Tuesday newspaper round-up: Thames Water, Telegraph, Xlinks

Thames Water has been accused of “misleading” customers after telling them that just a few pennies in every pound spent on their bills is paid to its lenders. The debt-laded firm is Britain’s biggest water company, serving 16 million customers in London and the south-east of England. It has sent a breakdown of its costs in bills to customers, including spending 48p of every pound on infrastructure, 20p on the supply and treatment of water, and 3p to its lenders. – Guardian

Rishi Sunak risks further criticism from green campaigners after throwing his weight behind the building of new gas-fired power stations, saying he will “not gamble with our energy security”. The government will on Tuesday announce a plan to increase gas power capacity by providing extra certainty to investors that plants have a long-term future, even as Britain moves away from fossil fuels. – Guardian

Nearly four million people are at risk of abandoning work permanently amid a post-lockdown surge in benefits paid to claimants who do not have to find a job. Policy in Practice warned there had been a “marked” post-pandemic shift in welfare that was moving people away from seeking employment, with 3.9 million now receiving out-of-work benefits without having to even look for a job – twice as many as the number of claimants who must try to find work. – Telegraph

Rupert Murdoch and the owner of The Daily Mail have reportedly held talks about a potential joint takeover of The Telegraph alongside UAE-backed RedBird IMI, as opposition to its solo bid hardens. Mr Murdoch’s News UK and DMGT, which owns the Daily Mail, have held talks about putting money into the bid, Bloomberg reported, in a move that would dilute UAE money in the takeover. – Telegraph

The company behind a multibillion-pound project to export power from Morocco is considering an option to transmit electricity to Germany instead of Britain. Xlinks, whose leaders include Sir Dave Lewis, the former Tesco chief executive, plans to build 4.5 gigawatts of wind farms and 7GW of solar farms in the Moroccan desert, together with 5GW of battery storage capacity. – The Times

Coca-Cola UK, Formula One Marketing and Reckitt are among “a rogues’ gallery” of the slowest payers to small businesses in Britain, taking an average of more than 110 days to pay their invoices. Research by Good Business Pays, which campaigns for the fairer treatment of suppliers, analysed public filings from more than 5,000 companies to identify slow and late payers. – The Times