Tuesday newspaper round-up: Water companies, Amazon, Post Office
Water companies could be forced to pay their customers hundreds of millions in fines due to sewage pollution, a leading firm specialising in corporate wrongdoing has said. Fideres LLP, which has conducted investigations into issues ranging from Covid test prices to cryptocurrency scams, is now setting its sights on England’s water companies. – Guardian
Amazon is planning to dismiss about 10,000 people in corporate and technology jobs starting as soon as this week, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The cuts would be the largest in Amazon’s history and come as other tech companies including Meta and Twitter are also shedding workers. – Guardian
The head of the Post Office has warned that soaring energy bills risk causing swathes of local branches to close unless government support is extended. Nick Read urged Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, to consider the cost to communities of not providing extra help for post offices to pay their energy bills from April as soaring prices put many branches under threat. – Telegraph
Nine in ten economically inactive over-50s are considering returning to work as the soaring cost of living looks set to force people into new jobs. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the number of people aged 50 to 64 classed as economically inactive has risen by 3.6 million, or 10 per cent, with many taking early retirement. – The Times
A billion-dollar freezing order has been imposed on the former chief executive of NMC Healthcare after a judge said his LinkedIn profile showed he was involved in its accounting. Prasanth Manghat, 47, is accused of being a key figure in an alleged fraud to conceal $6 billion of company debts. Manghat joined the collapsed private hospital operator in 2009 and was promoted to be its chief executive in 2017. The company collapsed three years later. – The Times