIRING
ONLINE giant Amazon wants to hire more than 2,000 extra workers for its major new warehouse base in Leeds.
HR and IT professionals, health & safety workers and finance personnel are all being sought — as well as employees to pick, pack and ship out customer orders. It is the company’s 31st so-called fulfilment centre in the UK, and is less than ten miles from the Wakefield site which opened in October 2022.
The firm’s Richard Thompson said: “West Yorkshire’s an important region for Amazon.”