City profiles
Andy Street John Lewis boss and “proud Brummie” Andy Street is stepping down after being chosen as the Tories’ candidate to fight the inaugural West Midlands mayoral election, says the BBC. Street has spent his entire career at the company, having joined as a shop-floor worker immediately after leaving King Edward’s School in Edgbaston more than 30 years ago, says the Birmingham Mail. Since taking the helm at the flagship John Lewis department store business in 2007, sales have surged 67% to £3.7bn last year. He faces a tough fight in his first political contest, attempting to win over a largely Labourvoting area and going up against seasoned Labour MEP Siôn Simon. “This election needs to go beyond traditional political loyalties,” said Street.
Sir Winston Churchill said that “no hour of life is lost that is spent in the saddle”. His grandson seems to have taken the advice to heart, says The Times: he recently revealed that he is a keen user of London’s “Boris bikes”. Colleagues confirmed that he can often be seen using the bicycles between meetings, “despite an £18,000 package of benefits that includes a car allowance”. Soames made the comments as he announced that Serco has secured a new five-year contract to run the TFL Cycle Hire scheme. At just £79.7m, the deal is worth almost half the £140m that the company was paid for the original contract to run the service, which began in 2010. Serco said the new deal covers fewer services and specifically excludes running the scheme’s call centre.