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BT has also agreed improvements in the technical services it provides to rivals in the fixed line, residential phone market to make alternative carriers such as TalkTalk, Tesco, One.Tel and Tele2 more competitive.However, Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, yesterday stopped short of forcing BT to reverse the recent tariff changes for the residential phone market that saw it abolish standard charges and migrate 9 million customers on to its BT Together discount tariffs.Ian el-Mokadem, managing director of Centrica Telecom, which owns One.Tel, said: “BT have now been forced to do things that they have been dragging their feet on for years BT hasn’t done this out of the goodness of its heart It’s done it because it was going to be forced into it. Prices for other wholesale broadband products sold by BT to alternative telecoms operators will fall as well. BT Group yesterday pre-empted a regulatory crackdown and slashed the prices that it charges rivals for access to its local exchanges ­ a move expected to accelerate the roll-out of high-speed broadband internet services.
Charges faced by rivals for so-called “local loop unbundling” will fall up to 70 per cent. And that will be good news for profits.”Mr Radice hailed Ms Bostock’s “outstanding retail flair”. Ms Bostock, who last year was named the fashion industry’s second most influential person by the sector’s bible Draper’s Record, headed Next’s childrenswear arm before being lured to Asda.

Several retail heavyweights had turned down the job as director of clothing at M&S, including the former head of Debenhams, Belinda Earl, and Pringle’s Kim Winser, so the company added clothing to Vittorio Radice’s home and new store design responsibilities.Analyst Rhys Williams, at Seymour Pierce, said: “Kate seems to have the skills M&S lacks, in design, in buying and in merchandise. Mr Radice also promoted Jack Paterson, who ran M&S’s successful lingerie department, to the new position of director of home; Matt Hudson, her former colleague, is the director of lingerie and beauty, and Andrew Skinner, who oversaw the launch of M&S’s first menswear sub-brand, Blue Harbour, was made director of menswear M&S declined to say how much Ms Bostock would be paid.. During her three years at Asda she pioneered “fast fashion”, reinventing catwalk trends as wearable, affordable clothing ranges refreshed every four weeks She helped to launch George as a standalone store. She will be able to use the knowledge she brings from Asda to put pressure on M&S suppliers to cut their prices. The supermarket chain, a pioneer of value clothing, yesterday declined to comment on whether it would let her go early. Shares in M&S, which have tumbled in recent weeks, rose 4.25p to 275.25p. The company, which is searching for a new chairman to succeed Luc Vandevelde, is desperate to revive sales of its core womenswear, particularly given the lukewarm reception for its autumn collection It has lost market share over the past two quarters.

Ms Bostock, 47, last year refused the job of running M&S’s childrenswear division. Yesterday she said: “I’ve always admired what Marks & Spencer stands for, particularly its focus on quality. I will have the opportunity to help build one of the most compelling womenswear offers on the high street.” Although Mr Longdon will leave the company at the end of this month, it is unclear how long M&S will have to wait for Ms Bostock She is on a six-month contract at Asda. Marks & Spencer scored an unexpected fashion victory yesterday when it poached one of the country’s best retailers from Asda to run its troubled womenswear business.
Kate Bostock, the design brains behind the runaway success of Asda’s George clothing arm, is to replace Steve Longdon, ousted as director of womenswear after months of disappointing sales. Shares in Krispy Kreme fell 4 per cent on the New York Stock Exchange.It was not all good news for Wal-Mart. America’s biggest retailer was fined $3m fine for violating environmental laws, allowing storm water to run off from construction sites.. The move will increase the rivalry between Dunkin’ Donuts and its US rival Krispy Kreme which has outlets in seven Wal-Mart stores.

The other new stores will be at Poole in Dorset, Bridgwater in Somerset and Old Kent Road in south-east London.And Allied Domecq, the UK spirits group, said its Dunkin’ Donuts offshoot is to open franchises inside 10 Wal-Mart stores in the US. Asda said its share of the UK food market now stood at 13.3 per cent, up 0.3 per cent on the similar period last year.The 6 to 8 per cent growth in sales compares with a figure of 7.5 per cent at Tesco and 9.7 per cent at William Morrison, which acquired Safeway earlier this year. Sainsbury’s is to update the market on its trading performance next week. The expansion plan includes four new stores and the extension of a further 21, starting with Asda’s first purpose-built, two-level supercentre in Huyton on Merseyside. And if more attempts to cut pensions are made, then the inevitable result will be further industrial action.”The TUC is to hold a rally in London on 19 June, to demonstrate against the Government’s failure to address the many problems in the pensions sector.Mr Jones will also announce today the publication of a new set of guidelines, compiled by the CBI’s pensions strategy group, “to help firms with tough choices” over pensions.. Food sales grew by 5 to 6 per cent, and sales of clothing and entertainment products such as DVDs did even better.Asda overtook Sainsbury’s last year as Britain’s second-biggest grocer after Tesco and now contributes about half of Wal-Mart’s total sales outside the US. Asda, the supermarket chain owned by Wal-Mart of the US, is to create a further 4,300 jobs through a £400m store-opening programme.