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Top story
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Electrification plans stalled
Plans for the electrification of the mainline from London to Swansea have been put on hold until at least the new year, despite a previous government commitment, and it is feared any decision is unlikely until the end of the decade. The Department for Transport today announced plans for £8bn of investment in British railways and said it will buy 2,100 new carriages for Britain's rail network to be in place by May 2019.
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Deals
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Diurnal nets £770,000 in funding round
Diurnal, a Cardiff-based drug delivery company, has raised £770,000 in a funding round that will help it complete trials on its Chronocort product.
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Companies
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Broadband push boosts telecoms business
Exwavia, a telecommunications company based near Welshpool, is about to go into “overdrive” following a change in approach by the Welsh Assembly Government, its leading investor says. Peter Saunders, the business angel and former Halo Foods boss, told Insider that faster grant approvals for broadband had given Exwavia the impetus for rapid growth. You can read an interview with Saunders in the December 2010 edition of Insider, out this week. Saunders is a new entrant in the Power 100 list of influential people, which also appears in the new issue.
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Strata Matrix ceases trading
Bilingual PR business Strata Matrix and sister company Monitor Cymru have ceased trading on a voluntary basis.
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Bangor University makes London move
Bangor University has launched a new teaching base in London offering three specialist MBA degrees. The move is designed to take some of the university's products closer to its primary marketplace, the City of London.
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Wales Top 300 companies Database
Insider has released a fantastic source of business contacts: The Wales Top 300 Companies 2010 Database. A comprehensive listing of the Top contacts at the Top companies. Free sample available now.
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Property and construction
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Asda deal brings Bangor move closer
Plans to redevelop Bangor City’s football ground and give the club a new home have moved forward after developer Deiniol exchanged contracts with Asda. The supermarket group plans to build a store at the Farrar Road ground, which would allow work at the planned new ground at Nantporth to be completed.
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Government and politics
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Social enterprises need better support, say AMs
Social enterprises in Wales need more accessible and comprehensive support if the sector is to thrive, the National Assembly’s enterprise and learning committee says. It recommends moving responsibility for such enterprises to the Assembly Government’s Department for the Economy and Transport, and suggests “a bespoke finance system for the social enterprise sector in Wales.”
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Trains and roads get part of £47m capital spend
The Assembly Government has unveiled £47m of investment in capital projects in education, health, transport, housing and heritage. The cash, which includes £3.5m to improve trains running between North and South Wales, follows a sharp cut in capital spending announced in last week’s draft Welsh budget.
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Councils reluctantly accept spending cuts
Council budgets across Wales will be cut by a total of £57m next financial year in a settlement described by the Welsh Local Government Association as “as good an outcome as we could have expected”. Budgets at most authorities will be cut by 1.7 per cent in cash terms. Cardiff alone will get a 0.1 per cent cash increase.
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