Sunday newspaper round-up: Sky-high electricity prices, Royal Mail, Olaf Scholz

The Chancellor is examining the options that it has at its disposal for bailing out businesses that might otherwise go bust next winter due to sky-high electricity prices. Government sources said Nadhim Zahawi believed that repurposing Covid schemes to help businesses should be among those options. Other options on the table include grants for small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as VAT and business rates holidays. Another source however said supports for SME's would be dependant on the next Prime Minister's appetite for increased borrowing. - The Sunday Times

Royal Mail is facing a summer of discontent as its union demands with a potential price tag of £1bn, even as it calls for shorter working weeks and threatens the company with a series of strikes. The company says the union is clinging to outdated working practices, ignoring technological change and changes to the services the public was demanding from it. It has also already warned that it might split its businesses if it was not able to enact "significant operational change'. - The Financial Mail on Sunday

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's popularity has hit a record low after he alleged lapses in memory in relation to his role in a tax fraud scandal known as CumEx. According to Bild am Sonntag, only a quarter of Germans said they were happy with his Scholz's work thus far, while 62% were unhappy, the latter having risen from 39% in March. It was believed that the CumEx scheme had allowed banks and investors to claim multiple tax rebates which had cost European governments as much as €55bn. - The Sunday Telegraph

Drax received billions of pounds in public money despite warnings to minister that using trees as fuel is worse for the environment than using coal. Those findings were made in a government report published in 2014, despite Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng's assurances that the plant's eco-credentials were not in doubt. The company will receive £11bn of subsidies following the conversion of most of its North Yorkshire plant so that it can run on so-called biomass. But the plant uses whole trees for a third of the wood it burns, instead of the forest residues which are indeed more eco-friendly than coal. - The Sunday Telegraph

IWG Boss Mark Dixon says people focused on whether people want to work from home or not are missing the fact that what really matters is the commute. People do want to work in an office and socialise, but want to avoid two hours trips there and back and spending £5,000 on a train season ticket and parking. Hence, he is gambling that permanent hybrid working will include work from local shares offices nearer to people's homes. - Financial Mail on Sunday