Five stories you might have missed this week in Peterborough
Major retailer plans expansion
Up to 50 new jobs would be created if plans to extend a Marks & Spencer store get approved.Peterborough City Council has received an application to build on land separating the existing branch and Tapi Carpets at Brotherhood Shopping Park.The proposed development comes a year after M&S shut its Queensgate store after nearly 60 years in the city centre.
While former store site to be sold
Elsewhere, the council said it hoped the former TK Maxx building on Bridge Street could be turned into a mixed residential and commercial development.Peterborough City Council's cabinet members agreed to sell the building at a meeting on 15 July, as it was "no longer economically viable".It was bought by the local authority for £4.1m in 2020 with the aim of using it for a £15m community hub project known as The Vine.But a feasibility commissioned by Tetra Tech in July 2022 said the cost of the necessary works was about £10.8m, making the project no longer viable.
'Game-changing' rail investment
New locomotives that run on electricity and renewable fuels could reduce rail freight emissions by more than half on a typical journey.A £150m investment was made into Class 99 locomotives, which were unveiled in Peterborough at GB Railfreight (GBRf) headquarters on Thursday.Once testing was complete, the new fleet could enter commercial service to move consumable goods and materials across the country this winter. Andrew Pakes, the MP for Peterborough, said it was a "game changer for our city and the national effort to build a greener, more sustainable future".
Ancient site 'heartened' after arson attack
The boss of an ancient site where a thatched roundhouse replica was razed to the ground by suspected arsonists said she had been "heartened" by the support of the community.Fire crews were called to Peterborough's Flag Fen Archaeology Park, which dates back to the Bronze Age, on Sunday night after local people saw flames.In 2022, 30 volunteers had spent nine months building the Iron Age roundhouse and a fundraising appeal has now been launched to replace it."We're all absolutely devastated at the loss of the roundhouse - so many of our team took part in building it and using it every single day - it was a much-loved thing," said site manager Jacqueline Mooney.
Teens go bonkers for bingo
Two teenagers proclaimed that "bingo was not just for older people", as they turned their hand to the game in the last bingo centre in the county.Lucy Lonnen and Alesksa Svencika, both 18, said they always wanted to play bingo when they legally could and visited the Buzz Bingo hall in Peterborough.The site has become Cambridgeshire's last dedicated bingo centre following the closure of Winners Bingo in Wisbech.The National Bingo Game Association said a combination of the Covid pandemic, energy prices and the impact of the recent Budget on employment costs had "made it difficult for smaller independent bingo clubs to survive".But Dan Shuttleworth, the manager of Buzz Bingo, said the game was "evolving" and would "survive long into the future".
The week in politics
This week we found out auditors said there was a "significant" risk Peterborough City Council may not be repaid a loan it gave to a developer to build the Hilton Hotel.The authority borrowed the money from the government in 2017 and the hotel is still not finished. The situation will be discussed at a council meeting on Monday.Meanwhile, the future of £1 bus fares for under-25s is also up for discussion. The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority board, which involves the mayor and council leaders, is meeting on 22 July to discuss keeping bus fares reduced for young adults and children. Papers published this week said the authority wanted to keep the cheap fares for under-25s - but it could come at a price for other bus users. There were proposals to end the £2.50 fare cap for all bus users in September.Combined Authority Mayor Paul Bristow has proposed to keep funding a rural bus route from Ramsey to Peterborough, via Whittlesey. However, it would come at the cost of other routes in the south of Cambridgeshire. It will be discussed at the same meeting as the £1 bus fares.
The week in sport
This week, Peterborough United beat Peterborough Sports 8-1 in a pre-season friendly.Posh were 4-1 up at half time after a hat-trick from Bradley Ihionvien and a goal from Abraham Odoh.Max Booth scored the only goal for the Turbines.The second half saw goals for Harley Mills, Kyrell Lisbie and a brace from Gustav Lindgren.
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Arm to develop own chips; stock falls as outlook disappoints
July 30 (Reuters) - Chip architecture provider Arm Holdings is investing in developing its own chips, CEO Rene Haas said on Wednesday, marking a major shift to its model of licensing its blueprints to other companies. Arm also issued quarterly forecasts that failed to satisfy investors who have sent the company's stock surging in recent months on expectations it will become a key player in artificial intelligence. Arm shares slumped around 8% in extended trading on Wednesday. The plan to invest more heavily in developing its own chips marks a departure from Arm's long-time business of supplying intellectual property to companies ranging from Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab to (AMZN.O), opens new tab, which already design their own chips. Finished chips are the "physical embodiment" of a product Arm already sells called Compute Sub Systems (CSS), Haas said. "We are consciously deciding to invest more heavily — is the possibility of going beyond (designs) and building something, building chiplets or even possible solutions," Haas said in an interview with Reuters. Chiplets are smaller, modular versions of a larger chip. Chiplets perform specific functions, and designers will stitch several together to form a complete processor. To build up the necessary staff to make chiplets and other finished chips, Arm has been recruiting from its customers and competing against them for deals, Reuters has reported. Haas declined to provide a timeframe in which the company's investments in the new strategy would translate into profit, or give specifics about potential new products that are part of the initiative. But, Haas said that Arm would look at chiplets, "a physical chip, a board, a system, all of the above." In recent months, chip companies have begun to focus more effort on building the necessary server hardware, or server rack, around a chip. Nvidia sells its NV72 rack systems, and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O), opens new tab acquired server builder ZT Systems to build system-level products. This expansion of its business could put Arm in competition with some of its customers, who design finished chips and chiplets for their own products. The company forecast second-quarter profit slightly below estimates on Wednesday, as global trade tensions threaten to hit demand for Arm in its mainstay smartphone market. The company's chip technology powers nearly every smartphone in the world, and its tame forecast underscores uncertainty faced by global manufacturers and their suppliers resulting from U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policies. UK-based Arm forecast adjusted per-share profit between 29 cents and 37 cents for the fiscal second quarter, the midpoint of which is below analysts' average estimate of 36 cents per share, according to LSEG data. The company generates revenue through licensing deals for its intellectual property and a royalty charged for each chip sold that uses its technology. Smartphones remain Arm's biggest stronghold. Morningstar analysts expect Arm to continue as the dominant architecture provider in smartphone processors, where it has a 99% market share. Global trade tensions, however, cloud the outlook for the market. Uncertainty fueled by tariff volatility and ongoing macroeconomic challenges has tapered end-market demand, with global smartphone shipments increasing just 1% in the April-to-June period, according to International Data Corporation. The company expects current-quarter revenue between $1.01 billion and $1.11 billion, in line with estimates of $1.06 billion. The company reported first-quarter sales of $1.05 billion, coming in just shy of estimates of $1.06 billion. Adjusted profit of 35 cents per share was in line with estimates. It has also made attempts to diversify into the booming data center market, where customers such as Amazon's (AMZN.O), opens new tab cloud unit use its technology.
The Sun
2 minutes ago
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I've made £200k in over a year from a side hustle & I even get the summer holidays off to have fun with my kids
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Aston Martin's 24-hour scramble to get lower US tariffs pays off
Aston Martin scrambled to deliver three months' worth of cars to dealers in the US within 24 hours as it rushed to qualify for lower tariffs that came into effect on 30 June. By invoicing the whole quarter's cars on that same day it avoided having to report a sales slump that might have alarmed investors. The operation may not have matched the drama of the James Bond films that have long featured the brand, but it 'was quite exciting, to put it mildly', said Adrian Hallmark, Aston Martin's chief executive. Donald Trump has shaken the global economy with a trade war, causing a particular stir in the car industry with his imposition of a 25% tariff on 3 April on top of an existing 2.5% levy. Germany's Mercedes-Benz said on Wednesday Trump's border taxes would cost it about €360m (£311m) this year, while the sportscar-maker Porsche said it had taken a €400m hit from the levies in the first half of the year. However, in early May, the US president and Keir Starmer agreed a deal to limit tariffs on 100,000 British-made cars per year to 10%. That rate came into force at one minute past midnight on 30 June, the final day of the second financial quarter. Aston Martin Lagonda manufactures all its cars in factories in Gaydon, Warwickshire, and St Athan, south Wales. It shipped 328 cars to dealers in the Americas between April and June but the majority were sent on 30 June. It was a 'mammoth task', Hallmark said. 'This left us with 24 hours to invoice the entire quarter's-worth of vehicle sales in the US.' The one-day scramble illustrates the tariff turmoil causing headaches for goods exporters around the world. Aston Martin revealed that it had raised prices for US customers by 3% to absorb some of the hit from the border taxes. Getting the cars to dealers early would have meant a big financial blow from absorbing the higher tariff rate, while late arrivals that missed the quarter-end would have meant reporting a big slump in sales. So Aston Martin decided to send hundreds of cars to bonded warehouses in the US – where goods can be stored without being subject to tariffs – before delivery firms raced to get them all to dealers before the end of day on 30 June. Those cars attracted the 10% rate, rather than 27.5%. Other carmakers face higher costs. The EU reached a deal with the US to cut tariffs on most goods including cars to 15%. Mercedes-Benz boss Ola Källenius said he did not expect any improvement on that for the car industry, despite lobbying for a lower rate from Germany's carmakers. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion Aston Martin also said it had cut production and limited exports to the US to try to limit the financial impact. Even after its 30 June operation, Aston Martin could still be hit later in the year when it launches its million-dollar Valhalla, a mid-engine hypercar that it hopes will be a major contributor to profits. However, it is worried that the quota of 100,000 cars covered by the 10% tariff could be used up before it can get the Valhalla to dealers – potentially adding more than £100,000 to the price if importers must pay the 27.5% rate. British companies exported just over 100,000 cars to the US last year, with the bulk being Range Rovers shipped by JLR. The quota could mean an end-of-year race between British carmakers to get their vehicles into the country, with 'pressure on the number of slots available on the 100,000 quota', Hallmark said.
