Tuesday newspaper round-up: Ryanair, City real estate, energy prices

Rish Sunak is poised to usher in cuts worth £2bn for government departments tasked with meeting the Tories’ flagship “levelling up” agenda, despite planning for the biggest tax raid in a generation. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the chancellor was on track to lift the UK’s tax burden to the highest sustained level in peacetime with a package of manifesto-busting tax increases at this month’s budget and spending review. - Guardian

Ryanair has been accused of barring passengers who pursued chargebacks against the airline during the pandemic from taking new flights this year – unless they return their refunds. An investigation by MoneySavingExpert (MSE) has found that holidaymakers who sought refunds from their credit card provider have faced last-minute demands of up to £600 if they want to board a Ryanair plane. During the lockdowns, Ryanair carried on flying many of its routes even though most tourists were in effect barred by government rules from travelling. - Guardian

German investors have ploughed £847m into City of London property so far this year, the second-highest level since 2013, in a boost for post-Brexit Britain. One in five property transactions in the Square Mile were carried out by German investors in the year to mid-September, according to findings from Savills, the estate agent. - Telegraph

As Westminster-watchers salivated at an extraordinary political row between the business department and the Treasury at the weekend over helping companies with high energy costs, industry chiefs looked on in despair. “We want the prime minister to now bang ministerial heads together,” Gareth Stace, director-general of UK Steel, told Times Radio yesterday. “If he does nothing, his ambition in terms of levelling up, the high-wage economy, will be in tatters.” - The Times

Rampant inflation and rising interest rates will increase the cost of servicing Britain’s £2.2 trillion debt by £15 billion a year, a leading think tank has warned. In its annual “green budget”, published yesterday, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said that the chancellor would have to account for a sharp rise in government borrowing costs even though the outlook for the public finances had improved overall. - The Times