Wednesday newspaper round-up: CityFibre, Covid loans, FCA

Ministers are being asked to draw up billions of pounds in cuts to infrastructure projects over the next 18 months despite Rachel Reeves pledging to invest more to grow the economy, the Guardian has learned. Members of the cabinet have been asked to model cuts to their investment plans of up to 10% of their annual capital spending as part of this month’s spending review, government sources said. – Guardian

The Irish finance minister has hailed the €14bn tax windfall from Apple as “transformational” just weeks after the government lost a case in the European court of justice arguing the tech company should keep its money. Unveiling the country’s budget on Tuesday, Jack Chambers said the money would be used on infrastructure and not splurged on giveaways before the general election, which is expected in November. – Guardian

BT rival CityFibre has warned it must raise more money to survive as the rising cost of its broadband rollout pushed debts above £3bn. The company, which is the largest of the so-called “alt-net” broadband firms taking on BT’s Openreach, said there was “material uncertainty” about its ability to continue because it was reliant on further external funding. CityFibre, which is backed by Goldman Sachs and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, secured £4.9bn in debt financing from banks two years ago to help fund its network build. – Telegraph

Most businesses that received government grants during lockdown would have survived without the handouts, an official report has concluded. A report published by the Department for Business and Trade suggested “only a quarter” of the 1.4m businesses that benefited from £23bn of Covid-era grants would have gone bust without state support. The 100-page document concluded that “a relatively high share of the businesses supported would have been likely to survive without cashflow support – implying that the outcomes associated with the programme could potentially have been achieved with lower levels of public spending”. – Telegraph

A pressure group pushing for higher standards in finance has accused the Financial Conduct Authority of “peddling a false narrative” at its online annual meeting last week and called for a return to face-to-face meetings. The Transparency Task Force (TTF) has written to Ashley Alder, the FCA chairman, and Nikhil Rathi, the regulator’s chief executive, accusing FCA officials of misleading the audience over the investor protection regime. Remarks made at the meeting were “factually inaccurate”, it said. – The Times