Thursday newspaper round-up: Broadband, car exports, Aquascutum

The government has pledged to give decent broadband speeds to up to 600,000 homes via a new £400m funding pot. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has freed up the money to help homes and businesses in the “hardest-to-reach” parts of the UK receive broadband speeds considered to be essential to modern life. – Guardian

Britain’s car industry reported record exports in the first 11 months of the year as a combination of the low pound and open access to Europe’s single market boosted sales. UK car exports jumped to 1.25m, the highest ever, after factories put on more shifts and increased overtime to meet the demand for British-made vehicles. - Guardian

The number of 25-year-olds who own their own home has more than halved in the last 20 years as soaring prices and a generational shift have knocked young people off the housing ladder. Research by Savills for the Local Government Association found that 46pc of all 25-year-olds owned their home 20 years ago, compared to 20pc now. It is not just young people who have been left out of home ownership, which has fallen among people of all ages 6.8pc since the peak in October 2004, and it now stands at 64.1pc. - Telegraph

Macquarie has snapped up a 50pc stake in Dong Energy’s giant Race Bank offshore wind farm in a $1.6bn deal which will also see the Australian investor take on part of the wind farm’s construction risk. The 573MW offshore wind project is being built almost 17 miles off the Norfolk coast and is due to begin powering the UK grid at the end of 2018. – Telegraph

The maker of luxury raincoats worn by royalty and stars of the silver screen and army officers’ trenchcoats in the First World War is to change hands. Aquascutum, worn by the Queen Mother, Sophia Loren, Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant, is to be bought by two buyers for $120 million, according to YGM Trading, its Hong Kong-based owner. It is unclear whether the deal heralds a break-up or the buyers will retain the business in its present form. – The Times

Small shops are beginning to experience the fallout of Brexit, with inflation and slowing sales growth resulting in “significant stress” for the finances of retailers, Begbies Traynor has warned. The restructuring group said that, despite high street sales holding up surprisingly well after the referendum in June, profits were being hit by prolonged discounting and rising costs associated with the higher minimum wage and the impact of weaker sterling, which had made supplies more expensive. – The Times