Thursday newspaper round-up: May, Nissan, copper, RBS
Theresa May has made a bold pledge to bring a decade of austerity to a close, as she appealed to the public over the heads of her squabbling party to back her to deliver a Brexit deal. Speaking in Birmingham on Wednesday at the end of the Conservatives’ annual conference, which was marred by repeated clashes over Europe, May cast aside the chancellor’s concerns about the health of the country’s finances and signalled Brexit would mark an end to public spending cuts. – Guardian
The Japanese carmaker Nissan has warned the government that serious disruption will be caused to its huge manufacturing operation in the north-east of England if the UK fails to secure a deal with the EU that avoids a hard Brexit. Carlos Ghosn, the chair of Nissan, has described its British operations as “a European investment based in the UK”, which employs almost 8,000 people, mostly at its factory near Sunderland. A further 30,000 people are employed in UK companies supplying Nissan. - Guardian
Demand for copper will surge over the next five years thanks to China’s huge global lending programme, according to the world’s biggest miner. BHP Billiton has estimated that China’s "belt and road initiative" will generate spending of around $1.3 trillion (£1 trillion) on infrastructure projects by 2023, driving an additional 1.6m tonnes of copper demand. This is equivalent to adding another 7pc to global demand. – Telegraph
The Government has vowed to step up its efforts to wipe out late payments to small businesses with a new pledge to pay most of its own small suppliers within five days and a call for evidence on how best to tackle the problem in the private sector. Ministers will consider how new accounting technology and measures such as requiring companies to nominate a director responsible for fair payment practices could help stamp out the problem, which causes cashflow trouble for millions of small firms. – Telegraph
A senior official at the Financial Conduct Authority held undisclosed meetings with a Royal Bank of Scotland executive while the lender was subject to a highly sensitive regulatory investigation into its scandal-hit restructuring unit, The Times can reveal. Simone Ferreira had “social drinks” on two occasions when she was the City regulator’s head of event supervision with Jon Pain, who was chief conduct and regulatory affairs officer of RBS. – The Times
The company building the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant has been rebuked by French safety regulators for failings in the construction of a prototype reactor in Normandy. EDF, the French state-backed energy group, is building a reactor at Flamanville to the same design that it plans to use for the £20 billion twin-reactor Hinkley Point project in Somerset. – The Times