Wednesday newspaper round-up: HMRC, Chinese EVs, Klarna
Updated : 07:30
Customer service levels at HM Revenue and Customs have sunk to an “all-time low”, parliament’s spending watchdog has said. Users regularly encounter long call-waiting times as the tax department apparently struggles to cope with demand, a report by the cross-party public accounts committee (PAC) has found. As demands on HMRC grow, the authority has not been given the resources needed to staff its phone lines, the report said. – Guardian
Deep cuts to government funding have led a council in south London to ask its residents to invest their own money, for a financial return, to build cycle hangars, new LED street lighting and green upgrades at schools and leisure centres. In the midst of a financial crisis hitting town halls across England, councillors in Southwark have resorted to a crowdfunding scheme to raise £6m over the next six years to help fund climate-friendly projects. – Guardian
Britain is poised to launch an investigation into cheap Chinese electric vehicles coming onto the market amid fears a flood of cars subsidised by Beijing will destroy local manufacturing. On Tuesday it emerged that officials at the Department for Business and Trade have discussed an intervention amid concerns that China has given its car makers an unfair advantage through vast subsidies. – Telegraph
High street banks shut more than 140,000 accounts held by small businesses last year, according to figures obtained by MPs that will fuel concerns about debanking. Eight banks disclosed account closure data to the Commons Treasury committee after requests for information from the MPs, who are scrutinising the financing for small and medium-sized enterprises. – The Times
The buy now, pay later group Klarna is using an AI-powered chatbot to handle two thirds of its customer service inquiries, doing the equivalent work of 700 full-time agents. The Swedish fintech, which has 150 million customers worldwide, collaborated with OpenAI to build the AI assistant for customer service chats on its app. – The Times