Monday newspaper round-up: Tesco, BAE Systems, Budget...

7th Mar 2011 06:47

Britain's leading supermarkets have been accused of misleading planning authorities by claiming to create tens of thousands of jobs when actually they employ fewer workers than they did two years ago.Tesco and J Sainsbury have made extravagant claims about the number of jobs they create in order to convince local authorities to permit new stores. Analysis of their annual reports, however, reveals that the combined net headcount for the two chains has fallen, the Times reports.Kraft Foods has been subpoenaed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission over accusations of bribery at Cadbury's operations in India. The world's second-largest food company, which acquired the British confectioner last year in a controversial £11.9bn deal, said that it had received the subpoena on February 1 as part of an investigation by the SEC under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bans the payment of bribes to foreign officials and governments, the Times reports.The Financial Services Authority was in denial about the scale of the banking crisis right up to the week of the multi-billion-pound bailout of RBS in October, 2008, an investigation by The Telegraph has found.Britain's bank regulators need to get "tough" to catch failing institutions and it would be wrong to have a system that allowed people to believe no bank could ever fail, according to Bob Diamond, new chief executive of Barclays. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph for his first interview since taking up the role at the beginning of the year, Mr Diamond insisted new capital rules under the Basel III arrangements were fair but that regulators needed to be effective in identifying problems and taking action that did not result in the financial system being destabilised.George Osborne, the UK chancellor, believes that expected recommendations on restructuring retail and investment banking groups by the Independent Commission on Banking are "going in the right direction", an aide insisted on Sunday. The commission, chaired by Sir John Vickers, is investigating the merits of splitting up the big UK banks into separate retail and investment banking companies or forcing those operations to be capitalised separately. It appears to favour the latter option, which is fiercely opposed by the big banks, the FT reports.BAE Systems is braced for the imposition of strict curbs on its business by the US, as it moves closer to resolving a year-long review by the State Department of its guilty plea to a conspiracy charge last year. A debarment by the State Department could prohibit the British parent company from transferring US-origin technology or capabilities to other entities. According to people familiar with the matter, BAE has not officially been alerted that it will be debarred, but it is prepared for such a decision, the FT reports.David Cameron attacked "the enemies of enterprise" in the Civil Service yesterday, blaming them for blocking private-sector growth. At the Tory Spring conference in Cardiff, the Prime Minister made a moral case for cutting public spending and expanding the private sector, saying that he wanted "real fairness" in Britain. He made clear that he saw some civil servants as an enemy within and would "pull them into his office" if he caught them imposing additional burdens on business, the Times reports.The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is calling on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to cut taxes and reduce employment rights in an "all-action Budget" on 23 March. In a letter to George Osborne, the CBI's director-general, John Cridland, says that ministers should "signal a road map for reducing the 50p tax rate", a measure put forward by Labour but retained by the Coalition Government as part of its deficit-reduction programme. The CBI argues that "mobile talent needs a good reason to do business in the UK", the Independent reports.Britain's booming manufacturing sector is set to ramp up investments this year but the money will flow overseas unless the Government improves the business environment, a leading lobby group will warn today. Despite a slight dip from the previous quarter, both industrial output and orders remain at near-record growth levels, well above the long-term average, according to the quarterly poll by the EEF manufacturers' organisation. Strong exports are driving the gains, with a balance of 24% of respondents reporting rises in the first quarter, and of 28% expecting the trend to continue into the second, the Independent reports.A surprise surge in grocery spending boosted retail sales last month. Spending was up by 4.3%, despite mounting pessimism among retailers, according to analysis by MasterCard SpendingPulse. Grocery spending was up by 6.6% against last year. Growth in clothing sales was at its weakest in more than a year, despite the figures being inflated by steep price rises. Travel sales fell for the first time since May, and furniture sales growth was at its weakest since July, the Times reports.Jamie's Italian, the restaurant chain founded and majority-owned by Jamie Oliver, is in the early stages of considering a stock market float which could value the company at approximately £100m. The float would mark the popular television chef's first foray into the public markets, and be a real test of the enduring nature of his 10-year-old brand, the Telegraph reports.