In the news this morning, there’s no end in sight to Amazon’s investment in the UK, which totals £6.4bn since 2010. Rising demand sees the retailer announce plans to build a new warehouse near Bristol, due to open for business next year. Balfour Beatty swings to a profit in the first half of this year, the first time it has reported a profit in the first half of the year since 2014. Scotland’s largest solar farm has been granted planning permission. No time frame has been given for construction work, but once completed the project could provide power for up to 10,000 homes.
Amazon plans warehouse near Bristol (The Independent/FREE)
Amazon is planning to open a new warehouse near Bristol next year, creating more than 1,000 jobs.
Balfour Beatty swings to profit (The Telegraph/FREE)
Balfour Beatty swung to a pretax profit of £12m in the six months ended 30 June, from a loss of £15m in the year-earlier period, its first H1 profit since 2014.
Solar farm near Elgin get planning permission (The Times/£)
Moray council’s planning committee has given the go-ahead for plans to build Scotland’s largest solar farm.
Cladding combination passes safety test (The Times/£)
Fire safety tests carried out after the Grenfell Tower fire have found that aluminium cladding panels using a limited combustibility filler and with polyisocyanurate or PIR insulation passed and meets current building regulations guidance.
UK unemployment rate at multi-decade low (FT/£)
The UK’s unemployment rate fell to 4.4% in the three months to June, its lowest level in four decades, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed.
Melbourne tops liveability rankings (The Guardian/FREE)
Melbourne topped the list of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s most liveable cities for the seventh year in a row, followed by Vienna and Vancouver, both of which also retained their rankings from the previous year.
