UK supermarket Morrisons' sales growth slows
LONDON, March 26 (Reuters) - British supermarket group Morrisons' underlying sales growth slowed in its first quarter, reflecting a previously flagged cyber attack at its technology provider which hit product availability.
The UK's fifth largest grocer, which has been owned by U.S. private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice since 2021, said on Wednesday its like-for-like sales rose 2.1% in its quarter to January 26, having been up 4.9% in the previous quarter.
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Activist hedge fund Parvus builds stake in Novo Nordisk, FT reports
June 9 (Reuters) - Activist hedge fund Parvus Asset Management is building a stake in Novo Nordisk ( opens new tab, after the company lost its first mover advantage in the lucrative weight-loss drug market, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing people with knowledge of the details. The London-based fund, which has targeted budget airline Ryanair (RYA.I), opens new tab and Italian bank UniCredit ( opens new tab, wants to influence the appointment of Novo Nordisk's new CEO, the report said. Novo told Reuters in an email that it does not "have anything to add." Parvus did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In May, the company announced its CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen would step down after shares plunged from a record-high in June last year as competition, particularly from U.S. rival Eli Lilly (LLY.N), opens new tab, makes inroads into Novo's market share, while its pipeline of new drugs has failed to impress investors. Novo also expects its Wegovy weight-loss drug sales in the United States to start recovering once a ban on compound copycats is enforced this month, Jorgensen said last month after the company cut its 2025 forecasts.
Telegraph
24 minutes ago
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Private sector wages should not be the business of Government
For far too long, British politicians have created laws and systems that outsource decisions to the courts. All of this has been done with the best intentions, but too little consideration has been given to the unintended consequences, and the outcomes have been perverse. Thanks to a spate of absurd rulings, including the Albanian criminal allowed to stay in the UK partly because his son will not eat foreign chicken nuggets, many are aware of the impact on efforts to control our borders. But the problem is much broader, impacting everything from planning to energy. Increasingly, tribunal judgments are even telling businesses what they should pay their workers. If that sounds crazy, it's because it is. All jobs are different; all people are different too. In theory, setting pay is hard, because the pros and cons of different roles depend on individual preferences. In practice it's easy. You don't have to sit down and work out a weighted aggregate of a job's different pros and cons to different people; the market does that for you. You can start hiring, and you'll find out pretty quickly how much you need to pay to fill a role. This is so obvious that it almost isn't worth saying. But it's not what our laws say. The Equality Act, passed in 2010, mandates 'equal pay for equal work', doubling down on the Equal Pay Act of 1970. But what is 'equal work'? According to the Equality Act, it isn't where two people do the same job. It's not even where two people do similar jobs. In fact, the Equality Act says, the only way to tell if two jobs are 'equal' is to conduct a 'job evaluation study'. Rather than letting the job market determine fair pay, bureaucrats and judges use a host of arbitrary criteria to decide what a role is worth. What does that look like in practice? Last August, a six-year case concluded against the retailer Next. The company was sued by three women, current and former workers, who insisted that store staff (mostly women) should be paid as much as warehouse workers (slight majority male). Any of the store staff could have moved to the warehouse if they wanted more money. In fact, Next were desperate for them to – the company had a recruitment drive for the warehouse among store employees. But very few people wanted those roles because working on the shop floor was pleasant and working in the warehouse was not. One of the women who brought the case admitted that she would only have considered moving to the warehouse for 'a lot more money.' Incredibly, Next lost. The court decided the two roles should be paid the same. The same thing is happening to Asda. And Birmingham council was effectively bankrupted by an equal pay claim brought by (mostly female) cleaners complaining they weren't paid as much as the (mostly male) binmen. We should be grateful anyone is willing to do work that's backbreaking, dirty or dangerous. They deserve to be paid fairly; often more than people who don't want to do that. But now bureaucrats have come in to fix what isn't broken and insist that what is fair is actually unfair. This undermines our economy and it needs to stop.
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Glasgow's skyscraper vision sparks split over city's skyline future
Last week, Glasgow City Council revealed its Tall Buildings Design Guide, which outlined areas in the city like Charing Cross, Anderston Quay, Trongate, and Cowcaddens as potential sites for taller buildings. The guide, which marked a departure from decades of previous rules where building heights were restricted, also provided expectations for building quality, design, and aesthetics. Norry Wilson, who is behind the popular social media account Lost Glasgow, which aims to document, discuss, and appreciate the city's architecture and its community from the last few centuries, is skeptical of the new guidelines. READ MORE: Former SNP MP's critique of UK defence review was a missed opportunity He claimed that there is 'no clamor from developers to build skyscrapers in Glasgow' and that he doubts any plans to build any will ever come to fruition. However, Labour MSP for the Glasgow region, Paul Sweeney, who has a keen interest in the city's architecture, welcomed the guidelines as he hopes the change in policy will help address the growing need for housing. 'Glasgow has not built as many tall buildings as comparable British cities in recent years, and there is a pressing need to repopulate its urban core – which is the least populated of all major British cities,' he said. 'At present, Glasgow has no buildings taller than 100 metres, while Manchester has 26 with eight more under construction.' Sweeney added that whilst the principles outlined in the tall buildings design guide are of a 'high level,' he would like to see more of a 'house style' developed for Glasgow. (Image: Newsquest) He said that the guideline does try to address some 'fundamental deficiencies' that have 'plagued previous generations of tall buildings' in the city, such as slab form, lack of ground floor activation, isolated locations, and a lack of elegance on the skyline. Sweeney added: 'I hope these principles will now be robustly implemented and provide greater certainty for architects, developers, and local communities on what Glasgow expects in the design of such buildings. 'We certainly must never repeat that atrocious design of the Clayton Hotel and Virgin Hotels on Clyde Street, which saw their designs diluted to cut costs, resulting in cheap, clunky-looking cladding, a removal of a feature crown structure from the roof design, a blank facade facing Union Street and poor-quality landscaping at the base. 'Perhaps the design guide could also benefit from a rogues gallery of what hasn't worked well in Glasgow as well as examples that we are rightly proud of.' However, Wilson has said that he has 'absolutely no idea' where the demand for skyscrapers is coming from, as most people would rather live in family homes instead of massive buildings. The freelance journalist pointed out that back in March, three tower blocks dating back to the 60s at Wyndford Road were destroyed using controlled explosions to make way for nearly 400 new homes. (Image: Robert Perry) The four 26-storey blocks and several smaller high-rise buildings at one point provided homes for around 6000 people but were deemed by the owners, Wheatley Homes housing association, as not fit for purpose. 'It's a very strange one because, as far as I'm aware, there is no clamor from developers to build skyscrapers in Glasgow,' Wilson said. 'I mean, even in just the last few weeks, Glasgow's just demolished pretty much the last of our own skyscrapers at Winford and Maryhill because there's no demand for skyscrapers in Glasgow.' He added: 'I've got a sneaking suspicion this is really just a sort of paper exercise.' Wilson, whose father and grandfather were architects who contributed to Glasgow and the greater area's skyline, explained that the city's historic height restrictions were implemented by the fire department. He said that because the water pressure from their hoses could only reach about six or seven stories, they implemented a building height restriction so that fire crews could reach any possible blazes. Wilson said that he hasn't noticed many people discussing the need or want for skyscrapers in the city on any of his Lost Glasgow pages. He said: 'Most folks that looked at it think it's the council talking shop again, and unless it gets rubber stamped, it's not going to change anything.' He added: 'Everyone piles into Lost Glasgow and says, 'why don't they build more social housing' and you've got to point out, well, Glasgow doesn't build social housing anymore. 'That's the job of housing associations and all the rest of it. 'Where the demand is for skyscrapers, where that demand's coming from, I have absolutely no idea.'
