Thursday newspaper round-up: UK growth, RBS, climate change costs, BT

Britain’s growth rate will bounce back above 1.5% next year as ministers exceed existing public spending budgets to cope with an ageing population, a leading thinktank has said. The National Institute for Social & Economic Research (NIESR) said plans to ease austerity only slightly over the next five years were “unbelievable”. It added that government spending would almost certainly need to increase by more than expected in the next few years, increasing the UK’s GDP growth. – Guardian

Free TV licences for over-75s should be scrapped, the age threshold for free bus passes raised and the triple-lock on pensions abolished to close the widening gap between young and old in Britain, according to a Lords report. The House of Lords committee on intergenerational fairness and provision said it was time to rebalance government policy in favour of the young, to remove the risk of the social bonds between generations fraying further. – Guardian

Royal Bank of Scotland has announced that chief executive Ross McEwan has resigned after more than five-and-a-half years leading the bank. RBS said that Mr McEwan has has a 12-month notice period. He will remain in place until a successor had been appointed and an "orderly handover has taken place". His date of his departure will be confirmed in due course, the bank said. – Telegraph

The Government faces spiralling climate change costs unless it accelerates plans to fund a new breed of carbon capture projects by the mid-2020s, according to MPs. A select committee report warned that without carbon capture the cost of meeting the country's legally-binding climate targets will double to 2pc of GDP by 2050. – Telegraph

BT is planning a retreat from Ireland with a £400m auction of its business serving corporate clients in the Republic, The Telegraph can reveal. The telecoms giant has invited bids for BT Ireland as part of a radical pruning of its Global Services international arm, sparked by a major accounting scandal in Italy. – Telegraph