Your commercial news round-up: Heathrow, DeepSeek, water bills, oil

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Have you been staying up to date with this week’s commercial news? Rachel Reeves’ speech made a splash with plans to build a new runway at Heathrow, along with other proposed travel and infrastructure projects. Plus, we take a look at the impact of DeepSeek’s launch over the weekend; rising water bills; and a new judgment from the courts on Scottish oil and gas fields. Read on to find out more!

• On Wednesday 29 January, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves gave a speech announcing a range of new government plans, including that the government is backing a proposal to build a third runway at Heathrow Airport. The plans for the runway received parliamentary approval in 2018 but have been held back by legal challenges. Reeves said the runway could be built by 2035 but others predict that it’ll be completed closer to 2050. Promises for expansions of Luton and Gatwick airports were also mentioned.
  
  ​Reeves also stated plans to build “Europe’s Silicon Valley” between Oxford and Cambridge, pledging to add £78 billion to the UK economy over 10 years. The government aims to deliver a new rail line, and one million new homes and jobs to this area by 2030 and 2050, respectively. Previous governments have also aimed to build houses on the so called ‘Oxford-Cambridge arc’ but plans were shelved due to financial concerns. Similarly, Reeves’ plan for an East-West rail line revives a project previously withdrawn by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Other initiatives announced in her speech, include:  
  • a £7.9 billion investment to build nine new reservoirs;
  • the redevelopment of Manchester United’s Old Trafford football stadium;
  • a number of trade trips to build a better relationship with the EU; and
  • an investment into green energy projects.
     
• China’s new AI, DeepSeek, has made a big impact on the technology market. The app, which was the most downloaded free app on Apple’s US App Store over the weekend, made headlines due to the cost of its development. DeepSeek’s developers built the latest model for $5.6 million, significantly less than the $5 billion ChatGPT’s creator OpenAI spent over the past year. The introduction of DeepSeek has triggered a mass sell-off of major tech stocks. For example, AI chip designer Nvidia’s shares fell by 17% over the weekend, losing nearly $600 billion of its market value – the biggest drop in the history of the US stock market, according to Bloomberg. Questioning DeepSeek’s financials, analyst Gene Munster said: “I still think the truth is below the surface when it comes to actually what's going on.” He questioned the cost of building the AI, suggesting that it must have been subsidised because the chatbot is “surprisingly good, which just makes it hard to believe".
   
• Figures show that households will pay £10 more on average for monthly water bills from April. Bill rises for the next five years are being front loaded so that water companies can commit extra money to investment in infrastructure such as reservoirs. Increases will vary, with Southern Water customers expecting to see the most significant increase of 47%. Water UK Chief Executive David Henderson said: "We understand increasing bills is never welcome and, while we urgently need investment in our water and sewage infrastructure, we know that for many this increase will be difficult." Water companies will set aside £4 billion to fund discounted bills for vulnerable people. However, the Council for Water said that this doesn’t go far enough, as approximately 2.5 million households are already in debt to water companies.
   
• A court has ruled that consent for two new Scottish oil and gas fields was granted unlawfully by the previous UK Conservative government and the industry regulator, meaning that owners must seek new approval. The judgment follows campaigns brought by environmental groups Uplift and Greenpeace. Lord Ericht said that a more detailed assessment of the environmental impact of the Jackdaw and Shetland fields was needed but that work could continue while information was gathered. Rosebank contains approximately 300 to 500 million barrels of oil, making it the largest known untapped field in the UK. The assessment took into account the emissions generated in the process of extracting oil. In his judgment, Ericht wrote that it was in the public’s interest to have the decision “remade on a lawful basis” because the effects of climate change outweighed the interests of the developers. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and the regulator will reconsider whether to grant consent. Speaking about the UK’s national and international targets to reduce carbon emissions, Charlie Kronick, senior climate advisor at Greenpeace, said: “There is no way that we can meet targets by approving new oil and gas.”

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