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Another rail strike is set to disrupt train journeys this weekend – with further industrial action planned in August.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) is taking strike action over pay, jobs, pensions and conditions, while the ASLEF union has announced overtime bans in a dispute over pay.

ASLEF represents drivers, whereas RMT represents members from lots of different sectors within the rail industry – including station staff and guards.

When ASLEF members go on strike, it usually means there are no drivers. When RMT members go on strike, there is widespread disruption to the network with lots of people in different roles going on strike.

Here is everything you need to know:

Rail strike dates

The RMT union has scheduled a further walkout on Saturday 29 July.

Many services will not run at all. Those that do are likely to be very busy, and the timetable will start later and finish earlier than on a non-strike day.

Meanwhile, ASLEF members at 16 rail operators will refuse to work overtime – an action short of a strike – on the following days:

Monday 31 July

Tuesday 1 August

Wednesday 2 August

Thursday 3 August

Friday 4 August

Saturday 5 August

Monday 7 August

Tuesday 8 August

Wednesday 9 August

Thursday 10 August

Friday 11 August

Saturday 12 August

Which train lines are set to be affected?

Avanti West Coast

Avanti West Coast recommend customers check their entire journey before travelling on the RMT strike day, especially the first and last trains.

Late services the night before and early services the next day will also be affected, it said.

It said it plans to run its normal timetable during the ASLEF action.

Customers who booked tickets to travel on strike days before the industrial action was announced can claim a full fee-free refund from their point of purchase.

Pic: PA

C2C

On 29 July, all services will run to/from Fenchurch Street station and will not stop at Liverpool Street or Stratford.

It said services will not be affected by the ASLEF strike.

Chiltern Railways

Chiltern Railways said during the ASLEF action, trains will be busier than usual, and there will be changes across the network’s timetable.

It has also advised customers to “check before you travel”.

A very limited service will be operating on 29 July, with one train an hour running to destinations from Marylebone station.

The journey planner is up to date with services for the strike day, it said.

CrossCountry

The train operating company has said during the ASLEF industrial action, “a small number of services may be subject to late-notice cancellation or amendment during this period”.

On 29 July it will be running a limited service.

East Midlands Railway

On 29 July EMR services will run between 7.30am and 6.30pm only.

Services will start later and finish earlier than usual with the last departures starting between 3pm and 4.30pm.

“Only travel by rail if absolutely necessary and if you do travel, expect severe disruption,” the company warned.

Rail, Maritime and Transport union general secretary Mick Lynch (centre) joins members of his union on the picket line outside Euston train station, London, during their long-running dispute over pay. Picture date: Friday June 2, 2023. PA Photo. See PA story INDUSTRY Strikes. Photo credit should read: Lucy North/PA Wire
Image:
RMT leader Mick Lynch (centre) joins members of his union on a picket line on 2 June

Greater Anglia

Services will start at 7am, with all last trains reaching their destination by 11pm.

Most routes will have a “normal or near normal service” during the hours that trains are running, Greater Anglia said.

However some routes will have a limited service and a small number may have no trains at all.

Short notice cancellations may also occur, the company said.

Greater Anglia has said services will start later the day after strikes as a “knock-on” from the walkouts.

Great Western Railway

GWR has said that during the RMT strike, there will be a reduced and revised timetable, and warned many parts of its network “will have no service at all”.

It also said during the ASLEF action “short of a strike and the days after [RMT] strikes, services could also be affected by a limited number of short-notice cancellations and alterations”.

Customers are advised to check before they travel.

If you purchase tickets for the strike days but do not end up travelling, you can claim a full refund or amend the ticket.

GTR

GTR, also known as Govia Thameslink Railway, is the UK’s biggest railway franchise and operates Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express.

It said an amended timetable with fewer services will run on 29 July and services will be busier than usual.

Great Northern and Thameslink routes north of London will start later and finish much earlier than normal.

GTR said the disruption from the strike will have a knock-on effect the next day, on 30 July, with some routes having no services before 7am.

LNER

London North Eastern Railway has said that it will be running trains on 29 July but “with a reduced timetable.”

“Our trains for all three [strike] days are back on sale, however, they are still subject to change until timetables are confirmed by Network Rail approximately one week before each strike day,” LNER said on its website.

During the ASLEF union’s industrial action, the network said it would run a normal timetable, but there may also be a possibility of “short-notice alterations and cancellations”.

Southeastern

The company has there will be a limited service running on RMT strike days. Some routes will be closed and there are no replacement buses.

With regards to the ASLEF overtime ban, Southeastern said it expects to run a full service during this time, but if the strike action does impact travel, then passengers can get a strike refund.

South Western Railway

Trains will only run between 7am and 7pm on RMT strike days with a “significantly reduced service”.

“Customers are advised to only travel if absolutely necessary,” the company said.

With regards to the ASLEF action, South Western Railway has released a full timetable of services running on those days.

It added: “Services will usually be reduced to hourly in off-peak periods with a small number of cancellations during the morning and evening peaks. Some first and last trains may also be cancelled.”

Transpennine Express

The company warned the RMT strike will cause “significant disruption”.

“Disruption is also likely on days following strike action and you are advised to plan carefully for any rail journeys as services will start later and finish earlier than usual.”

It has said the planned ASLEF action will have some of its services “start later and finish earlier than usual, and some journeys may be altered late or on the day of travel.”

West Midlands Railway

West Midlands Railway said during the RMT strike, it will be running a reduced timetable on these dates and some routes will not be served.

On ASLEF action days, services will be subject to on-the-day changes.

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Chair candidates battle to check in at Premier Inn-owner Whitbread

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Chair candidates battle to check in at Premier Inn-owner Whitbread

Two chairs of FTSE-100 companies are vying to succeed Adam Crozier at the top of Whitbread, the London-listed group behind the Premier Inn hotel chain.

Sky News has learnt that Christine Hodgson, who chairs water company Severn Trent, and Andrew Martin, chair of the testing and inspection group Intertek, are the leading contenders for the Whitbread job.

Mr Crozier, who has chaired the leisure group since 2018, is expected to step down later this year.

The search, which has been taking place for several months, is expected to conclude in the coming weeks, according to one City source.

Ms Hodgson has some experience of the leisure industry, having served on the board of Ladbrokes Coral Group until 2017, while Mr Martin was a senior executive at the contract caterer Compass Group and finance chief at the travel agent First Choice Holidays.

Under Mr Crozier’s stewardship, Whitbread has been radically reshaped, selling its Costa Coffee subsidiary to The Coca-Cola Company in 2019 for nearly £4bn.

The company has also seen off an activist campaign spearheaded by Elliott Advisers, while Mr Crozier orchestrated the appointment of Dominic Paul, its chief executive, following Alison Brittain’s retirement.

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It said last year that it sees potential to grow the network from 86,000 UK bedrooms to 125,000 over the next decade or so.

Mr Crozier is one of Britain’s most seasoned boardroom figures, and now chairs BT Group and Kantar, the market research and data business backed by Bain Capital and WPP Group.

He previously ran the Football Association, ITV and – in between – Royal Mail Group.

On Friday, shares in Whitbread closed at £25.41, giving the company a market capitalisation of about £4.5bn.

Whitbread declined to comment this weekend.

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Bank chiefs to Reeves: Ditch ring-fencing to boost UK economy

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Bank chiefs to Reeves: Ditch ring-fencing to boost UK economy

The bosses of four of Britain’s biggest banks are secretly urging the chancellor to ditch the most significant regulatory change imposed after the 2008 financial crisis, warning her its continued imposition is inhibiting UK economic growth.

Sky News has obtained an explosive letter sent this week by the chief executives of HSBC Holdings, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest Group and Santander UK in which they argue that bank ring-fencing “is not only a drag on banks’ ability to support business and the economy, but is now redundant”.

The CEOs’ letter represents an unprecedented intervention by most of the UK’s major lenders to abolish a reform which cost them billions of pounds to implement and which was designed to make the banking system safer by separating groups’ high street retail operations from their riskier wholesale and investment banking activities.

Their request to Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, to abandon ring-fencing 15 years after it was conceived will be seen as a direct challenge to the government to take drastic action to support the economy during a period when it is forcing economic regulators to scrap red tape.

It will, however, ignite controversy among those who believe that ditching the UK’s most radical post-crisis reform risks exacerbating the consequences of any future banking industry meltdown.

In their letter to the chancellor, the quartet of bank chiefs told Ms Reeves that: “With global economic headwinds, it is crucial that, in support of its Industrial Strategy, the government’s Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy removes unnecessary constraints on the ability of UK banks to support businesses across the economy and sends the clearest possible signal to investors in the UK of your commitment to reform.

“While we welcomed the recent technical adjustments to the ring-fencing regime, we believe it is now imperative to go further.

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“Removing the ring-fencing regime is, we believe, among the most significant steps the government could take to ensure the prudential framework maximises the banking sector’s ability to support UK businesses and promote economic growth.”

Work on the letter is said to have been led by HSBC, whose new chief executive, Georges Elhedery, is among the signatories.

His counterparts at Lloyds, Charlie Nunn; NatWest’s Paul Thwaite; and Mike Regnier, who runs Santander UK, also signed it.

While Mr Thwaite in particular has been public in questioning the continued need for ring-fencing, the letter – sent on Tuesday – is the first time that such a collective argument has been put so forcefully.

The only notable absentee from the signatories is CS Venkatakrishnan, the Barclays chief executive, although he has publicly said in the past that ring-fencing is not a major financial headache for his bank.

Other industry executives have expressed scepticism about that stance given that ring-fencing’s origination was largely viewed as being an attempt to solve the conundrum posed by Barclays’ vast investment banking operations.

The introduction of ring-fencing forced UK-based lenders with a deposit base of at least £25bn to segregate their retail and investment banking arms, supposedly making them easier to manage in the event that one part of the business faced insolvency.

Banks spent billions of pounds designing and setting up their ring-fenced entities, with separate boards of directors appointed to each division.

More recently, the Treasury has moved to increase the deposit threshold from £25bn to £35bn, amid pressure from a number of faster-growing banks.

Sam Woods, the current chief executive of the main banking regulator, the Prudential Regulation Authority, was involved in formulating proposals published by the Sir John Vickers-led Independent Commission on Banking in 2011.

Legislation to establish ring-fencing was passed in the Financial Services Reform (Banking) Act 2013, and the regime came into effect in 2019.

In addition to ring-fencing, banks were forced to substantially increase the amount and quality of capital they held as a risk buffer, while they were also instructed to create so-called ‘living wills’ in the event that they ran into financial trouble.

The chancellor has repeatedly spoken of the need to regulate for growth rather than risk – a phrase the four banks hope will now persuade her to abandon ring-fencing.

Britain is the only major economy to have adopted such an approach to regulating its banking industry – a fact which the four bank chiefs say is now undermining UK competitiveness.

“Ring-fencing imposes significant and often overlooked costs on businesses, including SMEs, by exposing them to banking constraints not experienced by their international competitors, making it harder for them to scale and compete,” the letter said.

“Lending decisions and pricing are distorted as the considerable liquidity trapped inside the ring-fence can only be used for limited purposes.

“Corporate customers whose financial needs become more complex as they grow larger, more sophisticated, or engage in international trade, are adversely affected given the limits on services ring-fenced banks can provide.

“Removing ring-fencing would eliminate these cliff-edge effects and allow firms to obtain the full suite of products and services from a single bank, reducing administrative costs”.

In recent months, doubts have resurfaced about the commitment of Spanish banking giant Santander to its UK operations amid complaints about the costs of regulation and supervision.

The UK’s fifth-largest high street lender held tentative conversations about a sale to either Barclays or NatWest, although they did not progress to a formal stage.

HSBC, meanwhile, is particularly restless about the impact of ring-fencing on its business, given its sprawling international footprint.

“There has been a material decline in UK wholesale banking since ring-fencing was introduced, to the detriment of British businesses and the perception of the UK as an internationally orientated economy with a global financial centre,” the letter said.

“The regime causes capital inefficiencies and traps liquidity, preventing it from being deployed efficiently across Group entities.”

The four bosses called on Ms Reeves to use this summer’s Mansion House dinner – the City’s annual set-piece event – to deliver “a clear statement of intent…to abolish ring-fencing during this Parliament”.

Doing so, they argued, would “demonstrate the government’s determination to do what it takes to promote growth and send the strongest possible signal to investors of your commitment to the City and to strengthen the UK’s position as a leading international financial centre”.

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Post Office to unveil £1.75bn banking deal with big British lenders

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Post Office to unveil £1.75bn banking deal with big British lenders

The Post Office will next week unveil a £1.75bn deal with dozens of banks which will allow their customers to continue using Britain’s biggest retail network.

Sky News has learnt the next Post Office banking framework will be launched next Wednesday, with an agreement that will deliver an additional £500m to the government-owned company.

Banking industry sources said on Friday the deal would be worth roughly £350m annually to the Post Office – an uplift from the existing £250m-a-year deal, which expires at the end of the year.

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The sources added that in return for the additional payments, the Post Office would make a range of commitments to improving the service it provides to banks’ customers who use its branches.

Banks which participate in the arrangements include Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest Group and Santander UK.

Under the Banking Framework Agreement, the 30 banks and mutuals’ customers can access the Post Office’s 11,500 branches for a range of services, including depositing and withdrawing cash.

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The service is particularly valuable to those who still rely on physical cash after a decade in which well over 6,000 bank branches have been closed across Britain.

In 2023, more than £10bn worth of cash was withdrawn over the counter and £29bn in cash was deposited over the counter, the Post Office said last year.

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A new, longer-term deal with the banks comes at a critical time for the Post Office, which is trying to secure government funding to bolster the pay of thousands of sub-postmasters.

Reliant on an annual government subsidy, the reputation of the network’s previous management team was left in tatters by the Horizon IT scandal and the wrongful conviction of hundreds of sub-postmasters.

A Post Office spokesperson declined to comment ahead of next week’s announcement.

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