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BBC News
4 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Severn Trent plans new Midlands hub at Edgbaston waterworks
Water company Severn Trent has said it will spend £4m repurposing its site in Edgbaston to establish a Midlands hub creating new jobs and relocating refurbishment will see as many as 300 people being based there, including some new entry-level staff, the firm Grade II listed water tower at the site, which was built in 1870, is thought to be the inspiration for the Two Towers in J.R.R Tolkien's Lord of the investment will mean "a pipeline of hundreds of future jobs and opportunities", Severn Trent added, with work already under way which will likely take up to 18 months. The site is currently used by water technicians and engineers with some office space which will be revamped to become a flagship base."Birmingham is the biggest city in our region and the UK's second city, so investing in new office space, creating a major Midlands hub and growing our teams here was a no-brainer," Severn Trent's HR direction Neil Morrison said."While the site currently supports our water network teams, this investment will bring up to 300 additional employees to the location, utilising our spaces and bringing more people, teams, and opportunities to Brum."The announcement comes as the company plans a £15bn investment scheme across the Midlands over the next five Morrison said the firm was committed to creating more jobs and he welcomed the announcement of "a number" of entry-level roles opening in Edgbaston in the new few Gill, MP for Edgbaston, said she welcomed the news and to see the transformation of the Trent said while work was under way it expected new teams to be at the site from autumn. Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Business Mayor
11-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Insurers launch cover for losses caused by AI chatbot errors
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Artificial intelligence myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Insurers at Lloyd's of London have launched a product to cover companies for losses caused by malfunctioning artificial intelligence tools, as the sector aims to profit from concerns about the risk of costly hallucinations and errors by chatbots. The policies developed by Armilla, a start-up backed by Y Combinator, will cover the cost of court claims against a company if it is sued by a customer or another third party who has suffered harm because of an AI tool underperforming. The insurance will be underwritten by several Lloyd's insurers and will cover costs such as damages payouts and legal fees. Companies have rushed to adopt AI to boost efficiency but some tools, including customer service bots, have faced embarrassing and costly mistakes. Such mistakes can occur, for example, because of flaws which cause AI language models to 'hallucinate' or make things up. Virgin Money apologised in January after its AI-powered chatbot reprimanded a customer for using the word 'virgin', while courier group DPD last year disabled part of its customer service bot after it swore at customers and called its owner the 'worst delivery service company in the world'. A tribunal last year ordered Air Canada to honour a discount that its customer service chatbot had made up. Armilla said that the loss from selling the tickets at a lower price would have been covered by its insurance policy if Air Canada's chatbot was found to have performed worse than expected. Karthik Ramakrishnan, Armilla chief executive, said the new product could encourage more companies to adopt AI, since many are currently deterred by fears that tools such as chatbots will break down. Some insurers already include AI-related losses within general technology errors and omissions policies, but these generally include low limits on payouts. A general policy that covers up to $5mn in losses might stipulate a $25,000 sublimit for AI-related liabilities, said Preet Gill, a broker at Lockton, which offers Armilla's products to its clients. AI language models are dynamic, meaning they 'learn' over time. But losses from errors caused by this process of adaptation would not normally be covered by typical technology errors and omissions policies, said Logan Payne, a broker at Lockton. A mistake by an AI tool would not on its own be enough to trigger a payout under Armilla's policy. Instead, the cover would kick in if the insurer judged that the AI had performed below initial expectations. For example, Armilla's insurance could pay out if a chatbot gave clients or employees correct information only 85 per cent of the time, after initially doing so in 95 per cent of cases, the company said. 'We assess the AI model, get comfortable with its probability of degradation, and then compensate if the models degrade,' said Ramakrishnan. Tom Graham, head of partnership at Chaucer, an insurer at Lloyd's that is underwriting the policies sold by Armilla, said his group would not sign policies covering AI systems they judge to be excessively prone to breakdown. 'We will be selective, like any other insurance company,' he said. Read More Tell us: have you been affected by the US insurance crisis?
The Guardian
21-03-2025
- General
- The Guardian
As rubbish piles up, tempers fray amid Birmingham bin strike
When a council rubbish lorry arrived on a street in south Birmingham on Wednesday morning, the situation descended into chaos. Crowds of people arrived with wheelie bins crammed full of bin bags, and when staff became overwhelmed and the lorry filled up, frustrated residents began tipping their rubbish on to the street. Police were called to shut the area down over safety concerns, and warned people they would be fined if they left rubbish behind. 'Tempers were frayed, people were just dumping stuff all over the ground. The bin lorry had to leave because it was getting out of hand,' said one resident. 'Then the police had to come. People are getting very frustrated.' 'I'm traumatised by the behaviours I witnessed there today – it was awful and dangerous,' posted a resident on social media. These pop-up household waste centres have become increasingly fraught less than two weeks since Birmingham bin workers launched their all-out indefinite strike over pay and restructuring plans, after striking sporadically since January. The bin bags have quickly piled up, and the city is already at breaking point. Birmingham Edgbaston MP Preet Gill said it was becoming a 'public health emergency' with residents reporting 'a plague of rats and cockroaches'. Outside her flat near Sparkhill, Shabeena Khan contemplated the huge mound of bin bags that had built up. The pile was so big it had almost completely blocked a ground floor window of the block of six flats, and Khan estimated it had been seven weeks since it was last collected. 'I've called the council twice and they said somebody should be coming, but every day I'm waiting, crossing my fingers, and nobody has been. The bags are ripped so I'm very scared about rats,' she said. 'It's so disgusting. It's Ramadan and we're embarrassed to bring family and friends here. It's very stressful and depressing.' She said she was particularly worried about the impact on her son, who has a learning disability and mental health problems, and she was trying to rally the building to chip in to pay for a private contractor to collect the bags. 'How long is this going to go on for?' she said. Her neighbour, Maluka Skripkiuc, said the pile had completely blocked any sunlight from coming through her bedroom window, and the smell was so bad she had moved into her son's room. 'We just have to close the door and completely seal that room off, it really smells,' she said. 'It's horrible, I'm really worried.' Over at a refuse depot in Tyseley, tensions continued to run high. On Tuesday, about 70 striking bin workers had gathered outside the gates on the picket line, growing increasingly frustrated by the amount of police officers on the scene. The officers were guarding the gates and the bin lorries – staffed by agency workers – which continued to leave the depot, held up by the occasional 'go-slow' protest by the strikers who walked slowly in front of the lorries as they began their rounds. 'The way the council has handled this is very, very poor. We know it's frustrating for the public, we all live in Birmingham too, my bin hasn't been collected in the past two weeks,' said Steeven Biset, a striking refuse collector. 'We just want to be get out there and do the job that we love. But I feel like if we don't fight for what we believe is right, then they'll end up taking more and more to the point where we'll be working for less than minimum wage.' The strikers said the Labour council's plans to scrap the role of grade 3 waste recycling and collection officer, the person responsible for safety at the back of a bin lorry, would put workers at risk. It would also mean some workers having to take a substantial pay cut. 'That person is pivotal on the back of the wagon. They're our health and safety. As a driver, they reverse me around corners. Nobody wants a 25-tonne truck reversing around a corner with nobody watching it,' said Stephen, a bin lorry driver. 'And this would take away our natural progression – you'll come in as a grade 2, then will stay as a grade 2 for your whole career, when everything is getting more expensive.' Negotiations between the council – currently being overseen by government commissioners after declaring itself effectively bankrupt – and strikers were due to resume at the end of this week but relations had soured. Unite claimed the council sacked three agency workers for talking to strikers – something which the city council has denied – and said the restructuring was part of a plan to replace directly employed staff with an 'insecure agency workforce'. 'The arrogance and vindictiveness of Birmingham's commissioner-led council towards low-paid hard-working refuse workers is astounding,' Unite boss Sharon Graham said. The city council has been urging residents to leave rubbish out as normal and insisted enough agency-staffed lorries have been leaving each day to ensure collections are still happening. While this has been the case for some, many parts of the city said they felt completely forgotten about. George Smith said it had been seven weeks since a waste lorry had visited Ashton Croft in Ladywood, and even longer since a recycling truck has been. The communal waste areas were overflowing with bin bags, piles of cardboard and empty food packets. 'It's seven weeks today since we last had a collection. We've got three big piles of rubbish piling up and the bin bags have been teared – we know in the city centre there's a problem with rodents,' he said. 'Something has started burrowing in my garden, and it's not a mouse. That is what really concerns us more than anything else.' A spokesperson for Birmingham city council said a 'fair and reasonable offer' had been made to Unite, and that the waste recycling and collection officer role did not exist in many councils. 'To the small number of workers whose wages are impacted ongoing by the changes to the service (of whom there are now only 40) we have already offered alternatives, including highly valuable LGV driver training for career progression and pay, and other roles in the council equivalent to their former roles. No worker will lose the sums Unite are claiming,' they said.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rubbish piles at 'crisis point' amid bin strikes
A Birmingham MP said rubbish piling up on the city's streets amid an ongoing bin strike had reached "crisis point". In a letter to Birmingham City Council, Preet Gill said constituents had reported a increase in rats and cockroaches, and that she now feared a "public health emergency". An indefinite all-out strike for bin workers in the city began on Tuesday involving about 350 members of the union Unite. It follows a row over pay and conditions, particularly the loss of a job role. The union claims some members could lose £8,000 from their salary, but the council said only a small number of workers stand to lose less than £6,000. Labour MP Gill wrote: "Some roads in Edgbaston constituency are particularly badly affected where the volume of waste is obstructing passage along the pavements. "Additionally, residents are reporting that the waste is driving a plague of rats and cockroaches." She said with the warmer weather approaching, she feared the situation could get worse. The all-out strikes officially started on Tuesday, however, collectors have been taking action on-and-off since January, following plans to downgrade some staff and reduce their pay. In a statement, Birmingham City Council previously said the escalation would lead to "greater disruption to residents, despite the fair and reasonable offer that the council made to the union". The letter said that the Labour-run council has "statutory duties" to protect the public from an environmental and public health perspective. Gill said it must "take priority in this emergency situation". She added: "I am formally requesting that you use the relevant statutory powers available to you to ensure that this emergency situation is addressed, ensuring that the streets are not running with vermin and the health of the population protected." Gill told BBC Midlands Today the council had told her it would work with her to find a solution. "It's really important that Unite and the council get back round the table because residents of Birmingham deserve so much better," she added. "Hundreds of constituents are contacting me, sending me pictures, really worried, saying that there are areas where they've seen sights of rats, of cockroaches and of course foxes are coming out ripping those bags up. "Of course as the weather starts getting warmer there's [an] awful stench and people are really worried about the public health element of this." The issue was also raised during Prime Minister's Questions, with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch attacking Labour, saying rubbish was "piling up" on the city's streets. Birmingham City Council has been contacted for further comment. Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram. Bin workers begin indefinite all-out strike Birmingham City Council
