In brief: Morrisons’ online hits north London, Sales growth wilts in good weather, Babcock, Balfour land nuclear deal

Morrisons today launched online grocery deliveries across north London for the first time since its £210 million link with Ocado.

Orders can be placed for deliveries starting on July 9 and Morrisons’ bosses are hoping it will help the struggling supermarket catch up with rivals who have been operating online food sales for several years. Earlier this year Morrisons launched home deliveries in Yorkshire.

Annual retail sales growth has ground to a halt despite the recent good weather, according to the latest CBI snapshot of the sector.

The organisation’s distributive trades survey for June gave a headline reading of +4, well below the consensus expectation of +24, and down sharply from +16 in May. The slowdown was driven by a fall in clothes sales.

Engineer Babcock and construction firm Balfour Beatty have landed a £160 million deal to build a waste decommissioning facility at Sellafield in Cumbria.

The 25-metre high building will maintain and store equipment used for retrieving historic hazardous waste from one of the world’s most complicated nuclear sites.