Tuesday newspaper round-up: SSE cuts, Starbucks, UK construction...

SSE has become the fifth big energy supplier to cut household bills after the slump in wholesale costs, wrote The Times. The 4.1% cut in gas prices, equivalent to £28 off an annual gas bill, will not take effect until April 30, however, when most households have turned off their central heating. The paper added that one consumer group described the price cut as “probably the slowest in history”.

Starbucks has been urged to live up to its promise to pay more taxes after boasting about the turnaround of its UK business and an 82% rise in global profits, The Times reported. The Seattle-based coffee chain said that its net profit hit $983.1 million in the 13 weeks to December 28. The paper also said that the amount of tax handed to the UK government in 2014 has not been disclosed.

Britain’s construction companies will need an extra 224,000 workers over the coming five years as growth returns to the industry across the whole country for the first time since the financial crisis, said The Telegraph. The prediction comes in the Construction Industry Training Board’s (CITB) annual survey of the sector’s health, which also forecasts annual year-on-year growth of 2.9% out to 2019, according to the paper.

The Guardian wrote that the coalition’s changes to benefits and direct taxes have hit families with children under five harder than any other group and hurt the poorest more than the better off, according to the most comprehensive evaluation yet of the government’s social policy record.

BHS is holding property assets worth between £100m and £200m, driving interest in the department store retailer from potential buyers despite the fact it has been losing money on the high street, said The Telegraph. The value of BHS’s assets has not previously been disclosed, but City sources said its property was worth between £100m and £200m, making it a potentially lucrative prize.

World leaders will be condemned by their grandchildren if they fail to take action to save rainforests and prevent dangerous climate change, the Prince of Wales has said according to The Times. He spoke of his concern that his second grandchild, due in April, would be entering an “increasingly uncertain world”.

The UK’s fracking sector breathed a sigh of relief last night, after an attempt to suspend its progress was voted down in parliament, wrote the City A.M. A moratorium, which would have blocked fracking activity for up to two-and-a-half years, was defeated by 308 votes to 52 after Labour failed to back the move, wrote the paper.

The number of graduates has recovered to reach a record high, with employers facing increasing competition to hire university leavers, The Times wrote. Employers expect to raise their recruitment budgets in the coming year and create almost 12 per cent more fast-track jobs for graduates, said the paper.