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Britain and Australia are deepening defence technology cooperation through radar. QinetiQ and CEA Technologies have signed an agreement covering advanced AESA systems as both countries expand industrial and supply-chain ties.
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Households near new grid projects could receive ten-year bill discounts. The first transmission developments expected to qualify have been identified, with £250 annual payments planned to begin for eligible projects from 2027.
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Repeated heatwaves cut estimated UK economic output by £4.4bn overall. Verdant’s model links extreme heat with lower productivity, while excluding several wider costs including wildfire damage and additional electricity consumption.
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Government funding will expand human-based drug testing technologies across Britain. A £20m Cambridge hub and nine Innovate UK projects will develop organoids, lab-grown tissue, and AI tools intended to improve pre-clinical research.
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Balfour Beatty has upgraded guidance after stronger first-half infrastructure trading. UK power transmission and US building demand lifted earnings, while the group’s order book reached £22.9bn and its average net cash guidance increased.
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Ministers have backed changes to Britain’s post-Brexit subsidy control system. Guidance, streamlined routes, and transparency will be revised after the CMA found the regime broadly effective but identified practical difficulties for some public authorities.
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The CMA is proposing major cuts to legacy market remedies. Twenty-three could disappear entirely, four may be reduced, and six retained as the regulator reviews requirements across banking, insurance, travel, retail, and other markets.
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Burnham has put wider business rates reform on Budget agenda. The Prime Minister says government wants to go further, although limited fiscal room will determine the scale and design of additional support.
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Technology employers are increasingly hiring for skills rather than credentials. Michael Page says 85% of technology organisations now use skills-based recruitment, even as scarce specialist talent and low candidate mobility continue to restrict hiring.
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WP Engine has opened Smart Search AI beyond hosting customers. The semantic-search product can now run across WordPress sites generally and includes integrations for ecommerce, headless deployments, and external AI agents.