Wednesday newspaper round-up: Uber, Brexit, boardroom pay, ARM

It is like Uber, but for parcels: Amazon is signing up amateur drivers to make deliveries in their spare time, the latest company to turn to the “gig economy” of informal employment. Under a scheme Amazon began testing in its home town of Seattle last year, the US ecommerce group will offer British car owners cash to ferry parcels between a local distribution centre and customers’ homes. – Financial Times

Where will the road to Brexit end? Theresa May, Britain’s new prime minister, travels to Berlin on Wednesday to meet Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, in the first leg of a political journey whose final destination remains uncertain. There are plenty of package solutions, ranging from Norway to Canada and even tiny Albania. The problem is that senior Whitehall and Brussels officials are unconvinced any will work. Brexit is likely to end with a one-of-a-kind result. – Financial Times

Company bosses should be getting out beyond their boardrooms to ensure their firms are behaving properly, according to the authors of a new study from several business groups. After a series of scandals including Volkswagen’s emissions riggingand the Libor investigation damaged public trust, directors and other stakeholders should make greater efforts to tune into the early warning signs within their company’s culture, said Sir Win Bischoff, the chairman of the Financial Reporting Council. – Telegraph

Politicians should use Brexit as a chance to “reboot Britain”, scrapping corporation tax and reforming swathes of government in an effort to reignite the economy, a think tank has recommended. Madsen Pirie, president of the Adam Smith Institute, said that leaving the European Union provided “a unique chance of the sort that occurs perhaps once in a generation”. – Telegraph

Plunging levels of home ownership and an increased reliance on state benefits to top up salaries have meant that Britain’s middle-income families increasingly look like the poor households of the past, according to one of the UK’s leading thinktanks. A report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies showed that the old link between worklessness and child poverty had been broken, with record levels of employment leading to a drop in the number of poor children living in homes where no adult works. – Guardian

Excessive boardroom pay risks undermining public trust in big business, the accountancy regulator has said in a report calling for a concerted effort to increase trust in the way that companies are run. The report by the Financial Reporting Council, published on Wednesday, comes after the prime minister, Theresa May, called for businesses to be more responsible with employee representatives on boards. It said: “Pay is a sensitive issue in the UK and affects the standing of business in society. – Guardian

Workers at Arm Holdings could share a payday worth more than £300 million if a takeover attempt by SoftBank is successful. The Japanese group’s £24 billion offer will reach the pockets of workers at Britain’s biggest technology company because it boasts one of the most generous employee share awards schemes in Europe. – The Times

Britain should shelve plans for a nuclear revival and fast-track proposals for new gas-fired power stations, a leading energy industry boss has warned. Keith Anderson, chief corporate officer of ScottishPower, of the six big energy providers, said that government policy was failing to deliver urgently needed investment in new conventional power stations, putting the country at risk of price rises and power cuts. – The Times