A spokesman for the Government Car and Dispatch Agency (GCDA), which is part of the Cabinet Office, insisted that senior ministers would use the cars soon, but did not specify when “They will not be stored up,” he insisted. The Government is facing further embarrassment over the collapse of MG Rover: it has just bought three new Rover saloon cars for its Cabinet ministers. Mr Glazer’s merchant bank, NM Rothschild, has yet to approach Cubic but talks may begin this week.However, it is believed that Cubic does not think the 300p- a-share offer is particularly attractive. The Irish duo, who describe themselves as “long- term investors”, are hoping to persuade Mr Glazer to raise his bid to at least 310p a share.If Cubic backs Mr Glazer’s offer, he will gain control of Man Utd whether or not the board accepts the bid.. However, others argue that the cash offer is significantly higher than Man Utd’s market valuation and so they have to recommend it.Mr Glazer, who owns 28.1 per cent of Man Utd’s shares, needs the support of Cubic Expression if his bid is going to succeed.Cubic, which is the vehicle of Irish racehorse owners JP McManus and John Magnier, has so far said it would not entertain any offer unless it had the board’s recommendation.This position is understood to have softened. Simon Curry, a partner at law firm Norton Rose, part of a wind-farm- financing joint venture, said: “Banks are not going to be keen to provide non-recourse debt to something new like offshore wind.”The Government wants 10 per cent of all electricity to come from renewable sources, such as wind, by 2010..

Malcolm Glazer, the US tycoon, will this week approach the Irish investors who own 28.9 per cent of Manchester United to try to force the club to back his £800m bid. Some of the larger players are looking to re-evaluate the projects.”In some cases, developers are being asked to provide guarantees to the National Grid that they will finance connections to the offshore farms, even before planning consent is granted. There is a lot of work going on in government to find out what is required to get offshore wind off the ground.”Earlier this year, some of the companies involved in the project at the Wash, which include Amec and National Wind Power, met energy minister Mike O’Brien to voice their concerns.Financing from banks could also be a problem without government help. This would leave them liable if planning permission is refused.Alan Mortimer, head of renewable policy at Scottish Power, said: “Finance is a big issue for offshore wind. These will be located in three offshore sites – in the Thames Estuary, the Wash and the North-west. The first of the 20,000 turbines, able to generate a total 7200MW of electricity (enough for a city the size of London), are scheduled to be in operation in 2008.Offshore wind farms cost 30 per cent more to build and operate than those on land, mainly because the operators must extend the national grid along the seabed to connect the turbines.Some companies are warning that, as a result, many of the projects are uneconomic and that they could be forced to scale back their size drastically or pull out altogether.One finance chief of a major operator said: “There are murmurs in the industry that, without government incentives, these projects are marginal at best.

Huge offshore wind farms vital to meeting carbon-reduction targets will not be built without more state aid, energy companies have warned. It is the latest blow to the Government’s controversial wind-farm construction programme.
Companies including Scottish Power and E.on have told the Department of Trade and Industry that they want capital grants to help pay for the £9.4bn programme, or an offshore national grid company to be set up to link the developments to the existing grid.The DTI said it was planning to consult companies this summer to try to resolve the row over who will pay for the next round of wind farms. And this was backed up when Mr Brown visited Sheerness in Kent 10 days ago. She was pleased with the response.”Some of the people said: ‘What will you do if you get elected?’, and I said ‘I would be proud to be a representative for you and I would be proud to find out and understand your problems,’ ” she explained.Mrs Sargent, who works as a company secretary, says she has never been involved in any form of politics prior to the pensions campaign. “It is my understanding that it is the Treasury that has not been prepared to put any more money into helping us,” she said.Mrs Sargent travelled up to Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath last weekend to put her case to local residents and win enough support to be nominated. This legislation created the new Pensions Protection Fund (PPF), which guarantees 90 per cent of the pensions for members of insolvent schemes.After a long and concerted campaign, which included the lobbying of Parliament and the Labour Party conference, the then work and pensions secretary, Andrew Smith, announced last year he was setting up a £400m Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) to help workers caught out in this way.But when details of the scheme emerged, it was less attractive than had been expected.

She would not reveal whether she had voted for Labour, but admitted: “If Gordon Brown were true to what he says, it would be very like my personal politics.”. Indeed, the PAG has worked out that just 146 out of 1,005 workers who lost their pension at Dexion would benefit from the FAS, while at ASW, the steel group which collapsed in 2002, only around 5 per cent of workers would be helped.Alan Johnson, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has said he will review the FAS. It guaranteed only 80 per cent of the pension, and then only for workers within three years of retirement age Keith Sargent, who is 56, was not covered. She is representing the Pensions Action Group (PAG), which is campaigning for more than 80,000 workers who have lost their pensions because their companies collapsed.Mrs Sargent’s husband, Keith, worked for Dexion, the shelving and storage maker whose collapse in 2003 left more than a thousand workers without their pensions. Earlier this year, regulator Postcomm announced it would lose its monopoly on letter post from the start of next year, 15 months ahead of schedule.Last year the Royal Mail made a profit of £220m against a £197m loss for the 2002-03 financial year. This year’s dividend payout was set to be triggered if annual profits were more than £400m.. Gordon Brown may view himself as prime minister in waiting, but the Chancellor has a formidable opponent to overcome before he can think about that battle: Patricia Sargent.