Sunday newspaper round-up: Care crisis, Brexit cost, RBS, BT, Sports Direct

The UK government is on red alert over a deepening financial crisis in the care homes sector as the biggest operator, Four Seasons, heads for a £500m debt showdown and the National Health Service is put under ever more pressure due to ongoing lack of funding for elderly care. The Department of Health has ordered the sector watchdog to monitor the finances of the leading care home companies “to warn local authorities of any insolvencies where services could stop”. - Sunday Times

Bosses expect private sector growth to pick up slightly over the next three months, as the economy continues to shrug off any impact of Brexit uncertainty. According to a new CBI survey, companies across most sectors expect to grow slightly faster over the next quarter than they did in the three months to November. - Sunday Times

Boris Johnson played down the prospect of Britain paying for tariff-free access to the EU single market after Brexit, dismissing the idea as “speculation” and saying he did not envisage “large” sums being sent to Brussels. The foreign secretary said the issue was part of the “minutiae” of negotiations and said Britain could pay for some elements of “European co-operation” — such as the Erasmus student exchange programme. - Financial Times

British households are on course to enjoy cheaper food after Brexit if the UK returns to the system of farming subsidies adopted before joining the European Union, a top official from the Office for Budget Responsibility has claimed. Sir Stephen Nickell said breaking away from the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) and returning to subsidies where the UK “traded at world market prices in agricultural products” and compensated farmers to ensure they didn’t “all go bankrupt” could also reduce Britain’s borrowing bill. - Sunday Telegraph

Homeowners are amassing record levels of mortgage debt despite Bank of England restrictions aimed at limiting financial risks. The BoE has limited the number of loans that banks can make to home buyers who want a mortgage 4.5 times bigger than their incomes. - Sunday Telegraph

Royal Bank of Scotland is set to pay out hundreds of millions of pounds to settle legal claims dating back to the financial crisis. The bank is expected to announce within days that it has reached a settlement out of court with City institutions that bought shares in RBS just months before it collapsed. - Mail on Sunday

RBS could be hit with a fine of up to £12bn for its role in the American sub-prime mortgage meltdown, the Bank of England’s stress tests suggested. A penalty on that scale would be £3bn more than the most aggressive market forecasts and the largest fine yet imposed on a bank in relation to activities blamed for causing the financial crisis. - Sunday Times

Network Rail will be stripped of its control over Britain’s train tracks and power will be handed to operators in the biggest shake-up of the railways for decades, the Government is to announce. In an attempt to end delays and reduce fares, Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary, will say he wants the publicly-owned Network Rail to share responsibility for running the tracks with private train operators. - Sunday Telegraph

Plans to legally separate BT Group from its Openreach arm to improve broadband provision in the UK could be blocked by Brussels in a move likely to spark anger among BT's rivals. Telecoms regulator Ofcom said last week that it would begin moves to force a legal separation, but investment bank Goldman Sachs pointed out that the European Commission would have to approve Ofcom's plan. - Mail on Sunday

Sports Direct is hoping to soothe tensions with the City by beefing up its board amid what are expected to be the retailer’s worst results in four years. The sportswear group has been attempting to repair its battered reputation by improving corporate governance following a pledge by Mike Ashley to make the business more transparent. - Sunday Telegraph

National Grid is expected to choose a preferred bidder for its £11bn gas pipe network this week, in what will be viewed as a test case of the Government’s attitude towards Chinese investment in critical infrastructure. A consortium led by the Australian investment bank Macquarie is seen as the frontrunner in the auction, which has been bubbling under for at least a year. - Sunday Telegraph

AstraZeneca has said it will move some back office jobs from the UK to Costa Rica, Poland and Malaysia in a drive to cut costs following a slide in profits. The pharmaceuticals company is consulting staff from its 280-person finance division at Alderley Park in Cheshire, but did not say how many roles were likely to be transferred. - Observer

Nearly 150 companies still offer payday loans in the UK despite the financial watchdog expecting all but a handful to be eradicated under tough new rules clamping down on irresponsible lending. The Financial Conduct Authority revealed this week that 144 companies in the UK still offer payday loans, despite unveiling stringent measures last year for operators that offer short-term, high-cost credit. - Financial Times

Britain's bookmakers have made a last-ditch plea to the government to prevent a crackdown on high-stakes betting machines, warning that tighter rules could force hundreds of betting shops to close. Gambling pressure groups, local councils and rival gaming operators have called for a cut in the stakes and prizes on controversial fixed-odds betting terminals. - Mail on Sunday

John Tutte is at war with Britain’s newts. And hibernating dormice, and bats, and nesting birds. Nature is getting in the way of solving the housing crisis. These species are protected by EU legislation, and house builders like Tutte, who is chief executive of Redrow, have to work around their schedules. - Sunday Telegraph

The Daily Mail and General Trust is considering closing a large print plant in Oxfordshire, leaving 50 jobs hanging in the balance. The publisher has entered a “period of consultation” with workers at the eight-year-old facility in Didcot. It would cost £47m to close the plant, with the work moving to a site in Thurrock, Essex. - Sunday Times

The chief executive of Virgin Media has rejected speculation that its parent company, the pan-European cable empire Liberty Global, could seize on weakness in ITV’s share price to mount a takeover bid for Britain’s biggest commercial broadcaster. Tom Mockridge said in an interview that Liberty had “enough to do as it is” without wading further into programming. - Sunday Telegraph

Hopes of a solution to the BHS pension crisis before Christmas were fading last night as Philip Green's advisers and pension regulators clashed over the state of negotiations. As the stores group was finally placed into liquidation on Friday and a fresh row broke out over £35m Green claims to be owed by the failed business, relations between the two sides appear to be worsening. - Mail on Sunday

Apple is locked in a multimillion-pound battle with the taxman over whether the strap on one of its smartwatches is “part” of the device. HM Revenue & Customs has labelled the wristband of the £369 Apple Watch Sport device an “other plastic” import and has hit it with a 6.5% tariff. - Sunday Times

London’s biggest competition as a financial centre could be Mumbai or Tel Aviv in future as the industry becomes focused on technology rather than traditional skills, according to the chief executive of Barclays UK. Although financiers fear EU cities trying to poach some of Britain’s financial power following the EU referendum, Ashok Vaswani said a much more fundamental, global shift was already underway. - Sunday Telegraph

The Australian investment giant nicknamed the “vampire kangaroo” is hoping to sink its teeth into Ireland’s £3bn Corrib gas field. Macquarie, one of the largest owners of British infrastructure, is understood to have approached Shell over a deal that could value the FTSE 100 giant’s 45% stake in the project at more than £1bn. - Sunday Times

Two of Spain’s largest banks are vying to swallow up embattled rival Banco Popular. Santander and BBVA are in talks with bosses of the sixth-largest bank in Spain over a €3.8bn (£3.1bn) takeover, according to sources in Madrid. - Sunday Times