Wednesday newspaper round-up: AB InBev, steel industry, Volkswagen

David Cameron has offered to scrap his contentious plan to impose a four-year ban on EU migrants claiming British welfare benefits in an attempt to unlock a possible deal on new terms of UK membership of the bloc before Christmas. Addressing the biggest obstacle to an agreement with his EU partners, the UK prime minister said he was “open to different ways” of delivering a Conservative promise to control migration from other EU states, short of tough new welfare curbs. – Financial Times

One of Snapchat’s key investors has written down its stake by 25pc, adding fuel to arguments that technology startups are achieving valuations they are unable to live up to. Fidelity, the fund manager, wrote down the value of its shares from $30.72 to $22.91 at the end of October, according to research from Morningstar. – Telegraph

Britain’s beleaguered steel industry could get relief from “cripplingly” high energy charges by the end of the month. Steelmakers are campaigning for a rebate on the high environmental levies that industrial users of electricity currently pay, which they say are contributing to the crisis that has cost thousands of steel jobs in Britain. SSI, Tata and Caparo Industries have between them axed more than 5,000 position over the past six months, with energy costs, high business rates and China dumping cheap steel on global markets cited as reasons for the cuts. – Telegraph

Almost one in 10 beds in Britain’s care homes will disappear in the next five years because of the financial crisis facing the sector, leaving the NHS to pick up a £3bn bill, a damning new report predicts. As many as 37,000 beds, the equivalent of about 1,500 care homes, could be lost by 2020, according to the thinktank ResPublica. Elderly residents would have to stay in hospitals instead, the report says, where they would take up one in four beds. – Guardian

George Osborne has suffered a political setback over his plans to cut working tax credits when a Conservative-controlled select committee condemned his proposed reforms and urged him to consider a pause to undertake a fundamental rethink of his priorities in reforming the welfare state. In a report, the work and pensions select committee argues that a slower phasing in of the tax credit cuts would compromise neither the government’s commitment to cut spending on welfare nor its aim to balance the books by the end of the parliament. The report was agreed unanimously, including by six Tory MPs. – Guardian

One of the world’s leading authorities on energy security has criticised Britain for under-investing in its ageing electricity network after emergency measures were taken last week to keep the lights on. The International Energy Agency said incidents that led to National Grid using the “last resort” of paying large energy users to cut their demand would happen increasingly unless investment in infrastructure was increased. - The Times

At least 400,000 motorists will be forced to wait almost a year to get their Volkwagens fixed after the emissions scandal, the company said yesterday. Many cars will not be recalled until next September, because of the firm’s backlog of repairs, Paul Willis, Volkswagen’s UK boss, told the transport select committee. – The Times