Monday newspaper round-up: Carillion, economic growth, business rates, Provident Financial

MPs have accused the Pensions Regulator of failing to act while Carillion racked up debts to pay dividends and executive bonuses, as the business built up a pension deficit that reached nearly £1bn by the time it collapsed this month. The House of Commons work and pensions committee, which is investigating Carillion’s collapse into compulsory liquidation two weeks ago, criticised the Pensions Regulator for allowing Carillion’s pension trustee to defer pension deficit contributions in September in a bid to keep it afloat by enabling more borrowing. – Guardian

Economic growth in the UK is expected to slow in the first few months of 2018 as high inflation, weak consumer confidence and uncertainty surrounding Brexitdiscourage high street spending and investment. A series of business and consumer surveys pointed to lower growth, ending a strong run that culminated in a rise in GDP growth to 0.5% in the last quarter of 2017. – Guardian

A relief fund worth £300m set up by Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, to support small firms struggling under the weight of business rates rises has proved a “false hope” after failing to pass on tens of millions of pounds 300 days after its launch. Research by Gerald Eve, the property consultancy, has found that more than £70m of the £175m allocated to councils for the year to March 2018 has yet to be passed on to local firms. – Telegraph

City shareholders hungry for more after pocketing a record £94.4bn in payouts last year will be left with little more than a “hangover” in 2018, a study has found. British businesses paid out a record amount to their investors last year due to high one-off dividends and foreign exchange rate gains. However, growth “slowed to a crawl” in the final months of the year, the latest analysis by Link Asset Services shows, with dividends this year set to rise by just 1.6pc. – Telegraph

The Pig, a chain of shabby chic hotels co-owned by Jim Ratcliffe, the billionaire chief executive of Ineos, the chemicals company, is poised to make three additions to its litter. Almost seven years after opening its first hotel, in Brockenhurst, Hampshire, the group plans to open in Kent, West Sussex and Cornwall at a combined cost of £30 million. The Pig is the brainchild of Robin Hutson, who co-founded Hotel du Vin and then helped Mr Ratcliffe open Lime Wood, a hotel in the New Forest. – The Times

Four former bosses at Provident Financial have launched employment tribunal claims for unfair dismissal in the wake of the botched restructuring of its salesforce, The Times has learnt. In a deepening of the crisis facing the troubled subprime lender, Andy Parkinson, former head of Provident’s doorstep lending business, has a hearing scheduled for mid-April. – The Times