Monday newspaper round-up: Coal power plant, Deloitte, RBS scandal
Britain’s only remaining coal power plant at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire will generate electricity for the last time on Monday after powering the UK for 57 years. The power plant will come to the end of its life in line with the government’s world-leading policy to phase out coal power which was first signalled almost a decade ago. – Guardian
Almost half of British adults will ration their energy use this winter, a survey has found, as energy bills will rise again by 10% this week. Charities have called on the government to do more to help vulnerable people to heat their homes, with the average household bill scheduled to rise by £149 after the energy price cap increases on Tuesday. – Guardian
Deloitte cut its UK partners’ pay packets by £48,000 in the last financial year as it sought to promote more people to its senior ranks. The “big four” firm said average partner pay was down to £1.012m for the year to the end of May, compared with £1.060m in 2023. It said this reflected the fact it had been increasing its number of people in senior posts, with 80 of its employees promoted to partner over the past 12 months. – Telegraph
The Government is poised to approve the extension of HS2 into Euston station, despite concerns it could saddle the taxpayer with billions of pounds in extra costs. The move will ensure that the high-speed rail route runs into the centre of London rather than ending at Old Oak Common in the west of the capital. Chancellor Rachel Reeves will reportedly use her first Budget next month to approve funding for the project, which will also include a multi-billion-pound transformation of Euston. – Telegraph
Instead of the London Stock Exchange’s junior market looking forward to celebrating its 30th birthday next year, the City is braced for the threat of a Halloween “Nightmare on Aim Street” at next month’s budget. In the run-up to Labour’s first budget in almost 15 years — to be delivered the day before Halloween — investors have been spooked by concerns that the Treasury is considering cutting a “vital” tax relief that has underpinned the Alternative Investment Market (Aim) since shortly after it was launched in 1995. – The Times
The Financial Conduct Authority permitted the destruction after only 12 months of more than one million documents collated during a banking scandal investigation — despite the fact that the regulator has a policy of retaining documents for 25 years. The regulator told Promontory, a private sector firm it commissioned to look into the mistreatment of thousands of small businesses by Royal Bank of Scotland, that it needed to keep the documents it had compiled for one year after it had completed its work. – The Times