Sunday newspaper round-up: Stamp duty, Wind energy, Metro Bank

Investment companies are calling on government to bin the stamp duty on share trading in order to revive the London stock market and the country's economy. The bosses at Abrdn, AJ Bell, Hargreaves Lansdown and Interactive Investor all told The Mail on Sunday that politicians must pledge to ditch the tax. According to Abrdn's Stephen Bird, the levy was unpatriotic and economically destructive. Removing it might be the single biggest boost to UK share ownership, he said. - The Financial Mail on Sunday

A lack of enough cables to transport Scottish wind energy south to England has led to over £16bn in waste over the past decade. One result will be higher electricity bills for households and businesses. When such bottlenecks emerge wind farms are paid to turn off their turbines, while gas stations in England are also paid to make up the shortfall. In 2023, the cost of that system, known as curtailment, was £700m with another £140m spent in January and February of this year. - Financial Mail on Sunday

The Bank of England is looking into allegations that Metro Bank placed customers' data at risk through the misuse of software that lies at the heart of a long-simmering legal tussle. The person that contacted it alleged that the software linking Metro's Magic Money Machines to customer accounts had not been made for that purpose and potentially created weaknesses in the system. Metro allegedly made matters worse by sharing the source code for the machines with other parties. - The Guardian

The owner of the Mirror and Express newspapers warned that Facebook poses a "potent threat to civil society". Reach, which owns dozens of other regional titles, also criticised Facebook parent company Meta's decision to deprioritise news. That decision had resulted in a sharp drop in page views for some of the group's local titles. Prior to Meta's decision, Reach had "worked well" with Facebook for a number of years. Google on the other hand had a more proactive approach, according to the publisher. - Sunday Telegraph