Monday newspaper round-up: Lloyds Banking, Sky News, Hotel Chocolat

A solar energy project developer linked to Thames Water is to be liquidated and its staff made redundant as the crisis engulfing the debt-laden water supplier puts strain on its complex corporate structure. Trinzic Operations Ltd, which is ultimately owned by Thames’s parent company Kemble Water Holdings, is to be voluntarily shut down, the Guardian can reveal. – Guardian

Lloyds Banking Group will start converting its disused office sites into social housing, as the UK’s largest mortgage provider lays the groundwork for a fresh housebuilding boom after Labour’s election win. The bank, which started reviewing its property portfolio during the Covid lockdown in 2020, is launching the programme with a decommissioned data and office space in Pudsey, West Yorkshire. Lloyds will sell the site to a local housing group with the agreement that 80 new homes will then be rented at about half the usual rate. Lloyds said it was assessing other potential offices and datacentres in the UK that it could do something similar with. – Guardian

Sky News has begun to slash its freelance budgets as bosses look to cut costs amid a decline in viewing figures. The Telegraph has seen evidence that the broadcaster has reduced its use of freelance workers in roles including producers and guest bookers. Staff have reported a sharp reduction in the number of shifts available in recent months. – Telegraph

Scrapping inheritance tax relief would hit thousands of family businesses with a £1.4bn bill each year, firms have warned, amid fears Labour is plotting a raid on the estates of grieving families. More than 3,000 family businesses would be hit with soaring inheritance tax bills each year if the relief was scrapped, which could trigger company liquidations and job losses, the lobby group Family Business UK (FBUK) warned. – Telegraph

The British luxury brand Hotel Chocolat plans to open 25 new shops and expand manufacturing in the UK, with the backing of its new owner Mars. The chocolatier, bought last year by the US confectionery giant, will open the stores next year in cities such as Belfast and Glasgow, as well as market towns including Ilkley, West Yorkshire, and Morpeth, Northumberland. Plans are also afoot to “upsize” in existing locations such as Nottingham and Chichester, West Sussex. – The Times

The former boss of LXi Reit, the property investor, sent an email to colleagues at the investment firm Alvarium announcing the launch of Home Reit, even though he maintains that he has never been involved with the scandal-hit business. Simon Lee wrote an email to “Alvarium London Office” in September 2020, weeks before the float of the housing-for-the-homeless group that is now being investigated by regulators and sued by investors. – The Times