Press Round-Up Short (Premium)
Monday newspaper round-up: Airport expansion, workplace pensions, ITV
The younger, tormented minister mulling his position before the Labour government granted Heathrow’s third runway in 2009 might have been greatly relieved to know that, 15 years later, not a shovel would have touched the ground. But now, returning to power with a revamped energy and climate brief, Ed Miliband again finds himself in a cabinet which, many in aviation hope, may usher in bigger airports and more flights – as well as enough CO2 emissions to outweigh any new solar farms.
Friday newspaper round-up: High speed rail line, Boeing, Grangemouth
A plan for a new high-speed rail line linking Birmingham and Manchester has been unveiled, claiming to deliver most of the benefits of the scrapped northern leg of HS2 at significantly cheaper cost and with only slightly longer journey times. The 50-mile track would run from where the HS2 line is now due to end in Staffordshire to join a planned Northern Powerhouse Rail line west of Manchester airport, under a plan unveiled by the mayors of Greater Manchester and the West Midlands.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Telegraph, flexible working, Ford
The owner of the New York Sun has emerged as the latest bidder aiming to take control of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph. British-born Dovid Efune, who took control of the assets of the former newspaper the New York Sun three years ago, is understood to be in the running to lodge an offer before the deadline set for second-round bidders on 27 September. – Guardian.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Port Talbot, Amazon, Tripadvisor
The British steel industry is braced for 2,500 job cuts at the Port Talbot steelworks, with thousands more jobs at risk in the UK, as the government prepares a taxpayer-backed deal for the south Wales plant. The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, is expected to outline on Wednesday details of a rescue deal which will see the government hand the historic Welsh plant’s owners, Tata Steel, £500m to build a new electric furnace – but at the cost of huge redundancies from the closure of its last remaining blast furnace.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Water bills, iPhones, council tax, Audi factory
Rachel Reeves is being urged by a left-of-centre thinktank to announce changes to capital gains tax, inheritance tax and national insurance in next month’s budget that would raise more than £20bn a year for the Treasury. With the chancellor looking for ways to plug a £22bn hole that she has identified in the public finances, the Resolution Foundation said it was a time-honoured tradition that taxes were raised in the first budget after an election. – Guardian.
Monday newspaper round-up: HSBC, CGT, Asda
HSBC is recruiting hundreds of bankers to serve rich clients in the UK as it looks to head off growing competition from British rivals and take a larger slice of the wealth management market. Europe’s biggest bank is hoping to fortify the UK arm of its wealth and private banking operations by bulking up its team of relationship managers, who offer bespoke services and advice to rich clients in exchange for lucrative fees. – Guardian.
Friday newspaper round-up: PwC, UK pension funds, wind farms
The consultancy PwC has told its employees it is going to begin tracking their working locations to ensure that all workers spend “a minimum of three days a week” in the office or at client sites. In a memo sent to its 26,000 UK employees, the big four accounting firm announced that it will start monitoring how often employees work from home in the same way it monitors how many chargeable hours they work. – Guardian.
Thursday newspaper round-up: X, Marks & Spencer, Volvo
More than a quarter of advertisers are planning to cut spending on Elon Musk’s X over concerns about the social media platform’s content and trust in the information disseminated, according to new global research. Advertising revenue flowing to X has been in freefall since Musk bought the site, then known as Twitter, for $44bn (£38bn) in October 2022, claiming it had not lived up to its potential as a platform for “free speech”. – Guardian.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Councils, Apple, offshore wind farms
Spending on the UK live music sector and associated businesses has hit a record £6. 1bn as a wave of huge acts from Elton John to Beyoncé cashed in on the pent-up demand to attend shows in person. Live, the federation representing Britain’s live music industry, revealed that the sector’s contribution to the UK economy topped £6bn for the first time last year, as fans denied live experiences in the Covid pandemic rushed to snap up tickets. – Guardian.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Electric cars, Manchester, Mountain Warehouse
Campaigners have called on the chancellor to introduce a controversial pay-per-mile road charging scheme on electric cars, warning of a £5bn “black hole” in tax revenues from motoring. In a letter to Rachel Reeves, the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) urged her to reform vehicle taxes, with fuel duty poised to dwindle in the coming decade as petrol and diesel cars are phased out. – Guardian.
Monday newspaper round-up: Ride-hailing apps, ticket prices, Abercrombie & Kent
Uber and other ride-hailing apps should be forced to publish data on drivers’ workloads so that regulators can tackle exploitation and cut carbon emissions, campaigners argue. Analysis by the pressure group Worker Info Exchange suggests drivers for Uber and its smaller rivals may have missed out on more than £1. 2bn in wages and costs last year because of the way they are compensated. – Guardian.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Abercrombie & Kent, Bunzl, John Lewis
Abercrombie & Kent, based in Cheltenham, has started talks with bankers regarding an initial public offering in 18 to 24 months' time. The luxury travel agency's boss, Cristina Levis, thinks the flotation will help the outfit become the LVMH of luxury experiential travel. The company, however, is looking at pursuing a possible listing in New York instead of London. Luxury travel has continued to increase since the pandemic with dramatic growth in demand for destinations such as the Nordics or Japan.