BALFOUR BEATTY, the blue-chip engineering company, was told yesterday it was responsible for "one of the worst civil engineering disasters" in the country when an underground rail tunnel collapsed, leaving a crater near the runways at Heathrow.

A CITY column is perhaps not the place for discussion of Tony Blair's Third Way. However, there are so many dangers inherent in this new approach to public policy for markets and enterprise that some analysis of it seems unavoidable.

IS BICC just accident-prone, or is there something more sinister going on? The cables and contracting group seems to be locked in a permanent state of crisis. Whenever one of its divisions is rescued from collapse, a whole new set of problems pop up elsewhere.

BICC, the troubled cables to construction group, suffered another setback yesterday when it warned that falling prices for fibre-optic cable would force it to cut 500 jobs around the world in the next few months.

THE GOVERNMENT is likely to miss its deadline of part privatising the London Underground by April 2000, business leaders warned yesterday.

THE Government came under fire yesterday for allowing senior businessmen to move from highly influential Whitehall posts, involving billions of pounds of taxpayers' money, to companies with a direct interest in the projects concerned.

BICC, the cables and construction group, is considering cutting jobs at one of its factories in Deeside, North Wales, in an effort to offset a slump in one of its main markets, the company disclosed yesterday.

Times are hard for local councils' own contractors

GEC ALSTHOM and engineering group Brown & Root have teamed up with construction company Amec to bid for the contract to own and manage London Underground trains, tracks and stations. The consortium is likely to be financed in part by Innisfree, a special-purpose fund set up to invest in joint public and private sector projects.

RAIL PASSENGERS face cancelled services and longer train trips later this month because of a series of strikes by maintenance workers.

A SUMMER of rail chaos loomed yesterday after maintenance workers voted for industrial action in a dispute over pay and conditions.

CONTRACTORS on the nation's rail network are failing to follow stringent safety rules - which could lead to a "potentially catastrophic accident", according to an industry safety review.

BICC , the cables to construction group, unveiled a 15 per cent drop in annual profits yesterday and warned the first half of the year would be challenging for its cable operations.

BICC, the cables to electrical equipment group and a steadfast of the UK engineering sector, has found it an uphill struggle to maintain profitability in the face of determined competition at home and overseas.