Wednesday newspaper round-up: Public sector pay, trade unions, Brexit

Philip Hammond is facing renewed calls to unfreeze public sector pay, as fresh analysis suggests the cost to the Treasury would be cushioned by £2.5bn in additional tax revenues and benefits savings. A significant portion of funding required to lift the cap would be returned almost immediately to the Treasury, according to research from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank. – Guardian

Britain’s trade unions have been warned they face increasing irrelevance without radical reform to attract new members in fast-growing sectors with large numbers of casual employees, such as the hospitality industry. The warning comes in a report from the leftwing thinktank the Fabian Society and the Community union, with analysis showing that the country’s fastest-growing industries have the lowest levels of membership. - Guardian

UK business leaders would prefer to stick with EU rules on goods and services in order to preserve their current trading relationships. In a survey of more than 900 members of the Institute of Directors, 51pc of businesses wanted to keep the current levels of access to the single market, in order to maintain continuity with their current business plans. However, nearly a quarter would prefer to change regulations after leaving the EU even if it made trade between the UK and the single market more difficult. – Telegraph

The Treasury’s carbon tax has propelled Britain into the top 10 of a global low-carbon electricity league table faster than any other country, igniting calls from the clean energy industry for the upcoming budget to keep the support in place. The fresh research shows that Britain has climbed from a 2012 ranking of 20th out of 33 industrialised countries to 7th on the low-carbon electricity league table. - Telegraph

Gocompare.com has received approaches for a £460 million takeover from the company behind Uswitch, its rival price comparison site. A report on Sky News flushed out statements from both Gocompare and ZPG, its suitor, which also owns Zoopla, the property search portal, as well as the money.co.uk website. – The Times

The UK will lose 63,000 dollar millionaires over the next five years as a result of Brexit, while the rest of the world creates eight million more, according to a survey of global wealth. Britain will be the only one of 23 big economies to suffer a fall in the number of millionaires, from 2.19 million to 2.13 million by 2022, Credit Suisse predicted in its annual Global Wealth Report. – The Times