Tuesday newspaper round-up: Skills shortage, retail rebound, Co-op, Lloyds

The number of candidates available for jobs has hit a 16-month low, prompting fears that Brexit has triggered a skills shortage in areas ranging from IT to engineering to nursing. There was the steepest fall in availability for permanent and temporary roles in April since December 2015, according to a report from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. - The Times

Shoppers are increasing spending once more, defying fears of an economic slowdown to ramp up their purchases last month. Total sales were up 6.3pc in April compared with the same month a year ago, according to the British Retail Consortium, bouncing back from a fall of 0.2pc in March. - Telegraph

The Co-operative Bank is set to admit that a sale of its business has faltered, increasing the chances that its American hedge fund owners will have to plough more capital into the bank. An announcement expected in the next few days is set to move the loss-making bank into a new phase of trying to thrash out a deal with the hedge funds, which own 80 per cent after a previous restructuring in 2013. - The Times

Big banks in the City could shift at least 9,000 roles out of the UK as a result of Brexit, according to a tally of job warnings since the EU referendum. Deutsche Bank is leading the threatened exodus, according to research by Reuters, while the two financial centres making the most gains from London’s loss are Frankfurt and Dublin. - Guardian

Campaigners have attacked Lloyds for buying a credit card business that targets consumers aggressively with long-term offers. The bank is set to acquire MBNA for £1.9 billion in what will be its first takeover since it was rescued by taxpayers at the height of the financial crisis. But although bosses see it as a major milestone, consumer groups warned the deal could mark a return to sharp practices used to saddle shoppers with debt. - Mail

Ministers are drawing up plans to stop illegal immigrants from coming to Britain amid concerns that Emmanuel Macron could scrap UK border controls on French soil. Mr Macron, the newly-elected French President, vowed during his election campaign to renegotiate the Le Touquet agreement which enables British border officials to carry out checks in France. - Telegraph

Energy companies have been accused of behaving in an unfair and unreasonable way after raising prices before a proposed government price cap is introduced. However, the Conservatives will on Tuesday confirm that the energy price cap forms a key pledge in their forthcoming election manifesto, even though energy suppliers have been accused of “milking” their customers after quietly raising the price of their cheapest gas and electricity deals by as much as 37 per cent since Mrs May first threatened to intervene last year. - Telegraph

All flowering plants sold by B&Q are to be grown without using pesticides that are harmful to bees, the retailer has announced. A series of scientific studies have shown that bees are exposed to neonicotinoid pesticides in fields and suffer serious harm from the doses they receive. The European commission has drawn up draft legislation to ban the pesticides, citing “high acute risks to bees”. - Guardian

Apple has landed a $1 trillion valuation estimate, from US broker Drexel Hamilton, as the race heats up for which company will pass the trillion dollar mark. On the day the iPhone giant's shares surpassed $800bn for the first time, Drexel used a new research note to lift its target price on Apple to $202 a share from $185 a share, with analyst Brian White writing that the technology giant is "among the most underappreciated stocks in the world". - Telegraph

Amazon is moving into the live music business in the UK, running and promoting its own gigs starting with Blondie later this month. Amazon, which started selling tickets for shows, gigs and events for the first time two years ago, is once again using the UK to expand its music strategy with the launch of a new business called Prime Live Events. - Guardian

A tech firm which has made a mint out of car finance is poised to launch on to the London Stock Market in an £800 million flotation. Alfa Financial Software is planning to join the market in June - in what is likely to be the largest listing by a UK tech firm in two years. - Mail

London’s financial firms are fighting back against hackers who jam computerised financial market trading systems. The attackers interfere with the GPS signals on which the precise timing of trades is based, scrambling the signals and disrupting the system that has come to rely on them, leading the Intercontinental Exchange yesterday signed a deal with the National Physical Laboratory to buy a direct feed from its state-of-the-art atomic clock that will mean that criminals or terrorists will be unable to knock out the GPS feed to its markets. - The Times

Poverty reduction in the world’s poorest countries risks being diluted by the government’s increasing tendency to devote a bigger slice of Britain’s aid budget to pursuing the national interest, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned. The thinktank estimated that overseas development assistance would rise by £1bn during the course of the next parliament as a result of Theresa May’s pledge to continue meeting the United Nations 0.7% aid target. - Guardian