Wednesday newspaper round-up: Sainsbury's, Rio Tinto, Monarch

Sainsbury’s is axing 2,000 store and back office roles as the supermarket chain looks to slash costs by £500m amid an intensifying price war with Aldi and Lidl. The retailer is restructuring its HR departments, getting rid of 1,400 store-based clerks and another 600 staff based in the back offices that serve the chain as well as Argos and Sainsbury’s bank. - Guardian

Proposals to crack down on “overpriced” service charges and “unfair” costs paid by renters and leaseholders in England have been unveiled by the government. Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, said ministers were considering changing the law to create a fairer property management system and make it easier to outlaw “rogue” letting and management agents. – Guardian

Rio Tinto has been charged with fraud in the US and handed down a £27.4m fine in the UK over its handling of its coal assets in Mozambique. FTSE 100 miner Rio was charged in the US together with two of its former executives for allegedly inflating the value of the assets, which it bought at $3.7bn (£2.8bn) in 2011, but sold a few years later at $50m. - Telegraph

The UK Government is hoping to tighten its grasp on merger and takeover deals in the interest of national security, setting out fresh rules that has left some City advisers on edge. Business and energy secretary Greg Clark has proposed new laws aimed at enabling the Government to intervene in deals in certain sectors, such as companies making military products, even if they are below a certain size. - Telegraph

Complacent water companies that are not delivering a good enough service and lack transparency are making the case for renationalisation better than the Labour party, the industry’s regulator has warned. In a withering attack on a sector that she believes is ignoring growing calls for it be taken back into public hands, Cathryn Ross, chief executive of Ofwat, said that the industry needed to wake up to claims that private investors were “lining their own pockets”. – The Times

The Civil Aviation Authority has defended its actions over the collapse of Monarch Airlines, saying that it was not to blame for the carrier going into administration. Responding to suggestions that Monarch had been capable of continuing to operate after October 2, the regulator said that it could do nothing because the airline had failed to make a credible application for the renewal of its Atol consumer protection licence. – The Times