Thames Water seeks backers for £4bn London supersewer project

A sewer inspector, known as a flusher, at work. London's system is no longer deemed fit for its population size. Photograph: Luke Macgregor/Reuters

Thames Water has started the hunt for international investors to fund the construction of its controversial £4bn supersewer across London.

Britain's biggest water firm will formally advertise for backers in May in a process led by the investment bank UBS. Rather than funding the scheme off its own balance sheet, Thames is setting up a new company that will own the Thames Tideway tunnel – to give the super-sewer its official title – whose investors will be repaid with interest from increased water bills paid by Thames' customers.

Thames is owned by a wide range of investors, hailing from Australia, China, Abu Dhabi, and, closer to home, BT's pension fund, Hermes. Several of them are expected to explore making an investment in the sewer.

The fundraising will test the appetite of overseas investors to back British infrastructure as political uncertainty mounts. Financiers say Ed Miliband's more interventionist approach to business, after pledges from the Labour leader to reform energy and banking markets if his party takes office a year from now, has raised investor concerns.

The 15-mile supersewer, which will run west to east across the capital, is the centrepiece in an upgrade of the underground network that was originally constructed by Sir Joseph Bazalgette in the 1850s. Then, the capital had 2 million inhabitants, whereas the water and sewage system serves four times that population today.

Thames has had to battle opponents concerned about the environmental impact of digging a new tunnel. Planning consent is due in September. In addition, the company must wait until December to see if it has won approval from the regulator, Ofwat, to inflate bills by £40 extra per year by 2020 to cover costs of the project.

Two-thirds of the £4.2bn-scheme will be built by the new company, with the remainder handled by .

"We are creating a separate business, a special-purpose vehicle, to deliver the tunnel, but at the same time our customers will be paying for that investment," said Martin Baggs, Thames Water's chief executive. "The money will flow through from customer bills to this SPV when it is up and running."

The company, which serves 8.5m London customers with 2.6bn litres of tap water every day and 14m customers in the wider south-east with waste water, came under fire for paying zero corporation tax last year, even though rules allow companies that are investing heavily to defer payment.

Coming into service next spring, the Lee tunnel is a giant, four-mile storage tank designed to halve the 39m tonnes of diluted sewage that is discharged annually into the river system. At 75 metres (246ft) down, it is the deepest tunnel in London. Costing £650m, it will eventually connect to the Thames Tideway tunnel beneath the Abbey Mills pumping station near Stratford, in east London.

Asda to axe around 200 jobs

Asda employee stocking shelves. Asda recently announced plans to spend £750m on new sites this year. Photograph: Alamy

Asda is to cut around 200 jobs as it forges a new five-year plan to tackle increasing competition from rival supermarkets and discounters.

Head office staff in Leeds and the Leicestershire market town of Lutterworth, where its clothing arm, George is based, were briefed on the plans on Monday.

The moves were part of a package of recommendations put forward by consultancy firm McKinsey, which also included calls for a widening of product ranges.

An Asda spokeswoman said: "In the spirit of openness, we've let our colleagues know that we will be having some more detailed discussions with them this week about a new structure."

The company declined to comment on details of the redundancy plan.

Under pressure from upmarket rivals such as Waitrose at one end and discount chains such as Aldi at the other, recent figures for the 12 weeks to 2 March show Sainsbury's was the only one of the big four supermarkets not to lose market share over the year, holding steady at 17%.

Tesco fell 0.6% to 28.7%, Asda by 0.3% to 17.5%, and Morrisons dropped 3.2% to 11.1%.

But, in contrast with the rest of the big four, Asda recently announced plans to step up its store expansion and spend £750m on new sites this year to plug gaps in London and the south-east of England.

The expansion drive would see the UK's second-largest supermarket, which is owned by US-based Wal-Mart, add 500,000 sq ft of new space, compared with 350,000 sq ft in 2013.

Its competitors have been scaling back from the so-called "space race", as they focus on smaller convenience stores and their online businesses

Co-op bank needs £400m as losses deepen

Co-op Bank needs to raise £400m.hi Photograph: Jonathan Nicholson/ Jonathan Nicholson/Demotix/Corbis

The Co-operative Group is facing a demand to pump more cash to its troubled banking arm which risks being crippled by a new £400m bill to pay compensation for mis-selling to customers.

The 170-year-old debt-laden mutual was confronted with a new request for cash after the bank admitted its losses for 2013 could amount to £1.3bn and that it needed more capital – on top of £1.5bn poured in last year – to cover the cost of a string of conduct issues ranging from mis-sold payment protection insurance to mistakes in the paperwork. Mortgage customers who were offered leniency on home loans will also get some redress because they faced charges on missed payments.

The scale of the problem announced by the bank's new boss Niall Booker was larger than had been expected and comes after the rescue of the bank last year left the Co-op Group with just a 30% stake. Bondholders, led by US hedge funds, own the remaining 70%.

Booker admitted he had already axed 1,000 jobs, 14% of the workforce, in an effort to shed costs and return a slimmed down bank to profitability in five year's time. Sources believe more jobs are on the line and a stockmarket flotation of the bank has been delayed to 2015.

He said the fundraising would take the form of a rights issue – where existing shareholders are asked if they want to buy new shares first – which would suggest the Co-op Group would need to put in more than £100m if it wanted to maintain its shareholding.

The bank played down the significance of the Group's stake potentially falling to 20% even though Vince Cable's business department can strip the bank of the right to use the Co-operative name if its use is "misleading to the public". Since its rescue last year, the bank has enshrined its commitment to an ethical stance in its constitution in an attempt to prevent such an eventuality. Unusually, the Group said it had not yet decided whether to back the emergency cash call, after promising to put in £462m during last year's crisis, which began with the bank pulling out of buying 630 Lloyds branches and was exacerbated by allegations that its former chairman Paul Flowers had been buying illegal drugs.

The Group has yet to hand over £263m of the promised sum and is itself on track to report losses of at least £2bn while it struggles with £1.2bn of debts.

"As a shareholder in the Bank we will consider our position in relation to the proposed additional capital raising and make a further statement as and when appropriate," the Group said.

If the Co-op Group does not want to put in more cash, the bank can offer shares to outside investors although this would reduce the size of the stake owned by the UK's largest mutual. "We are in dialogue with them (the Group)," Booker said.

The bank had been due to publish its full-year results on Wednesday – alongside the Co-op Group – but has now delayed publication until on or before 8 April after giving a preliminary estimate of a £1.3bn loss. Last week the Co-op Group delayed its results until 17 April, following the turmoil caused by the departure of its boss Euan Sutherland who branded the organisation ungovernable after his £6.6m two year pay deal was leaked – including a £1.5m a year "retention payment".

Booker was part of the team appointed by Sutherland last May to run the bank and when asked if he and his team at the bank were on similar retention packages, Booker deferred questions to the release of the annual report next month.

Booker, who is on track to shut 50 of its 324 branches, said that the deposit base – its savers – had been very stable despite its problems, with some £27.9bn of deposits held at the bank compared with £28.1bn in 2012, a fall of less than 1%.

While stressing he was not a financial adviser, Booker said customers should retain their money in the Co-operative Bank. Last year's fundraising had made the bank stronger, the bank's values and ethics policies had been written into its constitution for the first time and the customers were still dealing with the same staff, he said.

Its crucial measure of financial strength, the core tier one ratio, had been expected to be to be just below 9%, well above the regulatory minimum of 7%, after last year's fundraising but would have plunged to 7.2% without the latest request for funds. "We can't live on a sliver of a core tier one ratio," said Booker of the need to raise more capital.

Campaigners welcome 'milestone' agreement at UN gender equality talks

Delegates meet at UN headquarters in New York for the 2014 Commission on the Status of Women. Photograph: Ryan Brown/UN Women

UN Member states have agreed that gender equality and women's rights must be prioritised in future discussions on what should be included in the next set of sustainable development goals.

After two weeks of negotiations in New York, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) ended in the early hours of Saturday morning with an agreement that called for the acceleration of progress towards achieving the millennium development goals, and confirming the need for a stand-alone goal on gender equality and women's empowerment in the set of international targets that will be introduced once they expire in 2015. The agreement also said gender equality must underpin all other goals.

Campaigners welcomed the strong language in the outcome document, which had been fiercely fought over by delegates in the final days of negotiations.

The document will now be used to push for a stand-alone goal and the mainstreaming of gender equality into the sustainable development goals, which are currently being negotiated by the UN open working group.

There were concerns that some important references to women's rights would be removed or watered down in the document when the Vatican, which has a seat on the UN as a non-member permanent observer state, began pushing for significant changes to the text.

During the discussions, the Holy See reiterated that it could not support the use of condoms and that abstinence was the only measure to prevent HIV.

The African bloc of countries had also been agitating to include a sovereignty clause in the document. Such a clause would have allowed governments to ignore the recommendations that could interfere with their own traditions and practices. This clause was withdrawn.

The inclusion of the stand-alone gender goal also proved contentious and the final decision to include it was by no means unanimous.

But there is general agreement that this year's CSW did produce a strong outcome. The document makes specific references to uphold women's sexual and reproductive health and rights; there was agreement to eliminate all harmful practices, including child marriage and female genital mutilation, which, significantly, would in future not be referred to as "cutting". There were also explicit references made to a woman's right to access abortion services and for the development of sex education programmes for young people. And there was strong language around violence against women and girls. The document called for the elimination and prevention of violence and for the prosecution of perpetrators.

The document also called on governments to address discriminatory social practices, laws and beliefs that undermine gender equality.

Efforts to weaken calls for increased funding for women's organisations were successfully resisted.

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the executive director of UN Women, said the agreement represented "a milestone toward a transformative global development agenda that puts the empowerment of women and girls at its centre".

In a statement to the commission, Mlambo-Ngcuka said:
"The safety, human rights and empowerment of women are pivotal in the post-2015 debate. UN Women is encouraged by the call of a large number of member states for a stand-alone sustainable development goal that addresses these issues. This will require political will, backed up by commensurate resources. As the commission rightly points out, funding in support of gender equality and women's empowerment remains inadequate. Investments in women and girls will have to be significantly stepped up. As member states underline, this will have a multiplier effect on sustained economic growth.

"We know that equality for women means progress for all. Through the development of a comprehensive roadmap for the future, we have the opportunity to realize this premise and promise. The 58th session of the Commission on the Status of Women has given important impetus to making equality between men and women a reality."

Françoise Girard, president of the International Women's Health Coalition (IWHC), said: "By committing and investing in efforts to promote gender equality, governments can unleash the power of half the world's population to build a more peaceful, just, and sustainable planet.

"Agreement to a standalone goal on gender equality was not a foregone conclusion here, given the small, but very vocal conservative opposition to women's rights. It's a major step forward to have the commission agree to it."

Shannon Kowalski, director of advocacy and policy at the IWHC, added: "The commitments made by governments at the UN are an important victory for women and girls. We have achieved what we came to do, against great odds and the determined attempts by the Holy See and a few conservative countries to once again turn back the clock on women's rights."

Antonia Kirkland, legal advisor at Equality Now, said: "We are heartened that UN member states were able to reach consensus at the Commission on the Status of Women and endorsed the idea that gender equality, women's rights and women's empowerment must be addressed in any post-2015 development framework following the expiration of the millennium development goals.

"Throughout the process there has been broad agreement that freedom from violence against women and girls, as well as the elimination of child marriage and female genital mutilation must be targets within such a framework. Equality Now believes sex discriminatory laws, including those that actually promote violence against women and girls, must be repealed as soon as possible to really change harmful practices and social norms."

As expected, any mention of sexual orientation was removed from the final text, as was an acknowledgment of the diversity of families. Governments, including Norway and Argentina, said they would continue to push for these issues at CSW next year.

Amanda Keifer, international policy analyst at Advocates for Youth, said CSW had reflected the increasingly polarising environment in which sexual rights, particularly the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, are discussed.

"A number of governments have championed the most controversial issues in an incredibly hostile environment. But we have also seen hateful and regressive rhetoric from governments and far-right civil society organisations.

"There is no reason that sexual and reproductive health and rights should be so controversial in 2014.

Myths about Africa – live debate at #guardiancoffee

Luxury motor yachts in Luanda, Angola. Photograph: Simon Dawson/Getty Images

Africa is dangerous, don’t go there. Africa is a country – or it may as well be. Africa will always be poor. All African governments are corrupt. Bored already? These are just some of the myths that those familiar with the continent will have had to contend with at one time or another.

Why do such myths persist – and who is responsible? Is it individuals, the media, or a combination of both? How damaging are these fallacies to development on the continent? If you live in Africa, or are part of the diaspora, how does this affect you? 

Of course, it’s not only Africa that has to put up with a host of misconceptions. Last year, Hans Rosling, the popular statistician, hosted a BBC show to explode myths surrounding global population, claiming that the Brits “know less about the world than chimpanzees”. And the theme of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s annual letter was three common development myths that block progress for the poor. Contributions from our readers on Twitter helped to highlight just how widespread development myths have become. 

This month, the Guardian’s Hugh Muir will attempt to debunk some of those false notions with an expert panel at #Guardiancoffee. PleaseRSVP using this form. If you can’t attend in person, you can still help us choose which myths about Africa we should focus on by adding your thoughts in the comment thread, or on Twitter @gdndevelopment.

As always, if you have any problems posting a comment, or would prefer to comment anonymously, email us at development@theguardian.comand we’ll add your views to the thread.

Join the live debate: 

We will be joined on the night by panelists Sylvie Aboa-Bradwell of the Policy Centre for African Peoples; Edward Paice, Director of Africa Research Institute and Onyekachi Wambu from AFFORD, the African Foundation for Development.

When: 27th March from 6.30pm - 7.15pm 

Where: Units 1,2,3, Box Park, 2-10, Bethnal Green Road, Shoreditch, London E1 6GY

RSVP: using this form, please note places are limited and will operate on a first come, first served basis

Red Bull out on a limb after Ferrari and Mercedes back FIA in fuel row

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo before he was stripped of his second place at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. Photograph: Srdjan Suki/EPA

As Red Bull prepare to lodge their appeal against the disqualification of Daniel Ricciardo from the Australian Grand Prix, Ferrari and Mercedes have called for the FIA to be allowed to "manage" and "control" the new technology changes.

Ricciardo's second place was achieved in front of an ecstatic Albert Park crowd of 100,000 but five hours after he had left the crowd to celebrate, the Australian was disqualified because of a fuel-flow irregularity; teams have to operate with fuel flow rate which does not exceed 100kg per hour.

Christian Horner, the Red Bull team principal, has described the FIA's fuel-sensoring equipment as "immature" and "unreliable" and other teams have also noticed a gap between the sensor's rate and their own fuel-flow estimation. The difference is that the other teams appear to have gone along with the FIA and their equipment, while Red Bull have gone out on a limb and used their own fuel-flow model. They have until Thursday to appeal Ricciardo's disqualification.

Stefano Domenicali, the Ferrari team principal, said: "We need to rely on the fact that it is a situation that is well managed by the FIA. We have the FIA that will do their job and I am sure there will not be a problem at all."

Toto Wolff of Mercedes said: "The FIA is obviously controlling fuel flow and checking with all the teams, and it is a question of learning by doing it between the FIA and the teams.

The Mercedes executive director added: "The fuel-flow meter is an FIA system and this needs to be integrated in the cars. This is a learning process where the teams support the FIA and vice versa."

Thankfully, the Australian Grand Prix was not dominated by new technology, and perhaps the most exciting story was the emergence of a new generation of drivers, led by McLaren's Kevin Magnussen, whose third place was later promoted to second, behind the winner, Nico Rosberg.

"It was unbelievable really, such a fantastic weekend," Magnussen said. "The team have taken care of me so well and I am proud of the team. We came here with a car that was not working so well and managed to turn it round to become a fantastic car and I am proud of the team in doing that."

As Magnussen spoke, the McLaren chief, Ron Dennis, stepped in and said: "Keep your feet on the ground, Kevin. A very wise old man went into his house and nailed to the ceiling was a pair of shoes. I asked what they were for and he said they were his son's shoes because every time he sees them it reminds him to keep his feet on the ground. I will put some in your hotel room."

When Magnussen was asked whether it was difficult to keep calm he said: "No, because it does not feel real. It is so strange that this is happening. I have been dreaming about this for my whole life. I have now done my first F1 race, I was able to get on the podium and I did it with McLaren. It is my dream. It was not a win but it feels really good.

Red Bull confirm F1 appeal against Daniel Ricciardo's disqualification

The Australian Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo was disqualified after having finished second in Melbourne. Photograph: Jon Buckle/PA

Red Bull have formally confirmed their intention to appeal against Daniel Ricciardo's disqualification from Sunday's Australian Grand Prix. Ricciardo had initially thrilled his home crowd at Melbourne's Albert Park in finishing runner-up to Mercedes' Nico Rosberg, only for the stewards to later exclude him from the race classification due to a technical fuel infringement with his Red Bull.

After immediately serving notice of their intention to appeal, the team were then given 96 hours to process their application, doing so just ahead of Thursday's deadline via the Austrian motor sport federation. A hearing will now go before the FIA's court of appeal at a date yet to be determined.

The latest set of regulations, to accommodate the introduction of the new 1.6-litre V6 turbo-charged power units and various accompanying energy-saving devices, have swiftly resulted in the first challenge. Among them is the cars now start with a maximum 100 kilograms of fuel, as opposed to 140-150kg in previous seasons, and operate with a fuel-flow rate of no more than 100kg per hour.

Ricciardo's car, however, was found to consistently exceed that rate during the race. In layman's terms, the fuel-flow rate is monitored by an FIA meter, manufactured by Gill Sensors, who are based in Lymington, Hampshire.

Following Ricciardo's disqualification, on his debut for Red Bull after being promoted from Toro Rosso as replacement for Mark Webber, the team principal, Christian Horner, claimed the sensors were "unreliable".

Horner stated there was an issue with the sensor that changed its reading through Friday practice, which was replaced on Saturday but failed during qualifying. Red Bull, of their own volition, chose to use their own sensor to determine the fuel-flow rate which had not been cleared by the FIA.

The FIA's technical director, Charlie Whiting, confirmed Red Bull were warned against doing so, both after qualifying and again five laps into the race, but chose to ignore the directive.

Addressing his team's actions, Horner said on Sunday: "These fuel-flow sensors that have been fitted by the FIA have proved problematic throughout the pit lane since the start of testing. There have been discrepancies in them, even unreliable. We had a fuel-flow sensor fitted to the car that we believe to be in error. We wouldn't be appealing if we weren't extremely confident we have a defendable case."

Red Bull will now have to prove the FIA sensor was defective and that their own device was not in error. Earlier this week Gill Sensors issued a statement claiming the FIA had provided them "with positive feedback" about their equipment that is based on ultrasonic technology.

The statement added the FIA further confirmed "their confidence in the development" and the meters "meet the FIA's accuracy specification".

Horner, though, slated the system as "immature technology" and that it was "impossible to rely [on it] 100 per cent".

Pending the outcome of the appeal, the race result, with McLaren duo Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button promoted to second and third behind Rosberg, remains provisional.