Tuesday newspaper round-up: Housing, Barclays, Samsung, China-US talks

England must launch the biggest council and social house building drive in its history to rescue millions of people from a future in dangerous, overcrowded or unsuitable homes, a cross-party commission has told the government. More than 3m new social homes are needed in the next 20 years, more than were built in the two decades after the end of the second world war, according to a year-long housing commission launched in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster. Its commissioners include the former Conservative party chair, Sayeeda Warsi, the former Labour leader Ed Miliband and the former Conservative Treasury minister and Goldman Sachs chief economist Lord Jim O’Neill. – Guardian

Barclays is being threatened with a boardroom shake-up after an activist investor announced plans for a shareholder vote on the bank’s leadership. Edward Bramson, who has spent about £900m building a 5.5% stake in Barclays through his investment vehicle Sherborne Investors, told his own shareholders that a vote was necessary, given that “consistent engagement” with Barclays had failed to yield results. – Guardian

Samsung's profits have dropped by almost 30 per cent due to a global fall in demand for microchips, the company has warned. The Korean electronics giant said its operating profit in the last three months of 2018 was 28.7 per cent lower than the same time the previous year, one of the worst fourth-quarter performances in its history. – Telegraph

The boss of Laing O’Rourke, the country’s biggest privately owned contractor, has urged the Government to better support the industry after striking a painful deal with lenders to safeguard of the future its 15,000 workers. After months of intense negotiations, the Crossrail and Hinkley Point C builder has agreed a refinancing that sees banking facilities put in place until 2022. – Telegraph

The head of the World Bank quit unexpectedly yesterday, leaving President Trump to pick a new face for one of the most important roles in global finance. Jim Yong Kim, 59, said that he would leave the Washington-based organisation on February 1, three years before his term was due to expire, to join a private infrastructure investment firm. – The Times

Beijing has expressed hope that it can reach a trade deal with Washington and defuse the dispute between the world’s two largest economies as officials hold face-to-face talks. China said that it had “firm confidence” in its economy yesterday after President Trump claimed that its weakness had forced the country to the negotiating table. - The Times