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The world of sport has been severely disrupted by Covid-19, with headlines highlighting everything from cancelled events and empty stadiums, to athlete health and spectator safety.

But the pandemic has also had a huge knock-on effect on businesses that support the sport industry – and nowhere is that more apparent than around the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The Games, originally due to start on Friday, have been delayed until summer 2021, affecting UK firms who had been fortunate enough to win work.

British companies were set to provide parts for water sport courses, ambulances for horses, power generators, and Olympic venue construction – not to mention softer services such as sponsorship expertise.

‘Logistics operation’

Two of the bigger affected firms are ES Global and Aggreko Events Services.

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Aggreko

Glasgow-based Aggreko is the only British firm among the 66 official Tokyo Olympic partners and sponsors, and has been part of the Games since Seoul 1988, providing generators.

Its initial Tokyo contract value was around $200m (£158m) and Aggreko said earlier this year it expected that to increase to around $250m. It has received more than $100m in payments so far, as the Japanese hosts continue to deliver scheduled instalments.

Robert Wells is the managing director of Aggreko Events Services.

“A postponement is much better than a cancellation,” he says. “At the moment we are in detailed conversations with the Games’ organising committee. There is a huge logistics operation to reschedule things.”

He said Aggreko was now removing generating equipment it had already installed in some Olympic venues.

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They will go back to Aggreko’s facility in Tokyo, stored, and tested to make sure they are ready for next year.

“Clearly there will be a cost of delay,” Mr Wells adds. “But we can’t quantify that at the moment. We are talking continuously with the organising committee about what it may be.”

As well as generators, Aggreko is also supplying the likes of power cabling, plus electricity from existing Japanese power grids.

The firm will be employing some 500 contractors in the run-up to the Games, and 300 during the event.

‘Level of uncertainty’

Meanwhile, London-based ESG will build and dismantle temporary venues for six events: triathlon, shooting, golf, tennis, rowing and hockey.

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“Although organisers have made statements that the Games are only postponed, there are contradictory statements coming out at a lower political level – there is a certain level of uncertainty,” says Olly Watts, joint chief executive of ESG.

“It has been made clear there are circumstances under which the Games could be cancelled, depending on how the virus continues in Japan and worldwide.

“Our existing contract has cover for any Games cancellation.”

He says the firm is waiting to see if the Tokyo organisers are going to come up with new contracts, now the event is taking place in 2021.

“Any changes will be slow to filter down,” he says. “With regard to our existing contracts, my feeling is they will be honoured.”

ESG had started installing venues, for example, 99% of the shooting venue was in place when the Games were called off in March.

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The others all had equipment on site and were ready to erect.

Shooting is largely being left up. With the others, all equipment is being stored on site.

Olympic Games organisers say they are renegotiating existing contracts “for example, with regards to fulfilment periods and delivery dates” and are also “newly procuring other items that will be required”.

Shipment postponed

It is not just big-name firms who have been affected by the postponement.

Smaller UK firms are hoping to showcase their expertise to the Japanese and wider sporting world.

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Newmarket-based Equisave designs and manufactures horse ambulances.

For founder Bill Fellowes, who started the business in 2000, this will be his third Olympics after London 2012 and Rio 2016.

His ambulances are manufactured in the UK and the firm provides them to 17 British racecourses and the Middle East.

“For Tokyo these will be our first trailers to have air-conditioning because of the temperatures there,” he says.

Equisave is providing six vehicles, with two non-air conditioned vehicles already shipped for test events in Japan last year, and the four high-tech ambulances set to follow.

“My contract originally said to ship the remaining items in April but the Games were cancelled before then.

“In my line of work it is financially feast or famine, and we couldn’t afford to sit on the ambulances for a year.

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“So we came to an arrangement. As long as the Games organisers would pay for the cost of the ambulances in full – which they have done – we will store them here in the UK free for them.”

The remaining ambulances will now be shipped next year. Despite the uncertainty, one small UK firm is well ahead of the game on Olympic installations.

‘All paid for’

Cumbria-based RapidBlocs makes large blocks to be used in the canoe slalom event. Its equipment has been installed into the concrete course in central Tokyo’s Kasai Rinkai Park.

Company founder Andy Laird says large blocks – made from polyethylene and steel – are put onto the concrete base of a canoe course. The blocks then “sculpt” the direction and flow of water.

Mr Laird says work was finished a year ago.

“We are all paid for. We made it, shipped it, and then installed. The trial event has been held and the course was great.”

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As well as Tokyo 2020, he has also already installed the canoe slalom course for the 2024 Games in Paris.

“We completed that in May 2019,” he says. “We are done and dusted for the next two Olympics. That is four Olympics we have supplied now.”

Silver lining?

Away from infrastructure, Len Olender is from True Gold Communications, an agency that helps sponsors and sports bodies with their Olympic marketing programmes.

He has previously worked with the likes of Samsung, Coca-Cola, Fujitsu and NTT.

Now on his 14th winter and summer games, he has been helping the Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC).

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“We had secured a wonderful plaza at Tokyo harbour for our showcase Oceania Village in partnership with the city of Tokyo,” he says.

But the postponement means it is not known if the site will be available next year.

It is hoped that the project will pick up again early next year, but Mr Olender does not know if there will be funding to restart it.

However, he says there is a potential silver lining to the Olympics’ delay.

Games partners will have the opportunity to activate their sponsor programmes in a different way, taking account of things like social distancing and AI technology – which could create opportunities.

Also, Tokyo 2021 organisers might want to sell the Games as part of the global “rebirth” of the sporting world after coronavirus.

“This could mean heightened interest to be on the Olympic bandwagon, and hence more opportunities for marketing agencies, and sponsorship experts.”

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Royal Bank of Scotland’s decision to allow 50,000 staff to work from home for the rest of 2020 underlines radical changes in the workplace, experts say.

RBS said it was taking a “cautious approach” to keeping staff safe, a move echoed by similar decisions at the likes of Facebook, Google and Fujitsu.

The pandemic has forced a change in attitude among employers, said personnel expert Peter Cheese.

He called it “a moment of real change in the world of work”.

And it is a change, added Mr Cheese, head of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), that puts staff more at the centre of operations.

Originally, RBS had intended for its employees to work from home until the end of September, but it has now extended the period to early 2021.

On 17 July, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said companies would have more discretion to bring staff back to workplaces if it is safe to do so, from 1 August onwards.

A spokeswoman for RBS said: “Like we’ve done throughout the pandemic the decision has been made carefully, including considering the latest guidance from the UK government on Friday and our own health and safety standards and procedures.

“It’s a cautious approach but we feel the right one to take currently. We’re in a fortunate position that so many of our colleagues can work from home and we feel it’s the right decision to continue doing so into 2021.”

Since the coronavirus lockdown began, about 10,000 RBS employees have continued to work in branches and some offices to support customers, while another 450 employees whose jobs cannot be done at home returned to offices and call centres in June.

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RBS says that it has been reconsidering how the bank works “in the longer term” and intends to tell staff about “future ways of working” later this year.

According to Mr Cheese, the pandemic is “forcing different thinking” from employers about the viability of allowing employees to work flexibly.

“We’re at a moment of real change in the world of work, driven by big existential crises. It’s a big paradigm shift, putting people much more at the centre of thinking,” he said.

Not working, but shirking

The CIPD, which represents HR professionals, says the UK has long lagged behind other nations in part-time work, due to a prevailing “culture of presenteeism”, where bosses judge staff performance based on how many hours they spend in the office.

There is also a long-standing stigma around working from home, but the CIPD says the coronavirus lockdown has been an eye-opener for businesses.

A recent survey of 1,046 employers by the CIPD found that 28% believe the increase in homeworking during lockdown has increased productivity or efficiency.

More than half of workforces have been working from home continuously since March, and employers expect the proportion of staff who work from home all the time to rise to 22% post-pandemic, compared with 9% previously.

“There’s a longstanding belief that if you’re working from home, you’re shirking from home – you’re doing other things that are not work,” said Mr Cheese.

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“Bosses are starting to shift towards judging output, rather than the number of hours spent in front of the computer.”

He said the pandemic had forced bosses to care more about the physical and mental wellbeing of their staff.

“It’s the biggest experiment we’ve ever had in homeworking. A lot of individuals quite like this – they have better work-life balance and they don’t feel they’re being scrutinised, and they don’t have to commute,” said Mr Cheese.

Not everyone wants to work from home, whether it’s because they live alone, or they have challenging personal circumstances, such as caring for young children or relatives.

But the pandemic is making employers see staff as people, as opposed to “tools” of the business, he added.

“Understanding those aspects of their wider lives and their mental wellbeing – it’s created a mindset shift of understanding how we can manage people better.”

Flexible working

Entrepreneurs, business strategists and HR experts have been discussing the anthropology of work and its social and economic impacts for at least a decade, and the notion of flexible working has kept coming up.

Although the pandemic has accelerated thinking about how business processes could be changed to accommodate flexible working, the CIPD thinks it is unlikely that many firms will give up having physical office premises.

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Instead, the industry body thinks that office spaces will become places where some staff work, or they work in the office at different times and on different days, and that the office space will be used more for face-to-face meetings.

“In the end, businesses need to make money, but not at any cost,” said Mr Cheese.

“What’s driven a lot of this thinking is the concept that the only person who matters is the financial stakeholder, but now we’re looking at multidisciplinary stakeholders – the business is responsible to their people, society and the environment.”

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Home owners will soon be able to add an extra two floors to their houses without needing full planning permission.

And developers will be able to knock down unused commercial premises and build residential units.

The government said the new rules would prompt people to build more bedrooms or flats for elderly relatives, and create additional apartments.

The changes will be allowed under what’s known as Permitted Development.

This restricts the powers of local councils to prevent development going ahead.

The councils are appalled, saying the deregulation does not allow local people a proper say in the way their area looks.

But the government says it will mean redundant space can be quickly re-purposed to revive High Streets and town centres. It adds that if householders want to build upwards they’ll have to carefully consider the impact on neighbours and the appearance of the extension.

Quality of life

The move comes on the day of a damning report to ministers about a previous government scheme to allow commercial buildings to convert to residential.

It said just a fifth of the resulting homes met national space standards. Some flats were just four metres by four metres, and 10 of the units surveyed appeared to have no window at all.

Seven out of ten of the units couldn’t get adequate light or ventilation.

It concluded the scheme has created worse homes – “affecting the health, wellbeing and quality of life of future occupiers”.

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Speaking about Tuesday’s further deregulation, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said: “We are cutting out unnecessary bureaucracy to give small business owners the freedom they need to adapt and evolve, and to renew our town centres with new enterprises and more housing.

“These changes will help transform boarded-up buildings safely into high quality homes at the heart of their communities.

“It will mean that families can provide much-needed additional space for children or elderly relatives as their household grows,” he said.

Unsightly extensions

The government believes the planning system is a block on economic growth, but some councils say their planning systems can’t cope because the government has stripped so much of their funding.

Local Government Association housing spokesman David Renard, said: “The planning system is not a barrier to housebuilding with nine in 10 planning applications approved by councils. .

Neighbours have the right to comment on a development and “should not be exposed to the potential of unsightly large-scale unsuitable extensions being built unchallenged and without scrutiny in their communities,” he said.

Mr Renard added: “It risks giving developers the freedom to ride roughshod over local areas with communities having no way of ensuring they meet high quality standards, provide any affordable homes or ensure roads, schools and health services are in place.”

Follow Roger on Twitter @rharrabin

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Ryanair is shutting its base at Frankfurt Hahn airport after German pilots voted to reject pay cuts.

The firm said in a memo to pilots that its bases at Berlin Tegel and Dusseldorf airports were also at risk of closure by the end of the summer.

Airlines have been struggling because of global travel restrictions aimed at halting the spread of the coronavirus.

Ryanair’s UK pilots and cabin crew recently voted to accept pay cuts to reduce job losses.

“We must move on with alternative measures to deliver savings, which regrettably will mean base closures and dismissals,” Ryanair said in a memo to its German pilots.

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Ryanair announced in May it was set to cut 3,000 jobs across Europe.

However, earlier this month, the company revealed that it had cut a deal with the Unite union so that UK cabin crew jobs would be safeguarded.

Ryanair is yet to specify how many jobs will be impacted by the changes in Germany.

‘Bizarre’

German airline union Vereinigung Cockpit said that “less than half of pilots were in favour of accepting” the pay deal.

“We believe the agreement would have the potential to harm the entire pilot community across Germany,” it said.

Ryanair said the proposed cuts are based on current schedule plans, and insisted that they could become “considerably worse” if there is a resurgence of coronavirus.

“We made it clear throughout negotiations that if the vote was unsuccessful, then the next step would have to be dismissals,” it said.

“It is bizarre that the union canvassed against the deal knowing full well that the result would be base closures and job losses.”

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EU leaders have struck a deal on a huge post-coronavirus recovery package following a fourth night of talks.

It involves €750bn (£677bn; $859bn) in grants and loans to counter the impact of the pandemic in the 27-member bloc.

The talks saw a split between nations hardest hit by the virus and so-called “frugal” members concerned about costs.

It is the biggest joint borrowing ever agreed by the EU. Summit chairman Charles Michel said it was a “pivotal moment” for Europe.

The deal centres on a €390bn programme of grants to member states hardest hit by the pandemic. Italy and Spain are expected to be the main recipients.

A further €360bn in low-interest loans will be available to members of the bloc.

The package will allow members to maintain spending in the aftermath of lockdowns that badly affected public finances.

It includes checks that the funds will not be misused. Recipients will have to submit spending plans to the European Commission, and a majority of states will be able to block projects.

The package will now face technical negotiations by members, and needs ratification by the European Parliament.

How did we get here?

The leaders reached agreement early on Tuesday after more than 90 hours of talks.

Mr Michel, the president of the European Council, called it “the right deal for Europe right now”.

Tempers were often frayed during the negotiations. The “frugal four”, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and the Netherlands, along with Finland had opposed extending €500bn in grants.

The group originally set €375bn as the limit. Other members, such as Spain and Italy, did not want to go below €400bn.

At one point French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly banged his fists on the table, as he told the “frugal four” they were putting the European project in danger.

The €390bn figure was suggested as a compromise, and “frugal” nations were reportedly won over by the promise of rebates on their EU budget contributions.

Another issue was over linking aid to the “rule of law”. Hungary and Poland both threatened to veto the package if it adopted a policy of withholding funds from nations deemed to fall short of democratic principles.

How have EU European leaders reacted?

President Macron said it was a “historic day for Europe”.

Mr Michel said: “We showed collective responsibility and solidarity and we show also our belief in our common future.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted. “Today we’ve taken a historic step, we all can be proud of. But other important steps remain. First and most important: to gain the support of the European Parliament. Nobody should take our European Union for granted.”

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who led the “frugal group”, welcomed the agreement, but acknowledged the fractious nature of the talks. “We are all professionals, we can take a few punches,” he told reporters.

Tough talks reflect power shifts

The deal was reached after marathon of negotiations that almost became the longest in EU history. The “EU enlargement” summit in Nice 20 years ago lasted only 25 minutes longer.

For leaders who had pushed for a far-reaching package, the deep frustration, including table-thumping anger from the French president, appears to have dissipated.

I asked Mr Macron whether he still felt that the “frugal four” had damaged the European project by their hard bargaining. He said, as had been reported: “It’s legitimate that we have different sensibilities… If we don’t take into account the realities, we’d put these leaders in a difficult spot and it would favour the populists.”

The “Club Med” countries, Spain, Italy and Portugal, appear content with the smaller size of grants available. Portuguese PM Antonio Costa told us: “While it’s true that it could have had a slightly bigger dimension, the recovery plan is robust enough to respond to the current estimates of the coronavirus crisis.”

As for Europe’s most powerful leader, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, I asked her about the new power balance in the EU. She said: “During the last negotiations [then UK Prime Minister] David Cameron’s view loomed large. Now he is no longer with us, others have come to the fore.”

How will the deal be funded?

The European Commission will borrow the €750bn on international markets and distribute the aid.

The deal was reached alongside agreement on the bloc’s next seven-year budget, worth about €1.1tn.

The UK, which has recorded more coronavirus deaths than any other European country, left the EU in January and is not involved in the deal.

Europe’s papers see mixed success

“The EU is still alive. For a change, that’s good news,” says Germany’s Spiegel correspondent Ronald Nelles, capturing a sense of relief expressed by many.

Spain’s El País calls the deal “a milestone in the budgetary evolution of the club that has never been so far on the path towards a possible fiscal union”.

But several commentators note its many compromises. Charles Michel “will have to justify to the EU parliament the fact that the finished paper does not include expenditure on many research and climate projects”, agrees Austria’s Der Standard.

The Polish prime minister also “boasted that Poland had successfully resisted linking the portion of the money with a commitment to the fight against global warming”, notes a correspondent in Gazeta Wyborcza, quoting Mateusz Morawiecki saying: “We won better rules than the European Commission proposed.”

“This undeniable victory for Paris and Berlin… will leave a bitter aftertaste,” says France’s Les Echos. “Even hand in hand and without having to confront British roadblocks, this couple is no longer almighty in Europe.”