Tuesday newspaper round-up: Fuel duty, PPI, ASOS, Facebook, tariffs

The government is close to lifting its eight-year long freeze on fuel duty to raise billions of pounds to help meet pressure from cabinet ministers to boost public spending while also continuing to reduce the deficit. An inflation-linked increase would raise £800m extra for Treasury coffers next year – and billions more over subsequent years – to help pay for Theresa May’s promise to spend an additional £20bn on the National Health Service by 2023, a pledge which the prime minister had said would partly be funded through a “Brexit dividend”. – Guardian

Britain’s banks face the threat of a huge new PPI bill that could add billions of pounds to the £30bn already paid out in compensation, following a court ruling lauded by claims management companies as “hugely significant”. The case opens the door to a renewed claims bonanza as it suggests that even if the PPI policy was not mis-sold, the buyer may still be able to reclaim because the scale of the commissions paid were excessively high. – Guardian

Low-income families need their disposable income to rise by nearly a third in order to meet rising transport, childcare and energy costs, according to a report. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation said government benefit cuts are hitting lower-earning households in the UK, making it increasingly difficult for them to keep up with the rising cost of living. It called on ministers to consider remedies such as ending the benefit freeze in place since 2015 and to raise the universal credit work allowance. – Guardian

Asos is expected to name City stalwart Adam Crozier as its new chairman, to take the helm of the online fashion retailer as it begins to pump more investment into warehousing. The expected appointment, which was first reported by Sky News, would come just over a month after reports emerged that Asos was interviewing candidates for the role. – Telegraph

Facebook continued to share data with more than 60 companies despite concerns about the quiz app commissioned by Cambridge Analytica. The social network gave 61 companies a year to wean themselves off the rich data provided by Facebook through its API, including Nike, UPS, dating app Hinge, a social marketing service, a Russian internet giant and avariety of news networks after it grew concerned that developers could be abusing the function. - Telegraph

America’s largest business group has called on President Trump to reverse course on his aggressive international trade policy before he triggers a full-blown trade war that directly threatens 2.6 million jobs. In a rare intervention, the US Chamber of Commerce, which is typically pro-Republican, has launched a campaign against the administration’s protectionist trade tariffs by detailing potential job losses in US states that were key to the president’s election victory. – The Times

The Treasury, the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority have been urged by MPs to publish detailed assessments of how a Brexit deal with the European Union could affect Britain’s economy. The influential House of Commons Treasury committee has called on Philip Hammond, the chancellor, and Mark Carney, the Bank’s governor, to analyse the impact of Brexit with and without a deal between the UK and the EU. – The Times