Press Round-Up Short (Premium)
Thursday newspaper round-up: Airlines, Country Garden, car production
Airlines have urged reform of compensation rules after the “staggering” revelation that a single wrongly input flight plan to UK air traffic control disrupted hundreds of thousands of passengers’ flights. Nats, which controls UK airspace, said “an unusual piece of data” had caused the unprecedented system failure on Monday, which led to more than 1,600 flights being axed and many more delayed. – Guardian.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: House sales, dividend income, Body Shop
The number of UK homes sold this year is expected to fall to the lowest level in more than a decade, as the soaring cost of mortgages puts off homebuyers. House sales reaching completion are expected to fall 21% year-on-year to about 1m in 2023, the lowest level since 2012, according to a report from the property website Zoopla. – Guardian.
Monday newspaper round-up: Wilko, London house prices, supermarkets
A union representing thousands of workers at Wilko is seeking an urgent meeting with the business secretary after being told by potential rescuers of “difficulties” in engaging with the administrators who will decide upon the stricken retail chain’s future. On Monday, the GMB national secretary, Andy Prendergast, wrote to Kemi Badenoch asking her to ensure that PricewaterhouseCoopers considered all bids for the budget retailer where 12,500 jobs were hanging in the balance.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Wilko, Telegraph Media, Pizza Hut...
Wilko’s administrators are facing pressure to accept a rescue deal for the ailing budget retailer after a second last-minute white knight bid worth £90m emerged from an Anglo-Canadian private equity firm. [. ] Shops are expected to close within weeks, with thousands of job losses unless a buyout can be secured. M2 Capital, a restructuring specialist which owns a string of upmarket hotels around the world under the Como brand and is in the process of buying Michigan-based car parts maker Superior Industries, is understood to have put forward a bid that would keep the entire Wilko chain trading.
Friday newspaper round-up: Elliott Management, John Lewis, Specsavers
The US hedge fund and notorious activist investor Elliott Management paid its 124 UK staff a combined £160m last year, after a 10% rise in annual profits. The pay pot is higher than the £137m shared by employees the previous year, and comes after its UK operation, Elliott Advisors UK, reported pre-tax profits up by a tenth to £10m. Turnover for the firm, which made headlines after throwing its hat into the ring to buy Manchester United earlier this year, rose 16% to £225m.
Thursday newspaper round-up: Wilko, Virgin Media, Ofgem, John Lewis
The majority of Wilko stores are expected to shut with the loss of thousands of jobs after a white knight failed to step forward to rescue the collapsed retailer. The family-owned household and garden products retailer, which has about 400 stores and employs almost 12,500 people, will leave big gaps on high streets after the failure of talks with interested parties forced it to call in administrators this month. – Guardian.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: PwC, house prices, JLR
More than 1,000 partners at the UK division of the “big four” accounting firm PwC will be paid £906,000 this year, a slight fall on last year’s record payout as profits fell despite rising revenues. Unaudited accounts released by the company showed that PwC’s UK profit fell from £1. 5bn to £1. 3bn in 2022, although last year’s figure was boosted by a £139m gain from the sale of its global mobility business. – Guardian.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Working tenants, Arm, Home Reit
Millions of Britons did not switch on their heating during cold snaps last winter in an attempt to save on their energy bills as the cost of gas and electricity soared. Almost nine in 10 households tried to cut back on their energy usage last winter, while almost half of all British households, or 13m homes, said they did not turn on their heating when it got cold, according to a survey of 4,000 people by the consumer group Which?. – Guardian.
Monday newspaper round-up: Airlines, listed companies, asking prices
Airlines that break the law by not helping customers when flights are delayed or cancelled should be fined, consumer rights groups and online travel agents have said. In a letter to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, the consumer rights group Which? and leading online travel agents called for the aviation regulator to be given more powers to act amid flight cancellations. – Guardian.
Sunday newspaper round-up: UK High Street, WeWork, China
Richard Harpin, the home repairs tycoon, will invest £110m of his personal fortune in medium-sized businesses in a bid to save the UK High Street. Last year, Harpin sold HomeServe, the company that he founded in 1993 to Brookfield for over £4bn, netting him and his wife roughly £500m. Harpin says his main goal is not the return on investment, but rather to help get the country and economy going by helping businesses to scale up. He will also bring to the table his 45 years of experience as an entrepreneur.
Friday newspaper round-up: Covid jab, Channel migrants, Trump, bond markets, cash
Covid jab manufacturers are preparing to make booster shots available for the public to buy after health officials gave the green light to private sales for the first time. Some pharmacists and private clinics say they are interested in offering Covid vaccination for sale on the high street to the tens of millions of people no longer eligible on the NHS. - The Times.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: UK inflation, retail, Issa brothers, Russia, investors
UK inflation has fallen to its weakest level since before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, pushed down by energy bills falling after the lower price cap took effect in July. Figures out this morning from the Office for National Statistics reveal the rate of price growth fell to 6. 8 percent last month, the lowest reading since February 2022 and down from 7. 9 per cent in the previous month. - The Times.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Trump indictment, Harvey Nichols, Plus500, Wilko, B&M
Donald Trump and several allies were indicted in Georgia last night, charged with launching a “criminal enterprise” to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election in the state, after demanding that officials “find” the extra votes to reverse President Biden’s victory. In the indictment issued by district attorney Fani Willis in Fulton County after a two-year investigation, Trump, 77, was accused of racketeering, forgery and a string of other election crimes as he and associates pressured Georgia officials to overturn his narrow defeat to Biden.
Monday newspaper round-up: Tourist VAT, cost-of-living, consumer confidence, strikes
New spending figures have laid bare the damage inflicted on the retail sector’s competitiveness by the government’s post-Brexit tourist tax. After the introduction of VAT on overseas spending, shops in London are struggling to capitalise on a post-Covid uplift in travel as the higher duty encourages visitors to divert to Paris and other European cities. - The Times.
Sunday newspaper round-up: White Hydrogen, Bank of England, AI
America's Geological survey estimates that if even a small fraction of naturally occurring - and clean or so-called 'white' - hydrogen beneath the earth's surface were recovered, that would last for hundreds of years. Among the backers of the hydrogen industry is Bill Gates, who ploughed $90m into Koloma, a company hunting for natural hydrogen along the US's Midcontinental Rift System. White hydrogen has also been discovered in Europe, in France's Lorraine region.
Friday newspaper round-up: China, 'Stealth tax raid', Tapestry
Joe Biden has called China a “ticking time bomb in many cases” because of its economic challenges, saying the country was in trouble because of weak growth. The US president pointed to the country’s high unemployment and ageing workforce, saying: “China is in trouble. ” “They have got some problems. That’s not good, because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things,” Biden said at a political fundraiser in Utah on Thursday. He said he did not want to hurt China and wanted a rational relationship with the country.
Thursday newspaper round-up: China, Natural gas, Softbank
Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order that will narrowly prohibit certain US investments in sensitive technology in China and require government notification of funding in other tech sectors. The long-awaited order authorises the US treasury secretary to prohibit or restrict certain US investments in Chinese entities in three sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies, and certain artificial intelligence systems. - Guardian.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Stagflation, Amazon, Scottish jobs
The UK economy is suffering from a 1970s-style “British disease” that means inflation will not fall back to the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target until after 2027, a think tank has warned. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said the economy had suffered from five years of “lost economic growth”, with stubbornly high inflation and semi-permanent government deficits expected in the foreseeable future. Jagjit Chadha, director of the institute, Britain’s oldest independent economics think tank, said the country’s woes had led to the “re-emergence of the British disease” — a reference to the stagflationary trap of the 1970s, when the term was coined.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Energy price cap, France, Defence stocks
The energy price cap is keeping bills artificially high and fuelling inflation, an influential think tank has warned. The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) is urging ministers to scrap the cap, arguing that it prevents people from accessing cheaper deals. The energy price cap was originally introduced in 2017 as a temporary measure to stop energy companies overcharging loyal customers who didn’t shop around for deals. The Government argued it would protect vulnerable customers, such as those on prepayment meters or with a disability.
Monday newspaper round-up: MP earnings, BP, NatWest, business confidence, small boats
MPs have been paid £10m from second jobs and freelance work over the past year, largely driven by the size of Boris Johnson’s earnings as well as former Tory ministers taking up a slew of highly paid roles, a Guardian analysis has found. Almost 18 months after the furore around second jobs led to promises of a crackdown, MPs’ earnings from work outside parliament have continued to rise. – Guardian.