Thursday newspaper round-up: Debts, HoF, ENRC robots

The British economy is losing almost £900m a year from the rapid rise in personal debt problems, according to a report from the Whitehall spending watchdog. The National Audit Office (NAO) said reduced levels of worker efficiency, people staying away from work and greater chances of people in debt committing crime, meant there was a wider cost of £897m annually to the overall economy. – Guardian

House of Fraser is facing further pressure after a key supplier pulled brands from stores. The Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM) group, which owns the Jacques Vert, Jane Norman and Jaeger brands, and also manufactures men’s suiting for the retailer’s Linea label, began withdrawing its stock on Wednesday. – Guardian

The world’s largest offshore wind farm is set to open in UK waters today and will generate enough electricity to power 600,000 homes. Operated by Denmark’s wind power giant Ørsted, the Walney wind farm off the coast of Cumbria has grown to the size of 20,000 football pitches following an extension, which catapults the project above the size of the giant London Array in the Thames Estuary. – Telegraph

Political pressure on Facebook, Twitter and Google escalated on Wednesday as the US government warned that Silicon Valley’s increasingly powerful companies may be hurting competition. The Department of Justice said there was a “growing concern” about social media companies’ ability to “stifle” free speech and announced that the attorney general Jeff Sessions had called a meeting of state regulators to discuss competition concerns. – Telegraph

Fraud investigators suffered a serious blow when appeal judges backed a British mining company’s refusal to reveal documents thought to shed light on alleged financial wrongdoing. The decision has been hailed as a landmark ruling in favour of litigation privilege. This allows parties to investigate disputes or alleged wrongdoing without worrying that inquiries may be scrutinised by other parties. The Court of Appeal overturned a judgment that Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation must hand over documents prepared by lawyers and forensic accountants as part of its inquiry into whistleblower claims. – The Times

The rise of robots in the workplace will have as large an impact on global growth as the steam engine, according to a study by McKinsey. The business consultancy predicted that artificial intelligence could add $13 trillion to worldwide economic output by 2030, equivalent to about 1.2 per cent of additional GDP growth a year. – The Times