Wednesday newspaper round-up: Patisserie Valerie, water companies, Kingfisher

The former auditor of Patisserie Valerie, the cake and cafe chain at the centre of an alleged accounting fraud, has been placed under increased scrutiny after the industry watchdog called the quality of its work “unacceptable”. Grant Thornton was the worst performer in the Financial Reporting Council’s annual review of audits by the UK’s big accountants. The FRC said half of the eight Grant Thornton audits it inspected for 2017/18 required significant improvement. – Guardian

Water companies in England have been warned to clean up their act after the environment watchdog described their performance last year as “simply unacceptable”. Southern Water and Yorkshire Water were singled out for high levels of serious pollution incidents, where sewage is discharged into bathing water. – Guardian

City watchdog boss Andrew Bailey's bonus could be almost wiped out depending on the outcome of a probe into the regulator's oversight of collapsed firm London Capital and Finance (LCF). Mr Bailey, who runs the Financial Conduct Authority and is considered a front-runner to succeed Mark Carney as Bank of England Governor, has been under intense pressure in recent months after LCF collapsed, Neil Woodford's flagship fund was suspended and the FCA's report into RBS's GRG unit was called a "whitewash". – Telegraph

Kingfisher suffered an investor revolt at its annual meeting as almost a quarter of shareholders in the home improvement retailer objected to a bonus payment to its outgoing chief executive in a year when profits fell. The group that owns the B&Q and Screwfix chains said that it would go into talks with its investors and provide a response within six months after 24.19 per cent of the investors who voted were against its remuneration report. – The Times

Hargreaves Lansdown customers “locked in” the suspended Woodford Equity Income Fund allegedly have been prevented from transferring their account to rival investment platforms. Richard Wilson, chief executive of Interactive Investor, the investment platform, said that several Hargreaves customers invested in Woodford’s fund had contacted it to complain about Link Fund Solutions, Woodford’s authorised corporate director, or ACD. – The Times