Good morning.
The prime minister is urging other northern leaders(£) to accept ‘draconian’ lockdown(£) measures, after Liverpool’s mayor agreed to a shut down. Scientists wanted the measures to be far more stringent.
Liverpool’s hospitality industry is despairing at what it has called a “killer blow”.
Leisure-focused stocks sunk yesterday in the wake of the new restrictions…
… And there is more on yesterday’s story that the Night Time Industries Association(£) is launching a legal challenge against the restrictions.
Housing junior minister Jake Berry has written an article in The Times (£) in an attempt to soothe some northern brows.
Meanwhile The Guardian’s Simon Jenkins takes aim at Berry’s Towns Fund ‘deal’ with Robert Jenrick.
The Bank of England(£) has asked lenders to prepare for negative interest rates(£), while continuing to say the move is not ‘imminent’.
The chancellor, meanwhile, will need to raise an extra £40bn a year(£) in taxes in the aftermath of Covid-19, says the IFS(£), with borrowing expected to reach £350bn.
Contractors at London’s Olympic Park have been accused of blacklisting unions and asking for bribes(£).
Meanwhile, big construction contractors are using contractual clauses(£) to offload Covid risks on to smaller suppliers.
Young workers could be allowed to use their pension pots as a house deposit(£), under plans being mulled over by the pensions minister.
Unilever’s plans to become a London-based company have been approved by shareholders(£).
Former Barings MD Christopher Wittkop has launched a new investment management and development business, Sonar Real Estate.
Retailers enjoyed their biggest monthly sales(£) in a decade last month, but non-food sales(£) still fell.
An investment vehicle belonging to care homes tycoon Chai Patel(£) paid £27m in annual dividends, despite the crisis in the industry.
Allotment holders on the Blenheim Estate are digging in against plans to build 45 homes on their plots(£). They complained they hadn’t been notified, and the estate acknowledged that some leaflets had gone undelivered “because of a large dog”.
The FT (£) has a fascinating piece about the £40bn property portfolio that was handed over to Thailand’s king in 2018.
Meanwhile, a mere £121,000 could get you a pied-a-terre in Paris(£), with views of the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. Although, at just 70sq ft, it is certainly ‘bijou’.
And finally, The FT (£) has a quiz designed to help you find your perfect workplace. As the content is sponsored by WeWork there are no prizes for guessing how the answers are interpreted. Just to be awkward, we answered strongly in favour of home-working, to be told “you acknowledge that working from home has its shortcomings and wish to offer people another option distinct from home and the workplace”. Like a WeWork office, perhaps?
