Monday newspaper round-up: Jobs, G20, EMI...

25th Oct 2010 06:19

David Cameron faces warnings from business leaders today that Britain cannot "cut its way to prosperity" as the Government braces itself for figures suggesting that the economy may be heading for a double-dip recession.The Prime Minister will insist that he can attract investment in vital UK services worth £200 billion, even though industry chiefs say that Britain lags behind Canada, India and China as a destination for investors. In a move that may spark a battle with the unions, the Government will also announce a review of employment legislation, the Times reports.The foreclosure process in the US is slowing, enabling delinquent borrowers to stay in their homes for months after they stop making mortgage payments, according to one of the largest lenders. Freddie Mac, one of the two government-owned entities that finance about half all US mortgages, says that homes are taking as long as eight months to work their way through its foreclosure pipeline, two months longer than was typical before the housing crisis began, the FT reports.A leading Citigroup banker will take the stand in a Manhattan court this week as the curtain rises on the second act of the EMI drama. Barring a last minute out-of-court settlement, David Wormsley will testify that allegations that he defrauded Guy Hands, the boss of Terra Firma, when Citigroup bankrolled a £4.2bn buyout of EMI in 2007 are unfair and untrue. The relationship between the two men goes to the heart of Mr Hands' $7bn lawsuit against the bank that was bailed out by America's taxpayers, the Times reports.Sales of million-pound properties have more than doubled over the past year, fuelled by foreign cash in London. Wealthy buyers picked up nearly 3,000 properties for £1m or above in Britain during the first six months of this year, an increase of 118% on the same period in 2009 compared with a 27% rise generally, according to the Halifax, the Times reports.Centrica has effectively shelved its £1.5bn plan to build two gas storage facilities in the North Sea and Irish Sea unless the Government finds a way to subsidise the proposal. The energy company would have increased Britain's storage capacity by a third, with the proposed Baird project containing 1.7bn cubic metres of gas and the smaller Bains project in the east Irish Sea holding 570m cubic metres, the Telegraph reports.Public sector workers take three more sick days a year on average than those in the private sector - and are increasingly blaming stress for their absences, a study shows. The average time taken off work in the public sector because of sickness is 9.6 days per employee per year, compared with 6.6 days in private sector services, according to the annual absence survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the Independent reports.Finance ministers from the Group of 20 nations have promised to refrain from "competitive devaluation" of their currencies, heading off the prospect of a currency war. In a final statement after two days of heated negotiation, the G20 said it would "move towards more market-determined exchange rate systems" and that the International Monetary Fund would "deepen" its supervision of exchange rates, the Telegraph reports.Fears about Chinese supplies of vital rare earth elements have sent the shares of small mining companies soaring, a surge that executives and analysts warn is turning into a bubble. China, responsible for about 97% of global rare earth production, has cut exports of the minerals used in high-tech goods from PCs to electric cars, driving up prices of the commodities and creating a worldwide hunt for other sources. An index of rare earth company shares produced by Kaiser Bottom-Fish Online, a research service, has risen 12-fold since the end of 2008, and 35 per cent in the past month, the FT reports.