At least £22. 5 billion has already been spent building the london to birmingham section, while over £2 billion has gone towards the second phase on things such as buying up land and property. Labour manchester mayor andy burnham said ditching the manchester link would be a permanent statement to people in the north that they were second class citizens when it came to transport. Lets discuss the pros and cons. Joining me now is Alexandra Hall chen, whos the principal Policy Advisor for sustainability, skills, and employment at the institute of directors. Good morning to you. This has been such a contentious story. Ever since the leaks came out weeks ago about the future for hsz. What weeks ago about the future for hs2. What do you make of this decision on the part of the government . Decision on the part of the government . The key here is about stability government . The key here is about stability and about stability and Policy Making. Any instability in the business environment, i
The dow wiped out the last of its gains made for the year so far. Shares of chinese real estate Giant Evergrande jumped by 28 as trading resumed in hong kong, after being halted last week. We will put up those figures for you as well, and as you can see the debt laden Developers Stock market valuation has fallen by almost 99 since july 2020. We should also point out that it is a penny stock at this stage, just to put those numbers in context as well. Over the last year, it has come to light that the Evergrande Company is the worlds most indebted developer, with liabilities at over 300 billion. But its not alone. Other Smaller Developers have also defaulted on their debts, leaving unfinished building projects across the country. The Chinese Government has announced more support for real estate companies, including encouraging banks to extend the repayment periods on loans. The Property Market accounts for around a quarter of the worlds second largest economy. That is why it is all the m
Brighter with a few showers and it is still going to be worn this weekend. Its wednesday the 4th of october. After weeks of speculation, the Prime Minister is expected to use his leaders speech at the conservative Party Conference to confirm that hes scrapping the second leg of h52 from birmingham to manchester. Labours andy burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, accused the government of treating people in the north as Second Class Citizens, while the West Midlands mayor andy street, a conservative, was said to be distraught. Our Political Correspondent Damian Grammaticas reports from the conference in manchester. Pushing his way through the late night conference crowds, rishi sunak, relaxed and smiling. He has, it seems, made his mind up. Its the end of h52 to manchester. This was what the pm was saying 2a hours ago. What i want to do is make the right decision for the country. This is an enormous amount of peoples money, taxpayers money, everybody watching, billions and billions
And for that, the laws of the country are there to guide us, help us and enable us to do the right thing, and thats what were going to do. Doing the right thing really means a priority for you is to ensure that the elections in january for the National Assembly are free and fair. How confident are you that they will be . Im pretty much confident that theyre going to be free and fair. Whatever the objective tests are by any International Observer or International Media or domestic media or domestic observers those indicators which does determine any sort of transparent and independent elections in that region im pretty much confident that were going to acquire and achieve that. But, look, i have to put it to you that youve got the very popular Opposition Politician of the pti the Pakistan Tehreek E Insaf party, Imran Khan In Prison on Corruption Charges that he denies. Youve also got the expected return in october of another very popular politician, nawaz sharif, three times premier in