Wednesday newspaper round-up: McDonald's, Heathrow, Trump, RBS

The 26-year-old Duke of Westminster, who is believed to be the world’s richest person under 30 with a £9bn fortune, has been hit by a steep drop in returns on his family’s British property empire, which includes many of the most famous addresses in London’s Mayfair and Belgravia. The Grosvenor Group, which Hugh Grosvenor inherited last year following the death of his father Gerald Grosvenor, reported on Tuesday that returns on its British & Irish property portfolio had collapsed to just 0.3% last year compared with 10.7% in 2015. It is the company’s worst UK performance since the 2008 financial crisis and follows six successive years of returns above 10%. – Guardian

McDonald’s is to offer 115,000 UK workers on controversial zero-hours contracts the option of moving to fixed contracts with a minimum number of guaranteed hours every week. The move is a significant development in the debate about employee rights because McDonald’s is one of the biggest users of zero-hours contracts in the country. Sports Direct has also used workers on zero-hour contracts in its shops. – Guardian

Four UK construction hubs are being sought by Heathrow to allow components of its £16bn expansion project to be built away from the airport. The logistics hubs will pre-assemble components linked to projects related to the proposed third runway before transporting them to the airport. Heathrow’s chief executive John Holland-Kaye said this method would make the project more affordable and mean jobs linked to the investment would be spread more broadly across the country. – Telegraph

Compliance is under-valued by chief executives of some of the world’s biggest companies, leaving the businesses open to hacking attacks, legal risks and huge financial penalties. Research by risk consultancy Control Risks has found that a quarter of large companies spend less than $25 a year per staff member on compliance, and a similar proportion have five or fewer people in their compliance teams. – Telegraph

Donald Trump looked set to have sparked a potentially damaging trade war with Canada after the US president slapped $1 billion of tariffs on imports of the country’s timber. Hours after the White House published its decision late on Monday, Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, promised to protect his country as the government said it would fight the “unfair and punitive” tariffs in court. – The Times

Royal Bank of Scotland has hit a brick wall in its attempt to resolve the US investigation into its mis-sale of toxic mortgage securities because of changes at the Department of Justice since the election of President Trump. Hopes were raised that RBS was getting close to settling the multibillion-pound case in January when it set aside £3.1 billion to cover a likely fine by the DoJ, taking its total provision to £6.8 billion. However, the bank has made little progress because of the widespread clearout of key staff at the DoJ and among the state attorneys. – The Times