Monday newspaper round-up: Tourist tax, Amazon, FCA

Millions of tourists to the UK could soon be asked to pay a local visitor levy as cash-strapped councils try to raise money to fund services. Nearly half of Scotland’s local councils are considering a mandatory levy on overnight stays, known as a tourist tax, to help cope with a surge in visitors that has overwhelmed places such as Skye, the Callanish stones on Lewis and Orkney’s neolithic sites. – Guardian

Thousands of Amazon workers are expected to protest or strike in more than 20 countries during Black Friday to press for better workers’ rights and climate action from the US retailer. Workers and representatives from unions and workers’ groups intend to join protests against the Seattle-based company’s practices between Black Friday and Cyber Monday (29 November and 2 December), one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year. – Guardian

Angela Rayner must bring planning officers out of retirement in order to achieve a government pledge to build 1.5m homes, the estate agent Savills has said. The Housing Secretary’s plans to bring in an additional 300 planning officers will be far short of the “thousands” needed if it wants to follow through on its manifesto pledge to build 1.5m homes over the next five years, the head of planning at Savills has said. – Telegraph

The Observer made a profit of more than £3m last year, according to internal figures which raise questions over claims it must be offloaded to protect The Guardian. A report seen by The Telegraph shows that the Sunday title made a profit of £3.4m in the year to the end of March, outstripping forecasts by almost £300,000. – Telegraph

The City regulator is opaque and unaccountable and “widely seen as incompetent”, according to a report due to be revealed in parliament on Tuesday. A study of views on the Financial Conduct Authority, which includes the opinions of some current and former staff, is due to report claims that the organisation has a “defective culture”, is too close to those it regulates and is “slow to act and even slower to admit it has got things wrong”. – The Times

Britain’s 500 biggest companies paid a record £1.45 billion in audit fees this year, as accounting firms raised their prices to cover the extra work staff are having to put in. HSBC remains the most lucrative audit contract in the UK, with the bank paying £88 million to PwC, up from £78 million in 2023. Shell and BP, the two oil majors, are the next biggest audit fee payers at £51 million and £45 million respectively. – The Times