Friday newspaper round-up: Energy bills, triple lock, ONS data crisis

(Sharecast News) - Consumers will pay higher energy bills unless the UK government speeds up work on a vast programme of upgrades to the electricity grid to enable the switch to renewables, the public spending watchdog has warned. The National Audit Office (NAO) said that without faster action the extra costs associated with managing the ageing power network, which are ultimately passed on to the public, could reach £7.8bn a year by 2030. - Guardian

No 10 has announced the construction of a new fleet of battery-powered trains that will "bring faster, more reliable journeys to the north". The 29 new trains, which will be run by TransPennine Express, are set to be built in Alstom's Litchurch Lane works in Derby from 2028, which the government says will support 350 local jobs, as well as nearly 6,000 across the UK. The new fleet will be made up of Adessia Stream trains, a battery-powered model that will be the first of its kind to be used for long-distance mainline journeys in the UK when it enters service in 2034. - Guardian

A Tory MP has said Kemi Badenoch should pledge to scrap the triple lock to restore the party's economic credibility. The politician, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Conservatives must "slaughter some sacred cows" if they are to regain power and stabilise the public finances. The abolition of the triple lock, which increases the state pension by the highest of either inflation, wage growth or 2.5pc, would be integral to this, the MP said. - Telegraph

Michael O'Leary, the Ryanair boss, has called on the Transport Secretary to sack the UK's "incompetent" air traffic control boss. Mr O'Leary has written to Heidi Alexander urging her to dismiss Martin Rolfe, the chief executive of the air traffic control body National Air Traffic Services (Nats), after a computer meltdown led to more than 2,000 flights being cancelled this week. It is the third time in as many years that a computer malfunction at Nats has grounded flights. - Telegraph

A "toxic culture" and an environment in which senior officials "resented" being challenged led to a crisis in the data collected by the Office for National Statistics, a cross-party committee of MPs has claimed. In a report deeply critical of the ONS and its governing body the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA), members of the Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee castigated the agencies for not tackling the deterioration in data standards "until they reached crisis point". - The Times