Monday newspaper round-up: Restaurant job losses, UK border, LV

UK restaurants and casual dining firms recorded almost 30,000 job losses in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic drove a 163% jump in redundancies. Data compiled by the Centre for Retail Research (CRR) revealed that 29,684 jobs were lost across fine dining, independent businesses and large multiple casual-dining chains during the year. - Guardian

Ministers are facing demands for more honesty and transparency over any logjams at the UK border in the wake of Britain’s exit from the EU, amid concerns that waves of disruption will last for six months. Several lorry drivers are understood to have been turned away at Dover for not having the right paperwork following the end of the Brexit transition period last week. It has caused concern among logistics and manufacturing companies that more severe problems could occur as trade flows increase later this month. - Guardian

The City’s trading relationship with the European Union will be subject to crunch talks this week as ministers race to secure a deal within two months. The UK is hurrying to nail down a plan for selling financial services across Europe after the Brexit trade deal failed to cover swathes of the banking and insurance sectors. Treasury ministers and civil servants are poised to meet with City lobby groups in days to map out a “memorandum of understanding” with the EU, the Mail on Sunday reported. - Telegraph

A £530 million plan to sell one of Britain’s biggest insurance mutuals is set to raise fresh concerns as it emerged that a key panel representing 340,000 policyholders initially vetoed it. The Times has learnt that the committee representing holders of LV= with-profits policies rejected the offer from Bain Capital, an American private equity group, in favour of a rival offer from Royal London, another mutual. - The Times

The private equity division of Lloyds Banking Group is backing the combination of two residential lettings companies to form a new national group with ambitions to grow. The merger brings together Linley & Simpson, which is focused on Yorkshire and already backed by Lloyds’ LDC division, with Lomond Capital, which owns a series of letting and estate agent brands across Britain. - The Times