Business briefs: NTS | Toby Strauss | Robertson

THE National Trust for Scotland (NTS) and Berkeley Insurance Group have formed a partnership under a new division, Berkeley Heritage.

It will offer insurance packages to help in the protection of historic properties and collections, initially in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

A similar scheme in the US now contributes $250,000 (£165,000) a year to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in America. Ian Burrell of Berkeley Heritage said the partners wanted to put something back into the heritage of Scotland.

• Toby Strauss, chief executive of Scottish Widows, netted himself more than £1.2 million yesterday after he sold more than two million shares in the life and pensions firm’s state-backed parent company, Lloyds Banking Group.

The lender said Strauss, the former head of rival Aviva’s UK life business who joined Scottish Widows two years ago, exercised an option on almost 1.5 million shares under an executive share plan and sold them at 59.65p each.

He also sold an additional tranche of more than 600,000 shares at 59.58p.

• Robertson, the construction group, has secured an

£8.3 million contract from Clackmannanshire Council for the design and build of the Redwell Primary School in Alloa.

The project is part of a £500m investment programme from the Scottish Government covering construction projects throughout Forth Valley, Fife and Tayside.

Redwell Primary will replace the St John’s and Claremont Primary Schools and will accommodate more than 430 pupils with room for further expansion if required.