That is not the language of a minister properly exercising his powers," Mr Rowley said.The other part of the shareholders' case is that the Government also acted illegally by "interfering" with their property rights, by "contriving a state of affairs" that would see Railtrack forced into administration.For the Government, Mr Sumption said the actions of public bodies often harm identifiable groups of people. However, if public authorities were acting in the public interest, then their actions were legitimate. He agreed that shareholders were harmed by the Government's actions but said this was a consequence of the decision to end Government funding for Railtrack, "in the public interest", which led to administration. "The claimants have got to prove that it [damage to shareholders] was the very purpose [of administration] .. if the claimants are right, damage was seen as an advantage. He described as "speculative innuendo" the idea that Mr Byers was acting in "bad faith".Mr Sumption also said Railtrack did not have a right to expect unlimited amounts of public subsidy "as of right" and that shareholders should have understood this. Shareholders were seeking to prove the "perfectly absurd" theory that Stephen Byers, the former secretary of state for transport, specifically sought to damage them by bankrupting Railtrack, the Government's lawyer told the High Court yesterday. Jonathan Sumption QC, opening the Government's defence against the £160m compensation claim brought by shareholders in the defunct Railtrack, said officials and ministers saw as a "drawback" the harm that investors would suffer from the company being put into administration in 2001.
But Professor Littlechild said where the big six faced competition outside their home territories, the savings on offer from small suppliers were up to one-third greater.Under the current regime, customers are entitled to choose any payment method they want and cancel their contract at 28 days' notice. The report also says small suppliers should nothave to provide credit upfront to cover "use of system" charges.. This is where suppliers either buy extra supplies if they are short or sell surplus electricity. In a report published with the support of the new regulator Ofgem, Professor Littlechild says these conditions should be scrapped.He also called for a shake-up of the wholesale market so that small suppliers were no longer discriminated against in the "cash-out market". This led to 250 redundancies amongst Qinetiq's 11,000-strong workforce and a £25m restructuring charge.
This was more than offset, however, by a £29m gain from disposals and £17m gain from the sale of intellectual property rights At the pre-tax level, profits rose from £47.6m to £82.3m.. Northgate, the van rental company, said yesterday it had another strong year of double-digit earnings growth, thanks to its flexible business model and growing presence in the UK and Europe. Pre-tax profits for the year were up 24 per cent to £55.6m, with turnover up 29 per cent to £458m after its fleet increased 14 per cent to 71,600. Whereas most van rental companies operate fixed-rate contracts for a fixed number of vehicles over a fixed length of time, Northgate has won customers with the promise of flexibility. The technology is already in operation in the Channel Tunnel, where it is used to screen lorries to try to detect the presence of asylum seekers.Last year saw a switch away from pure research into so-called dual-use technologies towards technology exploitation. But the capital remains dingy, and dotted with embarrassments including the concrete shells of a hotel and coastal development abandoned by the Portuguese in 1975 and never completed.Mozambique can plead that its efforts to pick itself up have been set back by natural disasters such as the devastating floods in 2000 and 2001, then a drought which has only recently abated. The country should be earning substantial amounts from transit trade with its landlocked neighbours, but economic collapses in Zimbabwe and Malawi have been setbacks.Mozambique's recovery remains fragile.