Thursday newspaper round-up: Eurostar, pub chains, Bell Pottinger
The government will launch a “levelling-up fund” for England worth £4bn to support towns and communities with regeneration projects, Rishi Sunak has said. The chancellor used his spending review statement to announce details of the new funding package as part of Boris Johnson’s election promise to boost the economic prosperity of areas outside London and the south-east of England. Alongside the £4bn for England, there will be funding worth £800m for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. - Guardian
Eurostar has appealed to the UK government for urgent financial support, warning it is “fighting for survival” with just one train a day now running from London to Paris. Passenger numbers on the cross-Channel train service have been down 95% since March but are currently believed to be less than 1% of pre-Covid levels under travel restrictions that will last into at least December. - Guardian
Taxpayers will fork out £5.8m a day next year to keep rail services running following concerns that demand for train travel will take years to return to pre-pandemic levels. Rishi Sunak announced an estimated £2.1bn of subsidies for rail operators in 2021-22 in the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review. It has already spent up to £9bn on the railways this year. - Telegraph
The bosses of Britain's biggest pub chains have demanded that Boris Johnson step in with urgent financial support for the sector or risk the total collapse of hundreds of breweries and thousands of pubs. Chief executives of firms including Greene King, Marson's, Fuller's and the UK divisions of Carlsberg and Budweiser have written to the prime minister warning that the sector faces a "looming disaster" unless the Government provides an immediate rescue package. - Telegraph
Partners of Bell Pottinger have yet to repay £1.8 million in “excess drawings” that they took from the PR business before its collapse, according to liquidators. An additional significant sum is being pursued against an unnamed partner via litigation, which alleges breach of contract and “significant and related excess drawings,” Matthew Tait and Malcolm Cohen, the joint liquidators from BDO, said in a progress report. - The Times