Logistics UK: industry united in backing Lower Thames Crossing.
David Wells, chief executive of industry body Logistics UK, has welcomed the approval today of the Lower Thames Crossing project.
Wells says the announcement to approve the £9bn tunnel, which will be Britain’s biggest single planned road building project, is “excellent news” for businesses across the country, who are “currently hamstrung by delays crossing the Thames”.
He added:
“Industry is united in its backing for this vital trade route.”
Supporters of the plan have argued that the new tunnel, which will pass under the River Thames near Thurrock, is vital to take the strain off the congested and unreliable Dartford Crossing. It currently handles the bulk of traffic east of London including freight from the Channel ports.
Key events
Closing summary
Time to recap…
A fire at an electrical substation which led to the closure of Heathrow Airport last week is no longer being treated as a “potentially criminal matter”.
The Metropolitan Police said:
Following enquiries to date, officers have found no evidence to suggest that the incident was suspicious in nature.
As such, we are no longer treating this as a potentially criminal matter, although we continue to support other partners, including colleagues from National Grid, London Fire Brigade and SSEN, with whom we remain in close contact.
The UK government has approved a £9bn road tunnel between Kent and Essex called the Lower Thames Crossing, ending years of delay.
The move has been welcomed by business groups, who say it will improve connectivity, but criticised by opponents who say it will increase carbon emissions and not lower congestion.
British retailers have reported the sharpest drop in sales volumes in eight months in March, in a sign that consumers are cutting back.
Tesla’s car sales in Europe have fallen by over 40% so far this year.
Shell has been criticised after its CEO’s pay jumped to £8.6m last year.
Earlier today, energy minister Michael Shanks heaped pressure onto Heathrow over its response to the fire, suggesting there was “significant redundancy” built into the energy infrastructure surrounding the airport.
Shanks told MPs (via the FT):
“The local network operator and National Grid were able . . . to find a workaround to connect all households within a matter of hours.
We need to look at the resilience of the outside network connecting into Heathrow, but the private network within Heathrow is what they need to review.”
Back in the US, credit rating agency Moody’s has warned that the country’s fiscal strength is ebbing.
In a new report, Moody’s flagged that the fiscal strength of the United States is stuck in a multi-year slide and “has deteriorated further”, after the country’s sovereign rating received a negative outlook in late 2023.
Moody’s analysts wrote:
“Higher interest rates have markedly weakened debt affordability, accelerating the decline in fiscal strength.”
They added that debt affordability is “the most important determinant of our assessment of US fiscal strength.”
We may get more answers about the Heathrow fire next week, when MPs give the airport’s boss a grilling.
The Transport Select Committee will take evidence from Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye at a one-off session on Wednesday, April 2.
The hearing will investigate the closure of the west London airport to all flights on Friday until around 6pm, after the fire at the nearby electricity substation in Hayes late on Thursday night.
Heathrow Airport fire not a criminal matter, UK police say
Elsewhere in London, police have just announced that the fire which caused Heathrow Airport to close last Friday was no longer being treated as a potentially criminal matter.
The Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command had been leading the investigation to establish the cause of the blaze, at the electricity sub-station in Hayes.
This afternoon, the Met say:
Following enquiries to date, officers have found no evidence to suggest that the incident was suspicious in nature. As such, we are no longer treating this as a potentially criminal matter, although we continue to support other partners, including colleagues from National Grid, London Fire Brigade and SSEN, with whom we remain in close contact.
Should any relevant new information or evidence come to light it will be looked at and considered as appropriate.
The government and Heathrow have both commissioned reviews into what happened, amid the fall-out from the fire.
The head of National Grid has claimed that there was enough power for Heathrow to remain open during the entire period it was shut down on Friday, with electricity provided by two other substations.
Heathrow, though, insists it could not operate uninterrupted, as hundreds of critical systems across the airport needed to be safely powered down and rebooted.
Airlines, meanwhile, are considering legal action over the disruption.
Map: the Lower Thames Crossing
Here’s a map showing the 14.5 mile long route of the Lower Thames Crossing, which will connect the A2 and M2 in Kent to the A13 and M25 in Essex, and include the UK’s longest road tunnel, when built.
NIC: This will be welcomed by businesses
Sir John Armitt, Chair of the National Infrastructure Commission, agrees that UK businesses will benefit from the Lower Thames Crossing:
Armitt says:
“Improving connectivity is vital to the government’s mission of sustainable, long term economic growth. This green light for the Lower Thames Crossing is excellent news and will be welcomed not only by local drivers and communities but also by businesses across the country which depend upon reliable access to Europe, but are often frustrated by delays at the Dartford Tunnel.
“Given the scale of investment needed in the country’s strategic infrastructure over coming decades, I hope this is the first of many future strategic planning decisions which are crucial to transform the transport, energy and water networks on which the country relies.”
Motoring research charity the RAC Foundation are in the ‘pro’ camp when it comes to the Lower Thames Crossing tunnel.
Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, welcomed today’s announcement, arguing that the “all too frequent queues” at the Dartford Crossing mean there is a need for “a resilient solution”.
Transport Action Network: this is absolute madness
Local campaigners Thames Crossing Action Group have also opposed the scheme, arguing that construction would cause “eight years of disruption and gridlock on local roads”, while predicting that the new road would “increase traffic, pollution, carbon and noise”.
Chris Todd, director of campaign group Transport Action Network, has criticised the decision to approve the tunnel:
“This is absolute madness.
“It’s a desperate decision to distract from the likely bad news in the Chancellor’s spring statement tomorrow.
“Rather than boosting growth, this will clog up roads in the South East and slow the economy down even more.”
However, some campaign groups are not happy that the Lower Thames Crossing has been signed off.
The Campaign for Better Transport, an advocacy group in the United Kingdom that promotes sustainable transport, points out that building new roads leads to higher carbon emissions, and doesn’t cut congestion:
We’re disappointed the Gov has given the go-ahead to the Lower Thames Crossing. Here’s what our CEO had to say about it… pic.twitter.com/K4KxUcRxry
— Campaign for Better Transport (@CBTransport) March 25, 2025
Logistics UK: industry united in backing Lower Thames Crossing.
David Wells, chief executive of industry body Logistics UK, has welcomed the approval today of the Lower Thames Crossing project.
Wells says the announcement to approve the £9bn tunnel, which will be Britain’s biggest single planned road building project, is “excellent news” for businesses across the country, who are “currently hamstrung by delays crossing the Thames”.
He added:
“Industry is united in its backing for this vital trade route.”
Supporters of the plan have argued that the new tunnel, which will pass under the River Thames near Thurrock, is vital to take the strain off the congested and unreliable Dartford Crossing. It currently handles the bulk of traffic east of London including freight from the Channel ports.
The UK government hopes that building the Lower Thames Crossing will improve connectivity between the South and the Midlands.
Matt Palmer, National Highways executive director for the project, has described it as “one of the UK’s most important infrastructure projects”.
He said:
“It will unlock growth with quicker, safer and more reliable journeys, and redraw the blueprint for building major projects in a net zero future by scaling up the use low-carbon construction, and leaving a legacy of green spaces, green skills.
“Our plans have been shaped by the local community and refined by robust and rigorous examination from independent experts.”
UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has declared the decision to approve the Lower Thames Crossing today shows his government is backing “the builders, not the blockers”…
When I said I would back the builders, not the blockers, I meant it.
Giving the Lower Thames Crossing the green light will drive growth and make journeys quicker, safer, and more reliable.
That is my Plan for Change in action.
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) March 25, 2025
CFOs see US recession coming before end of 2025, CNBC survey finds
Uh-oh.
The US economy will enter a recession in the second half of 2025, according to a majority of chief financial officers responding to the quarterly CNBC CFO Council Survey.
The poll of chief financial officers across US companies found that CFO’s are generally “pessimistic” on the overall state of the U.S. economy and uncertain about the stock market.
95% of CFOs said policy is impacting their ability to make business decisions, and many said while Trump is delivering on promises, his administration’s approach is too chaotic, disruptive and extreme for businesses to navigate effectively.
A healthcheck on service sector companies in the Philadelphia region of the US has slumped to its weakest level in five years, in a worrying sign for America’s economy.
The Philly Fed non-manufacturing index has dropped to -32.5, down from -13.1 a month ago.
Measures of general activity, new orders, and employment levels all fell.
The 6-month outlook from services firms plunged in March per the Philly Fed … it’s at a new cycle low and almost down to where it was in the depths of the pandemic pic.twitter.com/zfhA7S1xMX
— Kevin Gordon (@KevRGordon) March 25, 2025
Trump Media to launch ‘Made in America’ ETFs
Donald Trump is continuing to use the presidency in new ways, it seems.
The latest financial wheeze is for Trump Media & Technology Group Corp to launch ETFs – exchange traded funds, or baskets of assets such as equities bundled together.
The plan is to work with Crypto.com to offer “Made in America” ETFs.
Trump Media, which operates the president’s Truth Social social media site, says the ETFs, which will be made available through Crypto.com’s broker-dealer Foris Capital LLC, and include digital assets and securities with a “Made in America” focus spanning diverse industries such as energy.
Those digital assets could includes Bitcoin, Cronos, and other crypto assets. The ETFs will launch later this year, according to Trump Media.
UK clearing the way for satellite calls on standard smartphones
Mark Sweney
The UK is on track to be the first country in Europe to allow people to use their smartphone to make calls using signals direct from satellites.
Ofcom, the communications regulator, said that satellite technology has reached a point that signals can be reliably beamed from space to allow access to phone and web services when there is no coverage from mobile phone masts.
“For years, we’ve seen satellite calls in disaster movies on special handsets,” said David Willis, spectrum group director at Ofcom. “We’re now on the cusp of people being able to make them on their everyday smartphones”.
The regulator said that amending the licences held by mobile phone operators to authorise so-called “direct-to-device” satellite technology could mean that even the most rural and isolated communities could have guaranteed mobile coverage.
In January, Vodafone successfully made the world’s first satellite video call using a standard mobile phone, in a mountainous region of Wales, after Ofcom issued an innovation and trial licence.
Willis says:
“Ofcom strives to be at the forefront of technological change. And we are the first country in Europe to press ahead with the next frontier in mobile connectivity.”
Ofcom has opened a consultation on its proposals and said that it could potentially begin authorising direct-to-device services later this year.
