Monday newspaper round-up: JD Wetherspoon, housing market, Debenhams

Fears that relaxed summer socialising will lead to a surge in Covid-19 cases around the UK have been heightened after concerns that JD Wetherspoon is failing to prevent overcrowding in pubs in its 900-strong chain. Concerns about poor social distancing by customers in Wetherspoon pubs followed a surge in visitors during recent hot weather and after the publication of A-level results last Thursday. Customers in a south London pub run by the company said they had not been asked to provide personal details, including mobile phone numbers that can be used in the government’s track and trace system. – Guardian

The housing market has had its busiest month in more than 10 years in July, with the traditional summer lull replaced by a flurry of activity from buyers and sellers, according to the property website Rightmove. The site, which typically lists about 95% of homes for sale in the UK, said the “rulebook has been rewritten”, with the boom fuelled by pent-up demand during lockdown accelerating as the summer has progressed. – Guardian

Retail bosses have made fresh calls for ministers to accelerate a business rates review as the end of the tax holiday looms. – Telegraph

Two of the world’s biggest drugs companies have warned that finding a coronavirus vaccine is a marathon and not a sprint and have claimed that they would be “happy” should one of their rivals launch their version first. The heads of the vaccine businesses at Glaxosmithkline and Sanofi, which are developing a Covid-19 vaccine together, said that “rapid progress” was being made in the battle to treat the disease, but that collaboration and protecting as many people as possible were more important than being first. – The Times

Debenhams could be broken up between potential buyers as concerns grow about the future of the department stores chain and its 14,000 employees. Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group, Next and a Chinese consortium are among the parties interested in buying Debenhams’ stores as the retailer’s owners desperately hunt for a buyer. – The Times