Sunday newspaper round-up: Housing, Sports Direct, TP Icap, Facebook

Theresa May has launched a concerted campaign to keep her job, announcing a crackdown on foreigners buying homes in the UK and revealing plans for a “historic” festival to celebrate Brexit Britain. In an interview on the eve of her party conference, the prime minister confronted her critics, accusing those who refuse to back her Chequers blueprint for Brexit of “playing politics” with Britain’s future and undermining the national interest. - Sunday Times

The Government's flagship scheme to help people onto the housing ladder is being used for purchases ministers do not wish to fund, the Housing Secretary has admitted. James Brokenshire said the Government was "reflecting carefully" on the scheme and would make an announcement soon on "the next steps". - Sunday Telegraph

Theresa May is set to reform one of the government’s most unpopular business policies — the apprenticeship levy — as part of a new charm offensive to mend strained relations with industry. Government sources said the prime minister was “looking to evolve” the controversial scheme, which has loaded extra costs on to companies while being blamed for a plunge in the number of new apprentices. - Sunday Times

Everybody in Britain would work a four-day week — but get paid for the full five days under radical proposals being explored by the Labour Party. Company bosses would pass on efficiency savings from new technology to workers by offering them an extra day at home, according to a well-placed source. - Sunday Times

Stricken retailer Debenhams faces a cash squeeze after a leading credit insurer pulled the plug on cover it provides to the department store chain’s suppliers. Atradius reduced cover to Debenhams suppliers this year, but is now understood to have cut it entirely. The move raises concern over the health of the 200-year-old chain before Christmas shopping gets under way. - Sunday Times

Mike Ashley is struggling to agree terms with the landlords of more than 30 of House of Fraser’s stores — undermining a key plank of his turnaround strategy. Lowball offers from the billionaire's Sports Direct, who bought House of Fraser out of administration last month, have turned the talks into a “game of chicken”, said a property source. - Sunday Times

Investors are seeking a City big hitter to replace the outgoing chairman of struggling broker TP Icap, accusing the board of being “asleep at the wheel”. One top-five shareholder said that former London Stock Exchange chief Xavier Rolet, who helped the exchange’s market capitalisation grow from £800m to £13bn, would be an “inspirational appointment” for the under-pressure broker. - Sunday Telegraph

A senior minister has launched a devastating attack on the Government's £56 billion high speed rail scheme, insisting it should be scrapped. Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons, told the Cabinet that HS2 represented poor value for money and the funding would be better spent elsewhere. - Sunday Telegraph

The government has called for a comprehensive review of Britain’s auditing industry in what could herald huge changes to a sector dominated by the firms known as the big four. Calls for reform have grown after the collapse of the construction giant Carillion and the former high street stalwart BHS revealed serious inadequacies in the auditing process. - Observer

Toyota has said production at its UK factories would be disrupted for weeks or maybe months if Theresa May failed to strike a Brexit deal. The Japanese manufacturer is the latest foreign carmaker to say there could be temporary stoppages and possible job losses if there are checks at Dover and Calais as a result of no agreement. - Observer

Private jet operator AirX has ­appointed advisers as it prepares the runway for a London float that could raise up to £200m next year. Bankers from Investec and legal firm Norton Rose have been hired to ­explore an initial public offering (IPO). - Sunday Telegraph

Wiggle has put plans for stock market float on the backburner as it “resets” operations in the hope of turning its first-ever profit under private equity owners Bridgepoint. The world’s biggest online retailer cycling, running and swimming products said earnings in the first half of 2018 were £8m after barely breaking even in the prior year . - Sunday Telegraph

Sports car maker Aston Martin is handing out free cash to staff so they can buy shares in its £5billion stock market float this week. James Bond's favourite car firm, which has just over 2,900 staff, is giving away £1,000 each to about 2,200 employees as rewards for its landmark listing on the London Stock Exchange. - Mail on Sunday

Legal funding firm Vannin Capital faces delay in its attempt to float as it is caught up in two big court battles. It has been forced to delay publishing its prospectus after telling investors it expects to lose several million pounds on a case it is funding against Costa Rica and is also caught up in the legal mess over the RBoS Shareholders Action Group. - Mail on Sunday

Britain's biggest housebuilder has started testing its construction workers for illegal drugs amid rising fears about substance abuse. Barratt Developments has introduced random tests for drugs and alcohol across its sites and has ramped up its focus on health and safety after its injury rate jumped by more than a fifth last year. - Mail on Sunday

TECH TALES

Chinese and Japanese battery makers are mulling plans for factories in Britain to supply the country’s fast-growing electric-car market. Japanese technology giant Panasonic and BYD, which is building the world’s biggest car-battery factory in China, are understood to have approached the government in recent months about building plants in Britain. - Sunday Times

Facebook could face the largest class action lawsuit yet launched after the personal information of up to 90m users was exposed to hackers. A class action complaint has already been filed against the social media company in America over the hack which has affected its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, its chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, and its European vice-president, Nicola Mendelsohn. - Sunday Times

Elon Musk is to step down as chair of Tesla for three years and pay a fine after reaching a deal with the US financial regulator over tweets he made about taking the firm into private ownership. Under the settlement Musk would remain as chief executive but must leave his other post within 45 days. Both he and the company will each pay a $20m (£15.3m) fine. - Observer

Google may take emergency legal measures to protect its Android mobile business as it appeals against its record EU fine in the coming days. It is understood that the web giant could try to delay Brussels’ sanctions set to come into force at the end of next month by applying for “interim measures” with the EU court. - Sunday Telegraph

Netflix and Amazon will have to greatly increase the amount of European material in their catalogues to meet quotas proposed by Brussels. The streaming services fell well short of a proposed target of 30pc of their material being produced within the EU, which could be approved by MEPs as early as this year. - Sunday Telegraph

Amazon, Facebook and Airbnb paid just £6.8million combined, according to company documents, despite their vast scale and global valuation of more than £1trillion between them. It's a stark contrast to high street retailers such as WHSmith, which generates sales of £1.2billion and £140million profit and has a tax bill of £24million. That's more than twice as much as Amazon, Facebook and Airbnb combined. Mail on Sunday (as it launched a campaign demanding an overhaul of Britain's corporate tax system)

The government is to produce the first official guidelines on the maximum amount of time young people should spend on social media, health secretary Matt Hancock has said, amid growing concern about the links between its excessive use and mental health problems among children. Hancock said he has instructed the UK’s chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, to draw up advice as soon as possible that he hopes will become an accepted “norm in society”, like that on recommended maximum alcohol consumption for adults. - Observer

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, is launching a start-up that aims to end the dominance of Facebook, Google and Amazon. The pioneering British computer scientist’s Inrupt service will give users their own “personal online data store”, or pod, where they can store messages, contacts, music and other personal information in one place. - Sunday Times

Music retailer HMV has grown its share of the UK market in vinyl and CDs to almost a third – eclipsing Britain's biggest four supermarkets combined. The growth in share to 32.7 per cent also leaves Amazon firmly in second place. HMV was lifted by a 27 per cent surge in vinyl sales at the chain. - Mail on Sunday

EasyJet billionaire Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou is taking on Netflix over the American internet giant’s comedy series Easy, claiming it infringes his company’s European trademarks. The founder of easyJet, who owns the budget airline’s orange-liveried brand via his business easyGroup, is to launch a legal claim against Netflix and will seek an injunction to prevent it using the name in Europe. - Sunday Times

An American contractor has been accused of making “jaw-dropping” profits from controversial tests that assess whether people should receive disability benefits. Earnings at the Centre for Health and Disability Assessments, a subsidiary of Virginia-based Maximus, doubled to £26m in the year to September 2017. - Sunday Times

British sales of Lego have fallen for the first time in 13 years as more children are choosing to play with tablets and other digital devices. Britain is traditionally a strong market for the Danish toy maker, but its UK turnover slipped by nearly 6% to £269.6m in 2017. Profits also fell from £11.4m to just under £10.8m. - Sunday Times

Former Manchester United and Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon is lining up a takeover bid for Newcastle United that would end Mike Ashley’s 11-year ownership of the club. Kenyon is understood to be working with the Wall Street investment firm Rockefeller Capital Management and has held preliminary talks with Ashley, the chief executive of retailer Sports Direct. - Sunday Times

PERSONAL FINANCE

An inquiry has been launched into a ‘penalty for loyalty’ that costs households more than £4billion a year on everything from insurance, home loans and savings to broadband and mobile phone services. Millions of people who stay with suppliers of essential services for any length of time are being punished with much higher bills than new customers, according to an investigation by Citizens Advice. - Mail on Sunday

Millennials are three times more likely to end payday with either no income left or in debt, a survey suggests. Furthermore, one in five aged 25-34 spend more than 60 per cent of their income the day it enters their account, while three per cent consistently find themselves beyond their bank account limit by the end of payday. - Mail on Sunday

Taxpayers who have hidden assets or income overseas could be hit with fines worth twice the amount of tax owed under strict new rules introduced by HMRC. The “requirement to correct” (RTC) legislation comes into force tomorrow and requires taxpayers to declare any foreign assets that could affect their UK income tax, capital gains tax or inheritance tax. - Sunday Telegraph